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How being on the Web is drastically changing!
Graph Sources: Cisco estimates based on CAIDA publications, Andrew Odlyzko
“You wake up and check your email on your bedside iPad — that’s one app. During breakfast you browse Facebook, Twitter, and The New York Times — three more apps. On the way to the office, you listen to a podcast on your smartphone. Another app. At work, you scroll through RSS feeds in a reader and have Skype and IM conversations. More apps. At the end of the day, you come home, make dinner while listening to Pandora, play some games on Xbox Live, and watch a movie on Netflix’s streaming service.
You’ve spent the day on the Internet — but not on the Web. And you are not alone.” Wired.com
Is the above familiar to you? Like it said your not alone. A recent blog post from wired.com does a great job at explaining what is going on today with the Internet as it pertains to how we the consumer are interacting with information. The web as we all know is a massive dump of information that typically we would have to wade through on our own to get what we wanted. Sure sites like Google and Bing help to stream line that process but it isn’t enough. We are creatures that want laser focused, pin pointed, instant gratification. With the apps, smart phones, and social media we now can get specific micro information that we control and do it all while we are going about our daily business.
Think about your daily routine, how many apps to you rely on that help you to interact, engage, and be more efficient that are all contained on a 2 inch by 4 inch device that never leaves your side?
The great news for you is that companies like Windermere are fully aware of this dramatic shift. As we look to the future we will be making sure that our paths that lead a buyer or seller to Real Estate information will live in this space. We completely understand that we need to go where the customer is and not ask the customer to come to us. 2011 is going to be a very exciting year of change for us.
Let's be "REAL" people!
I want you to think about this quote for just a min.
“To utilize social media tools effectively and properly, you must absolutely generate spontaneous communications in direct response to what others are saying or to what is happening in that moment. Be yourself. Be conversational. Be engaged.”
– Aliza Sherman, co-owner of social marketing firm Conversify
Recently I have seen new companies popping up that say they will automate your Social Media for you, and post blog articles for you. They say they will take all the worry out of the mystical phenomenon called social media, they claim to enhance your SEO and get you more exposure. Great! Now you have more hits to your site of people that are wanting to interact with you, but what is being posted is not your voice at all. How long does it take someone to realize what your posting and saying isn’t coming from you?
Social media is about relationships. Relationships are created when you are being real. People connect and engage when they feel a connection and feel like you are genuinely interested in them.
What if I invited some friends to a baseball game but instead of going with them I hired a stand in friend? Yes, he would go in my place because I didn’t have the time. Then later I could follow up with him to see how my friendship was coming along with my buddies from the Baseball game. Silly isn’t it. Well that is exactly what you do when you hire someone to create relationships for you. Remember real estate is and always will be a relationship business. If your finding it hard to make the time to connect then at some point that relationship will disappear?
Thanks for taking the time. If you have any great ideas on social media engagement I would love to hear from you!
Let’s be “REAL” people!
I want you to think about this quote for just a min.
“To utilize social media tools effectively and properly, you must absolutely generate spontaneous communications in direct response to what others are saying or to what is happening in that moment. Be yourself. Be conversational. Be engaged.”
– Aliza Sherman, co-owner of social marketing firm Conversify
Recently I have seen new companies popping up that say they will automate your Social Media for you, and post blog articles for you. They say they will take all the worry out of the mystical phenomenon called social media, they claim to enhance your SEO and get you more exposure. Great! Now you have more hits to your site of people that are wanting to interact with you, but what is being posted is not your voice at all. How long does it take someone to realize what your posting and saying isn’t coming from you?
Social media is about relationships. Relationships are created when you are being real. People connect and engage when they feel a connection and feel like you are genuinely interested in them.
What if I invited some friends to a baseball game but instead of going with them I hired a stand in friend? Yes, he would go in my place because I didn’t have the time. Then later I could follow up with him to see how my friendship was coming along with my buddies from the Baseball game. Silly isn’t it. Well that is exactly what you do when you hire someone to create relationships for you. Remember real estate is and always will be a relationship business. If your finding it hard to make the time to connect then at some point that relationship will disappear?
Thanks for taking the time. If you have any great ideas on social media engagement I would love to hear from you!
J.J.'s Way, AKA John Jacobi
So I’m at my desk this morning and finding that I have more things to do then hours in the day. You could say there was some frustration, anxiety, and stress. I got up to get a 3rd cup of coffee and just looking up on my bulletin board I saw something that was given to me when I first started working for Windermere 14 years ago. It was something called J.J.’s Way. J.J. is John Jacobi the founder of Windermere Real Estate.
With everything we face today in work, and life I think theses are some great words of advice. So after reading this I was put at ease and back on track. Hope these words help you in the way they helped me?
J.J.’s Way, AKA John Jacobi
So I’m at my desk this morning and finding that I have more things to do then hours in the day. You could say there was some frustration, anxiety, and stress. I got up to get a 3rd cup of coffee and just looking up on my bulletin board I saw something that was given to me when I first started working for Windermere 14 years ago. It was something called J.J.’s Way. J.J. is John Jacobi the founder of Windermere Real Estate.
With everything we face today in work, and life I think theses are some great words of advice. So after reading this I was put at ease and back on track. Hope these words help you in the way they helped me?
Starbucks has it figured out.
Recently watched this video form the Social Media Examiner Blog where they interviewed Alex Wheeler who heads up Starbucks social media strategy.
I believe Windermere is similar to Starbucks in that we have overtime created a very strong and successful brand, one agent, one owner, and one office at a time. This didn’t happen over night but happends because we found great people and applied great ideas to a business that on it’s best day wasn’t very professional. When you listen to Alex talk in this video you will hear her say that Starbucks business is still all about relationships and all Social Media allows them to do is have a bigger reach with an already successful brand. Keep in mind your business is about relationships and the question I put out to you would be this. How are you taking your existing relationships and using Social Media to reach out past your friends of friends and have the success that Alex is talking about?
One of our own becomes a Trulia Mayor.
So you don’t like to blog, or you wonder if blogging will really help your business. Well, if you ask Carl Medford he will tell you exactly how it’s worked for him.
“Carl Medford (Fremont, CA) – Windermere Agent – TruliaPro
With the motto of, “Helping You Write The Next Chapter In Your Life,”™ Carl is one of the “next generation” of Web-based REALTORS. Carl typically transforms any local coffeehouse into an office; meeting with clients in any location and conducting business while enjoying the best coffee available! Instead of focusing on a specific neighborhood, Carl has earned the distinction of being a “Regional Expert,” tracking trends and critical information in multiple markets, thus bringing the broadest possible expertise and service to his clients. In addition to being a REALTOR, Carl is a licensed general contractor and also owns “The Next Stage,” a fully professional and accredited home staging company. Lastly, Carl has developed “The Ultimate Home Buying Experience,”™. He is featured weekly in “Real Estate Reality” in the Real Estate section of the San Leandro Times and Castro Valley Forum newspapers.
Carl has a gift to deliver a great message through his writing skills. He took the Trulia Voices by the horns and now has become one of the Trulia Mayors on Voices. What does a Mayor get to do you ask?….” From his trulia profile.
The ‘Trulia Mayor’ program is a new initiative that helps strengthen and expand the Trulia Voices community including nearly 400,000 real estate professionals.
Trulia Mayors are great social media role models and innovators, and will represent the opinions of real estate professionals in various Trulia efforts. Mayors frequently attend roundtable meetings, get sneak peeks of upcoming projects and provide their input in content quality matters on Trulia Voices. Additionally, Trulia Mayors participate in various PR and marketing efforts, such as co-hosting local events and co-authoring newsletters and articles, to spread their knowledge and provide expert advice to consumers and professionals alike. Bottom line – it’s pretty cool.
You can identify the Trulia Mayors in the Trulia Voices community by a special Mayor badge. They continue participating on the Trulia Voices community by asking and answering questions and blogging. The Trulia Mayors are available to assist consumers when they have questions or concerns aboutTrulia or the Trulia Voices community, and they are happy to share their experiences and knowledge.
The inaugural Trulia Mayors are five real estate professionals who have led by example within the Trulia Voices community, and we’re thrilled that each of them accepted their volunteer Mayoral appointments! It’s a great start to a program that will eventually include a representative from each state.”
I would encourage to see what Carl has done so you’ll know that there is room for all of us to excel in the world using online social networking tools. The consumer is hungry for the information you have to share.
Get scared or get busy!
As I’m out in the field with all the different agents who are trying to survive in these tough times I realized that there is definitely a commonality with the ones who are being successful vs the agents that are running scared.
The biggest difference that I see is based on the attitude they have and how they make that attidude work for them or against them. Being a Realtor is not an easy job but if you work smart and look forward instead of looking behind you things tend to be easier.
Many agents I talk to today say they are overwhelmed, can’t keep up, don’t have the time to learn all the new stuff that is coming at them. I get it, but that is an excuse. Show me any profession today where you can just take what you know and survive on just that knowledge for an indefinite period of time. One of the responsibilities of any professional is to maintain expertise by always increasing your knowledge of the tools you use to enhance your business. The medical field is a good example of this, I recently read a study that stated many physicians spend equal time if not more time learning new concepts in medicine in order to offer the best health care possible to their clients. I would ask how much time do you spend learning new ways to interact with your clients and keep your business fresh and on the cutting edge?
The customers today are so demanding, and it can really be difficult as you try to keep up with them and make sure you are showing up different than anyone else. What I would ask however is to have an open mind and not a closed mind. I’m always out there pushing the envelope on new things to try and it requires some effort and learning but none the less if you do it and succeed you win.
What I run into over and over again is the agent that would rather just dismiss the idea all together and then say something along these lines. ” Well that may be how you do business but my clients are different and I don’t need that stuff” What your really saying is “Hey I’m scared and it is a bit overwhelming and I want to keep up but I just can’t get my arms around it!” Why don’t you just say that then, and let us try to help you and began to learn how to use the new tools and concepts. I recently read an article from the Denise Lones Blog called. The two types of agents. It is the heart of what I’m talking about here. The agents who have the positive attitude and then look forward and charge full speed into new ideas and concepts with out trepidation are going to be the agents who will absolutely thrive. The agent who wants to hang on to the way it use to be and walk very slowly and moan and grown all the way may still do business but it will be a painful road and eventually that road will end.
I would ask you to examine you attitude, check the negativity at the door, open your mind and began to think out of the box. You will be surprised what that might do for you business.
Google Analytics for Buyers and Sellers.
So recently I visited with some Windermere agents on Whidbey Is. who are really thinking out of the box and being very successful in the process.They are taking the tool of Google Analytics and taking it to a whole other level.
Recently I read how Remax is using Google Analytics to better track and understand the traffic they receive to remax.com, Windermere has been doing this pretty much from the very early days that Google offered this great free tool. That said we didn’t stop there. It is one thing to track traffic to your company site it is a totally different concept to follow traffic right down to each photo on every single listing, and then making sure the agent can use this data to do a better job at educating the Seller on the effectiveness of the maketing programs and reach that that particular agents has at exposing this home to as many buyers as possible.
From the Geographic traffic maps to the vistor trending reports in the Google Analytics tool agents can now embed this code directly into each of their listing’s photo galleries. What is does is something amazing. Now when listings get activity on line you don’t just get a hit counter. What you get is a story that can be used to better explain how important, pricing is, how valuable a good search tool is, how the internet has far greater reach than any printed publication. You can track trends and market swings based on global activity. When was the last time you ran a real estate classified ad in the local newpaper and the following day you were able to automatically send out a heat map plotting the traffic that that add received from it’s distribution? With Google analytic you can do all that and then some.
One of the tools that is very popular is the ability to e-mail any report directy to your seller or buyer or better yet have it set up on a weekly automated push. With the market being as tuff as it is agents always need to have new creative ideas to articulate the value the can bring to the table. Google Analytics can provide then with just that.
To set up a free account today visit https://www.google.com/analytics/home/
