Posts Tagged ‘Social Networking’
The Importance of Networking- People Need People
Friday, January 21st, 2011
In our social media age, we often lose sight of the value of face to face contact and interaction with actual people. It seems that because we can interact quickly with a multitude of people on five different sites within a matter of minutes; we’re convinced that we’ve done our networking for the day.
Thank goodness we don’t put the same qualifications on our entire life!
Why do we want to get together with friends to talk over dinner when we using our cell phones would be so much more convenient? Why take the time to go to our kids soccer game when we could just as easily watch a video of it on our phone? Ever wonder why we feel the need to go to a coffee shop to work when we could save money and make coffee at home? The answer? Human interaction!
We’re made to want to be around people, to interact with them and share life with them. Why wouldn’t you do the same thing for potential or current clients?
Of course social media is a great tool for interacting with people, but it’s only half of the whole. There is still something to be said for good old fashioned networking, and many successful companies recognize this fact! Google and other large companies are now creating the executive level role of Chief Networking Officer. These CNO’s attend events and create extensive plans for following up with people. Although seemingly basic, this type of networking is something we’ve lost sight of, and it’s time to revisit the past.
Here are a few ways you can regain the art of networking:
Attend Events- Whether it’s real estate related, a community event or volunteer opportunity; attending one to two events a month is a great way to start. Meeting new people is an effective way to get your name and face out there and can be a great way to generate buzz about your business. Imagine the impact you can have with people in your community as you have the opportunity to get to know them and they get to know you. Word of mouth marketing is still the most desired way to market as referrals are priceless!
Send Mail- Postcards, cards and notes are still greatly appreciated by most people! Remembering to send past clients a card for the holidays or on their birthday will be a refreshing surprise! You can also send notes to people you’ve been in contact with from a networking event, your past business contacts or even the manager of your favorite lunch spot where you tend to meet up with clients. This is a great way to stay at the forefront of people’s minds while still maintaining that sense of personal contact.
Make Calls- While not as personal as a face to face conversation; a phone call is still better than a text or Facebook post. Call recent clients, people you met at the farmers market, or the couple you sold a house to last month. You may not have the time to make phone calls every day, but committing to making two phone calls a week will fit into anyone’s schedule. A call will let people know that you care and that you’re willing to take the time to follow up or simple touch base.
I hope these simple networking techniques will spark even more ideas for maintaining personal contact with people and the desire to find a well balanced approach to online and in-person networking. We’re not suggesting that you kick your online presence to the curb; it is important! But this is just a little reminder that, at the end of the day, people need people!
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Tags: Networking, Real Estate Virtual Assistant, reva, Social Networking
Posted in VA QUICK TIPS | 1 Comment »
Code to Your Online Success
Saturday, December 11th, 2010
In case you didn’t notice, there is a whole crop of young, willing and able real estate buyers that seem to have their head buried in their smartphones. Gen-Y prefers texting over talking and their phone IS their world. Here’s a way to get their attention and business —fast!
QR Codes to the Rescue
Think of QR (Quick Response) codes as a two dimensional bar code that can contain just about any kind of information and be read instantly from any number of free smartphone apps. The opportunities for real estate marketing are nearly endless since one of the main uses of QR codes is to embed URLS that when scanned will take the phone user to wherever the URL was pointing (i.e. your Website, listing detail information, etc.) They effectively turn anything (including paper) they are printed on into an active and trackable hyperlink.
QR codes were invented in Japan by a subsidiary of the Toyota Motor Corporation to help identify car parts. Once people recognized their flexibility of encoding links to the Web, they took off big time in Japan and other Asian countries. In fact, you will find QR codes plastered on billboards, signs, storefronts and just about any place you look in all the major Japanese cities.
Here is where you can find free QR Code Reader apps for your smartphone (by smartphone type):
- iPhone QR reader app search
- BlackBerry QR reader app search
- Droid QR reader app search
- iTunes
- BlackBerry App World
- Android Market
There really are only two issues to consider when incorporating QR codes into your marketing: a) how to create them, and b) where to place them for maximum exposure and impact.
Create QR Codes Instantly for Free
If you do a Google search on QR code generators you will find literally dozens of sites that will create them for you at no cost. My favorite is a site called BeeTagg QR Generator which allows you to create any number of QR codes in different formats for free. When you first land on this page you can enter the URL of the page you want your code to go to and choose the type of code it generates (make sure you have the QR Code selected and uncheck “Optimize size”). Then just hit the “Go” button and you will instantly see your code with download options like this:
Now this next part is very important. Of the six different download options shown, there are only two you will typically work with. Gif if you plan on placing the code on a Webpage or email and Eps if you plan on using it in print. Gif images are the smallest file sizes for this kind of image and are ideal for placement in Webpages. However, they are not good for print or other media because they don’t scale well. That is, they get blurry or pixelated if you try to blow them up beyond their original size and will become unreadable by the smartphone apps.
Eps file formats are ideal for print media because they can scale to any size (including 16 foot billboards) without any loss of fidelity. The key here is to use the appropriate QR code image type for the right kind of application.
GEEK TIP: here’s a quick shortcut you can use to place a QR code on any page of your Website (with the code pointing to that page) just by including the following Javascript in your HTML code where you want the QR code to show up on the page:
<script src=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/dakno-qr/qr.js”;font-size: 9pt; font-family: “Arial”,”sans-serif”; color: rgb(64, 64, 64);”>
The resulting QR code image will point to the page it is on. Unless you are comfortable working with HTML code it is probably better to give this to your Web designer to implement.
Where to Use QR Codes For Maximum Impact
In addition to placing a page-specific QR code on every page of your Website there are many innovative ways you can incorporate them into your marketing. Here are just some ideas that came out of a recent brainstorming exercise for QR code use:
- Put them on your sign riders pointing to your Website with the details for that listing (NOTE: make sure the QR code on the sign rider is at least 10” x 10” so it can be scanned from the comfort of a prospect’s car)
- Print ad with a QR pointing to a YouTube video of you walking thru your latest listing;
- Put a QR code decal on your car that points to your Website, or better yet, an irresistible offer on your Website (again, make sure it is at least 10” x 10” so it can be scanned easily by other drivers.);
- If it is winter, develop a QR code on the sign rider and link it to photos or a video of the house when the landscaping is in full bloom in spring;
- Sponsor a local team and put the QR code pointing to your Website on their uniforms;
- Give away t-shirts with QR code that points to your site;
- If send out calendars each year, put a QR code pointing to your Website on every page;
- QR code open house scavenger hunt. Put a QR code in ad or web ad of open house where the QR code on each house maps you to the next house. Have to read them all to get to the prize at the final house —great for brokers open tour;
- Put a QR code pointing to your Website on the back of your business card.
QR Code Best Practices
Now before you go hog-wild with QR codes and start plastering them on every available surface (digital or otherwise), here are some best practices that will help you get the most out of these cute little smudges:
- Tell them what it is – since QR codes are still very leading-edge in this country it is a good idea to provide additional info that explains to the less-techy consumers just what they are. Here’s an example of what shows up on every page of my Websites that include QR codes:
Just click on the link in the image at left and see how it takes you to a page that fully explains what QR codes are and their benefits to the consumer.
- Point to something worthwhile – make sure that whatever your QR code points to provides real value to the consumer. Ideally, the landing page has a specific call to action and lead capture mechanism.
- Make sure your QR codes are readable – make them big enough for the context they will be used. This means about 175 pixels x 175 pixels for Web pages and email, 10” x 10” for outdoor use (sign riders and car decals) and huge for billboards.
- Track your QR code traffic – you can easily track your Website traffic that is generated by people scanning QR codes. If you are using a Web analytics program like Google Analytics it is easy to track QR code traffic by adding just a bit of text after the URL you are pointing to before generating the code. For example:
http://www.myrealestatewebsite.com/?source=QR_printad
Where the highlighted part was added before generating the code. Your analytics package will show any traffic specifically coming from people scanning the QR codes in your print ads. There is nothing magic or special about the text that comes after “/?source=”, you can make it anything you want —just make sure there are no spaces and that it effectively describes where the code was embedded.
At this point you might be thinking: “Is this QR code thing really necessary for my business?” and the answer of course is no, it’s not. However, if you want to be a leader in your marketplace and really catch the attention and business of the up and coming Gen-Y buyers, then yes it is.
Implementing QR codes is not about being a geek, it’s about staying up with your customers and serving them in the way they expect. After all, that is what business is all about, isn’t it.
NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.
Mr. Internet is the alter-ego of Michael J. Russer, an internationally recognized Internet speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry. He’s dedicated to helping real estate professionals leverage their people skills into profit on the Internet. Send your Internet questions to help@askmrinternet.com or you can visit his Website at http://www.russer.com
This article is reprinted in its entirety from the December 2010 issue of REALTOR® Magazine by permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved other than mentioned above. Mr. Internet® is a registered trademark of RUSSER Communications.
Tags: communication tool, cool tool, differentiate, Facebook, internet, lead capture, Michael Russer, Mr. Internet, Online Dominance, QR Codes, real estate marketing, Social Networking, success
Posted in FEATURE ARTICLE, MR. INTERNET TIP | 8 Comments »
How to Be Many Places At Once
Sunday, October 24th, 2010
Real estate is such a “local” business that anything you can do to associate your business with your locality will help you stand out and be found more easily. Here’s a very cool free tool that will help your business get listed in multiple major online business directories faster than you can say “bi-location”…
First Check Your Business Listings Then Get Listed
Get Listed is a free site that a) first checks to see if you are listed in the major online business directories and search engines, b) helps you get listed in the ones you currently are not. After entering in your business name and zip code it takes just seconds for it to check six of the major search engines and business directory and then provide you a result page similar to the example below:
For the ones you are not currently listed it will allow you to enter your information right from their Website making the process very easy and convenient. And this is just the beginning because GetListed.org also provides additional guidance on how to maximize your online hyper-local presence that is so important for both SEO and professional credibility.
Take a few minutes to Get Listed now and in a few weeks or months you will be glad you did.
Tags: differentiate, Getlisted.org, Google, Hyper-Local, internet, Michael Russer, Mr. Internet, niche marketing, online customers. marketing benefit, Online Dominance, SEO, Social Networking
Posted in MR. INTERNET TIP | 5 Comments »
Facebook Marketplace: A Powerful Resource for All Savvy Agents
Friday, September 17th, 2010
Facebook recently became the number one website in the world. It is used by millions of people, easily accessible, and free. Facebook has a great resource called the Facebook Marketplace which users are utilizing to sell anything from concert tickets to cars to, yes, houses and apartments.
More and more agents are beginning to incorporate Facebook Marketplace into their listing marketing efforts and there are multiple reasons why we feel that it is an important resource when it comes to marketing your listings:
Marketplace is easy to use: Adding your listings to Marketplace is almost as simple as posting them to your fan page wall.
1.) Login to Facebook
2.) Search for Marketplace in the top search bar to go to the Marketplace application.
3.) Click the “Post a listing” button at the top right of the page.
4.) Location: Enter your city, state.
5.) Category: Choose houses or rentals, which ever is appropriate.
6.) Fill out the form will all of the details about your listing and click “Post”
The listing will then show up on both your personal profile as well as your Facebook friends’ newsfeeds as “Betty Broker is selling a house on Facebook Marketplace” or something similar.
Facebook Marketplace has a soft-sell approach: Many agents feel uncomfortable posting listings on their own Facebook profile or fan page for fear of being perceived as a pushy sales professional. The great thing about Facebook Marketplace is that it’s an appropriate place to post listings because the feature is meant for advertising things you want to sell (or rent)!
Facebook users only search Marketplace if they’re interested in buying (or renting) something, therefore it is the perfect place for agents to advertise their listings to interested buyers/renters.
Your listings are exposed to a large number of people: Facebook Marketplace is set up so that your listing is visible to people other than just your friends. People can opt to see listings from friends, friends of friends, and their entire network!
The average number of friends per Facebook user is between 150-200 friends, and many have even more than that. If you have at least 200 Facebook friends, and each of those friends have at least 200 friends, that means your listing is exposed to 40,000 instantly. 
(Note: Facebook users do have the ability to disable notifications and emails from Facebook, so this number can change). This is in addition to other Facebook users that aren’t friends with you OR your friends, but just happen to be searching on Marketplace for their next home!
Facebook Marketplace creates a solid network that’s trustworthy: There are very specific ways to search on Facebook Marketplace so that you’re only viewing ads from people you know or friends of people you know. This creates a sense of confidence in the person that you’re buying from. As an agent, if you have 40,000+ people who know someone you know, that’s a large network of people who would trust in you as an agent. It’s a great way to not only market your property, but also yourself.
The easy, accessible, and quick nature of Facebook Marketplace is perfect for enhancing your listing marketing efforts and getting your name out there to a large volume of people. We feel that this resource is something that all agents should ask their Real Estate Virtual Assistant to incorporate into their social networking/marketing efforts.
Remember: Social networking for real estate is a very powerful tool and if you aren’t utilizing it to the fullest potential, you’re missing out on potential clients.
Have a great weekend!
Carrie Gable and the team at RealSupport, Inc. are our “VA Quick Tip” columnists offering expertise in real estate marketing, technology and more. RealSupport’s office and team of 9 full-time staff members is located near Chicago, IL. Their successful team works virtually for many top real estate agents and brokers nationwide. Pioneers in the Real Estate Virtual Assistant industry, RealSupport offers marketing, branding, website and logo design, listing marketing, lead generation, technical support, transaction management, social networking, blogging and much more… Just ask!
Tags: Facebook, facebook marketplace, Real Estate Virtual Assistant, reva, Social Networking, social networking for real estate, VA, Virtual Assistant
Posted in VA QUICK TIPS | 2 Comments »
Using Facebook “Places” in Real Estate
Friday, September 10th, 2010
Some of you may have noticed a new type of “status update” on Facebook over the past few weeks. Gyms, restaurants, retail stores, and their visitors are now a part of Facebook with Facebook Places.
If you have the Facebook application for your Smartphone (and you should) you can now use this tool to establish your office location, list open houses, announce when you’re at a showing appointment and connect with your neighbors by sharing your favorite places in town!
The most common concern with this is “what if I don’t want people to know my every move?” You control what is shared and when. When you visit a new location and you’d like to share that with the community, you can “check in”. If you don’t “check in” Facebook is not reporting your location to anyone.
If you have a network of local agents, encourage them to “check in” when showing your
listing or visiting your Open House.
In fact, you could be ahead of the curve and set out cards at your Open House asking agents to “Check in!”
List your office as specifically as possible. Go beyond “RE/MAX of Monarch Beach” and establish your office address with your full name and even your contact information.
Share your personal favorites, like restaurants, shops, or local services with the community. When you check in, other patrons that have checked in can see that you share these places in common, and you can see them. This tool makes you more approachable, more relevant to these users, and allows members of the community to get to know you a little better.
Strengthening and building your (SOI) sphere of influence is a constant ongoing goal, and every new ability or device that can bring you a little closer to your neighbors helps!
Get started by visiting Facebook Places from your Smartphone. Make sure you check out all of the privacy settings so you’re aware of what is set by default, and adjust accordingly. You’ll want to change the settings so that you are the only person who can check you in. As always, if you need help with this or anything else, be sure to ask your Real Estate Virtual Assistant!
Carrie Gable and the team at RealSupport, Inc. are our “VA Quick Tip” columnists offering expertise in real estate marketing, technology and more. RealSupport’s office and team of 9 full-time staff members is located near Chicago, IL. Their successful team works virtually for many top real estate agents and brokers nationwide. Pioneers in the Real Estate Virtual Assistant industry, RealSupport offers marketing, branding, website and logo design, listing marketing, lead generation, technical support, transaction management, social networking, blogging and much more… Just ask!
Tags: Facebook, facebook places, Real Estate Virtual Assistant, reva, smart phone applications, Social Networking, VA, Virtual Assistant
Posted in VA QUICK TIPS | No Comments »
Facebook vs. Google
Sunday, July 4th, 2010
Last week I posted an article on how powerful Facebook Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising could be for your business. Since then I’ve received responses from people who say it is not all that great shakes. This is clearly a case of discovering a new “hammer” and thinking everything is the same kind of nail. It’s all about using the right tool, for the right purpose at the right time. Here are some tips that will help you choose the right business promotion tool for the job.
Facebook is about Interests
I recently challenged one of my ULTRA eTEAM members, Roman Pavlik to use Facebook to drive traffic to his new highly targeted DownTownLivingMiami.com Website. Since most of his buyers for luxury downtown Miami condos come from New York, Canada and South America he targeted his Facebook ads to people who live in those areas. Let’s just say there are a lot of Facebook members living in those areas. In a very short period of time (literally just a couple of days) he had over 60,000 ad impressions. Unfortunately, not one person clicked on his ads. And to add insult to injury, Facebook stopped showing his ads (after all, they want to make money too!)
So Brad Carroll (our Online Dominance Social Networking Mastermind coach) and I suggested that he further refine his targeting by including interests that would be consistent with anything having to do with Miami. For example, people living in Canada, New York and South America who are interested in Miami sports teams and so on. While this refinement substantially reduced his pool of Facebook members that would see his ad, the click throughs to his site shot up (he had 24 just in a couple of days vs. zero before).
When advertising on Facebook, less is more and you really have to think about which member interests are most likely follow through on your ad’s call to action.
Google is About Wants and Needs
When someone searches on Google, by definition they are looking for something specific (i.e. a want or need). In this case, it makes perfect sense for Roman to complement his Facebook advertising with a Google PPC campaign targeting people who are specifically interested in buying downtown Miami condos. A little closer to home, I am personally involved in syndicating GoArmyHomes.com Websites for every army base on U.S. soil. Part of this process includes driving substantial traffic to each respective base site. At first we considered running Facebook ads because there are well over 300,000 Facebook members who are also in the army. The only problem is that a tiny fraction of those will be interested in going to any particular base at any particular time. Without a doubt if we had pursued that course of action we would not have seen any click throughs and Facebook would have shut our ad campaign down. In this case, our PPC options are clearly better with Google. However, Facebook is the tool to use as we begin to promote our GoArmyHomes Facebook page.
Facebook and Google are two awesome online advertising tools. It’s just a matter of knowing which one is the best option for the task at hand and using it in the manner that produces the best results for the lowest cost. With a little bit of practice and patience, you will get the hang of it :0)
Tags: Brad Carroll, Facebook, GoArmyHomes, Google, Michael Russer, Mr. Internet, Online Dominance, SEO, Social Networking, success, Targeting
Posted in MR. INTERNET TIP | 5 Comments »
Maximize Profits Through Hyper-Targeted Facebook Advertising
Monday, June 28th, 2010
Imagine if you could advertise your services in such a way that only those who are most likely interested would even see the ads. And better yet, you only paid for when they acted on those ads. Sounds a lot better than traditional print advertising doesn’t it? This is what “hyper-targeted” advertising is all about and nowhere is the opportunity greater for this than on Facebook and yet few people in the real estate industry have taken advantage of it.
Facebook vs. Google
Facebook is huge with close to a half a billion members and continuing to grow rapidly each month. What makes the advertising potential so great however is that by the very nature of the data found in “personal profiles”, Facebook has amassed incredible demographic and psychographic information on its members that is the envy of even companies like Google. This information includes personal likes, dislikes, affiliations, interests and so on. It doesn’t stop there however because Facebook also has the ability (and the necessary funding) to cross tabulate their internal member information with purchased third party data like magazine subscription information, group membership affiliation, etc which allows them to further refine their targeting ability.
When Google serves up ads to users of its search engine, the ads typically are targeted based only upon the search query because that’s limit of Google’s knowledge about that particular consumer. Whereas when Facebook serves up ads to members, it knows far more about the member and can show ads (on the right side of the page) that are tremendously more targeted and hence more likely to convert. And Facebook ads can leverage built-in “social proof” to add credibility and increase conversion rates since your ads can show who else of the viewer’s Facebook friends have interacted with you or your services. Also, the amount of time an average member spends on Facebook eclipses even the most avid searcher on Google.
Like Google Adwords, you can pay for Facebook ads either as Pay-Per-Click (PPC – recommended in most cases) or per 1,000 impressions (CPM). The process of setting up, managing and tracking your Facebook ads is very straightforward. And frankly, no one does a better job of explaining it than Facebook. Just go to http://www.facebook.com/advertising to review the steps and best practices. (TIP: Facebook suggests ad pricing to best reach your defined ad target. Let’s just say they can be a bit biased about this. Experiment using PPC values that start out about 10% less than suggested and then continue to lower your bid amounts until you see a significant drop off in impressions. This strategy can save you a lot of money!)
Now let’s take a look at all the ways you can use this high-powered advertising rifle to grow your business…
Hyper-Targeting for Hyper-Growth
The ways in which you can use Facebook advertising to grow your business and differentiate yourself are limited only by your imagination. The following came out of a recent brainstorming session with my Online Dominance students. To help organize these ideas, I’ve broken them down into categories:
- Win New Listings – show your prospective sellers how you can advertise their listings on Facebook and receive literally thousands (if not tens of thousands) of impressions. Chances are very good that none of your competitors are doing this and it will help you stand out considerably.
- Sell Targeted Listings – if your listing is unique or fits a particular profile (e.g. Florida waterfront property) you can create an ad that is shown only to those who would likely have interest in this including “snow birds” from other areas that have a proven track record of purchasing this type of property.
- Property Tours – advertise just about any kind of tour you can imagine (the more out of the box the better) to targeted Facebook members in your area. Here are just some ideas that came up for this:
- Riding horse property tours
- Bicycle property tours
- Waterfront property tours ending in a wine-tasting party
- Luxury high-rise condo bedroom tours
- Boat tours of waterfront properties
- Golf course / property tours that include short presentations by the golf pros at each course
- Foreclosure property tours, or pre-foreclosure tours (with the permission of the owners of course.)
- Seminars – either in person or Webinar-based. There are tons of possibilities here including:
- Investor seminars
- Foreclosure / Short-sale seminars
- Invest with IRA funds seminars
- First-time Buyer seminars
- How to get around today’s mortgage maze seminars
- How to prepare your home for sale seminars.
- Community Involvement – you can advertise your community involvement by getting local people to participate. For example:
- Charity food drives
- Client appreciation parties
- Neighborhood block parties
- Irresistible Offers – if you Website has irresistible offers, using Facebook ads is a powerful way to drive targeted traffic to take advantage of them.
Advertising without targeting is just taking shots in the dark. Your chances of actually hitting something are pretty slim. Advertising without the ability to measure your ROI is just throwing money at something and hoping it sticks. Neither are a viable way to grow business profitably. Facebook on the other hand offers a convenient, inexpensive way to hyper-target your advertising dollars and almost instantly measure the results. And the good news for you is that very few real estate professionals have even started taking advantage of this potential. Now is your chance to grow your business in a way that will have your competitors guessing and you smiling, all the way to the bank.
NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.
Mr. Internet is the alter-ego of Michael J. Russer, an internationally recognized Internet speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry. He’s dedicated to helping real estate professionals leverage their people skills into profit on the Internet. Send your Internet questions to help@askmrinternet.com or you can visit his Website at http://www.russer.com
This article is reprinted in its entirety from the June 2010 issue of REALTOR® Magazine by permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved other than mentioned above. Mr. Internet® is a registered trademark of RUSSER Communications.
Tags: Facebook, Google, Hyper-Local, internet, lead capture, marketing, Michael Russer, Mr. Internet, niche, Online Dominance, Pay Per Click, PPC, real estate marketing, Social Networking, success
Posted in FEATURE ARTICLE, MR. INTERNET TIP | 3 Comments »
The 110,000 Facebook Member Man
Monday, May 24th, 2010
This past February 18th I wrote an article about how Realtor Doug Newby’s Modern Homes Facebook page surpassed 50,000 “fans”. As of this writing he is just a few hours (minutes?) from clearing 110,000 members to his page. This exceeds the sum of the Facebook page membership of every major real estate franchise combined probably at least two times over.
Don’t Blink…
When I share Doug’s Facebook numbers with audiences the very first question I get is “Great, now what has it done for his business?”. I can tell you this; Doug gets over 95% of his business online and traffic to his SignificantHomes.com site is up dramatically since last Fall (when his Facebook membership was zero).
Now if you are one of those folks who still doubt the power (and necessity) of social networking within your business, check this out:
And in terms of impact on your business:
EdgeRank optimization appears to be an order of magnitude greater than search engine optimization…
TechCrunch
*EdgeRank is Facebook’s algorithm that measures social networking relevancy.
Clearly Doug’s Facebook numbers put him as an Outlier in the realm of Realtor social media. Be that as it may, his success on (and as a result of) Facebook is something we all can aspire to. Just don’t expect to play the online game well without this part of the equation. Mainly because it IS the equation for success online.
Tags: blogging, communication tool, differentiate, Doug Newby, expert, Facebook, Google, greatness, inspiration, Michael Russer, Mr. Internet, niche marketing, real estate marketing, social media, Social Networking, success
Posted in SUCCESS STORY | 3 Comments »
Copy and Paste For New Web Traffic
Monday, April 26th, 2010
I get asked all the time about how to prevent people from copying content off their Websites and blogs. Now there is a service that will have you hoping they will!
Copy Me —Please!
Tynt is a new free service that will track what is being copied off your Web and blog sites and help you drive traffic back to those sites as a result. After you set up your free account you are given a short bit of code to add to your Website pages you want to track. For blogs it’s actually much easier. It shows you (or your Webmaster) how to add the code just once and which will then cover every page and post of your blog (highly suggested).
Once your site or blog is loaded in this way any time someone copies and pasts an image or text from your site / blog and pastes it into theirs, a social networking site like Facebook or even an email, it will automatically include an attribution link back to where it was copied from. This provides a powerful and automatic way to build link backs that will drive more traffic to your site and raise its SEO positioning. Oh, there’s one more thing. You can even set Tynt up so that anytime someone copies and pastes your content online, it will generate a Tweet about it in your Twitter account.
Here’s a short video explaining the entire process:
So now instead of dreading that someone is “ripping you off” you can actually benefit every time they send a part of your work to their friends and associates. BTW, feel free to copy any part of this post and forward on to others, you have my whole-hearted permission :0)
DISCLAIMER: Always investigate any third-party products or services to your satisfaction prior to using them. RUSSER Communications, its officers, staff and consultants do not receive any compensation whatsoever from third party vendors and are not responsible for any damage or liability you may incur as a result of using products or services mentioned herein. If you do not agree to these terms do not use the product or service mentioned.
Tags: cool tool, Google, Michael Russer, Mr. Internet, Online Dominance, SEO, Social Networking, Tynt
Posted in MR. INTERNET TIP | 1 Comment »
One REALTOR with 50,000+ Fans and Counting
Thursday, February 18th, 2010Douglas Newby of Architecturally Significant Homes is a long-time student of mine who is essentially a one-man shop in Dallas, TX. Yet despite this he has accomplished something that Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow and even ABC News hasn’t even come close to doing. He developed a FaceBook Fan page that went wildly viral after just two months of putting it up. Here’s how he did it and why it is so incredibly important you build your own business fan base.
First, let’s look at the numbers. Douglas launched his Modern Homes fan page in September of 2009 which means he started with, well… 0 fans. The week before Christmas he had over 20,000 fans. As of this writing (approximately seven weeks later) he has 51,054 fans. Now just to put this into perspective, take a look at the fan base numbers of these famous brands (both real estate specific and general consumer). NOTE: all the fan counts shown below are as of the time of this writing.
|
Real Estate Specific |
Fans |
|
General Consumer |
Fans |
| Realtor.com |
3,387 |
|
Martha Stewart Living |
47,979 |
| Trulia |
3,468 |
|
MSNBC |
21,397 |
| Zillow |
512 |
|
ABC News |
21,295 |
| RIS Media |
864 |
|
H&R Block |
12,681 |
| Inman News |
2446 |
|
LA Times |
6,406 |
| Century 21 |
5,142 |
|
Charles Schwab |
4,916 |
| Coldwell Banker |
6,189 |
|
|
|
| ERA |
2,690 |
|
|
|
| Keller Williams |
12,792 |
|
|
|
| Long and Foster |
2,692 |
|
|
|
| Prudential (group) |
628 |
|
|
|
| Realty Executives |
676 |
|
|
|
| RE/MAX |
5,672 |
|
|
Not only is Douglas kicking the social media butt of every major real estate brand, he is also besting several multi-billion dollar (and otherwise highly popular) consumer brands. And he continues to add about 1,000 new fans every day. Now before go into the details of how he achieved such incredible results and what it has meant to his bottom line, let’s first make sure we are the same (fan) page…
Personal Profile vs. Fan Page
There are two primary ways you can represent yourself on FaceBook:
- Personal Profile – everyone who has a FaceBook account has a profile page. This is your “home base” for all your friends and family to connect with you in a personal way on personal (i.e. not business) matters. FaceBook Terms of Use prohibit the use of Personal Profile pages to be used for commercial purposes. This is why Facebook created this next category of page.
- Fan Page – sometimes referred to as your business page. This is where you try to attract and interact with people who are part of your target market or at least connected to it in some way.
To create a Fan Page, just go to www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and follow the simple steps. Once created, Facebook will give your fan page an innocuous looking URL that no one would ever remember. However, once you have at least 25 fans, you can get your own URL that is tied to your brand. Get your friends and family to become fans so you hit your 25 fan threshold as quickly as possible. Then go to NameChk.com to see if your intended name (i.e. brand name) is still available as a vanity URL on Facebook. If so, grab it immediately (and consider getting the same one for Twitter and YouTube while you are at it).
Fan Page Caveats
Don’t expect people to become your fans just because you ask them (other than Mom, Dad, Cousin Jane and Uncle Fred of course). People become fans only because they perceive value in doing so. If you make your fan page about you or your business, you have already lost the race. Your fan page has to powerfully and engagingly answer the question “What’s in it for me?” from the perspective of your potential fans.
The key point implied here is that by definition, a vibrant growing fan base is highly targeted. They all share similar needs, wants, fears and desires. In other words, they represent a very specific niche or target market which your fan page powerfully satisfies and engages. If you look at Modern Homes, you will see that it is both highly targeted (to people who love modern residential architecture which is Douglas Newby’s specialty) and incredibly engaging through the use of exquisite photos and refined commentary.
Assuming you have created a branded fan page that is targeted to a specific niche, let’s now see how to grow that base of raving fans as quickly as possible…
Growing Your Fan Base
In the beginning you will probably want to use FaceBook ads to grow your fan base to a thousand or so members before you expect to see viral action. Modern Homes primed its fan base pump this way until it hit about 2,000 members. After that it took off on its own. Facebook ads are similar to Google Adwords in that you can pay-per-click. Facebook ads can be highly targeted geographically, demographically and for interest based upon keywords.
Here are several ways you can grow your fan base without spending money:
- Send emails to your clients and prospects suggesting that they become a fan;
- Place a “Become a Fan!” Fan Page widget on your Websites and blogs.
Exploding Your Fan Base
While these methods may add marginally to your fan base, don’t expect rapid growth this way. The key to explosively growing your fan base consists of two parts: 1) make sure you have something of extreme value in the eyes of your target market, and 2) well, it will have more impact if I demonstrate it for you —just go to www.FaceBook.com/OnlineDominance and click the “Cool Tools!” tab at the top of the page and you will instantly see how this second part works.
Raving Fans = Raging Business
You are probably wondering at this point just what all those fans are doing for Douglas Newby’s bottom line. To help answer this I went to Brad Carroll, CEO of Dakno Real Estate Marketing. While I coached Douglas about focusing his target marketing on his Website, Brad and his team showed him how to leverage that focus using social media and actually help him to set up his fan page. So I asked Brad (who is also one of the top SEO experts in the industry) how a 50,000+ highly targeted and engaged fan base can impact Website traffic. Here’s what he said: “We’ve seen a dramatic increase in traffic to his site. In fact, last month alone saw an increase with over 5,000 new unique visitors to his main website. Almost all of that new traffic is directly related to his Facebook strategy. And since every new fan is basically a new link to his fan page, we’ve seen his Facebook fan page significantly grow in search engine credibility. His Facebook fan page now appears on page one in Google for many of his targeted keywords. There are very few online marketing strategies that can produce numbers like that in such a short amount of time.”
And here’s what Douglas Newby had to say when I asked him how the Modern Homes fan page affected his business and his credibility as one of the top experts in modern residential architecture: “There has been a dramatic increase in the number of buyers contacting me about modern homes for sale or potentially for sale because they appreciate me sharing their passion for modern homes. The motivation and satisfaction of Facebook.com/ModernHomes— goes beyond the increase in business. It creates a global conversation about modern homes which further provokes my interest and knowledge about both modern architecture and the people who love modern homes.”
It’s a Brave New World
When a lone Realtor can absolutely blow the doors off the social networking efforts of every major real estate brand and outperform many multi-billion dollar brands, you know it’s a different world. The keys to social networking success are: a) select a target market for which you are passionate; b) create a consistent brand identity and value perception for that market; c) build the fan base aggressively; and d) have an ongoing “conversation” with your fans to keep them engaged.
Never has there been an opportunity such as this for individual Realtors to break out above the crowd and noise in the real estate sales industry. This is low-hanging fruit and it’s yours for the taking. All you have to do is pick it. (more…)
Tags: Dakno Marketing, differentiate, Douglas Newby, Facebook, Facebook Fan Page, Google, Inman News, Michael Russer, Mr. Internet, niche marketing, Online Dominance, RIS Media, social media, Social Networking
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