The key takeaways from the event seem to be that in business to use social media effectively you must engage those individuals that are key influencers of your targe market.  If your business is real estate see if you can reach out to key bloggers and Twitter users, etc and engage with them.

Updated: We brought back the conversation to ways that business are being effective with this.  The thing is you have to talk about your passions.  If you’re passionate about something share that with others.  If you’re passionate about real estate tell people why you are passionate about it.  Companies like  Zappos that are huge can do this, so small companies need to be aware that while they had a benefit before but now they’re fighting in the same space for that engagement.

Digg

Emily is here from Digg she’s talking about the new launch this week.  They have some amazing new features that I was fortunate to see a few weeks ago.  Imagine all the links you see in your Twitter stream, the new Digg to me is basically an engine that finds all those links that my friends are sharing and gets me only what is probably going to be interesting to me.

RSS vs Email

The discussion turned to whether people should be using RSS or Email.  We discussed this a few weeks ago, but I think it’s important for people to understand that people like to engage your content in different ways.  Why not let them interact in the way they want.  I would say that email subscribe to your feed is really important, but having an RSS feed is also important.  Plenty of people still use readers.  Mel Aclaro pointed out that he’s seeing more and more sites not including RSS feed buttons.

The psychology discussion is very interesting here, consider that it’s much more valuable for a business to have the email sign ups. They now have a direct channel to that person’s inbox.  From what people are saying if they really like something and they look for the RSS feed and can’t find it, they go to the email.  However, again I think that having the RSS feed is really important.  Give people a way to interact!  Perhaps you can encourage them to sign up, for example if they sign up they get access to extra market data or something extra for the sign up.  Some suggested that the best thing to do is to ask / find out from your users what they care about.

Mel, Loren Nason, and I suggested downloading a plugin to add a subscribe box to your feed.  That way you can try and create email subscribers from RSS subscribers.  Loren recommended Post Post Plugin for this

Data on Web Visitors

There was a discussion about identifying the information about visitors to your site.  People suggested services that allow you to find out demographics of your site visitors like Quantcast.  I suggested that this data is not necessarily great.  The issue is that it goes by your IP address.  In many cases your IP address is not geo-located well to your home.  For example, in St. Louis my IP address showed a location at least 30 minutes away in a very low income area.  The reason?  AT&T’s node where their IP addresses are registered are at their nodes which might be 10s if not 100s of thousands of people at one location.

Facbeook Pages

I brought up the discussion that I’ve done with Derek Overbey lately.  I think Facebook pages are something that you should really be concetrating on at this point.  Scott Schang brought up the fact that if you’re doing a page about a specific community (not a community page) it could be taken over by Facebook and turned into a community page.    I think there is a sweet spot of up to about 20,000 people that if you’re under that number you’ll be fine, Facbeook isn’t going to pay attention to that.  Stacey Harmon suggested that people shouldn’t focus so much on Facebook Pages, especially if you don’t have the time to keep it up.  But what I really discussed was the Google rankings that these pages have and simply can’t be ignored.  The key is that while most other companies like Posterous use Subdomains like (ericstegemann.posterous.com) Facebook has created their pages as subdirectories(facebook.com/tribusrealestate).  What this means is that Facebook is putting the strength of their ranking behind your page.  Subdomains don’t really offer that.  Google pretty much looks at them as mostly a different domain.

Final Thoughts

SMMOC is sponsoring Jeff Pulver’s Birthday Party / #140Conf Meetup on September 15, 2010 from 7-10pm at Kimera. Get more information here.

Facebook Places And Other Check In Services

Being rolled out in other places but should be now live in the United States.  Early pre-meeting discussion was if it was a replacement for FourSquare?  Mel Aclaro asked yesterday what everyone thought about whether it’s better or should we stick with FourSquare.

Discussion is about how it’s a monetization strategy for Facebook. Way to get businesses to advertise on there.  I agree.

Stacey Harmon suggested that a major issue with it is privacy and that you might not want everyone to know you are with someone.  The default is to off so if you want to enable privacy make sure to check that out at Facebook Privacy.

Jeff Friend showed exactly where it’s at:

Once you get to Facebook Privacy

This tells you if everyone can see it or if Friends of Friends, Friends Only, or perhaps some other setting that you’ve created is enacted.  My default was Friends Only.  But it’s definitely worth checking out your settings if you’re worried about these things.

After the privacy conversation Rachel Rusnak pointed out the TechCrunch video mentioned that Foursquare and GoWalla might start pushing the places into Facebook Places.

Note that Check In Services have varying popularity.  As many have posted you can’t ignore this.  While some think checking in at some places like grocery stores are silly others see a lot of value in it.  For example it’s possible that many of the granular places like the grocery store offer discounts.  ( PS – Someone stated that FourSquare has a Sports Authority has a special of $10 for anything you buy, even if it’s just $10!)

UPDATED: It’s a fact! California Pizza Kitchen has a special as well, free appetizer with $20 purchase.  There are plenty of other places offering a discount just for checking in as well, not that you have to be a mayor of the location.  Of course most people are familiar with Starbuck’s usage of being the mayor of a store for $1 off a Frapp.

Everyone agrees there is a lot of opportunity here for both the networks and businesses to utilize these user bases to generate conversations about their brands….

FACEBOOK AutoTagging

Facebook has started to roll out their feature that allowed you to @Reply people to do it now automatically.  If the service thinks you’re discussing an individual user or page then it will auto post to that page without you using the @ sign.

If you have a Facebook Business Page Hilda Ramirez gave everyone a free code to use to get $50 in free Facebook advertising.  Use the code: CAHCCFREE50  at Facebook Advertising Facebook is also launching a new division to help businesses use Facebook to market at Facebook Marketing.

AOL

AOL was the Internet King.  We discussed how they are shifting their strategy to become an online journalism source.  They are building up Patch.com The point of bringing this up was a discussion that Rachel Rusnak and I had regarding if Facebook can survive 45 years.  People get complacent and forget to keep innovating.  What are you doing to innovate in your business?

Have Your Own Domain

My biggest pet peeve in real estate?  Professional Realtors using @AOL.com as their email address.  Why don’t you go register your name at GoDaddy.com (use the code CJCFAT749 for $2.50) and get yourself setup at Google Apps?

You can also go get yourself a Flavors.ME account and connect that up to your site.  It’s simple to use, you can have it up and running in 30 minutes if you don’t want to have a WordPress site etc.

Engaging and Authenticty

We discussed real estate brokerage brands in Orange County and which ones are engaging and which ones aren’t.  An example given of broadcasting and not working with customers was First Team Real Estate. Their account is doing nothing but broadcasting their advertising.  Who cares about that?  Social Media is not an advertising channel, instead it’s a communication channel, it’s a two way street.  Other brands are doing effectively with that, obviously Amanda Wernick who runs the @7GRE brand account and Linsey Planeta who runs her own @MRealtyOC account.

Hilda Ramirez got an email this week from a company who charged $60 for canned Facebook status messages.  Obviously this breaks any authenticity and will quickly kill your status messages.  The problem is of course that many Realtors forget that what is worth doing is not easy.  It’s about building relationships and that is not an automated process.

Social Currency

I love to describe your online presence as social currency.  You have to consider that with everything you do online you either are investing or spending currency.  If you’re pushing your own stuff you’re spending your currency.  If you’re sharing great content, you’re gaining currency.

Yelp

There are plenty of agents that are not monitoring what’s being said about them online.  I recommend using Google Alerts but you should check in on review sites like Yelp.  There are plenty of agents in a short proximity to the Costa Mesa area with terrible reviews and other have marked the review as “helpful.”

Also did you know that if you use Yelp regularly your comments are weighted heavier than those that just had one bad experience.  Therefore it’s a good idea to build up your Yelp usage so that your voice has more of a say.  Keep an eye out for the Red Stars those are more heavily weighted.

I mentioned that we have to be careful in Southern California because people in other places aren’t always familiar with these things.

Augmented Reality

Yelp has Monacle there are others.  Mel pointed out that the US Postal Service has an Augmented Reality program to figure out if something will fit in a priority mail box.  A watch maker has something that allows you to try things on with just using Augmented Reality, check it out!

Bookmarklets

WordPress has a Bookmarklet feature that is one of the most underutilized features of the blogging platforms.  PressThis is a built in feature with the service that allows you to grab content with auto attribution and then comment on it.  This became really popular with Posterous (pronounced PAH*ster*us according to the founders).

Is RSS Still Relevant?

Mel suggested that many people are dumping RSS to push Emailing Posts, he wanted to know if people were still using it on their sites.  I think most people do whatever their theme does.  Linsey brought up that most people are dumping things like Google Reader because they are overwhelmed.

I think that having the email sign up to receive the posts in their email are really important.  You can now see who is subscribed and send out other items in the email suggesting they come check out other portions of the site.  It offers a branding opportunity.

Jeff Pulver founder of Vonage and the “Casting Director” of the 140 Conf is with us today.

First Discussion:

Email Marketing

What good tools are out there for email marketing?

Mailchimp doesn’t allow most uses for Realtors and doesn’t allow anyone in the mortgage field.

Some suggested iContact and Constant Contact.  (I’ve found that constant contact works ok. it’s not pretty but it will work for real estate.)

List Building

How do you build lists for your email marketing?     Start with just one person.  Use what I call the give then get then give principle.  Place free information on your site, then ask them to register to get more value, then provide more value to their email box on a regular basis.  ”Don’t make them irritated they are on your list.”

Ask for constant feedback:

“Why are you here, and what do you want?” then give them what they want.

We would definitely recommend that you make your opt-in forms easy to find in as many places as possible.

Next topic:

Software to View Social Media Profiles

What are some alternatives to xobni.com ?  The biggest complaint is that it doesn’t have many features.  Consider that people want to be communicated with in the channels that are comfortable.

I recommended Rapportive if you use Gmail.  I can’t recommend Gist it’s just too complex for the average Realtor.

Next Topic:

New Twitter Tools

Next Topic:

Does Social Media Actually Help You Make Money?

Bill Platos from first team real estate asked why people spend so much time on social media, he wondered if it was valuable. Jeff Pulver is discussing how it becomes ingrained in your life and its part of a new line of communication.

Linsey Planeta suggests that if she wasn’t in social media channels some of her clients wouldn’t respect her as much.  Stacey Soleil demonstrated that you really need to remember that the age demographics of Twitter and Facebook are no longer “just kids.”

Social media is the new backchannel.  Companies now are hiring “listening officers” to monitor what people are saying about them on social media channels.  Jeff Pulver suggests that social media is building a worldwide community.  People are now interconnected in ways that have never happened before, whether it’s family members or people in Haiti.

Next Topic:

Facebook Redesign Issues

Facebook is going to be redesigning it’s Fan / Like page.  Some people are frustrated by this.  Those that train on it like Stacey Harmon and Mel Aclaro are complaining that they are unable to help agents because Facebook is changing so fast they can’t keep their literature, powerpoints, and videos up to date fast enough.

Jeff Pulver suggest that the problem with Facebook is that you rely on them, they are the platform and they make the rules.  Jeff says that Facebook has some issues with changing the rules and the fact that it can’t change.  He reminds everyone that have your own presence.  He also says don’t leave Facebook if you already have a page there.  Others suggest that Facebook works for some businesses and not for others.

We definitely recommend for Realtors and Brokerages to have a page for the business but focus little on that.  You should focus definitely more setting up pages about what people are passionate about.  Few people are probably passionate about your business, more are passionate about the communities they live in and the communities in which they live their lives such as their church, social groups, etc.

Next Topic:

Security Issues

There was a question about how to keep yourself safe online, here’s what I recommended:

1. Don’t open email from people you dont’ know
2. Use an email program with built in virus scanning like Gmail or Google Apps
3. Don’t visit websites that sound dangerous / make sure to type in the right spelling of a site when using the address bar (there are quite a few people who buy domain names of misspelled common sites to do nefarious things with them)
4. Use a browser which helps you with security like Firefox or Chrome

Next Topic:

Membership Sites Using WordPress

Loren Nason of your Local Tech suggested Wish List plugin, I like S2Member.  Both can also be integrated with Buddypress (part of what helps us power our new FaceNet product which is a blend of Intranet and Social Media for real estate brokerages, more info on that coming soon.)

We also discussed affiliate networks which we believe both of the above plugins allow.  Additionally I recommended ZFerral an affiliate program that really allow you to track where your buyers are coming from…

Next Topic:

140 Conference

Jeff Pulver is discussing his upcoming LA conference.  He’s calling for speakers if you know anyone that might be interested in speaking at the event he’d love for you to submit it here.  (I was fortunate enough to speak at #14oconf New York this year.  It’s a great event and if you have the opportunity you should definitely attend.)

Jeff is pointing out how some celebrities get it and some do not.  Some get the fact that it’s all about engagement not about broadcasting.  Those that speak to fans are the ones that know the true value.  ”Live and die by the buzz.”

I attend a lot of conferences.  Some of them are annual conferences.  At these types of events I often see the same people year to year.  However, in between those times, I’ve had no interactions with the person whatsoever.  Therefore, I see the person, I know I SHOULD remember their name and information about them, but I just can’t.  Before now I thought it was a matter of having to train my brain.  But it’s not.  It turns out there is some science behind why we sometimes just can’t remember those that we don’t have regular interactions with…

Dunbar’s Number

It’s said that the average human can actually only keep a true relationship with about 150 people. This research was done by a scientist named Robin Dunbar, and the 150 number is now called Dunbar’s Number. However, sites like Facebook and Twitter allowed us to have connections with thousands of people right?  Well maybe…

Social Interaction Organization

Facebook and Twitter are great tools.  Tools to encourage interaction and get me just a little closer to a few more people.  Facebook allows me to check in on people and get a good understanding of what’s going on in their life.  I’m encouraged to interact with those people through quick little updates on my own schedule.  I can Like someone’s photos of their home in Hawaii, I can quickly comment on a tear jerker of a video about an elephant and his best friend a dog, or something more cerebral about a blog post from one of my friends.

Twitter offers lists to better categorize your contacts.  I can quickly go to one of my lists and find out what a few core groups of people are doing.  It’s a way to keep me organized and to help squeeze perhaps a few more connections out of my brain.

But I think the key concept here is that Dunbar’s Number relates to deep meaningful interactions.   A relationship in which I know what’s going on in their life, what’s new, and feel a connection to that person on a more meaningful level than just a general wondering of what is up in their life.  I think what Facebook is doing is to help us hold on to our acquaintances and be much closer to them than we ever have before.  However, I still question whether we’ll have deep meaningful relationships with more than our number / brain allows us to.

The Good News For Realtors

Clients don’t expect you to have deep meaningful relationships with each one of them.  If you have a connection with one of your clients that is great!  But while I was selling there was usually vast age differences between myself and my clients.  I keep up with most every client I sold homes to back when I was active, however, I doubt I’ll ever be invited to their regular dinner parties, nor ask to vacation with them.  And that’s ok.  However, what I can do is use tools to check in on them every so often.  Is a new baby coming?  Did someone get a new job? Is it a time to check in with them about their housing needs?

Enter Tribus Social

If you want to pay attention to your clients what better place than on these new channels we have today?  Furthermore, we thought instead of having to log into Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn to check on clients.  Why not go to one place and get the information and have all your notes on your client right there.  So sometime very soon we’ll be launching a new feature inside of TribusCRM to allow our agents and brokerages to get a quick update about their clients on their contact record.  There are many great other features that allow Realtors to stay in better contact with their clients and prospects.  Imagine meeting someone at an open house and without scaring them by friending them that afternoon, to get a better idea of who they are by seeing their LinkedIn profile etc…

It’s coming soon.  And I’ll be very proud the day it launches live.  It’s one other place where we’re doing our best everyday to cut down the number of places Realtors have to go to login and connect with their clients.  It’s a way to help keep those connections up without a lot of effort.  Also it’s a way to build a truly integrated campaign to keep up with your clients along with drip / blast emails, and our client for life system.

The Little Things Go A Long Way

Did you know that according to the National Association of Realtors, 88% of clients say they will either definitely or probably use the same Realtor again at a closing table.  But…. 6% do.  Why?  It’s identified that the major reason is that people can’t remember their agent’s name!  It’s all about integrating and setting reminders.

When you have a large group of clients, it’s the little things that go a long way to keep up with them of at least where they can remember your name when necessary.  When you aren’t inside someone’s 150 people and you take the time to write a Happy Birthday message on their wall or comment on their photo, you have the opportunity to get just a little closer to become inside that zone.  It’s the Realtors that are most effective at either being in the zone or being very close to the zone for the most number of people that will be the most successful.

(Thanks to my friend @MelAclaro from JaraUniversity for spurring my thoughts about Dunbar’s Number.)

For our new brokerage in Long Beach, CA I was asked to put together a top 10 list of items to consider when thinking about Search Engine Optimization.  There is somewhat of an order here, but once you get past item four or five, it starts getting very subjective.

1 ) Domain Authority

It’s simple.  After the first search engines used meta tags as a way to understand what your site was about, they were ripe for spamming.  For example someone who had a site about being a Realtor could just type in Realtor 900 times into his meta tags and might appear higher than someone who had it 800 times.  This just was not a good way to categorize data by letting the user have a say in it.  So while at Stanford, the Google guys came up with something they called PageRank, which contrary to common belief does NOT mean webPAGE it refers to Larry Page, the creator.  PageRank takes into account numerous factors but the most important is who links into you?  Someone that has a lot of authority like CNN linking into you would have much more value than Steve your neighbor who writes a blog.  All rankings receive a value from 0-10, and consider that only 160 sites in the world have a ranking of 9 or 10 you get an idea of how difficult it is to get up the list.  (Click the graphic for a better idea of how PageRank scores are distributed.) This means the number of links into you are valuable.  But do not be sucked in by the “let’s exchange links” scams.  If someone asks to exchange links with you that you do not know, spam the message.  Even in most cases a link exchange would be considered of no value.  Google and other search engines are very smart to be able to figure out what you’re doing.  They know that if you each have a link to each other’s site on your page you’re probably trying to get higher rankings.  Instead focus on great content on your site and get people to want to naturally link to you whether they are PageRank 0 or 10.

2 ) Domain Age

How long your site has been up and running definitely factors into how high you will appear on the search engines.  Furthermore, sites that are only registered for a year or less at their registrar’s can be hit as well.  Ever wondered why that really crummy site from another Realtor ranks better than yours?  The answer is probably a mixture of authority and age.  How long has the site been continuously operating without changing ownership?  Has their been a continuous change of content on the site over a long run or is it the exact same content from 5 years ago.

3 ) Your Domain Name

Is it a geographic URL?  If you’re in real estate it’s much better to get a domain that includes the area in which you sell, not your name.  In most cases just by having the about page on your site, it will rank for your name if someone does a search.  Why not go after traffic that isn’t looking for you specifically but is looking for answers about a particular area?  Therefore a domain like chicagorealestatestats.com (which by the way still ranks 1 or 2 for searches about the subject after just throwing the site together) is going to do better for many keywords than SuzySmith.com

4 ) Your URL / PermaLinks

I still don’t understand why WordPress defaults to using the location of your post in the database as the default URL structure of the site.  However, thanks to Kevin Sablan from the OC Register I have a video on how to fix it, see our previous post here: Creating Permalinks in WordPress for Realtors .  Does the full URL of your post give Google and other search sites a good idea of what’s on the page?

For example the URL for this page is http://www.TribusGroup.com/top-ten-list-of-search-engine-optimization-for-realtors

In that URL, we’re telling Google exactly what this post is about and then the content in that post matches it.

5 ) Page Title

When you create your page does the headline or title actively reflect the topic you are discussing?  Is it in a format that might be something someone would type into Google to find a post like yours?

6 ) Description

In the meta description of your post, does it give a brief overview of what the content is?  Or did you just copy a section from the post?  A description should be a short executive summary of what you just wrote, not copied.  It’s a way for Google to understand the Gist of your post that makes sure to use many of the keywords people would type in to find your post if they were interested in your subject.

7 ) Headline Tags

When you write your content do you see a little box that says “Paragraph” ?  It’s a drop down box and usually lets you select other types of treatments to your text as well including Headline 1, Headline 2, Headline 3 and so on…

Try to create some sub headers in your posts and include h3 and h4 tags.  Leave your site to make the h1 tags, and use an h2 tag only for the most important concept for an entire page or post.

8 ) Alt Tags

One of the more forgotten items in search engine optimization is to set the ALT tags on your graphics.  When you upload a graphic in WordPress and most any other content management system it asks you for a title and “ALTernate text.”  Just take an extra second to fill in what the graphic is in 5 words or less. “Realtor Search Engine Optimization” would be a good example for a graphic on this post.  Everyone of your graphics should include that data.  People often ask how we get our data sites to rank so well, we’re pretty convinced that it’s this one major item alone that sets us a part.  We have someone manually go through and code each ALT tag specifically for the community and the data the chart is representing.

9 ) Content

So obviously this is a really important item and the only reason we’re putting it at 9 is that we’re assuming you know that content is king.  The reason we’re even taking time to cover it is to mention that when you write your content you should consider if the text you’re typing in, includes the phrases that people would search Google for to find a page like yours.  You should then consider if the terms you’re typing in are too broad.  For example, I’ve had people tell me that they’re optimizing for “real estate.”  Folks… there are 101,000,000 searches for that term every month.  Forget it.  Let the big guys spend $4-8 per click to buy those terms.  I’ll let you in on a secret… the people that search just “real estate” aren’t really ready to buy.  It’s the person who types in “Realtors in _____”  insert a subdivision or neighborhood.  Those are the people ready to buy.  There might be a lot less but those are the terms that are going to convert for you and the terms you should be thinking about when you’re writing posts.

10 ) Meta-Data or Rich-Snippets

This is a new entrant into the list.  But have you seen on Google the new little stars or price listings in yellow?  When you get results that include them doesn’t your eye go right to that? For the more advanced people why not start to put this data into your posts?  You can get more information on what formats Google allows at their Google Rich Snippets page.  Realtors consider that you could speak to your IDX providers and try to get them to include pricing data in this engine.  It’s possible Google could see that you have this information and send your site right to the top.

Here are three PDFs we’ve done on Search Engine Optimization:

SEO For Realtors Part 1

SEO For Realtors Part 2

How to create Permalinks in WordPress

I know quite a few people in the real estate social media space. Many of them are some of the most intelligent people I know. These are the same people that recognized Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites as more than just a place to chat with friends well before the masses jumped on board.   Many of these people have in the past few months really started to consider if there is a place for a strategy in social media.

In the begining of social media use, the concept was simple, it was sheerly a way to broaden your number of connections, selling was unheard of and spammers were called out publicly.  The concept of a “strategy” for social media was a taboo subject.  The most important concept was to be a resource and help others, bring to the table what you knew and people would come to you.

Are You Making Money From Your Social Media Efforts?

There are those in the real estate field that I can assure you are making money from their social media endeavors.  The Phoenix Real Estate Guy - Jay Thompson is one of them.  Jay gets thousands of visitors to his website by blogging and engaging with those that comment.  Dale Chumbley’s 365 Things to do in Vancouver, WA is another, he’s stated to me personally that he’s actually gotten multiple deals from the site in it’s short 160 day existence.

Is The Average Realtor Making Money From Social Media?

I think the vast majority would answer no.  But I don’t think it’s because they can’t.  I believe it’s something different.  For various reasons I think many of those that have flocked to social media are looking for a magic bullet to increase their business.  I believe that these Realtors are expecting social media to be leads just falling over themselves calling the agent to get information.  But where I see a huge disconnect is one of the primary rules of sales, Ask for the sale!

Asking For The Sale

If a salaried salesperson in a different industry were to go through a sales pitch with someone and not ask for the order, they’d be fired.  I believe that many Realtors are just never trained to ask for the sale whether that’s in person or online.  Now in no possible way am I suggesting that Realtors go online and start selling their services and stalk people to make sure they use them for the transaction of real estate.  Instead, what I’m just pushing is that after an agent has built social capital with their groups of followers and friends in social media, that at least in some capacity they remember to ask for the sale whether that be a gentle request if the person knows anyone interested in the market right now to have them give a call or something more simple.  I believe that the single biggest thing a Realtor can do is to build a database list, so why not at least ask those that you are interacting and engaging with to sign up for a newsletter / market update email from you?  (assuming the person is living in your area)

Why not ask people that follow you on occasion to subscribe if they find value in not just your friendship but also in your work?

Do you have systems in place to encourage your followers to subscribe to your information?  Do you feel comfortable enough to soft sell people to remember you are in real estate?

Twitter Is A Connector

As proof of how powerful this can be, the other day I made a comment on Twitter:

“Does anyone know how to request more information from a Realtor on Realtor.com I simply can’t find the info request button anymore”

I was expecting to get responses from Realtors across the country complaining about the changes to Realtor.com and agreeing that it’s odd that it’s impossible to contact the listing agent from a property on the site. Instead the first tweet I got back :

“@EricStegemann you should just find a house and go with @KarenSTL she’s the best realtor you’ll find.”

This message was not from another Realtor. This was from a college student who is unrelated to Karen Goodman a Realtor in St Louis.

Walking The Line – Hard and Soft Selling

But here’s what separates those using social media to drive business and those that don’t. Karen Goodman knows how to be fun on Twitter, but she knows how to softly remind people that she’s in real estate. There are tweets going through her stream reminding people that she’s holding an open house, that she’s going to listing appointments that evening. It’s not waving a flag saying “I’m a Realtor, you should use me.” But it’s still effective. In her stream she offers people market updates that always include a subscribe link, and a way to sign up to receive notifications when homes sell in a specific area. Her social media strategy may not be written but it was effective enough that a 20something made sure to reach out, thinking I was looking to buy a home, and made sure that I would use Karen if I was.

This is the foundation for a winning online social media strategy.

Some of the speakers at the event:

• Stacey Harmon – Harmon Enterprises and AgentApplause.com
• Dale Chumbley – Started 365 things to do in Vancouver, WA (over 9000 organic fans)
• Robert Luna – Previously with Diverse Solutions and now with SmartZip
• Gahlord Dehwald – Thoughtfaucet, a web strategy firm
• Loren Nason – Your Local Tech
• Garron Selliken – MRealty and Homequest
• Dustin Luther – MRealty and Homequest
• John Lansner – The Orange County Register Newspaper
• and more…

Below are the slides from BuzzRE:

The concept is simple.  Facebook wants to be the stewards of comments and reactions to content on your site.  In exchange they will help you push your content and give you tools to assist people in logging in and helping them find what they might like on your site (one big feature that hasn’t had much discussion.)  Imagine going to a site and that site presenting you content that you are more interested in becasue Facebook knows what you’ve listed as interests on your profile page

As an example:  On my Facebook page, I list that I like the St Louis Cardinals.  As sites start to integrate this, perhaps one day I go to www.CNN.com and the site dynamically loads baseball scores that feature the St Louis Cardinals at the top of the page because of that.   Of course the problem with this that needs to be considered is that many times our interests change or today we might be interested in politics or real estate news, while previously we were not.

But by far the most used portion of Open Graph so far has been the implementation of the Like button (which you can also brand as the Recommend button).  The simple iFrame code can be dropped into any site and instantly with just a simple click, offer the ability for your site and pages to be included in users’ Facebook profile feed, and therefore perhaps placed in their friends’ live feed for all their friends to see (thus yielding you more traffic).

No matter which way you look at it, for or against Open Graph, the truth is you’ll only ignore it at your own peril.  The fact is that there are 400 million people on Facebook and as evidenced in the past few days of usage, they sure like the like button.

So what does this mean for Realtors?  It means that you should today find a way to place the like button on your site.  You can find directions on how to implement on your site by visiting the Facebook Like Info Page.

One thing we’re working on is the ability for it to be included in our IDX listings, so that users can click one button and have a specific listings appear right on their page including the address, price, etc.  More coming soon on Open Graph.

Update: I’ve been playing with WordPress plugins to do this automatically and after testing with numerous themes and versions, I’m recommending fbLikeButton.  The plugin offers the functionality to place the Like button at the top or bottom of every page and / or post.  You can also customize the terminology to Recommend and change the color scheme slightly.  One recommendation I have is to change the height of the Like button to 50 pixels.

Eric gave a couple of great points which we’ll feature in future posts:
1) Use a give, then get, then give strategy when it comes to online information to and from prospective clients
2) Social media is NOT a lead generation tool, it’s a branding mechanism for agents and brokers to become the trusted advisor to clients in their area over a long term period. Although some leads come in from it, more leads will be gained over the long run by directing clients through a branding strategy to a website. (much in the same way that cell phone vendors advertise on tv, not hoping that you buy one today, but instead that when it is time to buy that you consider their product.)
Watch the video below of the presentation below:

Topic 1:  Too Many Choices

While in general most people would say they love choices, displaying too many on a website can become daunting.  Sometimes, even the simplest duplication of choice can confuse a user.

Did you notice what happened here?  The user was frustrated enough by seeing both the search box and the word “BUY” as a button that she was verbally irritated.  Most interestingly, she actually avoided using the primary search box in the hopes that she would find what she was looking for by clicking the BUY button.

We anticipate that this user behavior is due to a few different things but first and foremost, it’s related to choice.  By giving the user what she perceived as two click choices for the same thing, she became irritated and ended up choosing the lesser of two options.  (In a later video we’ll show the frustrations she had once clicking the BUY button.)

Lesson on Web Usability:

When creating your site, keep in mind that you should make it extra clear what each potential click or interaction on your site does.  Instead of BUY perhaps Redfin should have used the word Info on Buying, and left the search box on the main page to do it’s job.  Consider, what on your site might be confusing like this to a user who wouldn’t know anything about real estate?