We see a lot of good real estate data here at Altos Research. We see a lot of great presentations of that data too. We decided that we'd like to offer some recognition for the best stuff out there. So we thought it'd be fun to have a little awards ceremony. We'll call it the Data-Rich Realtors Awards.
In case you missed, Jott is a great little application that changes your voice text to notes. They have a variety of service levels starting from free (ad-supported) to $3.95/month to $12.95/month. Jott sets up a unique phone number for you to call. You simply call the number, leave yourself a voicemail, and then Jott will transcribe your voice into a text note and sendyou an email with your text. Very cool.
Here are some ways that I use jott:
1. Driving in my car, and I hear a good book or news article that I want to read. I just call my Jott number (with a handsfree device of course...) to leave yourself a reminder to check out the article when you get home.
2. When I have an idea for a blog post or article that I want to write, I call myself and leave a summary note so I don't loose the thought.
3. Any other "to-dos" that I don't want to forget.
Once Jott creates the text and email, then I can categorize and file away in my email client. That's it! Definitely worth checking out...
The other day, I provided a quick intro to Twollow, a recently launched Twitter application that enables you to automatically follow other "tweeters" on Twitter.
Some early observations:
Be VERY specific about the key words that you enter. For example, if you select a general term like "real estate" in Twollow, you're going to end up following lots and lots of tweeters very quickly.
It's better to think about specific terms such as "South Kackalacky Real Estate" or so that the new follows added to your Twitter match with your local sales territory.
Think about how people write in "Twitter-speak." Twitter only gives you 140 characters to post a Tweet, and thus, the language of Twitter doesn't match regular English, or even search engine English. For example, "South Kackalacky Real Estate" is almost 30 characters on its only. So, do the local folk in your area commonly refer to "South Kackalacky" as "SK" or "South Kack"? If so, make sure that you Twollow these specific terms.
Just some quick hits for anyone looking to take a more measured approach to their internet marketing strategy, which you should be if you're doing any significant marketing via the web with a website, regularly updated blog, or email marketing campaigns.
Keep in mind that Internet marketing isn't for anyone. There are lots of agents out there that live very comfortably via referrals, and their website is just a marketing brochure or a place for their current clients to search homes for sale. They can do just fine.
But, if you are taking an active approach to Internet marketing as a part of your business development activites, then here are a couple resources to consider:
2. Google Analytics Live Workshop: If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area - "This session explores how to effectively gather and evaluate a variety of data, reports, traffic volumes, and other valuable tools that will allow you to measure and compare results, make the right adjustments, and to accurately assess the effectiveness of your marketing strategies and tactics."
I found both of these via the East Bay Innovation Group, and as such, feel pretty comfortable passing them along to you.
The quick & dirty: Twollow allows you to automatically follow people on Twitter based on key words. When the key words are tweeted, you will automatically begin following that person on Twitter.
Real Estate application: What if you're an agent in Palo Alto? Maybe it would be a good idea to follow Twitterites tweeting terms such as....
"homes for sale Palo Alto"
"selling my home in Palo Alto"
"buying a home in Palo Alto"
Think about the way that home buyers and sellers are thinking and possibly tweeting. Here's a video tutorial on how it works.
One good idea: Twitter once a day. It's 140 characters. You can find something interesting to post in there, even if it's a link to someone else's blog post or website that might be interesting to the group.
One idea I disagree with: They suggested that you should "follow" anyone that follows you. I disagree. Just like people get to choose whether or not to listen to my tweets, I want control over who I listen to. If @imacreepystalker or @webmedsforcheap chooses to follow me, I'm not following them, and in fact, I'm blocking them right away.
But even those people that are good-intentioned may not use Twitter to share any information that is meaningful to me, and so I won't follow them back. I look at Twitter as a place to get information and ideas. If someone tweets solely about candy bars or that their cat is sitting on the table, I'm not following. (No, really. I'm not following why someone who feel compelled to tweet about this stuff...) I create my own minutiae every day - don't need to read more.
Other Helpful Hints
Pistachio Consulting has a wonderful tutorial page on using Twitter, complete with articles, videos, and printed guides. Who knew this stuff got so scientific? And there's not supposed to be an "Twitter Experts" out there. They're sure are trying...
Yammer - "Share status Updates with your co-workers"
If you haven't checked it out yet, just picture Twitter but only for the people in your office, brokerage, or any closed group.
Now, THIS is a killer app for agents and title reps. What if all of the agents in your office joined Yammer? You could instantly share with the group that:
You're in an unfamiliar neighborhood and looking for some counsel about the school districts for you clients with 4 kids.
At a very cool open house with your clients
You need the code for the MLS box
You're walking out of the door of your new listing
You just reduced the price of a listing
You just reach contract on a property
You just checked out the new listing by your competitor and it's crappier than it looks in the photos. Sure would save your colleagues the trouble of showing it too...
You notice that the flyers in your colleague's signpost are gone.
During the recent REBarCamp in Houston, the attendees participated in a group-led workshop about social media. Lots of time was spent discussing Twitter and ideas on how best to use this simple web application. I thought I'd take moment to share some of the conversation. (I can't recall which people individually provided some of the ideas here, so I'll assign credit to everyone that attended.... It wouldn't be fair for me to pass off these ideas as my own...)
The most important thing to remember about Twitter is that there's no right or wrong way to use it. It doesn't come with an instruction manual and there is no such thing as a Twitter "expert."
If you're not familiar with Twitter, here are a couple of ways to explain this simple web application:
1. It's like a micro-blog.
Instead of posting a complete article that includes lots of text, images, and photos, you can only post 140 characters worth of information. This means short and to the point. Some people like to post about what they're doing every hour, others will discuss business topics, others post links to their blogs or new listings.
(Hint: If you want to refer to a website or specific weblink, you can shorten a lengthly URL by using www.tinyurl.com. This helps to save valuable character space.)
2. It's like broadcasting your own radio station.
People can elect to tune into what you're saying or not by choosing to "follow" you or not. When someone opts to "follow" you on Twitter, this just means that they can read any post that you make on Twitter. Likewise, you can opt to "follow" others, you are choosing to listen to what they have to say.
Just because someone "follows" you, doesn't mean that you have to follow them back. There's no required etiquette in this way. Personally, if someone decides to "follow" me, I'll check out that person's profile and some of their recent posts to Twitter (better known in the Twitter world as "tweets"). If their tweets are interesting or informative, I'll elect to follow them as well. And likewise, you might choose to follow others that do not choose to follow you. Don't take it personal - it's their choice.
3. It's a social conversation.
When you follow other people on Twitter and post your "tweets," it's like being at a cocktail party with hundreds of people. There are some people you know really well, there are people that you know by name, and there are lots of people you don't know at all. Just like a cocktail party, you can choose your level of participation in the conversation. Some of us like to participate by listening and observing. We might make an occasional remark about an area of interest. Others like to dominate the conversation - rattling off conversation without ever seeming to takea breath.
Remember, you probably wouldn't walk into a cocktail, walk up to a group and starting telling anyone you see about you newest listings. Same goes in Twitter. It's social media, so the conversations tend to be social in nature. Of course, there are times (just like at a cocktail party) where there social conversation gets into work topics - good articles to read, sharing tips for success, etc.
4. It's a networking opportunity
Any time you have a chance to meet new peers in a friendly setting, you should take the opportunity, especially in the real estate business where so much business activity is based on relationships and referrals. You never know when you'll need to refer one of your clients that's moving across the country. Twitter can be a great place to watch your peers interact with others and see how they handle themselves in a social environment.
How often should you check Twitter?
Depends on you. Just like some people like to check their voicemail and email every hour, you can check Twitter to see what'd being posted by those you're following almost non-stop. The more people you follow, the more information and messages you'll have to sift through.
Personally, I check my Twitter account about once every two days. I like to page through the posts to see which parts of the conversation look interesting. If I see an interesting link, I click on it to explore it more. If I see a question that someone has asked, I might answer it. If I see someone new out there, I might send them a personal note to say hello.
See the analogies here of a cocktail party or other social event?
Give it a try!
If you're mildly curious, just set up a profile and find some people to follow. You can see who each person is following, so by clicking around on some other people's accounts, you can find others to follow yourself.
It might take a couple of months for you to feel like you "get it" - that's okay. Took me at least that long. But now, I feel like I'm part of the conversation, adding links to my blog posts here on Active Rain for others to see and posting comments and observations from my daily worklife.
If you have any ideas or specific examples on using Twitter, leave a comment to share with the group. Be social!
You've got a website. You're trying to get visitors to stop by your site everyday, but deep down, you know that you're getting 20 visitors a week, or maybe 10, or maybe 0... You hear that you need to do better search engine optimization. It's a term that's thrown around, and for some it means spending lots of money, but it doesn't have to work that way.
Take some time to understand how you can "optimize" without shoveling cash in a consultant's pockets, and read on...
Keyword Search Engine Optimization
With paid keyword search optimization, consultants are going to finely tune your website content to match keywords and search terms so these specific terms are prevalent across your website. This strategy is based on finding the few terms that you think most home buyers and sellers are most likely to type into Google or the other search engines. Here's the problem -
These are the same terms that every other paid search clients to use to attract website visitors. If you're paying to 'Google Page 1 rankings' for "South Kackalackee real estate," do you really think that you're the only person out there trying to optimize for this keyword term? Other agents are doing the same thing (and are probably paying the same consultants that you are....) This creates an arms race to see how many times you can have the exact term - "South Kackalackee real estate" on your website to beat the next guy.
But for the sake of argument, let's assume you do get make it to the coveted 'Google Page 1' and the web user decides to check out your website. What is the visitor going to see? Nothing but the term "South Kackalackee Real Estate" plastered all over your website. It becomes visual noise.
You've seen these sites. It's almost impossible to find any information quickly because the entire website is nothing but keywords generously scattered throughout the navigation bars and down below the fold of the home page. Yes, it's annoying to view, and often you'll find yourself bouncing from that website faster that you can say "South Kackalackee Real Estate."
Guess what? That's what many homebuyers and sellers do as well. They see these sites and leave before getting a second hand on the keyboard. Now, keep in mind, some visitors do stay - it's a matter of preference. But most consumers are on the Internet because they want to drive - they want to be in charge of their experience. Sites that are screaming this kind visual noise at them can be a major turn-off for them, and thus works counter to the reason that you paid to have you're site "optimized."
Paid Search: "Pay-per-Click"
Alternately, you can also spend hundreds of dollars per month for "pay-per-click" - ads the run on the top or sidebar of the organic search results in Google or Yahoo. This guarantees your high placement on the search engine results page. If the web user clicks on your ad, then you pay Google for that click. Sounds good because you only pay when you're advertisement is clicked?
But what if you don't have compelling information for the website visitor? What if you spent all of your energy building up the wallpaper but don't have any furniture for your guests to sit on? Then they'll bounce - another reason why pursuing an organic search engine optimization strategy can be the best approach.
Organic Search
In short, organic search means that your website is found because it best matches the key term. The difference is that your website is found without the forced matching of only a few key terms. The more natural content on your website, the better the chance that you'll hit more organic search matches.
It helps you in a couple of ways.
1. Organic Search is free - no consulting fees to fine-tune your website to match key terms and no pay-per-clicks. Sounds good, huh? It is.
2. Organic Search forces you to create unique and compelling content. Because a web user is only going to find your site if a search term matches the content on your site, you need to be sure that the content on your site is interesting.
Likewise, the ancillary content should also be interesting. A website visitor might find your website because they searched a term like "real estate market information South Kackalackee" but they might stay because you have great information about school districts or other unique local information in South Kackalackee.
(This is why blogs can be so effective for a local real estate market. Good blogs, by nature, have lots of content added over time and are updated frequently.
Scott Sambucci
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