Communicating and marketing with your customers or potential customers used to be simple. You had a few options such as TV, radio, print, etc. The advent of the Internet and the recent growth of Social Media have in some respect made this process easier, but at the same time considerably more complex as the number of technology, web and online tools has exploded.
Managing the diverse and expanding facets of Social Media can be compared to managing all the components of an orchestra. In the same way that an orchestra consists of different parts — percussion instruments, keyboard, strings, brass, etc. — so Social Media consists of different parts; Blogging, Microblogging, Networks, Wikis etc.
In both cases the musical instruments or the different components of Social Media can all work autonomously; and successfully so. However, the full sound, power and impact of an orchestra only occurs when the conductor enables all the members of the orchestra to play together in harmony. The same principle applies to Social Media.
Tying it All Together
To coordinate all the members to each play their instrument at the right time requires a conductor that uses a music score (a plan) to show him when each instrument should be played.
In that same way view yourself as the conductor of your own Social Media Orchestra. It’s not vital that you activate or participate in every section and there is no reason that you can’t start one section at a time. There is no right or wrong here, neither is there a deadline or time frame. This example of a Social Media Orchestra is to illustrate the fact that you are in control of your own participation and that it can be done piecemeal and on your own timeline.
However, similar to the music conductor you must use your Social Media sites (think instruments) harmoniously and with a specific plan (think song/tune) in mind. If you don’t, your result will create a less attractive result (think noise).
To help understand the Social Media Orchestra the new Swanepoel Social Media Report (2010) published last week week divides social media activities into three primary sections and nine secondary components. For more details on managing your own Social Media Orchestra review chapter six in the 2010 edition of the Swanepoel SOCIAL MEDIA Report.
Just as it’s important to know the rules of the road and driving etiquette before driving on the open highways, so it is equally important that you have an understanding of the customs of Social Media. Although no hard legal rules exist, there are many good manners to follow if you want the vast crowds of the Social Media world to follow you.
Here are a few “Rules of Engagement” that will help you navigate more efficiently:
Give More Than You Take
The more you contribute to conversations and discussions, the more people will recognize your name and what you stand for. Over time you will establish credibility and build value. Remember the well-known adage; the more you care, the more you share.
Respect
Be respectful of the community, the members, the group’s overall goals, etc. Social Media is a participatory sport and that means that you are one of many. People can chose to communicate with you or they can chose to ignore you. Treat others as you want to be treated.
Listen
Listening and receiving comments and feedback are two of the greatest strengths of Social Media. They represent first-hand interaction with your customer. By listening to them you gain unfiltered feedback about your products and market.
Respond
When people comment or leave messages for you it’s only polite to respond in a timely fashion. By responding you are validating to the online community that you are an individual that values and acknowledges others. This adds to your credibility as an individual.
Build Relationships
It’s called social networking for a reason. Make sure you build relationships with everyone that communicates with you; establish conversations, ask questions, respond to questions, etc. Discussions and relationships encourage people to return to your page, thereby building a meaningful community.
Be Authentic and Transparent
Be sincere and honest; be yourself. With Social Media displaying your profile, message and comments it is critical to your success that you are genuine and dependable.
Do Not Become a Nuisance
It’s generally agreed that spamming is bad, but it’s also important to avoid becoming a Keyboard Gangster, Envelope Pusher or a Social Saboteur. More about these different type in my new Social Media Report.
Collaborate
Social Media is a collective medium. This means that it uses the knowledge or wisdom of the whole group; not just a single individual. For that reason, information obtained in Social Media on Wikis or reviews is seldom entirely wrong. On the other hand, it’s often not 100% right. As a result, there is a strong need to work together, updating and constantly adding value to improve the quality of the content.
Add Value
Every member of a community must contribute his or her fair share. What is your contribution? Remember that contributions come in many different shapes and actions: providing information, being a resource, answering questions and redistributing information.
Consider Opportunities in the Long Tail
In Social Media, every service offering has some degree of value. It’s not always wise to just focus on the few services that command a high frequency of interest among a few niche groups and the requisite competition that introduces other service providers. As technology continues to erode communication barriers, value will also come from the many niche groups in “the tail” that demonstrate interest in services that conventional (competing) service providers would otherwise consider having little value.
These are extracts from the new Swanepoel SOCIAL MEDIA Report 2010 written by Stefan Swanepoel (author of 15 books including the annual Swanepoel TRENDS Report) and Mel Aclaro founder of MindBridj.com, a company servicing web video solutions for speakers, trainers and coaches. This Report is due for publication on October 12th and can be ordered at the RealSure Online Bookstore.
Many agents often ask me at seminars where do they start with Twitter?
How do they make contact with great people on real estate?
Who can they learn from? Etc. etc.
Well to make it easy I have compiled a list of 200 Interesting and Influential People on Twitter. I have made it so easy that you can view all their profiles on two pages and with two clicks follow all of them.
What do you mean you didn’t know that they were talking about you, your company, your brand and your service?
Of course they are, every day.
And not even behind you back. No, the discussion is in the open. Right there on the web, in the chat room, in the forum and on one of the many social media networks spanning the globe.
Time you got in touch with a rapidly growing information base. With each passing the information is growing exponentially and it’s vital that you get in on the dialogue.
Here are some of the online media you should be monitoring regularly:
• Search Engine Results
• Press Releases
• News Services/Group
• Blogs
• Social Media Networks
• Video Releases
• Podcasts
• Resource sites such as Wikipedia
• Q & A sites such as Yahoo Answers
What? You don’t have time. No problem. Set up automated listening posts that serve as monitors and then report back to you with the information of where, who and what was said.
Google Alerts is simple example of such as online tool that allows you to set up alerts around keywords. When these words then appear in websites, press releases, blogs, discussion forums, etc. Google will send you an email with a link to the exact spot.
Cool, right?
So what should you be tracking?
Well for starters how about items such as:
• Your personal name
• Your trademarks
• Your company name
• Your competitor
• Your franchise brand
• Your products and services
• Your existing key customers
• Potential customers you are courting
• Key markets you operate in or wish to operate in
• Etc, etc,
The list is really almost endless. But be careful because you may be flooded with too much information. The internet connected us all together and now social media is making the conversation evolve into the most important feature since email.
So, are you in on the discussion?
This is an extract from the new soon to be published 120page Swanepoel SOCIAL MEDIA Report 2010 especially for Real Estate Professionals. Copies ordered now at RealSure Online Bookstore will be shipped on October 5th.
Your profile, posts and comments on most Social Media networks will be available for many thousands, maybe even everyone to see – forever. It is therefore vitally important that you conduct yourself correctly.
Be yourself, be open, be transparent, share… and all those other good things. Just decide who you are, what image you wish to portray today, and tomorrow.
Don’t just sign up for a network account on LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter with the intent of just engaging in idle chit-chat without taking the time to complete profile and think through your positioning.
Here are some steps to get you going:
Positioning Yourself (Finding Your Spot)
When participating in Social Media you will have various opportunities to create a persona. Before doing so you should clearly decide how you want the world to view you. To achieve this, ask yourself the following questions:
• Are you someone who is using Social Media for personal or professional use?
• If you’re using Social Media for professional use, what information are you presenting?
• Are you an individual that offers quotes or frivolous information or do you provide real and relevant content?
• Do you respond to people or ignore people?
• Who are you connecting with?
• What do you want your online experience to be like?
• How do others view you?
It’s important that you know what your motivation is for joining (business, social, networking, etc.) and whether you will want to create a professional or a personal profile.
Take Away
• Profile yourself
• Find synergies
• Find your market
Building a Brand (Adding Value to Your Spot)
After you have decided what your positioning is, the next step is to decide what brand you will be building online. Consistency is important and attaching the desired identifying image helps in placing and posturing yourself. For example, you can be an expert in anything—a topic, an area, etc.—or you don’t have to be an expert at all, just everyone’s friend. Regardless of what you choose for your goal, building your brand will require you to standardize and unite the message behind your brand; photo, logo, content, website, etc. In the end, all these elements must portray a unified message.
Take Away
• Offer help
• Be consistent
• Add value
Conveying Authenticity (Ensuring Your Spot is Sincere)
As social networks are personal venues for connecting one person directly with another, it is important to create online relationships that are built on mutual respect and trust. Because users may never physically meet, and therefore not have the opportunity to build the confidence that you are who you say you are, you need to demonstrate online that you are someone worth taking the time to build a relationship. To be authentic in Social Media requires users to be sincere and engaging.
Take Away
• Be real
• Be sincere
• Be engaging
Create a Following (Making Your Spot Popular)
To create a following in Social Media you have to “give” more than you “take.” Connect with like-minded people that you can initially relate to and with whom you share common interests. If you interact with your followers and friends by actively creating discussions and continually engaging with others in the community, others will, in turn, be compelled to follow you.
Take Away
• Give more than you take
• Stay relevant
• Acknowledge others
Creating a Sales Pipeline (Making Your Spot Count)
Sales follow trust, confidence and value. Similar to shopping in a mall, some interaction or a recommendation creates trust. Thereafter customers need to first be aware of a store. Then, after gaining more information, they may enter and browse through the product selection. Often they might ask for help or more information and you should be ready and willing to provide it. Use Social Media to guide your potential customers to your offerings. Don’t try and sell them; “pull” don’t “push.”
As many Social Media sites only allow short or limited messaging such as Twitter (140 characters) you will need to direct potential customers to your blog or website where you have more space and control in order to more comprehensively describe your products and services.
It’s all about the conversation, the sharing and the value to bring to the other members of the discussion. The more selfless your actions the better your following and ultimate return will be.
Yesterday, I finally got around to editing the kickoff presentation I did at REBarcamp Denver.
This morning I received this message in tweet from Jeremy Blanton: "Can you do me a fav & put that video up on AR?" I asked him to tell me why and the following was his response.
Jeff, I would like you to post your video for the members because this is something they need to hear & understand. Especially those that are just starting down the social media road.
Many hear about the new technologies & think that they have to learn & understand each & every one of them. When in all reality, they could be 100 times more effective if they just found one or two ways to effectively market themself in the social media realm and become masters of those.
Like you mentioned in the video, not everything that you or I do will work the same for that member. Each market has it's own specific niche that the each & every person needs to learn. While twitter might work well for an agent in California, it may not do a thing for an agent in Idaho.
This simple principle applied to social media stands true for any type of marketing someone does. Example:
In my area, open houses are extremely ineffective. Agents that do an open house here only hold them to pick up that one or two buyer leads that come in, or the agent does the open house to please the seller.
Just because open houses do not work for here, does not mean that they are a complete waste of time. I have spoken with several people from around the US that use an open house as their main form of marketing & it has been super effective for them.
I guess the main reason I would love this video share is this: Each market & each person have their own individual uniqueness. The key isn't trying to learn how to do EVERYTHING, but to learn what will work & become a master of those.
Business & Social Media & Networks have exploded the last 5 years. So much so that I have been asked by hundreds of brokers and agents when am I going to write about it more and provide suggestions, tips and strategies on how to master this growing "monster."
The good news is that I am busy writing as we speak and will be announcing in August details about my new Swanepoel SOCIAL MEDIA Report - A Field Guide for Real Estate Professionals.
Meanwhile it's important to be connected, get connected and to build your network. This survey should prove interesting and hopefully inspire many more real estate professionals to become more active in social and business networks.
Submit your name and lets get a snapshot every year of what it means to be one of the 100 most connected in real estate.
Who Are the Top 100 Most Connected People in Real Estate? Are You One of Them?
In the game of real estate marketing whoever has the most high trust relationships wins! The more people you know who would go out of their way to refer business to you, the more business you get.
The entire world is a buzz over social media and professional networking. There is no question that online networks like Facebook (www.facebook.com ) and Twitter (www.twitter.com ) have exploded into household names with millions of people participating. Even in our own industry the growth of ActiveRain (www.activerain.com) has been nothing short of incredible as it has raced up to over 150,000 members!!
Yet, only one-third of all real estate agents engage in professional networking, according to NAR. What is everyone else waiting for? Perhaps the technology itself is a bit daunting at first. But, the essence of connecting with new people from all over the world, people who could not only become friends but also referral sources, is well worth the time and effort.
Proxio, the international MLS and global referral network, is interesting in identifying and recognizing the most connected people in real estate. Are you one of them? Do you have, on various networks, more than say, 3,000 contacts, friends and/or followers?
Then maybe you could be one of the TOP 100 MOST CONNECTED PEOPLE IN REAL ESTATE. Enter a short survey coordinated by Proxio, the fastest growing multilingual agent-to-agent referral network in the world, to find out if you are. CLICK HERE to take the survey.
The Top 100 Most Connected People in Real Estate will be announced at the INMAN conference in San Francisco on August 5/6th
There is always a debate going on in the real estate industry about which company is the largest. As some don't disclose financials and others use different measuring criteria (offices, agents, sales volume, profitability, brand recognition, etc.) we have many potential "winners".
This article is however not about who is #1 or #2 but rather what has happened to real estate franchise brands over the course of the last 20 years, and does that information in any way provide us with a trend line that may afford likely scenario's going forward.
To start off, we need to look at the most prominent brands 20 years ago; 1989. I revisited many "old" publications of those years, the REAL Trends Report and the leading Real Estate Report of the time; the Roulac Report by Deloitte, Haskins and Sells (1988). Combining all that intel I have compiled a list of what were, in probable order, the most likely candidates for the most prominent Residential Real Estate Franchise brand of 1989.
Century 21
Coldwell Banker
ERA
RE/MAX
Realty World
Merrill Lynch
Red Carpet
Help-U-Sell
Gallery of Homes
Better Homes and Gardens
I have followed the same criteria and researched the REAL Trends Report again and the leading Real Estate Report of today, my Swanepoel TRENDS Report. The most likely candidates for the most prominent Residential Real Estate Franchise brands of 2009 are:
RE/MAX
Coldwell Banker
Century 21
Keller Williams Realty
Prudential Real Estate
ERA
Realty Executives
Sotheby's International Realty
GMAC Real Estate
EXIT Realty
Analysis:
So here is where the interesting part comes in. Although not based on any scientific hard facts, the following has occurred during the past 20 years:
40% have remained a Top 10 national real estate brand (C21, CB, ERA & RE/MAX).
20% exchanged their brand for a new brand and were still able to hold on; remaining a Top 10 brand (Merrill Lynch became Prudential and BH&G became GMAC Real Estate).
10% dropped off the Top 10 list but still operate as a national franchise (Realty World).
30% fell on even more difficult times and went through different types of trouble including bankruptcy. (Gallery of Homes, Help-U-Sell and Red Carpet). It is interesting that one or two of the brands are staging a comeback.
10% of the brands on the 2009 list had improved their rankings (Realty Executives).
30% of the brands on the 2009 list were not even in real estate franchising back in 1989 (Keller Williams Realty, Sotheby's International Realty and EXIT Realty).
Probing Questions:
There are of course many different deductions that can be made using above information resulting in hours of interesting discussion. Due to the brevity of this article I am going to list just five observations that I think are worth consideration:
Will the three brands that have dominated for the past 20+ years maintain their stronghold; RE/MAX, Coldwell Banker and Century 21?
Will newcomer Keller Williams Realty that surged into the top 5 be able to continue its rise and unseat one of the top 3 established brands? If yes, who will be the one to loose its top 3 ranking?
Twenty year plus top 5 brand ERA has for the first time dropped out of the top 5. Is this a sign that they will continue a downward slide; ultimately out of the top 10?
Brand changers (Merrill Lynch became Prudential and BH&G became GMAC Real Estate) have shown that brands are not always that important as both survived and held on to similar top 10 rankings in 20 years. GMAC is however scheduled for another name change within the next year. Will they still be able to hold on to their top 10 ranking after a second name change?
Will companies such as Realty World, Red Carpet and Help-U-Sell that dropped off the top 10 and are staging a comeback be able to regain their former top 10 status?
Closing comments:
There and numerous new franchise brands bubbling under the radar such as Weichert Realty, Assist-to-Sell, ZipRealty and even Better Homes & Gardens (not same company as before but the same brand) that could very well be a top 10 real estate brand within the next five years.
Although this exercise was more one of fun rather than trying to predict the future, it does show us that even in the "big picture" of large national brands the world is ever changing and that anything can happen.
Love to hear your thoughts on the value of real estate brands for a brokerage and/or agent.
Most of the leading Social Media sites such as MySpace and Twitter have been offering customized and/or vanity URLs for their profiles for quite some time; the world's largest social-network, Facebook has not.
This all changed late Friday and early Saturday, June 12th and 13th, when Facebook allowed its 200 million users the chance to claim a personalized Web address on a first-come, first-served basis.
Within three minutes 300,000 users had grabbed a name. Fifteen minutes later that number rose to 500,000 and to more than 3 million within the first few hours, making this the largest online digital rush ever in the history of the Internet.
What does this mean? Facebook previously assigned users a numerical ID number. For example let me illustrate it with my own page. My Facebook page was www.facebook.com/people/Stefan-Swanepoel/773410101 - I had no choice in the selection of the URL for my profile page. It was whatever Facebook had allocated me. Now after obtaining the URL of my choice it is now www.facebook.com/swanepoel - much simpler, easier to remember and matches my other accounts; i.e. www.twitter.com/swanepoel
Excitement for millions and disappointment for millions of others who did not get the URL they had hoped for. Facebook has aggressively tried to minimize "cybersquatting" of user names by only letting accounts that were created prior to the date of their announcement be eligible for the permanent names. They also reserved certain names to protect trademarks, intellectual property and other rights. Furthermore, Facebook is also enforcing a strict 'no transferability' policy," thereby further restricting the misuse of these names.
However you look or feel about this step, it is widely acknowledged as a hugely positive step towards making Facebook profiles a more personal experience easily shareable. Furthermore it strengthens Facebook as the world's dominant online community.
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.
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