By Todd Carpenter, Director of Digital Engagement, National Association of REALTORS®
I’m a big fan of selective transparency. The concept of showcasing what makes you great and sparing your followers the boring, the mediocre, and the downright ugly stuff is especially important when networking online. One of the biggest challenges real estate agents face while online is drawing the line between personal and professional: what to say, and where to say it.
Many use different networks for different reasons. LinkedIn for work, Twitter for play. Facebook has rolled out a suite of tools that help their members segregate communications. But the launch of Google+ is game-changing in that segregation of communications is backed into the “friend/follow” process. To connect with other Google+ users, you add them to various circles. This one-minute video explains it well: Continue reading »
By Todd Carpenter, Director of Digital Engagement, National Association of REALTORS®
Mistakes. Everyone is bound to make them. (I have made more than a few of my own.)
When jumping into social media, many of the biggest gaffes people make are fueled by simple human nature. Here are some of the main ones:
Greed
We tend to obsess over numbers. More is always better, right? This attitude is especially true when it comes to how many friends, followers, and connections we have. There are even schemes to increase your follower counts by getting spambots to follow you. I believe less is more. Don’t waste your time trying to boost your numbers with meaningless connections.
Pride
Everyone likes to enjoy a day at the beach, or a round of golf. But think twice about bragging about how much fun you are having, especially in a down market. When your client’s house is not selling, or they are in limbo waiting for a short sale to go through, they won’t appreciate how much fun you are having. I think it’s fine to brag every so often, but make sure you have touched base with your clients before doing so. Continue reading »
By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
Can consumers easily find information about you and your listings online? If you Google your name or a phrase closely related to your business (e.g., “Townville short sales”), will a link to your site appear on the first page of search results?
If you answered “no” to those questions, then your Web presence probably isn’t creating new business for you, said Tracy Schmidt, lead trainer at 435 Digital, Tribune Media’s online strategy consultancy. Schmidt addressed REALTOR® Magazine’s 30 Under 30 honorees from 2011 and previous years at an event held at NAR’s Chicago headquarters this week.
One of the best ways to raise your profile on the Web is through search-engine optimization (SEO). Schmidt offered the following points to keep in mind as you look to build up your SEO:
▪ Get a LinkedIn profile: The business networking site, which has about 100 million users, is optimized for public search engines. It’s also a good way for consumers who don’t know you to get your basic business info, Schmidt said. Continue reading »
By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
When I wrote a story in REALTOR® Magazine a couple of years ago about the realities of doing business in social media, I interviewed Jay Thompson, a.k.a., The Phoenix Real Estate Guy. Jay’s been blogging for years, and has generated a ton of business from it.
Back then, he described to me how his former broker didn’t take blogging seriously, dismissing it as playing around instead of conducting real business. While many real estate pros have since come around on the value of blogging, there is still a sense among many of them that it’s not a worthwhile activity, said Chris Smith, co-creator of Tech Savvy Agent, at Inman’s Agent Reboot in Chicago this morning.
“People tell me all the time, ‘I don’t have time to blog, and I don’t know how. I’m going to go be a REALTOR®,’” he said.
Part of the problem is the word itself. “Blogging” tends to conjure up impressions of amateurish writers getting online to flame a politician they don’t like, or provide updates on their cats, or post photos of their vacation to Branson, Mo., with a detailed account of how great Andy Williams was.
If that’s your hang-up, Smith said, just ditch the term. “Lose the word ‘blogging,’” he explained. “I want you to think of it as marketing your business on the Internet.” Continue reading »
By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
There’s been a lot of debate since the dawn of social media about best practices for selling on these platforms. When it first became widespread, a lot of practitioners started putting any and all listings on Facebook and may have even seen some success from that approach. But in the age where we’re sold to in almost every area of our life, people don’t want to be sold to through an application that’s supposed to be a list of their “friends.” The key is how you use it with your listings.
We’ve been talking on Twitter (hope you’re following us @realtormag) this morning about whether you should clog your clients’ Facebook stream with your listings. I cover technology for the magazine and from what I’ve read, heard at conferences, and seen from sales associates, the quick answer is no. Here’s a short list of tips for promoting your business on social networks.
- Facebook should be a place to develop the brand of you. This is a network where you can share, for example, your love of the islands off the coast of New England and put photos from your trips there. If a potential client shares that same love, this is how you build affinity with them — through mutual interests. You should share the places you like to go, the people you love to see, and your passions, and this will help to make your clients feel more connected to you. By building this connection, when they do need a real estate pro, they will likely call you. It will also broadcast that you’re an authentic person. Continue reading »
By Robert Freedman, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
The Federal Communications Commission yesterday issued rules to require all Internet content to be treated the same by the companies that control the flow of Internet data into homes and offices. NAR supports this so-called net neutrality issue to help ensure real estate brokers and others in real estate that make heavy use of the Internet won’t face disruption or changes in their services by Internet service providers (ISPs).
Under the rules, which have been some five years in the making, the ISPs (mainly cable and telephone companies such as Verizon and Comcast) are prohibited from blocking lawful content, applications, services, and the connection of non-harmful devices to the network. The ISPs must also create a level playing field for all providers of content on the Internet. That is to say, they can’t treat the flow of content of one Web site different from the flow of content of another Web site.
That’s not to say ISPs can’t change different rates to consumers based on the amount of bandwidth they consume. They can. If a consumer ties up a lot of bandwidth by, say, downloading a lot of video, the ISPs can charge that person more, because bandwidth is a finite resource. But the ISPs can’t discriminate against content providers (that is, Web sites) based on their type of content. If the ISP has one policy for Web sites that make video available on their site, they have to maintain that policy for other sites that make video available. The user experience must be the same. Continue reading »
By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
When I was in college at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, there was a group called the Party of Darkness (PoD) that ran candidates in the student government elections every year … on the platform of dissolving that government. Obviously, the PoD had a certain amount of notoriety among the students and faculty at UT — sorry Texans, there’s only one “UT” as far as I’m concerned — but it got attention beyond Rocky Top when it posted an advertisement to buy the school on eBay during one of the state of Tennessee’s many budget crises.
According to the online ad, online shoppers could have their “very own underfunded, overpopulated university,” which included “over 26,000 disgruntled college students,” “a bell tower with recorded bell sounds,” and “all the orange you can stand.” The bidding started at one cent, but got as high as $15.50. As far as I know, though, ownership of the university never actually changed hands. (Perhaps the winning bidder balked at the shipping costs?) In any event, the PoD had my vote that year.
I thought about this when I heard about Redfin accidentally posting a listing for the White House this week. Contrary to my initial thought, though, it wasn’t the work of politically motivated mischief makers, but rather a technical issue caused by Redfin automatically pulling in listing information from Oodle, which in turn got the White House “listing” from Owners.com, which had that up as a demo, according to CBS News. Redfin representatives were quick to acknowledge the mistake Tuesday, but added that the property would be a “steal” at $10 million. Continue reading »
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