Don't Get Stuck In A Generational Undercurrent. The Tides Have Turned. All Generations Are Online
It's Not a Crapshoot. All Generations Are Online
Learning how to market with social media and blogging for future generations- "aging' Gen Y home buyers and 
sellers and their predecessors, Generation Z, is important because they are learning to use the tools and medium of the internet as a matter of course.
Their lifestyles mandate the use of these tools, just like my generation, Generation X, used cordless phones and became fans of MTV. That's the way life goes.
As real estate professionals your clients exist in all generations: retirees, young professionals, families, second home buyers. If you haven't sunk your teeth into a niche, or your current marketing plan is geared to more than one target market then your efforts need to be more varied to attract these clients.
Will they come if you put out the call to action? Let's take a pop quiz. Who Is Online?
All of your Clients Are Online. Take A Peak
- 93%- 12-17 Year Olds
- 89%- 18-24 Year Olds
- 85%- 25-29 Year Olds
- 87%- 30-34 Year Olds
- 85%- 35-39 Year Olds
- 83%- 40-44 Year Olds
- 80% 45-49 Year Olds
- 78% 50-54 Year Olds
- 71%-55-59 Year Olds
- 62%-60-64 Year Olds
- Source: The Pew Internet and American Life Project Study Survey- December 2008
Balance Your Budget
- In With The Old and In With The New
It can be tough when you are budgeting your marketing dollars and are trying to decide how much money you should allocate toward offline traditional venues. Newspaper ads and direct mailings can be expensive endeavors with a meager return, especially if they are inconsistent.
There is a way to win the war of the marketing worlds
- Be Social-Invite your offline contacts online.
- Be Savvy- Advertise to your current sphere and local market to come to your online venues.
- Be Everywhere- Make your website/blog viral by adding social bookmarking tools, encourage sharing by adding a tell a friend button, add a save as a pdf button on your site to allow visitors to download your most detailed posts.
Bees Buzz and their honey sticks to their hub. Be a blogging bee.
The Best Directions Are Published Blog Posts from Bloggers
5 blog posts that serve up fine examples of how to market to different generations online
A nice post that describes the different options available to baby boomers/empty nesters in the Philadelphia market. The real estate blogger, Mark Wade, also uses a REAL life client story.
- A Burden of Our Times
This is not a real estate post but I stumbled on it in a blog search because it was filed under real estate. I decided to include it after reading the post because it paints a nice perspective about saving money and the emotional tug of war on spending vs. saving from the viewpoint of a baby boomer. It's nice to see how the blogger writes from her experience on the topic of spending/saving speaking for her generation. There's a lesson here for other bloggers on adding that generational voice into your posts from time to time.
FYI- In my blog searches I found MANY blogs written by consumer baby boomers and so of course the topic of real estate came up time and again. Good research information (what do my consumers want to know?) for blog post topics can be found right from the mouth of blogging boomer consumers.
A post about a study that ranked Pittsburghas the most romantic city for Babyboomers. The blogger makes a great move and adds links to other posts he has written about studies on Pittsburgh. If the blogger had purposely written posts with other statistics for the older Generations, this also would have been a great move.
- Awake the Sleeping Giant! Inspiration for Today
This was one of those sort and sweet reflection posts relevant to all generations. Adding relevance through thoughtful engagement is relevant for all generations...this post I think will hit home more with the older generations though it resonated with me as a Gen X'er.
Don't Get Stuck in a generational undercurrent. The tides have turned. All Generations Are Online.
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Rebecca--It is not just the kids using the social networks and internet....though my teens think we are ruining FB for them. :) Funny how quickly everything has expanded isn't it?