Twitter is a Grand Experiment and one of the things that Twitter just rocks at, is Crowdsourcing.  Crowdsourcing is the process of sending a question out to the "statusphere" and getting back multiple (often valuable) answers...  The Quality of the answers depends solely upon the quality of your community...

I am Lucky.

I am truly blessed with a social community that includes the brightest minds in the RE.NET.  Associates, Friends, Clients and Co-Workers...  Most of which have come from Social Media, and almost all of which I consider #IRL (In Real Life) close friends...  This is the ANOTHER thing that Twitter just Rocks at.

So I had an idea...  Why don't I ask a question that REALTORS, my clients, would like to have Crowdsourced and give my tweeples 15 minutes to tweet their answers (in 140 characters or less)...

I asked and they gave of their day to engage, help, answer and enlighten...  A sincere thanks to everyone below.  You ROCK!

Here was the question...

and here were the answers...  A special thanks to Ines Hegedus-Garcia, Eric Stegemann, Ginger Wilcox, Bill Lublin, Vicki Lloyd, Jay Thompon, Sara Bonert (who tweeted from On stage at a presentation), Drew Meyers, David Gibbons, Kris Berg, and all others who offered great advice....

For those new to twitter, here are some tips to read this CONVERSATION...

• Read from the BOTTOM up.. That is how the conversation takes place.. Oldest to Newest (Kind of like a Blog)
  
• RT means ReTweet. This means you agree and support the statement made, and may add a thought to the end...
• @(name) means you are speaking to that individual, but on the public timeline....

NOTE: I asked for answers, and a CONVERSATION Broke out...  Welcome to Twitversation...

This was just SO cool, I think we should make it a weekly thing... Do You?  What are your thoughts on the this question and what questions would you like to see in the future...  Please feel free to leave a comment or question to any of the participants, here? or tweet them with the twitter handle next to their name...

Tom and I work with Real Estate Professionals, not Social Media Marketers. There is a huge difference.

For Social Media Marketers, Social Media is their job. For Realtors, they have a job and social media is just a way to engage, communicate, become relevant in the market, build relationships, brand and generate leads (depending on who you speak to…) When teaching Social Media, the number one question (by a mile) I receive is: “

But where do you find the time?”

I hear this almost every day from my Realtors. Look, it is possible that YOU may not have the time. Possible, not probable. Here are some tips I share with my Realtors to ensure they can squeeze a bit more time for their Social Media Marketing Efforts

1) Control your day. - Do you get up each morning and let the day determine what your schedule is? Do you have 2-3 things on your calendar and “do some work” in between? Do you get up, go to the computer and REACT to your email? Not effective. Become a Task list taker.   Keep detailed task lists and prioritize them regularly. Immediately upon finishing one task, start another. At the end of each day do two things.

    a) Look at what you have ACCOMPLISHED. I know you work hard. Lots of people work hard. What did you remove from the list?

    b) Decide what you are going to accomplish tomorrow and commit to work until you accomplish it. Knowing that you will work until you accomplish your goals, will ensure you don’t waste time on non-productive stuff.

2) Get Mobile-How often are you parked in front of a home, waiting for a client, or Realtor to meet you. How are you investing your down time? Social Media Applications (twitter and facebook, etc.) have GREAT mobile apps. Keep in contact with your community through out the day, in your less productive time. (And for some, I know the word “app” sounds scary, but they’re not. They are simple, easy to download and use tools to make you more efficient- trust me!

3) Understand the cloud- Web based applications like gmail, facebook or twitter allow you to chime in from any computer, anywhere. At the office or a client with a few extra minutes? Get in touch.

4) Have a Virtual Lunch- Who do you go to lunch with, friends? Fellow Realtors? How about grabbing a sandwich and sitting down in front of your computer with your Active Rain or FB Friends and favorite tweeples.

5) Schedule it. It’s Marketing. Just like everything in life, sometimes when we don’t write it down and commit to it … it goes undone. And when you’re online engaging and marketing yourself, it can be quite easy to surf the net for latest news or celebrity gossip, or check out the sales online. Once you commit in your schedule time to engage in social marketing, hold yourself to this time allotment. 6) Remember, for many this is their form of Prospecting. – For years we’ve been taught to spend an hour or three making calls or knocking on doors, following up on leads, scheduling appointments after open houses and sending personal note cards. Today, spending strategic time on Twitter searching key action phrases like “looking at homes in LA” or “looking at Trulia” and engaging prospects is a valid form of prospecting. Spend some time getting your ‘virtual home tours’ on YouTube or Active Rain.

The key is (like everything else we do throughout the day) have a plan, an outcome and be intentional and it will pay off big time.

Was this Post Valuable?

This was the collaboration between Jim Marks(virtualresults.net) a social media strategist, and Tom Ferry, (yourcoach.com) a Realtor coach and trainer. Leave a comment if you would like more tips on how to control your time and create a successful social marketing strategy.

For years, SEOs have engaged in a practice called Link Sculpting.

Link sculpting is merely the idea that each page of your site has Page Rank and that page rank can be passed to other pages on your site or elsewhere on the Internet. Lets imagine PR points as currency. (Because it really is) If my Homepage has $20 worth of pagerank to invest and I have 20 outbound links on my site, it was common knowledge that Google would pass $1 worth of PR to each of the pages linked from that page. ($20/20=$1) A thoughtful SEO, however, could manipulate that PR currency to deep pages that he/she want to increase both the traffic and indexation rate. We could do this by “nofollowing” some of the links, telling Google NOT to follow the link, therefore making the existing links flow MORE Page Rank. Let me explain. If my Page has $20 worth of PR and 20 links, we can assume the each page linked to will get one PR dollar. If I then NO FOLLOW 10 of those links, the balance of the PR cash will just average onto the rest of the links. Therefore the 10 links that remain as Follow will get $2PR each. With this theory, and thousands of PR points to invest, I can “sculpt” my page rank to drive traffic and indexability to pages that might not otherwise see the Google light of day. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, because as these pages index, rank and create traffic patterns, (and inbound links) THEY earn PR points which in turn can we sculpted off to other pages in need… The entire site can be boosted, as it will have more indexed pages, a higher PR in general, more traffic, etc.

BUT NO MORE…

In a statement that rocked the SEO world, Matt Cutts, at SMX Advanced on June 3rd, stated that it is no longer effective to nofollow some pages in order to flow more Page Rank to the remaining followed pages. Basically, Matt stated (this is an example) that if your page has $20 worth of page rank and 20 links, 10 of which are no followed, the no followed links will still receive NO PR, but the remaining 10 followed links will only receive the $1PR each. In other words, nofollow links usurp PR, they just don’t pass it… Here is a quote from Rand Fishkin, owner of SEOMoz, “I’m saddened to say that given this change, we, as SEOs, are going to have to also recommend the best practice that comments (in all forms of UGC) no longer accept links. While Google has said that linking out to “good places” provides some value, that merely suggests that webmasters and site owners should select good resources editorially and link to them with live, followed links. Comments that contain links, unfortunately, will actively detract from a site’s ability to get pages indexed… ”

So who does this effect and does it effect you?

IMHO, this by and large only will effect those with moderate or low-level SEO experience. If you do not do SEO on your site, or have hundreds or thousands of pages with PR to pay with then this change will have little or no effect on your site. On the other hand, If you are a LARGE site with 1000s of pages and have, or are a talented SEO, you will simply revert to the practices of old.

Unless this policy changes, I will start creating my outbound links in a manner the robots can’t see or follow (in Flash, external Javascript with blocked calls, in plugin content,etc…) My gut tells me there is a WP plugin on the way that will do this. (Developers get busy) But if you have a decent sized site, with lots of PR and don’t know SEO really well, this conceivable could hurt. Frankly, I just dont understand why Google would do this. It seems really counter-intuitive to me.

Commenting and sharing community traffic IS web 2.0. If I can engage this community and leave a link that explains my credentials, that is cool. If I can carry the conversation back to “my place, even cooler. But a comment, without a link feels less authoritative to me. It loses some of its street cred, whuffie, social currency. I want to give the link to my commenters. I want my readers to know who is commenting on my site…and their authority within my community.

But until I hear a change in this policy, UNFORTUNATLY, my advise to my clients may have to be… “You just cant allow comment links until Google figures out the ramifications of this decision to our social media world, (and hopefully) reversed this decision.

My guess is that when Teresa Boardman posted this message to Twitter:

“O.K. if an agent could only use one, which should they use? Zillow or Trulia?”

She had very little idea (or did she?) what an inspired discussion would commence. As it is with Twitter, both David Gibbons, Community Director of Zillow and Rudy Bachraty, Social Media Guru of Trulia were listening, and what transpired over the next hour or so was a spirited discussion on SOME of the merits of Zillow and Twitter.

Now, this discussion fell quite short of discussing the ENTIRE difference and benefits of the two between the two sites and concentrated mostly on the Search benefits of both. Having a passion for SEO, this is what caught my attention and this is what THIS post will concentrate on.

Here is the discussion, best as I could assemble it...without any additional interjection..I also included a video of the discussion as well, provided by Jeff Turner... Check it out and come on back!!

Now, that you have read the tweetalogue, (just made that up) you probably understand why this is of interest to me... SEO. Within this spirited discussion, there where QUITE a few statements concerning the SEO of both sites.

I would like to first create a series of questions from these statements and hopefully provoke a discussion  on the benefits of both.

1) Do temporary inbound links, help your website... (and why dont BOTH companies just mark the property "SOLD" and let the link live, and grow old and VALUABLE."

2) Do links from profile pages help your website and how can you best MAXIMIZE this feature. (Proper Anchor Text, Multiple links, Deep Links, etc)

3) Do links that do NOT have favorable anchor text matter. In other words, If the anchor text is an address, and not a keyword you are trying to rank for.

4) Is the address search, a valuable search. I believe David when he states that he has a few million searches a month by address. But WHO AND WHY is someone searching by address and this really a home buyer?

5) How valuable is the long tail in Real Estate. I see analytics all the time showing the QUANTITY of long tail page views, but is a searcher searching "Restaurants in Laguna Beach" or "Laguna Beach Architecture" really a valuable page view? (Bloggers get involved here...)

6) And a little "pet peeve" non-SEO question. I have always taught that Realtors should create listing pages for their websites, because the MLS descriptions should be written to help OTHER REALTORS sell the house. Realtors should be able to edit ANY outward facing listing page to appeal to the consumer. I am under the impression, that neither Trulia or ZIllow allow this. Am I correct, and how come?

I absolutely have my opinions on ALL these questions... and will back them up with analytics. Lets hear your answers and opinions...

So you’re watching the last 10 minutes of the final episode of your favorite reality show, and a commercial interrupts your mind-numbed glee. Are you really in the mood for this message? Are you ready to receive it? Do you even remotely care? This is the issue with “push marketing.” Push Marketing is marketing that pushes a message to the audience, at anytime, anywhere and any media If you are not CURRENTLY looking for information on Poughkeepsie Real Estate or Realtors in general, and it is forced upon you, you have been “pushed to.”

But what about your blog? Blogs are typically found by people who are SEARCHING for a topic that you have written about. They want to find you… (hence the term…search) and once they do, you give them the Information they desire.. They can subscribe, self-identify and request more information. They can even “opt-in” to a mailing list or email subscription to obtain your valuable offer or information. This is called Permission Marketing But how random are your subscribers and readers? Where are they coming from? Are you missing an opportunity to develop a GEOGRAPHIC audience?

In other words, can you Permission Market to your Farm? Imagine Permission Farming… Attracting people who are specically interested in a neighborhood, because they live there, used to live there or want to live there, to your online presence.  A hyper-specific geographic website that specifically caters to that neighborhood or farm?What would this site or blog look like?  What might the content be?  How do you market this site to gain a large number of subscription from the community? How do you become the onlime AUTHORITY for your farm...  and how do you attract the residents to this site...

Rather than the typical NICE POST, JIM (although I really do appreciate it…) Lets see if we can engage this idea...  

How do you market your HYPER LOCAL blog to a Farm... How do you reach out to a specific neighborhood in a way that motivates them to go on-line and subscribe to your website.  Lets get some great ideas flowing and I will chime in along the way!!

Jim Marks is the President of Virtual Results, an Internet Marketing Company that specialized in Create Websites that Work, Internet Strategies, and Social Media Success Stories for Real Estate Agents.

It took me years and hundreds of hours before I finally figured out EXACTLY what it takes to be a Social Media Rockstar.

Now, I am NOT speaking of the "I followed 5000 people that I know have auto-follow to get a bigger follow base" type of Rockstar.. That would be too easy. I want to be the "I have 5000 followers that love me, engage me and hang on my every word" type of Social Media Rockstar..." You get it, the "other social media rockstars will fly thousands of miles to attend a conference I am attending... NOT because I am speaking...but because I am THERE" Rockstar... Are you getting my point? I want to be the "people are SO engaged in my life, they take the time to learn that my wife is awesome too!" Rockstar... Yes, I was possessed to become the "I am sooo loved that any charity I touch becomes blessed, just cause I am involved and so incredibly passionate and sincere..."rockstar.

Yeah, thats the type of SM Rockstar I want to be... So how did I figure it out? I am tricky...

Step One: Find someone who IS this type of Rockstar...

Well, I looked, and looked, and looked... and I found him... Well, to be honest, he wasn't actually hiding... he was freakin' everywhere... filling up my facebook, my Twitter, My LinkedIn, Speaking at every RE engagement known to man, etc...(he is a SM Rockstar , after all) but I found him... My unassuming, social media uber-rockstar patsy to be?

Jeff Turner...alias @ResPres (look at that face? This is gonna be easy!!)

Step Two: Befriend him (Sh-h-h)

This, surprisingly enough, was not that difficult either. I emailed Jeff... then Facebook friended him, tweeted a tad... invited him to lunch under the pretense of "some crazy business idea" and just oozed my self-serving, sucrose-enriched charm... The funny thing was, it was almost TOO EASY... It was like Jeff.... ACTUALLY CARED about what I had to say... no, no... it was much stranger than that...it was as if Jeff actually cared WHO I WAS... He listened, and engaged me, and respected my opinions, and shared important ideas freely. He almost made it too easy...

WOW, this guy is goooood... but I found the chink in his armour...

He was the same way to EVERYBODY... Nobody can be that interested in everybody... can they?

Step Three: Learn all his tricks

This is where my plan derailed a bit... I paid attention, I really did... but I just couldnt figure him out, what was he hiding?... how did he do it?... puzzling. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks... This super great guy... This caring, engaging, thoughtful, social, guy... This killer communicator, charitable, funny, guy... Yeah, this pensive, warm and downright AFFABLE guy that everyone SHOULD want to communicate and be social with... HAS A VERY UNIQUE AVATAR!!

How could I have missed this!! Could this really be it? What else could it be? Let me take inventory one more time...

Is he smarter than me? Well, probably, but that cant be it..

Is he more successful than me? Well, I think so, but that cant be it either...

Is he better looking than me? HELL NO!

Nicer, more engaging, thoughtful, caring, INTERESTED... of course, but who cares. IT HAS TO BE THE AVATAR! I 'VE GOT IT!!

Step Four: Use this new found knowledge to conquer the SM world!! So, here it is, my fool proof Social Media Strategy.

@jimmarks... be gone.

Introducing...@vrpres

Wait... where are you going... arent you gonna follow me? Hey, Read my Blog... Hello!! Did you see my AVATAR??

(happy april fools day!)

Jim Marks, Virtual Results-Websites that Work 949.715.6970

See the orignal post here!!

Whether you are building a standalone website or an Active Rain outside blog, here are 11 things you MUST consider when creating an effective Real Estate Website...

1) Properties for sale, Properties for sale, Properties for sale

A quick trip to adwords will prove to you that searchers are NOT searching for Realtors on the web, they are looking for property. So if we KNOW that searchers are searching for property, why would be host a REALTOR web site, instead of a Real Estate Website… Answer? We Wouldn’t… would we.

2) Not a good IDX, but a Great IDX

Your IDX is the most useful tool on your site. This tool allows your reader to search every property on the MLS, and then contact YOU to learn about it… Great IDXs have super easy to use interfaces, with cool ways to sort properties and terrain style maps… My fave? Diverse Solutions Why settle for a poor IDX, when the price difference between a poor IDX and a best of breed IDX is $20/month…

3) Up to date VALUABLE market info

As a Realtor that most common question you get asked is most likely “Hows the Market Doing?” How do you answer? Here’s the proper answer..” Well currently it is ….., but this is a unique and exciting market and it turns on a dime. Tell you what, if you want weekly, up-to-date market information emailed right to you, here’s my card, go to my website and subscribe. I send valuable info, weekly for no cost and no obligation...” Need the info to provide? There is NO ONE better than Altos Research.

4) Custom Neighborhood Content

No, not cut and pasted, regurgitated drip. Your personal opinions, and impressions describing what YOU love about each neighborhood. If you give YOUR honest opinions of a neighborhood, and one of your readers feels a bond with your opinion, could they really NOT choose you as their Realtor?

5) Micro Searches

Why would a Real Estate searcher use YOUR site to search, instead of a National site, like Zillow, or Trulia. Once they know which neighborhood they would like to buy in, give them a link to only search and receive updates on that neighborhood, then you have offered a service that very few, if any, other web sites will offer them… this is your competitive advantage.

6) Interesting Dynamic Lists

Your readers love lists. Create a list for the 5 least expensive properties in your area,5 most expensive, 5 best values, (you can actually blog by phone from your weekly caravan and update a “This weeks breaking values” list.) Give your readers a reason to come back and check these lists, over, and over.

7) Your Voice As a Realtor

Your most important value is KNOWLEDGE. Use your website as a tool to show your Realtors that you are the Defacto authority regarding Real Estate in your market. Take quick notes of daily questions your clients are asking you, and post them to your web, with the answers you gave. You own the knowledge your prospects need. Give it away.

8 ) Subscription Button (RSS)

Give your readers the ability to subscribe to your pearls of wisdom. Once they subscribe, they will get all your updated info, when you update it.

9) Video… Add video to your website

Tips for first time homebuyers, Neighborhood walk arounds, Community events, etc. Video give your readers a chance to see your personality.

10) Contact Info, Contact Info, Contact Info…

Make your contact info SUPER Visible on your HOMEPAGE, (not a contact page) Make sure you list multiple ways to contact you. Phone, email, chat,etc. When web readers want to speak to you, don’t make them wait. Make sure they can fine the info easily, and make your self available by THEIR favorite method of Communication.

11) Call to Action

Tell you reader what YOU expect their next action to be. Subscribe here!, For more detail call (XXX) XXX-XXXX, To receive weekly market reports, enter your email HERE!! Tell them specifically what you want them to do and give them the opportunity to do it easily, and immediately!!

1) Writing Brilliant Posts and Average Headlines-Headlines are the Marketing Piece that creates the desire to click “more.” Advertisers spend millions of dollars each year to find the one sentence, the 15 second elevator pitch that will (not sell their product, but) get consumers to take just one look at the meat of their marketing… What will motivate your readers to click…? A few guidelines here... a. The headline MUST match the story. You can’t write a headline that says, “Naked People Inside! “Unless there are…. You get it. Make the headline strong and curious, but truthful. b. Make your Headline keyword rich… Keywords are king... Include YOUR blogs’ keywords within the title, permalink, etc… c. Use common English…Make your Headline understandable to everyone…not just informed readers… Don’t use acronyms or abbreviations that some may not understand…

2) Not getting Personal-Blogs ARE personal. They are LOGS of your thoughts, your experience, and your feelings. They are YOUR opinions… All these things are personal. Take a chance and let your expressions flow… Show your Readers, YOU.

3) Talking AT, not TO- Blogging is not BROADCASTING. It is a conversation, a discussion. You are simply speaking first. Treat your blog this way. Speak TO your Readers as if you expect them to speak back… Make sense? 

4) Trying to be Interesting. When I do the 4RealzED seminars with Dustin Luther, this is my FAVORITE part of his blogging presentation. Dustin’s lesson to our audience, AND ME, is to stop worrying about being INTERESTING, and blog about things that you are INTERESTED in. Be INTERESTED. Your passion, knowledge, and general interest are contagious.

5) Promoting YOU. Blogging is a community and to build a community you need to reach out… To reach out, you have to get OUT of YOUR community and read other peoples blogs… When you find something interesting, write a blog post and LINK to the blog that inspired you… Link Out, Link Out and then Link Out some more… This is the single most difficult concept for my clients to understand… “Why would I send my readers to someone else’s blog?” TO ENGAGE THEIR READERS….

6) Trying to always write BRILLIANT PROSE... Blogging is a discussion (see a theme developing here?) Write as if you are speaking to me, not as if you are writing a book… Heck, if I want to read great prose, I’ll keep McEwen, Marques, or Nabokov by the bedside. If I want to know about you and what is INTERESTING to you? I really prefer to hear it in your unfiltered voice…

7) Stating Opinion as Fact… The written word is instant history. Your blogs will be filtering around cyber-space long after you have “left the building.” Daunting thought, huh? Your grandchildren’s, grandchildren could be rummaging through cyber space to figure out who his or her ancestors were and find YOUR AR Blog… downright spooky. Ensure that your facts ARE facts, or state them as opinion. Make sure the statements are not only true, BUT DEFENDABLE… Your blog lives and dies, with your readers trust in you. BE BEYOND REPROACH...

Jim Marks is the founder of Virtual Results, a company dedicated to creating online strategies and websites that work, for Real Estate Professionals...