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

That’s right!  Popular online MLS web search provider, IDX Broker, recently released a new Wordpress plug-in that allows you to easily blog listings direct from the MLS by data type. You can also incorporate property lead capture on your blog and increase your visibility in the search engines.  This plugin appears to be very a similar competitor to the dsIDXPress Wordpress Plugin from Diverse Solutions that we previously blogged about.

With the new IDX Broker Wordpress plug-in you can:

• Display IDX search forms, widgets, and links on your Kinetic Blog
• Choose one design for all of your IDX results and details pages
• Use the IDX Broker WordPress plugin to add IDX lead capture and indexable idx page links to your Kinetic Blog

For those of you already using IDX Broker, the plug-in appears to be included with your existing IDX search service.  Take a look at the real estate demo site with the IDX plugin activated.  Give them a call to find out how you can access the power today (your MLS may need to be on a participating list in order for you to utilize this tool)!  If you have this service, we can easily install and configure the plugin for you within your Kinetic real estate blogs!  Just give us a call.

So what are you waiting for?  Email the Kinetic sales team to get your real estate blog with auto generated MLS listings started today!  We couldn’t be more excited for you.

20 years a leading Toronto Real Estate Agent; Jay Banerjei was forced to leave the country for a year due to philanthropic commitments, namely a family owned school for the underprivileged. In doing so, he was forced to leave a visible Toronto community presence in limbo.

Upon his recent return he set about researching the most cost efficient methods for rebuilding his former presence quickly. His effort led him to blogging, or better yet publishing & content. His immediate goal: to quickly establish a current, informed and appealing voice as the relevant Toronto Real Estate trade media source!

But enough conjecture, let’s ask Jay himself about his research and intentions going forward:

Frerecks: “So Jay, you looked at various solutions to try and re- establish your brand quickly in the Toronto marketplace. Why a kinetic blogsite, social network and public relations related services?”

Banerjei: “Ultimately it relates to a relatively quick & cost effective, yet unlimited potential, approach to exposing my business. Marketers need to make a decision: these days, it is jump on the bullet train or move out of the way… and I have jumped on!”

Frerecks: “You feel publishing to the web or blogging is the right method?”

Banerjei:  “I’m still doing 3 hours of telephone prospecting between 9 and 12 pm daily, but yes I do! Beyond the traditional methods of marketing & advertising I’m still using, most are not working any longer. Even the more recent days of consumers and business simply going to Google, typing in a search phrase, locating a company and calling or even purchasing are over. Sure my name will pop up in Google, but you’ve got to differentiate yourself when they search. And it’s not just standard text either; Toronto real estate video blogging will bring a high impact addition to my online marketing as well.”

“We’ll cover community and events, but we can expose Toronto homes in ways that maximize their dollar value for our sellers; we can expose an unlimited number of choices for people buying a home too. Beyond current local real estate coverage and a place to search/ find properties in Toronto, this blogsite is also a perfect place for those [looking for a real estate agent] to come and see all of the wonderful things that we do for our clients. We can capture leads, offer them direct RSS or email subscription.”

“My blogsite is very much a website, but a dynamic one that will helps us to market, foster home search, capture leads, generate direct subscription and rebuild our brand!

Frerecks: “What about the Social Networks? Do you have a lot of time to be there or will you position this blogsite to support that presence too?”

Banerjei:  “This blogsite will automatically export our content to Facebook, Twitter and Linked in! That added exposure will support the broader web optimization of, and also direct subscription to, our content. It will bring our video blogging to more people and we feel video is going to give instant feedback on sales.”

“Look, these social networks will allow me to market beyond search and direct subscription. Hopefully they will bring us more & more future clients. It’s certainly a very effective way of staying in contact with past clients, giving them relevant information wherever they are! And that’s without having to duplicate any effort! We’re also in control of our content to the degree that, if any social network fails, we still have it archived, categorized, tagged and available!”

Frerecks:  “In six months time, what is the goal with this kinetic blogsite?”

Banerjei:  I want to be on the leading edge! We’ll grab market share before the rest do!  We will have established our brand and an effective marketing and business tool.  We will be where the eye of the consumer is online, always expanding our market share. We will have hundreds of hot active leads at any one time.
I want this blogsite to grow into one of the top real estate resources for the greater Toronto area!

Social Gears Launches Digital Business Card – Follr.com

Per our last post, this is going to be a useful tool for folks with many different web identities. Per Follr.com,

“A card for the world we live in today – a FREE Website combining all your online social activity streams and contact information into one easy contact solution. A connected Social Card is important for individuals and businesses alike.”

Jump in for your FREE Digital Business Card here

Per Fran Thorsen of  Real Estate Social Media Policies,

“Now, a real estate agent displays a listing syndication map illustrating dozens of destinations where the seller’s property is displayed and a social business card containing all her listings and links to her profiles on the social Web.”

For More, See: Finally! Paint Your Social Media Portrait with a Business Card

Hope to see all you Coloradans here… this is a great event, good bang for the buck!

The popular “unconference” returns to Denver this Thursday when industry professionals gather to exchange ideas, discuss real estate technology, social media, trends and gadgets that make our lives easier or more difficult depending upon your perspective!

The day will be filled with sessions including but not limited to:

• Website optimization – SEO Workshop
• How to pick relevant keywords and tags for your website/blog
• How to leverage social media to build your business
• Video usages for real estate associates
• Tech tools that provide value to us and our consumers
• Getting started, How to Market Yourself Online
• Automated Social marketing systems
• Wordpress as a low cost, easy to use blog system
• Plugins, Widgets and themes
• Smart Phones and real estate apps
• Cloud CMA
• Google Maps & apps

The schedule continues to evolve, if you would like to learn more about who’s coming, visit REBarCamp.com/denver

REBarCamp Ticket Includes:

• Full Day of Sessions
• Lunch
• Refreshments
• BONUS:  There will be a professional photographer on site to take personal photos.  If you are in need of a fresh new photo for your online bios, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn stop by

Tickets are $20 (prior to June 10)  $30 (after June 10th)  $35 at the door.  Tickets to the event can be purchased online at: http://rebarcamp.com/denver/rsvp-2/

Winding down here from what, for me, was one of the great real estate conferences ever – RISMedia’s 2010 Real Estate Social Media Summit!

More impressions and notes on cool new products I saw, and vendors I met, but this post is dedicated to Allan Dalton and his Keynote Address on ’Leveraging Your Social Media Links!’

If you don’t know Allan, he’s a brilliant guy: one of the most on topic, articulate and also entertaining people I have ever had the opportunity to listen too and know.  When Allan speaks, people stop in their tracks! Today was no different as he brought forth a heavy dose of ’social networking reality’ for real estate agents everywhere. And he certainly deserved the standing ovation he received.

Here is Some of Allan’s Wisdom from, ‘Leveraging Your Social Media Links!’:

• Gets it rolling by quoting John Wooden, “Never mistake activity for achievement.” And by the way, we couldn’t agree more about focusing on converting activity!
• Content is the asset: social networking is a tool, but irrelevant without content.
• “Without content there is no trust, without trust there is no relationship, without relationship there is no transaction, without transaction thee is no fee, without fee there is no career and without career there is no security.”
• Social networking and content [social media] must be integrated.  Relevant content solves problems. You must solve problems for consumers or your networking is irrelevant. How many friends you have solves no problem. Fail to solve problems, you make no money. 
• Allan coins the word ‘contentsequences’.
• Apply the ‘long tail’ theory to your web presence and be relevant for lots of key words and phrases. Some depth here on, and an example of, how the ‘long tail’theory can apply for business including how a business may generate less search discovery per individual variation of it’s most sought after key phrase, but how the collective impact of those variations can be much greater.
• Real Estate Agents should think more like politicians. They should triangulate on local events and pressing issues. Some one opens a restaurant, be the one to announce it. You have a voice [blog] and an audience [see disintermediation], use them.
• Use social media as links back to your brand!
• If your goal is to make good change and to help people it will be reflected in your social networking.
• Focus on Creating Your Own Real Estate Social Network!

I recently encountered an article written by Nicole Nicolay on MyTechOpinion that I thought was well worth sharing. The article is titled, “The New Rules of Content Creation & Curation“. Nicole embarks on a journey to educate business bloggers about the importance of creating and sharing good content:

“while some “experts” may be leading you down their automated paths or filling you up with hope of launching a comprehensive social media marketing plan in 5, 10 or 12 days….my advice is “think for yourself”. There are no quick fixes with social media, it takes work and it takes drive….just like with any successful marketing or business plan. Most importantly, it begins with content.”

This is such an apt statement! I was especially thrilled with her breakdown of “content creation” and “content curation” – a nifty thought and some nicely coined terms.   She explains – a content creator is someone who identifies target market needs and seeks to create original and highly relevant content.  A content curator is someone who identifies relevant and valued content from third party resources on the web and passes it on to their network via links, tweets, etc (much like i’m doing with this article). You can be sucessful attempting either or you can certainly be both.  We strive to do the latter.

To be effective in the spaces of business blogging and social media it’s always going to come down to how much of yourself are you willing to share. The more you put in, the more you will get out. The more you strive to provide good, relevent, timely information to your sphere – the more they will appreciate you. And, most importantly – the name of the game is not always about search engine optimization. What?  Yes! What happens if you optimize a bunch of articles using key word after key phrase and reciprocal link after reciprocal link but don’t think much about the value delivered by your content? Sure, you’ll get visibility and traffic – but will you get leads and followers, will you build that sphere into anything meaningful, will you connect with people, no.

In an effort to be not only a curator of Nicole’s great info but a creator of some of our own – I’ll leave you with some easy tips that I hope will be helpful with efficient content creation.   I like to see folks new to business blogging start out with a brainstorming session and a plan.  Here’s a quick overview:

1. Gather your colleagues and peers for a short brainstorming meeting
2. Determine who your “online” target audience is (keep in mind there might be several groups especially if you are niche marketing)
3. For each target group, ask yourself the following questions
   • What are their needs and wants?
   • What are their pain points?
   • What kinds of problems might they need to solve?
   • What kinds of topic interest them?
   • What might they realistically be searching for out there in Google or Yahoo?
   • What language do they speak when they search (I don’t mean english or french – but more importantly, are you using the same vocabulary? This is imperative – you must use the same terminology as your target audience to get the opportunity to connect with them in the search engines.)
4. Make a list of all these things!
5. Review your list and come up with a plan to use your answers as a guide for the creation of business blog articles and content.
6. Make a plan (create a blogging calendar) about how and when you are going to release content and get the team involved!

Another thing that I often see pretty regularly is the idea that you must start big when it comes to SEO, “if I can’t get the number one spot for my main keyphrase, then i’m not sucessful”. No offense to anyone out there, but this is BS. True search optimization comes with time and diligence. There is no magic and it won’t happen from Day 1.  It WILL however happen over time if you put in the time.

So… another nice thing to do when you are getting started is to start small. Choose a niche or a point of interest you’d like search discovery around and start your blogging career in a focused manner. Plan your first 30-day cycle around a very specific goal – don’t go for the whole enchilada right out of the gates! You are likely to be disappointed if you do. On the other hand, if you start with some specific terms for a specific niche with a specific timeframe goal in mind – you just might see some results right away!

It’s a great way to get acquainted with the process of how consistent, relevant and organic content creation can become a very effecitve online marketing tool. And once you’ve mastered the process – then by all means, tune your methods to hit some of those higher level terms. But never forget the small guys – remember when you connect with someone around a very specific subject, it’s likely those folks know exactly what they want and are more qualified buyers or sellers anyway.

Anyway, Nicole provided some great inspiration – please do yourself a favor and go read her article on creating effective online business content as well!

PS.  For those of you using a service to create content for you – don’t stop, just be sure to consider this a supplementary program.  You can’t blog every day or even every week – it’s nice to know something is still happening to keep your site active.  The best content is always going to come from you – the expert in your field and the true author that your readers identify with.

If you need help getting started with your business blog, social media campaigns or even creating relevant business content – Kinetic Knowledge can help!  Give us a shout anytime.

As we all know, blogging takes time and effort – especially blogging for your business as a search marketing tool.  What some of you may not know or remember is that you can spin your wheels creating just any old content.  A blog post should be created with a few best practice techniques in mind so that your articles pack a punch and have the best chance to resonate out there with the search engines.  The following video on blogging optimization is twenty minutes long and provides a  review of four simple things you can do to optimize your posts for search.  You’ll find a review about:

• Using specific blog post titles
• Using links and photos effectively and tagging them properly
• Creating categories
• Creating useful tags

One reminder: While these tips will help you out in the search engines it is always important to remember the value proposition delivered by your blog post!  If your post is found by the search engine but does not resonate well with your readers, you are back to square one.  Some simple tips to help deliver value and provide post “stickiness”:

• Make sure the post is formatted well and is easy to read (use bullets, paragraph breaks, and keep them fairly short)
• Try to offer your reader something of value – education, tips, valued links, free tools, helpful downloads, interesting news, good reviews – make these things easy to find and/or download
• Use photos to break up the text and peak visual interest
• Offer links to related posts offering additional tools/tips of value

With a good combination of best blogging practices and valuable information, your business blog can be a highly valuable search marketing tool!

Blogging Optimization Techniques Video

Do you need help creating or optimizing a business blog? How about connecting your blog to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter?  We can help! Take a look at Kinetic Knowledge business blogging products and services or contact us today.