Know your Networks (And Generation Y Will Use Them Regardless)
Far too often, I work with people who aren’t interested in the statistics behind their marketing efforts. The results of this study show some of the important statistics you must know BEFORE you begin a social media marketing program. Once you know where to be, you can develop a plan to use those sites most effectively to establish relationships.
I have been a user of Yelp for a while and encourage people to switch from Citysearch (CS) all the time. CS hasn’t updated their system in ages (UPDATE: I take that back, they just [finally] updated), my comments on establishments never get published and their “picks” never impress me. All businesses, large and small, should make sure they’re on Yelp.
I was glad to see this report to find out I’m not the only one. At my current day job, we receive quarterly emails telling us not to use a variety of services, but no one ever checks into it. I was told once that if a monitoring system were implemented, everyone would be fired. I think the key is to figure out how to work with these services, not to just block them wholesale.
Portland Snow Drivers; Bad News for Real Estate
This is hilarious! I’ve lived in Portland my entire life, so these hit home perfectly. I am trained to drive on ice, I know how to install my chains, I hate watching local news, but I still follow the one main rule: don’t drive in ice and snow. And the grocery store is within walking distance.
Although this number looks large, there are quite a few industries included that surprised me, such as logging. I firmly believe that education, both for real estate professionals and their customers, and sales skills are necessary going forward.
Lots of Real Estate Pointers…
photo credit: Stinkie Pinkie
When I teach Realtor’s about social networking, I have to quote Rudy from Trulia when he told me at REBarCamp San Francisco that “It’s all about relationships.” Too many people only want to look at online social networking as a business tool. They were designed to keep in contact with friends/colleagues. Business will follow.
I look forward to seeing more of this service when it launches for public consumption early next year. As it stands, it definitely sounds like an interesting service.
For those of you in the real estate arena who are breaking out of the mold of canned web sites and want some quick, easy and free data to integrate with your new sites, here are some great resources. As a consumer and an internet marketing pro, I caution you to NOT completely clutter your site with every single one of these, but instead pick and choose the ones you find most important.
I didn’t attend NAR Expo this year, but did last year and was amazed at this phenomenon as well. NAR/Wells Fargo even handed out gaudy fake gold chains for everyone to look even more ridiculous. Know you’re good at what you do, but have a modicum of humility and go back to SERVING your customers.
This brings about an excellent point that is often difficult for businesspeople to grasp. I studied finance, so ROI is always an important thing to measure, if you can. I now believe in ROR - return on relationship - and it is not as easy to quantify. It starts out with trusting - trusting this social media thing will work - then knowing it is as you talk to more people and get more referrals.
