Real Estate Industry Takes Leading Edge

With the big crunch in the American Real Estate market, and the subsequent Canadian market slow-downs, the Real Estate professionals across America are turning to Social Media to gain every advantage to increase their competitive edge.

Visiting a Sr Analyst at Forrester Research: Social Computing blog of Jeremiah Owyang, the post The Questions Corporations ask about Social Media had the following comment posted in response to the blog noting Real Estate has become an Early-Adopter of Social Media Marketing.

Well, in Arizona (a town of mid-size businesses), nobody gives a damn about social media (yet) besides tech companies. Oh — and real estate brokerages, who are desperate for a way to increase business in an abysmal market and think making their agents blog is a good way to do it. This provides fodder for me as a consultant and as a conference-organizer. The real estate companies are now asking “how can I get this up and running and producing customers for me before I am crushed by the weight of my own overhead from the good old days.

Your Own Common Sense Can Put It Together

Question mark
Originally uploaded by desi.italy

Quoted below is the beginning chunk of an online discussion. It was created to sell technology solutions to the real estate professional. I'm not going to comment on the technology, just the sales-pitch. Rather than a rewrite, you'll find below the quoted text my answer that I posted in reply to the sales-pitch.

We heard a much quoted statistic again yesterday and we decided to make it our weekly topic.

They say that 80% of home buyers use the Internet in their search for properties. What does this mean exactly? You never really see this number broken down much further. [note it isn't broken down]

8 of every 10 people look online. But what are they looking at? Buying tips, mortgage rate information, Realtor information? No, we are going to estimate that 90% of everyone who uses the Internet in their search is actually performing a directed property search. And this is normally initiated from a corporate site (remax.com, century21.com etc.) or a dedicated MLS system (realtor.com, mls.ca). Some Internet shoppers may go to a Realtor's website directly, but generally this audience prefers to select from a larger pool of listings (an MLS system).

We can't really back up this 90% with facts, but it seems reasonable don't you think? [and here he says he can't back up his 90% with facts either]

My (edited) Reply:

It's very EASY to tell a Real Estate Professional what is happening on the Internet with an Internet audience. If you don't know statistics, and don't have numbers Marty, I'd hesitate to put any of this out there.

As an avid student of human behaviour, having worked in technology since 1986, and since I'm heavily and actively involved in a wide-range of Internet audiences and always have, I have not only a good sense of Internet User Behaviour, but I also found out about a lot of the business-sales tactics of Internet professionals. Take SEO for example - you know the fly-by-night ones?

So consider this: The reason people come to a Realtor's site from an MLS somewhere is simply by the nature it is created and how Real Estate is currently being marketed (has been marketed) online. You can even look at a Realtor business card for obvious clues.

Real Estate has always been a Trust profession. Ever notice that it is the only industry that the professional members almost always have their photo on their card. It's been done this way for a long time, and the reason is that they are selling themselves to the buyer/seller and the Realtor is selling trust.

Getting online, the Realtor has no idea whatsoever about the Internet, technology, or computers more than they have to know, unless they worked the tech industry previously, are an avid hobbyist, or have a family or close friend working with it. The majority however, simply don't know what the truth is around what is being sold.

Here is the Truth about Searching for Real Estate.

As a buyer, I don't look for a Realtor, I look for a home.

• Am I simply looking for a specific home, or am I looking in a particular geographic area?

So the home-buyer hits the google page and types in, "commercial drive Vancouver property listings" as an example. Some Realtor sites are likely to show up, particularly those who have been ahead of the curve, have found the right solutions and tech-teams, and who have the success to invest in their technology and Internet solutions. But is it all Realtor sites, or are there others there too?

Anyone can answer these questions by simply running their own tests.

• Act like a home buyer.
• Remember how "little" inside knowledge most home-buyers have.
• Ask the dumb questions.
• Conduct the lamest searches, and
• the more sophisticated searches.

The more you do this, you will begin to see the results and the commonalities.

• Are they looking for you?
• Are they looking for just listings?
• Are they looking for a specific place in town?

This is what Creating New Doors on the Internet is all about.

Where the Real Estate industry and profession may have done a great job getting listings online, maybe what they've put online doesn't jive with the way people interact online. A real estate site is only one piece of the equation. Internet work is never done, it is not a static place, and it along with people always shifts and changes.

That is why StrataXL Software incorporates many elements into what they offer the Real Estate industry. Yes, it includes a Realtor site, but it also goes many steps beyond that to deliver websites that actually become representative off a geographic community and that site silently FARMS LEADS all day long and night without us or the Realtor lifting another finger.

It's not just in the Sell you see Marty. It's also in the Farming. We're not reinventing the door, we're preparing the field.

Internet Marketing Needs Holistic Organic Approach

Highway fog
Originally uploaded by Boby Dimitrov

A website is nothing other than a Billboard Sign in a Virtual World. The only people who see that billboard, are the people driving by. The question that begs for a Website Owner in a Virtual World is: What highway are they driving on?

In days of old it may have been true when stated, "All roads lead to Rome." This was, in fact, the strategy. Rome was the centre of the empire and all roads extended from there. In the world of Internet, that one-route-destination was SEO so the Virtual Traveler found your Internet Website Billboard while traveling the Information Highway. SEO specialists sold promises of ranking, effective keyword strategies, and most likely achieved remarkable results. Without retaining ongoing services, how long did those results last?

Today, not all roads lead to Rome and the SEO game has changed enormously. Google and other Search Engine leaders are continually altering and fine-tuning the search-rank-algorithms in order to normalize and level the playing field against SEO tactics that seek to boost rankings artificially. This is why it is more important to follow organic processes incorporated into your SEO and Social Media Marketing (SMM) strategy. Keep watch for more tips related to this in coming weeks and months.

Organic approaches include content creation, submitting articles to websites, having a blog that is continually adding new content for the RSS world of subscribers, a Facebook and/or other Social Media profiles featuring your sites, business, services, etc., and a host of other campaigns that seek-out the roads less-traveled. Why? Because that is what the Internet user is seeking; the road that is their own.

A Holistic approach, tackling SEO, Social Media, Link-Building, Content-Creation, Articles, Blogging, and others all combine together to create an effective Omnipresence in the Digital Realm of the Internet's Virtual World. Your website becomes the Billboard along many Internet super-highways.

If you would like to learn more, we invite you to visit us at StrataXL.com

My real estate marketing 2.0 claims at JYTE

Here's some of my claims at JYTE:





Got something to say about it?

Jyte with a PR 8 is a very good way to SEO your site for your preferred keywords.
Check out how I've used the description part to seed my keyword links back to my main sites.

Go make your own claim today.

Building Community for Realtors

With some of our community sites like www.liveonthedrive.com and www.liveinstrathcona.com we've been building a following and engaging with the local community.

We are creating social community sites that have value beyond the simple real estate listings and engaging with members of the community before, during and after their home buying decision.

Why? Because it works that's why.

Need proof?

let's take a close look at some of the new "alpha" functionality in the "not yet released" new Realtor.com site (click the link to their "alpha site" at the top of the page).



Nice to see how much building community is playing into the growth strategy of an industry giant like Realtor.com.

Is your website engaging your audience? Are you building community?

You should be, visit www.agentXL.com and start now.

Realtors need to engage their audience

It sounds simple doesn't it?

Engage with them. Of course, how simple. Just get a sense of engagement with your prospects and clients.

In the old days this was as simple as a phone call to your list regularly. Just checking in, wanted to know how you were doing, planning any big moves, want to know the value of your property?

That was all right when there were only 6 other real estate agents in town and you didn't have to work to hard to get noticed.

Now, you need to engage with more people, more frequently and with more impact.

Having a professional CMS system that's designed for your business is a very important way to ensure regular and timely engagement with your audience.

Does your site promote interactivity, can people comment on your blog posts, do you have forums to engage in more than 2 way conversations? Do you have a mass mailer that takes care of personalizing your communications for you?

These are all important parts of a superior CMS solution for real estate agents.

Don't believe me? Listen to what the Chief Technology Officer of Realtor.com has to say on the subject of engagement.



Real Estate Marketing : AgentXL.com

AgentXL and SellFM are Superstars at the Show!!

A small group of committed individuals have been diligently working behind the scenes to build up the foundation in support of two back-to-back Tradeshows held in the Vancouver lower-mainland area this past week.

January 29th, we attended the Vancouver event with greater-Vancouver Realtors, and January 30th, we were in Langley with the Fraser Valley Realtors.

• We had our SellFM transmitters on hand - a big hit with the Realtor crowd, selling a few units right there on site, and more trickling in after the show. We're expecting even more follow-up once people get the opportunity to review what they've brought home, and we proceed with our follow-up calls.
• We also received a new unit in just a few short days prior to the show. It took some frantic exploration and testing, and we proved the viability in today's market and brought along the BlueAgent, another talking sign technology that pushes / offers BlueTooth devices the ability to receive audio, image, vcard, and other data to their BlueTooth enabled device.
• The advances in our back-end software witnessed the birth of AgentXL. Our promotional screens, the successfully running LiveIn sites, and the onsite presentation garnered crowds of traffic at times around our booth.

What I noticed and heard as I talked to many Realtors, is that there are a lot of choices, and there is a lot of confusion with those choices, when it comes to getting a website. I felt their pain. There is nothing worse than not knowing anything about a subject that you must learn more about. When it comes to shelling out cash to buy something you know nothing about, too often we discover we've been sold a bill-of-goods not worth dirt. I've been there too.

We were very pleased and fortunate that our business model, social model, community model, and technology model are based upon a set of values and ethics that empower community, entrepreneurship, leadership, and service. As we took the time to demonstrate the various activities, how they tie together, and what we can accomplish to further the business goals of a Realtor, and provide valuable services and information to the Realtor target-audience (the community), the interest in our suite of products grew.

Active Movers:

SellFM Transmitters
The FM transmitter that shows and sells the listing when you're not there.

BlueAgent
A further evolution of the FM Transmitter, this unit is a small computer offering BlueTooth reception, or FM reception to receive different forms of communication.

Internet Traffic Building
Employing various tactics, we have various package offerings for building links and traffic to client sites. Easy to do, we teach our clients these tactics. They are time-consuming activities, and highly effective, so we also offer packaged deals to carry out the service on our clients behalf so they can keep working on the business they do best.

The Exciting Buzz

The exciting buzz was around our pilot project LiveIn sites: LiveInStrathcona, LiveOnCommercialDrive, LivingInMountPleasant. Every Realtor and Realty office immediately picked up on the value of the community focused sites as farms. The exciting part for us was the feedback we received.

Knowing what we know related to technology and the Internet, it mattered that we build the solution that meets all the parameters of a successful Web2.0 Internet user and client site. Here are just a few of the things that are critical success factors:

• Social media, community, are key elements
• Keywords and content are important
• Link-building and being an authority publisher of Internet content

We have achieved this through a variety of means and continue to evolve and develop the sites as time permits amongst our other projects. The real excitement came on Wednesday at the Fraser Valley Tradeshow when a City of Abbotsford Councillor approached intrigued and excited about applying the same approach for the City and its' residents.

As said at the show in response to her enquiry, "We're in! And we'll gladly extend the basic level of services and site-building for the city and community free of charge."

I wonder what Realtor or Realty Office will be the early-adopter and seize this as yet undeveloped opportunity? LiveInStrathcona is the most mature of these sites we've currently been developing, one of the strongest farm-bait sites available to real estate today. Just ask Rick.

What are keywords and how do they work?

Some of you already understand the concept of keywords and how that relates to your business growth.

For those of you that haven't got that far in your internet marketing growth, it's important for you to understand how these work, because in the end, it relates to people finding you on the web.

If more people can find you on the web, then you will get more business, it's that simple.

Study this little presentation I made and be sure to ask me if you have any questions.

Design Tips for Realtors | Content Creation

In one recorded call I get to demonstrate two things to you.

First and most important, is the idea that creating content for your blog can be this easy.

Secondly, here are a couple of design tips from one of the web designers I turn to, Jeff MacGregor from built4impact.com


powered by ODEO

Below, I've put a link to a plug in for skype that let's you record your calls. It's a very cool program that I've been using for a while and I'd recommend it if you want to start having more control over your skype in box and more options when recording, podcasting or blogging recorded conversations with your peers.

I love easy to produce content, and this is about as easy as it gets for something this sophisticated.

It's the tool that I used to make this recording today and you could be doing the same with your blog, website or newsletter.

I recommend it, give it a free spin, I think you'll agree it's a valuable tool.

Active Rain Real Estate Community

This is a great way to get your name out there and improve your page rank, I blog here all the time.

You can find great local Vancouver, British Columbia real estate information on Localism.com Riel Roussopoulos - SEO & Web Strategy Expert is a proud member of the ActiveRain Real Estate Network, a free online community to help real estate professionals grow their business.

Quality Link Building Strategy to Skyrocket Your Google Ranking

Have a look at the following video to learn about how to place links to your site in keywords that people are trying to find you for. This will help you place well for that keyword. The more links you have to your site, the better you'll do.



Pretty basic, you can do this work yourself, find and sign up for dozens of appropriate sites, set up links to your site.

OR...

Let us do it for you.

150 inbound links for $250
These are links from relevant social networks and bookmark sites.
These are human edited, real links, not some blog comment spamming software.

Click the paypal subscription button below to subscribe to our monthly SEO link building package.

You will be charged monthly and you can quit anytime so what do you have to loose?

Not sure about which keywords to use? You can use your first months subscription for a full site review and keyword assistance from yours truely.

Let us help you get to number one.