Studies have found that web-based tools drive business growth. Even through the economic turmoil lately, small businesses are starting to see a turnaround and looking forward to a stronger period of growth in 2010. Traditional marketing methods are still commonplace. But, businesspeople who are expecting to grow their business in the next year are focusing more of their attention to online marketing. What are the best web-based tools to use? Email marketing, social media/networking and search engine marketing.
Email Marketing - This includes newsletters, ezines and contact management. It is important to use email to try to tap those potential clients. But, it's equally important not to lose sight of those past clients who have brought you to the point you are today. Contact management is key for this. Providing up-to-the-minute information about the local real estate market through newsletters and ezines gives past, present and future clients a glimpse of your knowledge and experience.
Social Media/Networking - Gone are the days where the only people you meet and interact with are the people in your local community. Social media has redefined "networking" on a global scale. Networking with others on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, etc. allows you to reach out with other colleagues as well as current and potential clients. This is especially important when you consider that the three major search engines (Yahoo!, Google and Bing) have determined that social media is so important, they need to crawl Twitter to keep up-to-date on the latest news. Social media is not a fad...it's here to stay.
Search Engine Marketing - With more and more buyers turning to the internet to find their next home, you want your website to be the one they see. Marketing your site to the search engines will help you rise in the searches for your relevant keywords and help drive traffic to your site and you.
In today's economic climate, it's important to use web-based tools to drive your business growth. If you need help with your email, search engine or social media marketing, please contact me today. We make it our business to make your business shine.
In a continuing effort to keep my real estate clients and others "in the know" with the latest and greatest, I have stumbled upon a fantastic tool that Google has created to help make your website and blog even more visually appealing and engage your reader. Have you ever wondered how you could use Google Maps on your website or blog? Google has made it easy as pie to add a street map, satellite map or even a street view map of single and multiple addresses to your website or blog. You can even create a widget that allows people to get detailed directions right to your office.
Specify which type of map you want: Street Map or Satellite Map. If you want the street view map, you can click on the Pegman icon above the map scale and drag it over to the address you want the street view of.
Click on the "link" tab in the upper right corner of the map.
If you would like to customize the size, you can click the "Customize and preview embedded map" link located directly below the html code.
Copy/paste html code into blog or website.
To create a map for multiple locations (great for pointing out sites of local community interest):
Login to your Google account. If you don't have a Google account, you can create one for free.
Type in the end address (either your office address or the address of the open house) in the Gadget Settings area.
Customize display settings if necessary.
Click "Preview Changes" button to make sure it looks alright.
Click "Get the Code" button to get the html code for your blog or website.
Copy/paste html code into your blog or website.
Any of these maps can be used in a variety of ways for so many different things on your website. Use the multiple location map to show where ALL your listings are located, create a walking tour of local attractions or even list the best dining/shopping, etc. in the area so that you REALLY look like a local expert. The directions widget will help anyone be able to find your office or open house without any trouble at all. Let me know if there is anything I can help you with. Google Maps can be of great use on your website or blog.
Realtors - Do You know the Answer to this Dilemna?
It's official - I'm moving. It's something my husband and I have been comtemplating for several months. Since I'm not a huge fast food fan, I was wondering about easy make-ahead meals that we could make while in this transition. Going to a dine-in restaurant takes too much time. So, that's ruled out, too.
To find answers, the first thing I thought of was realtors. Surely, I'm not the only person a real estate agent has worked with who wondered about this. Sure, there's lots of other stuff to handle, utilities transfers, packing up (for me that includes moving an entire office), moving, change of address, etc. But I think this might be an area that's been overlooked.
Can you help?
Have you created a Moving Tips Report that includes the mealtime dilema?
Do you have a recipe or two that would make a move a little easier?
I think Realtors are really smart and creative. So, I'd love to hear from you.
Can you hear it? "Bing!" That's the sound of the lightbulb going off over Microsoft's head. Microsoft has recognized the power of social networking. This computer software giant just announced that it will start adding status updates from both Facebook and Twitter in real-time to its own search site Bing. Google has already responded by announcing that they, too, have signed a deal with Twitter to index updates in real time on their search site.
Twitter has begun to gain a valuable reputation for its use of real-time information. Many times, news breaks first on Twitter before it even hits the major news sources, which is well ahead of search engines chiming in. Yahoo! has seen the value in Twitter updates. It created TweetNews, which ranks its news stories based on real-time posts on Twitter.
It's nice to see that the search engines are beginning to understand the importance of social networking. I'm still baffled by those in the real estate industry that don't see what a valuable tool this is. Don't be left behind. Let this be your "lightbulb moment". Get onboard the Twitter train today.
A friend of mine just emailed the following recipe to me. I haven't tried it yet but apparently you can create a chocolate cake for one in about five minutes.
Sounds like a dream come true for chocoholics! If you give this a try, let me know if you liked it or recommend it.
5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg 3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug (MicroSafe)
Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT ! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).
And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!
Every once in awhile I just get lucky. This past week was one of those times.
I should preface this by letting you know that I was born in Alliance, Ohio and lived there until I was 11 years old. My best friend (since we were 2-years old) was a wonderful person named Dorothy. She was really mad at me for moving to California and leaving her without her favorite playmate - a feeling she remembers to this day. This past week Dorothy, a couple other old schoolmates and I got together in Vegas for a wonderful time. We laughed so hard, I thought our cheeks would fall off. It was amazing to find that the bonds we shared as kids were still strong after 48 years.
Another great treat was getting to go visit our third grade teacher. Yes, she's alive! Seems to be the first question out of everyone's mouth. We had a fabulous lunch with Mrs. Siebert and her husband. Even after all these years, she's as wonderful as I remembered her to be.
We stayed at the Paris Hotel. Every morning Dorothy and Jackie ran downstairs to the little French bakery and bought fruit, pastries and coffee and brought them back to the room for a pajama party. I highly recommend it.
What a lift to my spirit those 4 days were! May we never forget those people who have been such an important part of who we are.
RealBird offers real results for real estate listings. Really! This wonderful program allows Realtors® to create a listing post complete with slideshow, maps and Realtor® contact info and photo so you can post it to your blogs, website and other social networks on the internet, including Active Rain. RealBird allows you to market up to 3 listings for free. If you wish to use this great service to market more than 3 listings at a time, you need to upgrade to a RealBird PRO account for either $11.95/month or $99/year. You can even add a link to your website, blog URL and feed, Active Rain, Twitter, Facebook and MyBlogLog accounts on every listing. After you have created your listing, you will be able to generate the html code to add it directly to your Active Rain account or easily share the listing on Craigslist, Kijiji.com, Backpage, Ping.fm or your social networks, such as LinkedIn, Google, Digg, StumpleUpon and more. Have you given RealBird a chance? If not, you really need to try it out. We recently created RealBird listings for a client of ours and, by the time we were done posting the 5th listing, her first listing on RealBird had already received over 60 views and she even got a lead from the Active Rain post the very next morning. That's why I say that RealBird offers real results for real estate listings...really!
Since search engines are the driving force behind 84% of internet traffic, getting your site seen by the search engines is important. You want to make sure you show up on at least the top two pages of searches for your keywords and, preferably, the first page. Google has the lion's share of all searches (55-65%), while Yahoo and Bing get around 10-15% each.
But, how are search engines reading your sites? There are two ways: spiders (automatically "crawl" websites on the internet) and directories (human-edited). The search engine spiders automatically go through website pages and determine your "expertise" based on the text both on the page and in the meta tags. Adding your keywords a few times sprinkled throughout the text on your page will increase your chances of a higher ranking. However, don't think that just jamming your page with keywords will guarantee you a spot at the top. You need to focus on a couple of keywords and sprinkle them as often as is naturally possible throughout the page. Anything extra or forced will make your site appear "spammy" and get penalized as such. Also, you don't want to lose the attention of your website visitor by making the text hard to read.
There are many human-edited directories on the internet, but they are becoming more and more scarce. If you think about the fact that these directories actually have people that go through every site on the internet to make sure it is valid, you can see why more and more are going the automated route. DMOZ and Yahoo are just a couple of the free ones left. But, it can take months to get your site edited and added to their directory. And Yahoo Directory has started charging a fee for a business site to be included in their directory.
Once you have your pages streamlined to a few natural uses of the keywords you want to focus on and have added these keywords into your meta tags, you are going to want to submit your site to directories to be considered for inclusion. There are tons of directories out there that still do this for free. You just have to be patient with their turnaround time. The three most important directories to submit your site to are:
This should get you pointed in the right direction to start your search engine optimization. If you have any questions, please contact me and I'll be happy to help you out.
The Frustration of Bad Information - Have you ever found yourself doing something or not doing something because "they" knew better? Personally, I think "they" must be related to "someone". "They" said that "someone" said that . . . .
As a real estate agent, you probably feel the same frustration I do when someone doesn't listen to your expert advice because "they" or "someone" told them something different, leaving your prospect even more confused and often paralized into doing nothing at all.
Here's my Monday morning experience:
Last week everything was all set for me to start doing work on Ms. Prospect's account. The recommended services were outlined and agreed upon and all I needed was a signed contract. Somewhere between Friday and Monday, Ms. Prospect was unable to find her ghostwriter (probably a friend of a friend of a friend) and was going to have to scrap the idea of blogging and article writing. She had already been informed that we provide both of those services.
The next problem Ms Prospect had was that "someone" told her that social media was not a good resource for promoting herself and her business. "They" said that she wouldn't be able to market herself, her listings, get links back to her website and the list goes on.
It's frustrating to lose the opportunity to help Ms. Prospect. But, here's the real crime. "They" have just cheated Ms. Prospect out of a viable opportunity to accomplish exactly what she needs - social media marketing.
I'll get over losing the prospect. Unfortunately, Ms. Prospect is losing a whole lot more than me. What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
If you'll excuse me now, I have to respond to a prospect's request for more information. He got my contact information through social media - LinkedIn. Hmm. . .
Is there a place for Google Place Pages? Google recently unveiled its Google Place Pages in Google Maps. This feature is accessible via the "More Info" tab on any listing. The whole point of Google Place Pages is to get as much information about one place (business, city, points of interest, landmarks, etc.) in one central place. Instead of having to hunt down information through several websites, you would be able to not only get information about the particular business/point of interest you are looking for, but you will also have access to photos, maps, directions, a street view and even available transportation. The upside of using Google Place Pages is that it is a handy way to keep all information about a particular business or tourist spot in one location. This keeps people focused on one spot instead of clicking from place to place on the internet in search of exactly what they're looking for.
Unfortunately, there appear to be a few downsides as well. Many people have raised the concern that Place Pages will become so attractive to web surfers that they will replace visiting the businesses' actual websites, which may hurt them instead of help them. Also, the pages allow for visitors to add their own content to the page. So, if someone decides to trash your business for any reason, it is there for the public to see. Sponsored links show up on these pages, too. Some people have voiced their concerns that this may mean that an ad for a competitor will pop up on their own Place Page.
Bottom line, search engines are constantly coming up with ways to keep you on their site rather than going somewhere else. Having all this information in one place is nice, but how will it impact small businesses? We won't know until this feature has been out longer. What do you think? Is there a place for Google Place Pages? Let me know. I want to hear what side of the coin you land on.
Being a Virtual Assistant for real estate professionals is a great job! We provide website, marketing, search engine optimization, online listing service, Blogs, ghostwriting, contact management and a lot more.
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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.
Studies have found that web-based tools drive business growth. Even through the economic turmoil lately, small businesses are starting to see a turnaround and looking forward to a stronger period of growth in 2010. Traditional marketing methods are still commonplace. But, businesspeople who are expecting to grow their business in the next year are focusing more of their attention to online marketing. What are the best web-based tools to use? Email marketing, social media/networking and search engine marketing. 
Posted by 
Can you hear it? "Bing!" That's the sound of the lightbulb going off over Microsoft's head. Microsoft has recognized the power of social networking. This computer software giant just announced that it will start adding status updates from both 
Since search engines are the driving force behind 84% of internet traffic, getting your site seen by the search engines is important. You want to make sure you show up on at least the top two pages of searches for your keywords and, preferably, 
because "they" knew better? Personally, I think "they" must be related to "someone". "They" said that "someone" said that . . . .
;)
;)
