One of things we’re often carrying on about here is that in order to be successful you need to establish a current brand of your own [online]… where you actually demonstrate value.

Ben Rosales, AgentGenius.com, has some great points in his post about the shortcomings coming through areas of social media instruction these days.

In it he says, “[Social Media Instructor] you’re teaching the virtues of pulling, but not teaching where they’re pulling to, nor constructing and delivering a point of value (POV) in which to capture community within an agent or broker’s web property. In other words, you’re low level, teaching low level ideals and principals, not building the value of the agent in the eye of their consumer. Teaching facebook or twitter to an agent that has *no place to call home* is the equivalent of the homeless man on the corner begging for change.”

And social networks are incredible channels, but NOT your brand. The audience is valuable to your business, but the environment is not in your control … so, go there and participate BUT leverage the effort for engagement with your own brand!

And give Ben’s post ‘Social media gurus, are you listening to the crowd?‘ a good read because it makes several important points about sorting through it all!

Related Posts:

Sure, You Have A Blogsite & Social Network Accounts, But What is Your Plan To Succeed?

Now that social media is on everyone’s radar – some of you are wondering… how much time do you have to put in to become a success?  I recently read an interesting article from AgentGenius on the subject.  Here’s the gist: it depends on you.  The author of the article gives two examples – one of an agent just beginning to dip their toes in the social media waters and another from a veteran.  The examples range from 25 minutes a day to almost 4 hours.  Most of us likely fall somewhere in between.

Asking how much time you should spend on social media marketing is akin to asking how much time you should spend on the phone or in the car. These are necessary parts of every real estate agent’s day. ~Agent Genius

An apt statement – there is no right or wrong, the time you spend on social media is entirely up to you and the business goals you’ve set.  Like anything, the more you put into something – the more you get out of it.  If you are someone that requires a regimen to achieve tasks each day then it may be appropriate to schedule time blocks for blogging, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn updates.  If not, then you can easily manage these spaces in between other daily tasks.

Whatever the choice on timing, one thing is clear – there is business to be had and a target audience to connect with out there.  Don’t underestimate the potential of these free and incredibly viral online tools.  Two things will be important in the long run – what kind of value can you add and what is the return on your time?

Need help starting a real estate blogsite or taking advantage of automatic social media updates for your existing site?  We’ve got you covered!

Tune in to Blog Talk Radio on Thursday, August 19th for a free one hour presentation from Darity Wesley – Walking the Social Media Tightrope!

Darity will cover topics that bring you up to speed about content risk management on your web and social media sites.   She is very knowledgeable on the subject so this is one discussion not to miss!

Walking the Social Media Tightrope

Call in Number: (718) 664-9282

Here’s the event page on Facebook with more information

Do you use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube?  Did you know you could set up your blog to auto-populate your content to many of these networks (yes, we can help!)?  While these spaces can be overwhelming to manage, it’s pertinent to know some facts.  The statistics are astounding (and also changing so fast, they are hard to find!).  Take a look at a few facts I collected from around the net:

According to Hitwise, on March 13, 2010 Facebook surpassed Google (yes, Google) as the number one most visited website.

Facebook (From their statistics page which is regularly updated)

• More than 400 million active users
• 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• More than 35 million users update their status each day
• More than 60 million status updates posted each day
• More than 3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
• More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
• More than 3.5 million events created each month
• More than 3 million active Pages on Facebook
• More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
• More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
• Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans

Facebook Mobile

• There are more than 100 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
• People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice more active on Facebook than non-mobile users.

Twitter

“Folks were tweeting 5,000 times a day in 2007. By 2008, that number was 300,000, and by 2009 it had grown to 2.5 million per day. Tweets grew 1,400% last year to 35 million per day. Today, we are seeing 50 million tweets per day—that’s an average of 600 tweets per second.”  Twitter Blog

LinkedIn

“As of early this morning, LinkedIn has 50 million users worldwide and we’re growing that figure at roughly one new member per second.  When LinkedIn launched in 2003, it took 477 days — almost a year and four months — to reach our first million members. This last million took only 12 days.”  LinkedIn Blog

YouTube (direct from their fact sheet)

People are watching hundreds of millions of videos a day on YouTube and uploading hundreds of thousands of videos daily. In fact, every minute, 20 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.

Our user base is broad in age range, 18-55, evenly divided between males and females, and spanning all geographies. Fifty-one percent of our users go to YouTube weekly or more often, and 52 percent of 18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues. With such a large and diverse user base, YouTube offers something for everyone.

What does all this mean?  Well for one thing, the term “viral marketing” has never been more apt.  There are ways to manage your social media spaces and ensure that your branded content is reaching these audiences.  Call us today for more information about setting up your business blogs to auto-push content to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn!

Here are a few astounding videos from Socialnomics on the social media phenomena, worth a watch – enjoy!

Social Media ROI

Social Media Revoltion

Ben Rosales post, ‘What You Can Do Right Now to Compete in The Real Estate Game‘ offers some sanity I thought everyone might appreciate.

“Social Media is a component of your business plan, not a silver bullet….Micro-focus on who is local to you and say hello, share a link to them that might matter to their putting food on their table- you know, like how they might go about fighting property taxes on their home in a declined neighborhood?  OR maybe discussing with them the new commercial development going into the neighborhood that is zoned for alcohol and what that may mean to local property values? This is hypothetical, but you get my point…” Rosales

Agreed Ben! – see In Real Estate, Local Community Event Blogging Generates The Most Activity!

The answer to the question of whether or not your blog posts can auto-submit themselves into social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. is Yes! RSS makes it possible to have your blog posts automatically appear in these social environments. That’s right, your blog post in several places AND no duplicated effort! 

Not all social networks cooperate. For instance, it appears ActiveRain may not cooperate with inbound content unless you use their paid for ‘outside blog’ solution.

Examples

We auto- submit our posts into

* Realtown

* Facebook – to our Biz and my personal account [poor friends]

* LinkedIn – shows under the profile tab

* Twitter – must tweat more

Basics

In any of these environments you must register for an account. When you set up your profile, look for the prompts to add your blog feed. With some it’s pretty straight forward and with others it’s a little more difficult.

Results

Obviously results depend on a combination of content quality, the environment and the rules of engagement [often specific to the audience]. For us, with little effort so far, there has been new traffic. A 1st months spike of 35%.

Counter Points – Value and Your Brand

Many feel that a presence in the social networks establishes brand. Mostly, we feel they’re mistaken! We feel you develop brand by creating something that’s your own. We feel that when you’re in someone else’s environment your brand plays second fiddle, not to mention the owner has certain rights. Like, for instance, to monetize your content with [potentially competitive] advertising. And maybe, the development of data useful to marketers. Says CopyBlogger, “For me, there’s really no appeal in spending a lot of time creating “user-generated” content via a social networking application. That’s like remodeling the kitchen in a house you rent.”

While you can demonstrate accomplishments or list products and services in a social network environment, know that you won’t necessarily be differentiated. You won’t establish independent positioning for a target marketplace; however and to counter these points, social network environments are potentially large new audiences. So, participate! When possible, try and submit your brand into these environments. You’ll note Facebook is very cooperative in this manner.

Service

Obviously, a social network profile is yours to set up. Mostly, they’re free and open to your business blog content; however, many folks have had trouble with setup, etc. To assist, we’ve developed a more Comprehensive Social Networking Package.

There’s an ex-police officer, turned real estate agent, in the Los Angeles CA Suburbs and he’s defining how the successful use of [real estate] blogs can drive real estate sales. Connor MacIvor proudly served the Los Angeles community for 17 years before he decided to focus his energies on local real estate and the Paris911 brand.

As marketer he doesn’t necessarily think in terms of websites or blogs, so much as he does the best means to create a highly visible & human local web presence. He feels, “If you’re a Realtor, Car Salesperson or anyone else out there that wants to reach the masses, you cannot forsake blogging. When you write about things you believe in, it is a very natural platform for the conveyance of your ideals. You’ll see results. 1% of the Realtors in the world embrace technology and blogging. Those that do are going to remain the most successful!”

We’ve spoken with MacIvor about Real Estate Blogging successes in the past and continue to marvel at his web- based marketing strategies. Particularly his various blogs, for which he credits an average of 15- 20 solid leads and 12 ‘in escrow’ sales per month since September 2007. It’s impressive stuff and Connor’s the kind of guy who’s always willing to share… so we’re calling on him again to discuss some of his experience. Please read on.

REBs: “Having established a highly visible local web presence, why create additional blogs like REO Engine and iBlog911?”

MacIvor: “Without a doubt, Blogging has caused quite a stir for us and continues to be our main thrust for generating leads and securing contacts. You and Kristen have been the catalyst for my belief in consistent and “on-topic” blogging and, if anything, REO Engine is on-topic! In the current marketplace, REOs and Foreclosures are definitely the flavor of the day. Some days we see a multitude of requests at our own MoreThanForeclosures website. I can take that information [provided by one of the four Boards Paris & I are currently members] and publish it to our highly focused REO Engine Blog [i.e. strictly foreclosed and distress properties.] With REO Engine, I can leverage links back and forth to MoreThanForeclosures.

By the way, I have used a lot of “free” blog services. They have their place, but I cannot post something on a free platform and within minutes see myself surface in Google [usually page no. 1] for the key words I target like I have with Kinetic Blogs. With the Free platforms, we’re buried deep and that’s a waste of our time… which is money.”

REBs: “So, linking between your blogs & websites has helped to drive visibility?”

MacIvor: “Yes, where appropriate. We can also leverage our primary website, Paris911′s Main Blog and iBlog911.com.”

REBs: “And sharing more information on the web, in your view, is the successful strategy versus less… or hording it?”

MacIvor: “I see myself as one that is not into the “steering” of clients. Clients are much too savvy for that. We give freely all of the information available for the “client” to make their best decision. When we do, we believe they’ll have ample opportunity to qualify us as genuine. Particularly with regards to first time home purchasing, investing, downsizing, selling to move up or even away. REOengine is actually a driver for us with this segment of the marketplace. Furthermore, it provides another foundation to emblazon our brand Paris911 to the masses, which is something that makes us different”. Obviously there are a lot of Realtors in Los Angeles, too many that have fallen off the map. We’re respectful of causation and keep a watchful eye on our client goals, always placing them in high regard.”

REBs: “Has the use of social networks served your business locally?”

MacIvor: “If you take a look at sheer numbers related to FaceBook, for example, there are over 100 Million subscribers.  Those numbers are huge. With it, Twitter, Plaxo and others we have a very far reaching approach to branding and the implementation of our relational business model. Being members of the social networks, becoming friends of others out there in the world, globally, nationally and locally has definitely benefited us. We’ve established Paris911 brand recognition and connected with folks looking to utilize our services.”

REBs: “Do you leverage linking there too?”

MacIvor: “Sure, it’s a conglomeration of hyperlinks back and forth. It certainly helps to rank our independently branded web presence higher for keyword searches.”

REBs: “Do you feel that you’ve established a trusted local brand?”

MacIvor: “I think the story of Paris911 is unique. I quit the LAPD 03/2007, when I started to see how the expansion of my former part time [my wife's full time] brand ‘Paris911′ would be effective. I believed in technology, but our start was with a focus on Law Enforcement – LAPD to be specific. Our claim in the beginning was to exclusively serve Law Enforcement, Firefighters and Educators, but NOW it envelops many others who utilize our services.

I don’t check others stats, listings, or productivity. I am focused on our clients, first, and I am not about to water down the formula! Branding is much more than a fancy logo – it needs to be something that subscribes to the “world view” and our stance is to provide a platform that best serves our clients. Clients are researching people that provide real estate services and blogging makes us human. So yes, blogging has established a trusted local brand for us with our clients.” 

Related Posts:

• Real Estate Blogging Success Story: Santa Clarita Realtor®
• Business Blogging Interview: Santa Clarita Realtor Connor MacIvor