I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff Turner of RealEstateShows for lunch today. It sure is great to have such a great technology "guru" living practically in my own backyard!
Jeff is a super nice guy. We talked about what works and doesn't work for Realtor sites, what blog platforms he uses and prefers, where Realtors are getting and converting the most leads online... we even did an interview with his iPhone that will be posted later today!
Here's the run-down of real estate marketing from Jeff's perspective (non-Realtor, but communicating with a lot of Realtors):
Blogs are where it's at, where you get the most visibility, and ultimately the most qualified leads. Static websites are losing their stature, other than certain targeted neighborhood websites. Add audio and video where you can, but of course don't add anything that's annoying. My editorial comment here is that any website that has audio that auto-plays is not something that I enjoy. I don't care if it's talk or someone's favorite music - I'd prefer to hit play (or not) as I choose. If someone's website is screaming at me (music or otherwise), then I'm clicking off of it as fast as I possibly can!
Jeff Turner's RealEstateShows product has definitely evolved since I first looked at it. If you haven't looked at this product lately, then be sure to look again. It's a great way to add video to your website, and his new editing features make it easy to update shows (as in not showing Christmas lights on a listing that is still active in March). Sign up through his link on ActiveRain for best pricing.
Jeff uses virtually all blog platforms in his business to make sure he's familiar with them, but for his business (non-Realtor, techno-geek kinda guy), he prefers WordPress. He agrees that Blogger doesn't gain any brownie points for natural Google placement, even though it's a Google product.
Jeff is not in favor of anything real estate oriented that needs to be downloaded to an iPod, saying that statistics show that very few people actually download non-music content from iTunes. That goes for both podcasts and video shows. He's definitely a member of the Apple Fan Club, but just not a fan of this use of the Apple products. He parted with his iPhone long enough for me to talk into it during my part of the interview, but something tells me that he's never separated from this new toy for very long!
Most Realtors he's talking with are nixing print ads - newspapers, magazines, whatever, in favor of online activity (including blogging). Of course we already know that to some extent from the recent news reports on revenues declining in the newspaper industry. Here in the Santa Clarita Valley we're subject to the Los Angeles area advertising rates, which tend to be astronomical and thus are budget-breakers for many Realtors anyways.
What about blogging? Jeff is saying the same thing that others have been trying to get us to implement: Whatever you can email, you can blog, and then email a link to the blog post. And remember that people are using your blog posts to "interview" you, so keep it real, and keep it honest. Anything else is like handing out a business card with your picture from 20 years ago, and then showing up at someone's door with them expecting you to look like your picture!
Bottom line? Keep things simple and consistent. New technology is great, but make sure that you're not just using it because it's the latest new toy. Often it's better to learn to use "old" toys like RealEstateShows in new ways instead!
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