But Act on What?…For the Love of Mike, if Your Realtor is doing any of this…
Make no mistake, every single industry is seeing a cultural shift. Gone are the days when Ye Olde Tyme ways of Marketing, Selling and Promoting your business will be effective.
AND, Realtors are the Absolute Worst.
You may argue that you ARE one of the Realtors who is doing it correctly. Good on ya, mate.
Realtors who use Social Media effectively are in the minority.
In fact, the biggest mistake Realtors are making with Social Media?
The lack of a Personal Niche-Driven Brand.
Here’s what we mean: the typical search for real estate on the part of the buyer goes one of two ways.
Way 1: Drive down street, see For Sale sign. Proceed to Google, iPhone, or some other method of choice to get more information about home. Then make decision on what Realtor to potentially use. Decision based on several factors. Findability and “shelf of the mind” are the top ones.
Way 2: From comfort of own home, using computer, laptop, iPhone, iPad or other device, Google some long-tail search term. “El Paso Texas homes $400,000.” See who pops up. Surf their web presence, decide to use them, or return to beginning and start over.
Do you see either of these equations involving any of the following:
Vanity URL – 123anytownlane.info?
Foursquare checkins?
National Real Estate Brand searches (e.g., ReMax.com)?
Facebook search?
And here’s where most Realtors — 99% or more — mess this up.
The Vanity URL is a waste of $10.
Foursquare checkins have no value in the real estate business. If your Realtor checks into their office, question what they are doing for you.
Most National Brands don’t have the search thing figured out.
Oh, and Realtors on Facebook trying to sell you on their services? NO. On their personality, or their ties to the community….yes, eventually.
What’s a “single” Realtor – the one who so desperately needs clients – to do?
Build a Personal, Niche-Focused Brand.
Personal: John Smith, Realtor.
Niche-Focused: John needs to look at his last 12 listings or sales and find out what his niche is. “West Side.” Then, it’s about building community in the West Side.
This is where your online extension of the off-line you comes in handy.
Takes time, but when it works, it can work wonders.
Continuing our series on Social Trends 2011…We invited Jonathan Rivera to dive in – he works with scores of Realtors on their social presence. Here are his thoughts.
If you want to get ahead of the curve, read this post and jump on these Digital Marketing trends.
Video: Â More people will have their own “TV Stations” online. The cameras are getting better and cheaper. It’s getting easier to share and edit. And you may not even be thinking about this yet, but the new TV’s have web apps on them like You Tube. That means every one of us has to chance to be featured in someone’s Living Room on the “First Screen.”
If there’s one thing I learned from the Influence Project, it was the power of video. People, just like you and me shooting videos that reach millions of other people —- just like You and Me.
Mobile: If you thought Social Media was a big deal, wait until you see what happens with Mobile. Did you know that over 200,000,000 people access Facebook mobile each day?
Mobile devices have been dubbed the “3rd Screen.” First you have your television, then your computer, then your mobile device.But which one of those can you have with you ALL the time? You got it, the “3rd Screen.” But getting into that screen takes some planning and some content.
Social Search: This is where the roads intersect between online networking and IRL (In Real Life.) More and more we’re moving to a peer powered search based on your online Social Network. People affiliated with you will find things that you have shared and found relevant. Becoming the “taste maker” leads to more Influence.
SEO was about building content links. Social Search is about building social links.
We like niche-focused events that help you learn something. We especially like them when the value that’s given is so over the top that it’s well-worth your time.
One of our faves, Ross Hair
Ross Hair and SMM Camp promise to deliver all that tomorrow, December 9, 2010, with a special focus on Mobile Marketing, which is so vital to success of Realtors and Real Estate Investors.
Registration is free — so, if we here at Area 224 do paid webinars pretty often, why would we tell you about a free one?
GOOD QUESTION.
There are tons of free webinars out there, and you’re happy to sign up for them and kick the tires and figure out for yourself.
But, in this case, the investment of TIME is a decent amount – this is a virtual event, and it goes from 10 til 1 Mountain Time.
We look at these from the value exchange standpoint – how much value are you getting, and is it worth your time?
This one is worth it – if you are in the real estate industry and want to understand mobile marketing.
Here’s the link again. Tell Ross we said hi. Oh and we’ll be listening in, too. (When we’re not doing our own webinar.)
