Ever wonder how Spam became Spam? Do you SPAM on AR? Is Spamming bad for business? Well here is the truth straight from my marketing class a few months back. It all begins with the actual wundermeat - Spam - the wundermeat became popular in america when women joined the work force and the family was adopting quick and easy meals that did had low preparation time.
(For the sake of length I am going to over-simplify some issues to get to the point)
Spam became popular because during their rise there was only 3 mediums, print, radio and TV. It was VERY clearly the birth of "brands" in America. You could literally throw money at these mediums and instantly sell millions of products, because unlike today's MASS (as in size) media, the options were very limited. I am sure that boomers and beyond can recall that even in the 70's TV was not more than 15 channels or so, of which you barely watched 4. All Spam did, was MARKET, buy ads, run commercials, you name it they were there and their sales went up - they SPAMMED SPAM - everyone caught on. SPAM is also absolutely useless for most people - sorry if you love it, but i believe it is really unhealthy.
Now, why do I write this? STOP SPAMMING featured posts, popular posts in Social Networks, it is the ultimate way to get shunned, kicked, banned, booted, blocked, punted, denied and ignored. Social networks are NOT meant for promoting your product gratuitously.
SPAM = Promoting your product gratuitously, without request, without permission, and usually off-topic. Even on topic, it is not welcome.
How do you know if YOU ARE SPAM? ask yourself the following:
1) Am I answering the question in the blog? If you are, it is not SPAM 2) Am I merely stating my company name in a blatant disregard for integrity? If you are it IS SPAM 3) Am I putting words in a link and hiding the URL to encourage click through? 50/50 could be Spam 4) Does the comment I am adding ADD anything of value to the readers of this blog? only Yes if next is NO 5) Is this response strictly for my own benefit? If yes, you are a Spammer.
Look folks, let's Help people out, the next time someone SPAMS your post, send them the link to this post right after you report them as SPAM. They may not realize the negative effects SPAMMING will have on their business.
For example, if you are labeled a spammer, people will not like you - and instead of promoting yourself, you are actually ruining your reputation and opening yourself up for attack from the Social Network. This holds true for Trulia Voices, Zillow Q & A, ActiveRain, LinkedIn, MeetUp, Yelp!, etc.
The sad thing about Real Estate Spam is that alot of the brokers and agents do not realize they are doing it. It's okay, you are new to this medium. But you need to realize that the consumer does not fall for it, nor do they like it. If they are on Yelp! for restaurant reviews - and genuine reviews for other industries, contribute. But do NOT review yourself. Short reviews are also frowned upon, they look "spammy" - if everyone is writing thoughtful long reviews about companies and such - you should follow suit, so you are welcomed.
One Final tip: Look at the network you are joining, look at the popular posts, and learn from them what is read, what is welcomed and what kind of behavior is frowned upon.
Look at those 5 questions above, and I am sure you fellow AR members can add more to this list. Do not SPAM, and if you think it is SPAM, don't do it - But i'll give you a tip, on AR all you need to do to get recognition is to not be fake, be yourself, add to the community and people will naturally become interested in your product as a reflection of yourself. And you can write about your product, i do it. But those posts inevitable do not get featured, do not get posts and are not read. So this is my tip for 2008 - cut the SPAM!!!!!
Best wishes to all in 2008!
Pierre Calzadilla - Trulia - Manager strategic partnerships
We all want "good" leads. I remember my years at my previous broker when we were driving 1,300 web requests a month (to the company - not counting direct to agent, office leads), we were closing around 4-6% of the requests for real commission dollars (*after appointments). We looked at our lead sources and consistently the "for sale sign" and Web were the biggest sources of "leads". Naturally, since they were the biggest sources, we tossed more money at them: bigger signs, easier to read, colored posts that could be sign miles away, larger budgets for keyword buying, site optimization, etc. We got more leads. But, was that what we needed?
In the end those leads, just created more work, more frustrated agents, more misdirected use of time. We needed BETTER leads, not more. Why? Because better leads, lead to the following:
selling our clients home as fast as possible for the highest possible price
more closings
higher earned commissions
shorter sales cycles
If we could generate BETTER leads, we could accomplish those four goals and more. That is not rocket science. Yes, in the long run, increasing the pipeline will increase your opportunity, but you also increase work and time wasted on - what some would call - "bad leads". I am going to change your vocabulary right now, because NO lead, is a BAD lead. You need to know how to identify and attract leads that are closer to their buying stage. Better yet, you want your lead to tell you EXACTLY where they are in the buying cycle. Here are some ideas:
Which buyer is more likely to buy a property from you in less than 90 days:
1) Buyer A: Types into Google, "New York City Real Estate" or Buyer B: "Upper East Side Condo for sale"
Think very carefully. Which one knows EXACTLY where they want to live, which one knows the property type and neighborhood? Do you think that Buyer B is more honed in on their target?: Answer: YES - So why the heck do we optimize for "houston real estate", or even "new york homes for sale" - are we nuts? heck even "Brooklyn Real Estate".
You see, not only has the web evolved, but web search behavior has evolved. For some of the most popular real estate sites in NYC, the most popular terms are actually ADDRESSES - of course that is because of buildings and such, but imagine that consumers are going as far as to just type in addresses into Google and see what comes up? Try it out - if you don't believe me.
Try this on for size: A school district is one of the biggest criteria for buying a home (I think we all agree), do you think the Mother and Father go on to Google to search for the city name - real estate, or a "Zip Code - homes for sale", think about it. If YOU were going to buy a home in your hometown, what would you type into the Google search box, if you were not a broker? One final test, grab someone, out of the industry, or ask a client that just made an offer on a house, what they were typing in to the search engine 12 months ago, and what they typed in before they made their offer last week.
2) Your method of connecting to the buyer/seller:
Do you have one call of action on your listings? I hope at LEAST one. But you may want up to 3 or even 4! Again, before you throw up your hands in shock and awe, let's walk through this. A buyer, 6-9 months out of a purchase, heck even a year out will want to ask a question, about anything - but the only option available is one contact form - why? So you have to determine the order you answer? So you can sit there and answer back in 5 minutes to every mundane question? Well THAT is exactly what you force yourself to do when you have ONE call to action. At the very least, you need two: "Ask a question about this listing here" "Set an appointment to view this property this evening", the consumer themselves will choose which pile they want to go into. What others could you have: "Sign up for a weekly update" - "Let's talk on the phone" "e-mail me similar listings" - etc. Think of all of the options now available. By doing this your e-mail system becomes a prioritization tools and the people that want appointments get the best treatment and instead of having to voraciously watch your e-mail, you can just look for the subject line: "appointment request" and answer those ASAP and leave the others for when you can sit down and give a great response.
In the end, our role is to help our sellers get the highest possible price for their homes. To do that effectively you need to work hard on the consumers that are most likely to buy NOW, they are out there. But they are not searching for "New York Real Estate" they are looking for homes for sale in 11223, an "Upper West Side Coop for sale", etc. They know exactly what they want - are you there? Can you be found? Can you tell the 90 day buyer from a 360 day buyer? Improve your marketing methods to improve your leads and close more business. these tips above are just the beginning.
Cheers,
Pierre Calzadilla
Trulia - Manager Strategic Partnerships - East Coast
"The average agent would probably count a website as part of their marketing plan and as important as their PDA, computer and digital camera. Yet, like many marketing tools of the past (see Polaroid and the Newspaper) the website is not timeless. As the web has matured to its proverbial adolescence, the sites that were created in recent years have quickly become outdated and non-functional. With today's "web 2.0" connectivity, data sharing and the mega-presence available to today's agent, a personal website is now optional. To understand my point, we need to assess the original intention of a website.
Some of you may say that the original goal of your site was to connect with consumers, or to display your knowledge, maybe even to market listings. These are all true. But something had to happen for this venture to be successful, you needed to be found. The race was quickly on to get to "page one" of Google for countless scores of keywords. We competed broker to broker, agent to agent and broker to agent and all against the lead farms for those coveted 10 spots on page one. An essentially painful and fruitless endeavor, that was quite costly. We can agree that unless your website can be found, it is virtually useless. Enter the "blog."
We did it, we found a way to connect - to speak with our clients and create connections - fantastic. But wait, so did 9,970,000 others according to my Google search for, "real estate blog." At first it was a genuine smorgasbord of actually good writing; it looked so easy. Quickly, thousands upon thousands of consumers, brokers, agent, mortgage bankers, lawyers and more started blogging too. The battle for supremacy raged again and blogs have now replaced websites as the medium of choice. They are text heavy, therefore easily indexed by Google, they offer quick and easy posting - and heck they don't have to be pretty. The blog has become the centerpiece of today's agent, but even that has a shelf-life that is nearing its course..."
for the rest of the article please read it here(http://rismag.imprev.net/2007/12/), I cannot link to it directly as it is a "flash" scroll to page 124-125:
"Commentary - Establish your Mega-Presence on the Web"
Hello my lovely AR friends. Normally i am not one to get up here and bemoan my predicaments, I rarely do that, I usually tend to lean towards the tip/advice kind of guy... but today, i just need to vent. this weekend is my 5th wedding anniversary! I am so, so, so happy to be spending time with my wife - a few months back we booked a trip to France - our first time ever out of the country to Europe. We have been counting the days to the trip...
let's put that on hold now.
Part two, i just started this awesome job at trulia in January, and I am able to meet brokers from across the U.S., speak at national venues - like Inman, and hold many agent/broker training sessions. I love that stuff, i really do. I love being able to meet people like Matt Heaton, see old friends like Mary, and meet new ones like the guys at Sellsius in person. Just like my previous life as a Real Estate agent: pressing flesh, sharing my cards and putting myself in places where my clients are - leads to more business. Business networking 101.
So, what pray tell am I bummed about? - RISMEDIA and Trulia Voices Unplugged, are going to be going on while I am away in France. To some of you, you may think, "why be upset? - you'll be travelling, yadda, yadda, yadda". But the fact is, I love what I do, and I love meeting my brokers, and most importantly I love meeting fellow bloggers, voices users, etc. it's just fun. Is it wrong for me to be sort of sad that I am going to france?
I am not kidding. I want to change my trip but my wife would cease to be my wife if I did... lol.
This is going to be the first ever Trulia Voices Unplugged get together too! You can see the blog post here, and sign up if you want:
It is awesome, a party to just hang-out with fellow bloggers, and tri-state area Voices people, basically anyone that uses Voices is going to be there... EXCEPT ME!!!! AND it is the same week as the RIS Media conference. If you go, can you do me a favor, and take a bunch of photos, say Hi to my friends - maybe even bring a cut out of my pic and hold it next to your face in group photos....?
I will really be thinking about you all while I am away in Paris, please send my regards to all my buddies out there. I know some of you are still thinking, "c'mon Pierre - you're in france - let's trade places" - but haven't you ever had to miss a closing, or broker meeting, or showing, that in your gut, in your business mind, in your heart of hearts, you know you should be at? But, the family is calling, and sometimes you just have to put business to the side? well that's me right now - Of course I want to go to France - I am not stupid. But i want to go to this Voices Unplugged get together - AT PRAVDA NYC!!!
So if you can go, please do and have fun for me, have a drink for me - hey it's on trulia! Toast my trip to France and wish me a safe return home. Just make sure you sign up here so they know you're coming in my place!
I just got a post asking about the Inman Real Estate Connect Conference, which kicks off here in San Francisco tomorrow...so hopefully this is not too late to provide some tips on how to get the most out of the Inman events.
This is my fourth Inman conference. In previous years I have gone to the NYC events, but never to SF due to travel and time restrictions. I am stoked to be a part of it! BUT guess what! Not, only am I attending ... for the first time I WILL BE SPEAKING --TWICE!!! WOO-HOO!!!!
But before I get to that, here are some conference tips for Inman:
1) plan ahead! Here is the link to the schedule of speakers: Schedule of Events for Inman. print it out, or download it to your blackberry/treo to save paper and be eco-friendly! If you don't want to walk right by your good colleague who you've never met, make sure to study the bios/photos of attendees. (BTW, I am a last minute add-in, so don't go crazy trying to find me, LOL.)
2) DO - pick the topics that will affect your bottom line, or open your eyes to something you have not considered before. Brad and his team do a great job of presenting engaging and sometimes controversial topics/speakers so you get the most out of the experience. DON'T - attend the sessions where you'll simply nod and agree with the speaker - that delivers no real value, unless you are just looking for confirmation that you are doing the right thing (fine, just not the best ROI).
3) ASK QUESTIONS! Too many times I attend a great session, but no one asks questions. Make sure you get the most out of your trip investment.
Here are a few must-attend sessions:
Every General Session! and Every Connect Duet! Period. Speakers include: CEO's from Trulia, Prudential, John L. Scott, Redfin, Craigslist, NAR, Zillow and more... don't miss out!
Of course, COME SEE ME! My sessions will NOT be a Trulia lovefest - even if we ARE in SF. As I do here on my AR blog and have done for years in my previous role as a Director of E-Business for a Real Estate firm in NYC, I will be giving valid, fair tips on how to get the most out of social networks, working with today's consumer, and managing your online business.
Thursday - 12:30-1:30pm - Content as King: Developing Web Site Content to Attract & Delight Customers (same location)
If you forget the details, make sure to pick up more information from our now-famous green Trulia Marker Men.
Finally, one of the biggest values of Inman is networking and "connect-ing" with leaders such as Craig Newmark from Craigslist.org, many of the country's top Real Estate bloggers like Joel Burslem and Pat Kitano. Shake hands, get ideas and go back to work with action items that you can implement today! Mingle, exchange cards, and please come by and say hi to me, I love putting a name to a face!
Awhile back i wrote about an awesome site that donates school supplies, and funds projects for our school teachers across the country. It has been getting rave reveiws and really growing while helping thousands of students across the country. Well, they entered the American Express Member's Project Challenge - and are now in the Finals! Please support this awesome cause! Below is the e-mail from Charles Best - from DonorsChoose.org. (this has been reposted with permission from DonorsChoose). Also, here is the post i wrote awhile back in regards to Donors Choose: Doing Good Things With Web 2.0 - DonorsChoose.org.
"Dear Pierre,
DonorsChoose.org just made the Top 5 finals of the American Express Members Project. We're in a close race.
If you voted last week, it will only take you 30 seconds to vote this time. If it's your first time voting, 2 minutes is needed. Please vote now for our submission:
If we win, all the award proceeds-up to $5 million-will go to classroom projects on our site. Hundreds of thousands of public school students stand to benefit.
We're in the final homestretch, and the outcome will likely be decided by fewer than a hundred votes. Your vote now is essential.
On behalf of all the schoolchildren whom your vote will impact, thank you for helping at this critical moment!
Sincerely, Charles Best and the DonorsChoose Team
P.S. Please reply "Yes" so that I can thank you for voting.
P.P.S. The project edging us out for the #1 spot is a real Goliath, as you can see from this New York Times article:
"Procter & Gamble is traveling incognito in the American Express Member's Project... [P&G employee] Mr. Allgood entered the science and theory behind the Children's Safe Drinking Water program. But he said that the Member Project's rules precluded him from naming it, or mentioning Pur or Procter." (NYT, July 24, 2007)"
GET VOTING! and please send to your clients/associates.
hey all! For those of you that use the Voices platform on Trulia, I just wanted to be sure that you know we now have a button to include on your site and profiles! The page with the code is here:
There is even a neat Home Roll Wizard where you can select property types in your market to display on your site: http://www.trulia.com/wizard/
If you have other cool widgets to suggest, or want to find more, there is an awesome public directory of Real Estate Widgets here: http://www.housingwidgets.com/ they have excellent blog plug-ins that are free, a vflyer widget, mortgage calculators, the whole nine.
I just want to give http://Facebook.com and http://LinkedIn.com proper placement in my social networking roadmap. I left them out of my initial posting about Social Networking.
Facebook
In my previous posting, I sort of disregarded FaceBook as a "MySpace" - but I am quite wrong. Sure it definitely can be, but recently - due to the S.F. Inman Conference Group created on Facebook, i have seen the error in my ways. There does seem to be a professional aspect to facebook, a bit more "real" than what I have experienced on "MySpace". Many of us on ActiveRain are on there already, there is even an ActiveRain Group - over 130 members! and one for Trulia - that we did not start! (join it).
LinkedIn - is AWESOME. I have been on here for a few years, and I have to say that it has been extremely helpful. First off here is my profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pierrecalzadilla. The purpose of this site is to connect professionals across the country. Just think of it as the world's most powerful rolodex - BUT - you get to see who else is on your associates Rolodex too, not only that, but you can write recommendations for other people.
Let's put this into a real estate scenario. You just listed and sold the home of a local V.P., maybe a bank, or a small business. Either way this person is/was your client. You place their name into LinkedIn, and viola! They they are, their professional, public image. You ask to connect to them, and now you are part of their network. So - now every employee they have, every associate that is "linked" to them - can now link to you. But wait there is more - now you client can write a recommendation for you! this recommendation appears on their profile and on yours! A public referral letter - it is really great. You can see some of the people i have recommended here. And see the recommendations I have received on my full profile.
Okay, i could just not sleep without putting this up, to have a more complete social networking package. And as usual - you are on ActiveRain, so I really don't need to mention how Awesome it is here to network too.
No I am not talking about "MySpace" or "Facebook", those two sites may make you seem hip, but as far as reaching your target audience, you are a little off - unless you are doing rentals or sell in a college community. There are 3 other venues, that truly speak to your demographic, late 20's to mid 40's+, affluent, high-income, tech savvy, etc. They are: MeetUp.com, Yelp.com and Trulia Voices. Three free ways to communicate with your consumer, before they need you!
An excellent community site where the members actually get together once a month to share in topics they enjoy. For example, a museum lovers group may meet-up once a month to go to the city together and visit the MET – these are great, affluent groups that you can network with and spread your name to your marketplace. In long Island there are dog lovers group, art lovers groups, Real Estate groups! Join a group or make your own Westchester Real Estate group, maybe hold a home-buying seminar! FREE! And an excellent way to build up your name within your community!
The Zagat’s of the future! BUT BETTER! Rate restaurants, lawyers, doctors, and Real Estate agents, be the first to rate an item and you will be attached to it forever. Prove that you are the neighborhood or community expert by writing and providing the best local information – as you write reviews you increase in credibility. This is different than localism, as localism is really for the general area novice, or maybe a real estate buyer. The users here are as devoted to Yelp as we are to AR, and their base is growing exponentially. Users can rate your reviews as helpful or not, and can even agree or disagree. It is a very friendly, community site and another great way to build a network – write a review for YOUR doctor, YOUR Real Estate Lawyer, your mortgage bank, your dry cleaner and your favorite restaurant! Then tell them you did and ask them to do the same for you! Also, the old style closing table recommendation – DO IT Still! But how much more powerful is it if your past clients wrote about how great you are for the world to see?
This is a great way for you to connect with the consumer on a non-threatening level. Consumers ask questions about various markets across the U.S. – perhaps your own. Topics include, transportation, schools, general market questions, and information seeking questions such as “what is escrow?”. Make a profile, and be sure to include your website address, your phone number, your slogan and a description. As you answer questions your credibility grows. Venture into other markets and ask questions too! Random questions are selected in each area and appear when a consumer does a search, for example, someone looking at a listing in Manhattan, will see a preview of Q and A’s from the voices area. Check it out! (p.s. Some of the top AR members are already ALL over the site!)
In Closing, Would you rather meet your next client when 10 other brokers are calling them too, or before? Clearly you would rather already be a "friend" or "acquaintance" to as many people as you can in your market before they need you to buy/sell a house or ask any real estate question. These venues allow you to prove your knowledge in a non-real estate sales setting, where YOU are not the focus, but your information is.Editorial note: I did not include localism because, well we are all on AR already so you know about it! But if you aren't using it, the same reasons I gave above are the ones why you should be!
Pierre Calzadilla
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