My goal with this article is to change the way you think about lead generation. Back in the "old days," purchasing real estate leads was a popular strategy. And while a lot of agents still use this approach to real estate lead generation, it is by far NOT the most effective way to go about it.
Think about it for a moment. When you purchase real estate leads, you are basically buying the names and phone numbers of people who (A) don't know you, (B) haven't asked to be contacted by you, and (C) could very well have an agent by the time you contact them.
In other words, you will be cold-calling strangers, in an age when cold calls are dying out. This is not the best way to approach real estate lead generation. When I listed a home on the MLS a few years back, I was annoyed at the number of real estate folks who contacted me each day. "Do you have an agent? Need help selling your home? Can I come over and give you a CMA?" It struck me as both desperate and annoying. There is a better approach to real estate lead generation!
According to a new analysis of BIGresearch's Simultaneous Media Usage Survey (SIMM 14-Jun 09) of over 22,000 consumers, social media impacts consumers, which in turn directly impacts marketers, but not all options are the same. Social media users are likely to use more than one platform, some at a higher rate than others. For example, 60.2% of MySpace Users (those who regularly use the application) regularly use Facebook. On the other hand only 24% of Facebook Users utilize MySpace.
Regularly use the following social media:
USER Use Use Use Use Text Read Post to GROUPS Facebook LinkedIn MySpace Twitter Msg. Blogs Blogs Adults 18+ 27.9% 3.3% 11.6% 4.1% 27.3% 10.9% 4.3% Facebook Users*---- 7.7% 24.0% 10.5% 47.5% 20.2% 8.8% LinkedIn Users 63.4% ---- 24.3% 22.1% 43.3% 29.1% 16.8% MySpace Users 60.2% 7.6% ---- 14.6% 53.7% 20.5% 11.1% Twitter Users 72.7% 18.8% 39.4% ---- 56.9% 49.3% 31.0% Texters 48.5% 5.2% 21.5% 8.3% ---- 17.7% 7.8% Blog Readers 51.0% 8.6% 20.5% 17.7% 44.0% ---- 34.0% Blog Posters** 59.0% 13.1% 28.6% 27.9% 50.8% 83.3% ----
Source: BIGresearch, SIMM 14 *To be read as: 7.7% of Facebook Users regularly use LinkedIn, 24% use MySpace. **Blog Posters include those who post to blogs and maintain a blog
Social Adults Media Users*18+ Male 42.5% 48.7% Female 57.5% 51.3% Average Age 38.2 45.1 Average Income $68,311 $66,942
In the next 6 months, plan to buy: Social Adults Media Users*18+ Vacation 30.2% 26.3% Furniture 17.8% 12.8% Computer 17.3% 13.2% TV 15.9% 12.4% Car/truck 12.7% 10.8%
Source: BIGresearch, SIMM 14 *Social Media includes: Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Texting and Blog Users
When looking specifically at the user of each platform, Facebook users average 37 years old and MySpace users are the youngest at an average age of 33 of those profiled. LinkedIn users have the highest incomes. Social media usage for ethnic groups indexes high across most social medias.
Facebook LinkedIn MySpace Twitter Texters Blog Blog Users Users Users Users Readers Posters* Male 40.2% 62.0% 48.4% 50.8% 38.3% 43.8% 47.5% Female 59.8% 38.0% 51.6% 49.2% 61.7% 56.2% 52.5% Avg. Age 37.1 40.6 33.0 35.5 36.2 38.3 36.0 Avg. Income $68,523 $96,937 $51,489 $68,740 $69,595 $67,941 $63,131 Hispanic 15.8% 14.9% 26.9% 19.1% 18.0% 17.7% 21.6% Black 12.1% 11.7% 13.6% 17.0% 15.7% 13.0% 12.9% Asian 2.9% 4.8% 1.7% 5.4% 2.2% 3.5% 4.4% White 75.7% 75.3% 64.9% 64.4% 70.2% 71.5% 69.0%
For all the criticism of Americans and their profligate spending in recent years, it's clear that their appetite kept a lot of people in business. BusinessWeek editor-in-chief Steve Adler moderated a panel at Davos today on the subject of how the world will cope with a new frugality among U.S. consumers.
The impact of the sharp drop in spending has proven devastating to manufacturers. Adler noted that Americans have accounted for nearly a quarter of global consumption in recent years, about three times the level of spending by consumers in China and India combined. Now, the U.S. consumer engine is slowing at a record pace.
The most dire assessment came from Ian Davis, Worldwide Managing Director of McKinsey & Company (U.K.). He noted that "Americans have no option but to be more frugal over the next 10 to 20 years." Along with being cut off from credit, the population is aging and "older consumers don't buy as much." His advice: Look to the East. Big consumer companies in the coming years will be Asia-focused.
But Zhu Min, Group Executive Vice-President of the Bank of China, predicted that it will take many years for Chinese consumers to make up for the gap created by falling U.S. spending. The Chinese currently spend about $1.5 trillion, vs. the $10 trillion normally spent by Americans. Even with 21% annual growth in spending in China, that won't be enough to make up for what Zhu projects to be "a sharp drop in American consumption for three years."
The question is how long Americans will stick to their tighter ways. Will frugality become the "new normal" among Americans, as some people fear?
Richard Haythornthwaite, Chairman of Mastercard Worldwide (U.K.) didn't appear convinced. While the dollar value of sales has dropped sharply, the actual number of transactions has held up surprisingly well. He concluded that "Americans are shopping smarter."
Ken Rosen, Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, insisted that the spirit of frugality will last. "We spent money we didn't have on goods we didn't need," he said. Now, American consumers can't refinance their homes or get access to credit-and the situation will only get worse as layoffs escalate. "I'm still worried that the housing market has not stabilized," he added. "The team we had in place over the last eight years dropped the ball ... The free-market fundamentalism we had was a mistake."
The solution? Government spending, according to Yasser El Mallawany, CEO of Egypt's EFG-Hermes Holding. Ideally, he said, infrastructure spending will help to spur growth. The big issue is whether governments will fall back into a pattern of protectionism. That, he asserted, "could bring the world 40 to 50 years backwards."
Some commentators and trade experts have expressed concern that the "Buy American" provisions in the stimulus are not only wasteful, but potentially harmful in that they could be a prelude to greater protectionism, both here and abroad.
Steel industry lobbyists seem to have persuaded the House to insert a "Buy American" provision in the stimulus bill it passed last week. This provision requires that preference be given to domestic steel producers in building contracts and other spending. The House bill also requires that the uniforms and other textiles used by the Transportation Security Administration be produced in the United States, and the Senate may broaden such provisions to include many other products.
That might sound reasonable, but history has shown that Buy American provisions can raise the cost and diminish the effect of a spending package. . . . While this is a windfall for a lucky steel company, steel production is capital intensive, and the rule makes less money available for other construction projects that can employ many more workers.
American manufacturers have ample capacity to fill the new orders that will come as a result of the fiscal stimulus. In addition, other countries are watching closely to see if the crisis becomes a general excuse for the United States to block imports and favor domestic firms. General Electric and Caterpillar have opposed the Buy American provision because they fear it will hurt their ability to win contracts abroad.
They're right to be concerned. Once we get through the current economic mess, China, India and other countries are likely to continue their large investments in building projects. If such countries also adopt our preferences for domestic producers, then America will be at a competitive disadvantage in bidding for those contracts.
The Senate's "Buy American" provisions are even worse, and could have significant trade implications while providing minimal offsetting employment benefits, noted trade economists warn. Pascal Lamy, head of the World Trade Organization, has also expressed concern.
Buy local" measures by governments will jeopardise export sector jobs and risk setting the world on a damaging downward spiral of beggar-thy-neighbour protectionism, the head of the World Trade Organisation has warned.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Pascal Lamy, WTO director-general, said pressures for economic nationalism were an inevitable response to the global crisis, but in an integrated world economy such measures were much more dangerous than in the past.
"If you start killing imports, you will kill exports," Mr Lamy said. And since a high proportion of global output depended on international supply chains, shrinking trade flows would have a huge multiplier impact on world production and jobs.
Mr Lamy would not comment directly on the Buy American provisions in the US economic stimulus bill, which potentially could be the subject of WTO litigation, but said that Washington, like other governments, had to abide by its international commitments.
Using video in today's web 2.0 world to market realtor services and property listings
I wanted to touch upon an area of the web and of search engine functionality that is experiencing rapid growth right now, and that area is in the integration of video. As bandwidth and compression and editing tools become more commonplace and refined, video is now the biggest growth sectors in content online. Have you heard of a little website named YouTube? As the YouTube revolution continues to take over, other mediums suck as Pay-Per-Click could face serious pressure in delivering solid impressions and results, especially. Let's take a look at where video online is at right now in the real estate industry, and hopefully spark a conversation on what is coming around the corner.
Posting Video to the Internet
This is where the YouTube revolution is currently taking hold. Whether posted to a Web 2.0 community like YouTube, or placed elsewhere on the web or on your website, putting video online has many applications. Obviously, you can describe your company or property listings in a more visual and 3-dimentional way than static, or even flash animation way. You can also describe in a personalized way, what that community is like, from one-on-one interviews with residents, to local video footage of town attractions, video again allows for more targeted, promotional, and persuasive content.
Video Podcasting
Video podcasting differs from YouTube and the like in that the content can be delivered and received on a regular basis. The beauty of syndicating the video is in the automation and wide net you can cast out there with your video content. Podcast video feed could be customized from the agent or office feeds to match a subscriber's property search needs. Just as in audio podcasting, individuals can create monthly, or otherwise market trend reports. RSS and syndication programming is also part of the coming revolution of the world wide web and portable, hand-held devices. Sunday Open House listings sent directly to subscriber's cell phones?
Whatever the ultimate direction, you can bet that video is going to be a huge component of whatever web 3.0 entails, and the real estate industry should be especially aware of this emerging medium!
The primary goal of social media marketing is to stimulate interaction between producer and potential consumers. Using online social networks correctly can help you achieve that goal, but the benefits to participating in them reach well beyond the preferred end result. An interesting tech article in the L.A. Times talks about the the effects of social media networks, applied to the political arena.
One of Barack Obama's technology managers, Scott Goldstein, said that in addition to using online social networks like Facebook to reach out to new potential voters, they also found them helpful "to make sure that we were providing people information on all of these different social networks so that if they never came directly to our website or signed up for our e-mail list they still knew that the campaign was reaching out to them."
So for example, with the simple click of "Become A Fan" or "Add to Friends" on Facebook, thousands of potential voters might have opted into continued communication from the Obama campaign via status updates, events, posted items, etc. It's this type of "passive opt-in" that doesn't sign people up for mailings, doesn't devote them to campaign contributions, but still manages to keep them in the social networking loop of the campaign. Even if they are not interested in making calls on behalf of the campaign, or working at a polling place, the value of these smaller connections cannot be ignored.
It just goes to show you that all the little interactions you have on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp!, and others can add up to something groundbreaking in the end. So don't sweat so much about the big-picture when participating in these networks and get your "hands dirty" on a regular basis. You might be surprised to find a groundswell of support for your business in the end.
The primary goal of social media marketing is to stimulate interaction between producer and potential consumers. Using online social networks correctly can help you achieve that goal, but the benefits to participating in them reach well beyond the preferred end result. An interesting tech article in the L.A. Times talks about the the effects of social media networks, applied to the political arena.
One of Barack Obama's technology managers, Scott Goldstein, said that in addition to using online social networks like Facebook to reach out to new potential voters, they also found them helpful "to make sure that we were providing people information on all of these different social networks so that if they never came directly to our website or signed up for our e-mail list they still knew that the campaign was reaching out to them."
So for example, with the simple click of "Become A Fan" or "Add to Friends" on Facebook, thousands of potential voters might have opted into continued communication from the Obama campaign via status updates, events, posted items, etc. It's this type of "passive opt-in" that doesn't sign people up for mailings, doesn't devote them to campaign contributions, but still manages to keep them in the social networking loop of the campaign. Even if they are not interested in making calls on behalf of the campaign, or working at a polling place, the value of these smaller connections cannot be ignored.
It just goes to show you that all the little interactions you have on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp!, and others can add up to something groundbreaking in the end. So don't sweat so much about the big-picture when participating in these networks and get your "hands dirty" on a regular basis. You might be surprised to find a groundswell of support for your business in the end.
Facebook is becoming one of the most prominent websites on the internet today. With the user base growing and the overall reach surpassing its competitors, Facebook is now a top online destination for real estate consumers and top producing agents alike. Each and every day, real estate brokerages are finding new ways to use Facebook to reach out to existing consumers and to extend their reach to new potential buyers and sellers. Whether they are trying to push featured listings or simply stir up a conversation in their local market, these Facebook real estate innovators are constantly trying to expand their total online presence throught his channel. Opening your door to Facebook will help you accomplish your overall online marketing goals.
It's no secret that your competition is constantly trying to expand their consumer base, whether it be through traditional marketing or giveaway campaigns. And now, through Facebook, they are expanding the reach of their potential consumer base through social menas and therefore have a greater chance of connecting with the dwindling supply of active buyers and sellers in today's market. Facebook's user base and overall reach is growing very rapidly. So here are a few ways in which you should start to use Facebook immediately in order to make sure that you are not left in your market's social networking dust.
Your Facebook Profile
Create one! You may be used to creating identities around your company, or your brokerage, however in Facebook it is more about connecting with the individuals on a personal level rather than professionally through a corporate identity. So don't be afraid to let your professional and personal life shine through in your descriptions and other profile content.
Participating in the Facebook Marketplace
Here is a great place to show off your real estate supply. Facebook has a great housing marketplace to show off properties for sale or rent. Here you can publish all the necessary info need about your properties in hopes that someone looking for what you have to offer could find it right on Facebook!
Social Opportunities with Facebook Photos
Facebook gives its users the ability to publish and unlimited amount of photos for free. All you do is upload them and create albums, Facebook does the rest. To take advantage of this great service and to help you market your real estate supple you should start by creating albums per property. Whether you only have a few pictures of 60, Facebook can occupy them all and gives you an additional chance to let people view what your supply has to offer in visual form. Each individual photo also lets you make tiny captions, this should be used to describe the photo and what your user is viewing. Your photos, if they are interesting, might yield comments from other users. These can be great opportunities to interact with people as entire conversations can be had through photo comments.
Joining and Creating Facebook Groups
Facebook allows individuals that share the same common interest to form groups. If you find groups that pertain to you local area of interest, join up and establish yourself an area expert for that group by simply being an active member of the group. Responding to user comments, sharing news and advice, and simply befriending other group members. Starting your own group is another way to take advantage of the group services Facebook offers. Creating groups like, "First-Time Home Buyers in Salt Lake City" or "Home Sellers in Frisco, Texas" might attract users pertaining to an interest that can really benefit your business. But you have to make sure to update your group and be active with it, even if no one else in the group is. Otherwise, you won't likely get much from it.
Facebook Status Updates
Here is your chance to publish real time personal and professional news. Facebook's status update allow you too publish information and push it to your community in seconds. If you have price reductions or a new listing, the second that news item appears in your professional life you can notify your Facebook friends instantly. Taking advantage of this feature is very beneficial, as when users login, the first thing they are notified of are recent status updates. As with anything, try not to spam people with status updates, as Facebook makes it easy for people to ignore the updates of others who are sending out messages they don't find regularly useful or interesting.
Shooting and Uploading Real Estate-Related Videos
One of the more advanced features Facebook offers is the ability to upload regular and high-def videos. If you have created online slideshows or video tours of your properties you can post and share these with the Facebook community. Or you can sit right in front of your Macbook laptop and discuss real estate topics into the web camera, uploading the video instantly when you are finished using the Facebook video interface. Then Facebook makes it so easy to share the finished video by posting to your profile, sending it to friends, etc.
Understanding Privacy Policies
Facebook is always trying to improve its policy settings for its users, whether a user wants to only be seen by a few friends or the whole Facebook family. Since your main goal for Facebook should be to gain additional reach for your business you would benefit by opening up your facebook profile to all of facebook. If you were to lock it up to only your metro or rural area, you risk the chance of not being seen by the maximum possible community. If you have any information that you would like not seen by some users, we suggest either not adding it to your profile, or exploring the advanced settings of Facebook's privacy settings in order to selectively hide it.
Once you are close to becoming a social networking influencer, then you will be taken more seriously by established influencers. Potential partnerships with these users include content authoring (guest posting on another users profile who has influence), cross-promoting (where you both solicit your friends to befriend the other influencer), and specific promotional initiatives sponsored by both parties (like a graphic design contest set up and endorsed by both influencers).
Start Aggressively Marketing Your Social Networking Brand
This is the final stage. When your social networking presence is generating income, and you are ready to go after a much larger audience, the time has come to start exploring aggressive marketing options such as impression-based contextual advertising and cost-per-click based search and contextual advertising. You can even start working your social networking brand into radio, print, and television commercials to increase your profile readership.
So to summarize, these are some great things to keep in mind when you use social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, and other sites to connect with people who may be interested in your sevices now or at some point down the line. Please feel free to comment with any tips you've found useful, and your feedback (it's always welcome with open arms here).
Additional Social Networking Resources
Here are some additional articles on building up your social networking sway that you might find helpful:
Real Estate Marketing Blog provides free marketing advice to Agent Image clients, as well as real estate professionals around the world. Staffed by certified search engine marketing experts, the REMB editorial board maintains its focus on practical, high-quality articles that are written in a simplified manner that doesn't require a PhD to understand. It also encourages participation from its readership
Unless you are targeting a demographic that does not particularly value traditional English syntax, stick with regular spelling, grammar, and formatting in your social communications. Don't use ALL CAPS in your post titles, or excessive special characters and punctuation. Make sure there are no spelling mistakes or grammatical errors in your original content. This just gives your friends the impression that you are proud of your social presence, and make the effort to present yourself professionally. This will impress many people who are unaccustomed to seeing correct English writing in websites, blogs, email, and social networking profiles. Don't be afraid to take content that you find fun or stimulating and share it with your social community. YouTube videos are a perfect example of the kind of content that is frequently borrowed and shared amongst social network participants. If you are the first person in your community to share that content, regardless of whether you were the original creator or not, you can gain credibility with your community for being someone who knows where good content is. And that can lead people to be more interested in initiating communication with you, especially when they find something relevant to what you are known to share with the community. So go ahead, dig into the newswires and video websites to find yourself something worth sharing with your friends.
Use Relevant Resources
Engage Social Influencers
Since you aren't a social influencer yet, you might as well see if you can learn something from interacting with one. Ideally, you want to immediately seek out who the influencers are in your community, and start communicating with all of them. Comment on their posts in a meaningful fashion, send them articles you think they might find interesting, ask them questions (people love to be viewed as an authority on matters). If you think they wouldn't mind you asking, see if they will share some tips for using the site. The ultimate goal with this is to make yourself known in a positive light to all the influencers in your community so that down the road you can leverage those initial relationships into rewarding partnerships. You'll know you're gaining traction when influencers start mentioning you in their posts, or use your content as a resource.
Market Your Social Networking Profiles
Don't forget to put your profile URLs on your website, blog, email sig file/stationary, and other profiles. Also put it on your mail stationary, business cards, postcards, flyers, business storefront, bumper stickers, calendars, pens, and any unique promotional items you regularly give out to support your real estate business. This will help drive new and interested parties to your profile who might not have otherwise thought to look you up on these social networks.
Advanced Social Networking Techniques
Those basic steps should really keep you busy for awhile. If you apply these techniques on a daily basis for six months, you're certain to make significant headway towards becoming a social networking influencer. Once you start to gather a following, here are some things you can do to help put yourself over the top.
Tie Your Social Networks Together
This goes back to branding. If you have a presence on several social networks, see if there's any way you can start to get the different networks you're on to start interacting with each other. Make mention of exclusive original content on Facebook from LinkedIn, for example. These kinds of cross-promotions can get your connections even more involved with your brand. If you can successfully get a contact from one social network to also add you on another, that just doubled the potential opportunities for interaction with that person.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
Once you are close to becoming a social networking influencer, then you will be taken more seriously by established influencers. Potential partnerships with these users include content authoring (guest posting on another users profile who has influence), cross-promoting (where you both solicit your friends to befriend the other influencer), and specific promotional initiatives sponsored by both parties (like a graphic design contest set up and endorsed by both influencers).
This is the final stage. When your social networking presence is generating income, and you are ready to go after a much larger audience, the time has come to start exploring aggressive marketing options such as impression-based contextual advertising and cost-per-click based search and contextual advertising. You can even start working your social networking brand into radio, print, and television commercials to increase your profile readership.
Unless you are targeting a demographic that does not particularly value traditional English syntax, stick with regular spelling, grammar, and formatting in your social communications. Don't use ALL CAPS in your post titles, or excessive special characters and punctuation. Make sure there are no spelling mistakes or grammatical errors in your original content. This just gives your friends the impression that you are proud of your social presence, and make the effort to present yourself professionally. This will impress many people who are unaccustomed to seeing correct English writing in websites, blogs, email, and social networking profiles.
Don't be afraid to take content that you find fun or stimulating and share it with your social community. YouTube videos are a perfect example of the kind of content that is frequently borrowed and shared amongst social network participants. If you are the first person in your community to share that content, regardless of whether you were the original creator or not, you can gain credibility with your community for being someone who knows where good content is. And that can lead people to be more interested in initiating communication with you, especially when they find something relevant to what you are known to share with the community. So go ahead, dig into the newswires and video websites to find yourself something worth sharing with your friends.
Since you aren't a social influencer yet, you might as well see if you can learn something from interacting with one. Ideally, you want to immediately seek out who the influencers are in your community, and start communicating with all of them. Comment on their posts in a meaningful fashion, send them articles you think they might find interesting, ask them questions (people love to be viewed as an authority on matters). If you think they wouldn't mind you asking, see if they will share some tips for using the site. The ultimate goal with this is to make yourself known in a positive light to all the influencers in your community so that down the road you can leverage those initial relationships into rewarding partnerships. You'll know you're gaining traction when influencers start mentioning you in their posts, or use your content as a resource.
Don't forget to put your profile URLs on your website, blog, email sig file/stationary, and other profiles. Also put it on your mail stationary, business cards, postcards, flyers, business storefront, bumper stickers, calendars, pens, and any unique promotional items you regularly give out to support your real estate business. This will help drive new and interested parties to your profile who might not have otherwise thought to look you up on these social networks.
This goes back to branding. If you have a presence on several social networks, see if there's any way you can start to get the different networks you're on to start interacting with each other. Make mention of exclusive original content on Facebook from LinkedIn, for example. These kinds of cross-promotions can get your connections even more involved with your brand. If you can successfully get a contact from one social network to also add you on another, that just doubled the potential opportunities for interaction with that person.
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