Real Estate Marketing

5 blog and Facebook page posts just in time for summer!

May 25th, 2013 Posted in Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

I’ve been brainstorming some fresh ideas for real estate social media campaigns — you know, the ones that aren’t about listings, or real estate, but the ones that residents in your community might find helpful. These are ideas either for a real estate Facebook business page or even your blog.

Having a busy family myself, and with the school year coming to an end, my mind always shifts to the things that we will be doing this summer — or should be doing. So while I was jotting some ideas down, I thought I would share what I’ve come up with so far. You may be able to use them, or they might inspire some fresh new ideas, too. Feel free to add to the list of what has worked for you. Check back for more, too. I’m sure I’ll be adding to the list.

5 fun content ideas for summer your clients will appreciate:

• Publish or link to your city’s Parks and Recreation Summer Activity Guide. Most city websites have a community page where they link to downloadable PDF copies of summer activities, camps and other recreation for the summer. Since most classes have an enrollment, it’s helpful to share this online so your readers can download the info directly from your website and not miss important enrollment deadlines!

• High school reunions: Publish any information on any that might be happening. Alumni prepare a whole year for their high school reunions! If you can give them some notice on when and where they will be happening, you are sure to gain some new fans!

• Video interview a local teacher from a school in your community for some great summer education ideas for kids of all ages — you know, ALL those ideas and fliers you get from teachers when school lets out to make sure our kids’ minds are kept busy during the summer? Why not highlight a teacher in your community and do a fun interview about those ideas, and on how she plans to spend HER summer? What a great way for the kids in the community to get a glimpse of their teacher on camera!

• Stage your home — just for fun! Create a video with your favorite home stager on how to “create the look” of a staged home. Do you work with a home stager from time to time or perhaps with all your listings? Share some of that great secret sauce with your readers and give them some staging tips. Not only will this be a fun project for the summer for some residents, but perhaps it will entice those same people to come to your open houses.

• Link or write a post, or video your local farmers market if you have one. Or perhaps your community has Movies in the Park or any kind of seasonal event that’s fun for the whole community? Let your readers know all about it, and have a photo contest for the best photo from the event.

If you have some more ideas that you’d like to share, I would love to hear them!

Copyright 2013 Inman News

4 Tips for a Successful Listing Presentation

May 23rd, 2013 Posted in Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

When walking into a listing appointment, you must be prepared. Ask any top producer and they will tell you that they have a well-thought-out roadmap for what they want to achieve and what they want the outcome to be.
The best listing presentations are those created with your input and knowledge as well as the personal approach to that particular situation. You want to feel so comfortable with the steps and dialogue so that you deliver it naturally and comfortably. You should be so familiar with it, that it becomes second nature to you. Once that happens, you can walk into any situation and customize your listing presentation to your prospect’s biggest issues and concerns.
Here are some tips for getting the most out of your listing presentation.
1 – Break the ice
When you first meet with your prospects, focus on building a connection. If you are challenged with finding a compliment on the home (and yes! that can sometimes happen), connect in a personal way. An example was when I was a RE/MAX agent I always had the RE/MAX toy truck from the Nascar series on hand or a neat coloring book with new markers. It was a way to connect and build a bond.
2 – Take Control and Question!
If you’ve internalized your listing presentation, you should have specific questions you can ask sellers that will allow you to hit each point in your presentation without sounding like you are giving a sales pitch. A key point is to take control. Get them to the location in the home that is the “Decision Maker” location which is many times the kitchen. This is a key part to setting up the conversation effectively. If you have sellers come into your office this applies as the same strategy. The person who asks the questions is the one in charge of the appointment, so make sure for every point you want to address, you start with a question and let the seller do the talking. Some ideas for questions to ask include:

• Questions about the home – How long they’ve lived there? What they like best about the home? What aspects of the home caught their attention when they first purchased it?
• Questions about their selling motivations – Why they are now considering selling? What’s their time frame? Where they are moving to? What do they feel is their biggest challenge?
• Questions about the home – Have they made any improvements? What price range do they have in mind? Will they be leaving any items in the home? Can they offer any buyer perks or help with financing?
• Questions about hiring a real estate agent – What are their criteria for hiring an agent? What kind of marketing do they expect?
3 – Listen!

The best presentations involve actively listening to the seller for the majority of the time. Your presentation should be 80% listening to the seller and 20% asking and answering any questions. Let the seller do most of the talking!
4 – Show it with Visuals
While you don’t need a PowerPoint presentation to be effective, you should have samples of your website traffic, search engine strategies, advertising and marketing materials, as well as client testimonials and case studies. Show your prospects exactly how you’ve helped your clients sell their homes and what they can expect if they list with you.

Corcoran Group shows how Tumblr is done

May 23rd, 2013 Posted in Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

On its “10 a.m. Special” Tumblr page, The Corcoran Group showcases one jaw-dropping listing every day.

The posts are bursting with a colorful mixture of new media that includes clickable photos and graphics, embedded videos, and invitations to follow Corcoran on Pinterest, YouTube and Foursquare.

Highlighting the full range of content and social platforms made possible by the Internet, Corcoran’s “10 a.m. Special” Tumblr page paints a picture of how brokers and agents may use the blogging site to market themselves and their properties.

The acquisition of Tumblr by ailing Internet giant Yahoo could attract more business professionals to the platform, by raising awareness of a site that simplifies blogging and potentially providing them with a means to target millennial homebuyers and sellers, according to social media consultant Katie Lance and other experts.

Tumblr, a social media blogging site known for its spirit of millennial irreverence, resembles something of a cross between Facebook and Twitter. On Monday, Yahoo confirmed that it plans to purchase the site for about $1.1 billion in cash, with its CEO promising “not to screw up” the site.

The purchase has drawn comparisons to Facebook’s acquisition of photo-sharing site Instagram in April 2012. That acquisition, Lance said, initially raised fears that the site would shed some of its hip allure. But instead, Lance said, it seemed to raise awareness of the site and attract additional users.

Indeed, Instagram’s users, engagement and reach for brands have increased substantially since Facebook bought the site, TechCrunch reported.

“A year ago, many people were skeptical about Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and whether it would hinder the network’s growth,” Adam Schoenfeld, CEO of Simply Measured, recently told BusinessNewsDaily. “However, today it’s very clear that the synergies are not only bringing new users on board, but also creating incredible opportunities for brands to connect with consumers.”

Lance said that Yahoo’s purchase of Tumblr could run a similar course.

“All of a sudden you hear Yahoo is behind it, and I think for a lot of people, sometimes that older generation, it’s like giving a company validity,” she said.

And if it does, that could potentially spark a resurgence in blogging among business professionals, including real estate agents, who have largely exited the blogosphere following a “big push” there about five years ago, she said.

That’s because Tumblr is much easier to use than other blogging platforms like WordPress, Lance said. Perhaps Tumblr’s “biggest differentiator” is its “reblog” feature, which allows users to share content produced by others, she added.

But whether Tumblr really makes blogging more manageable than other platforms is still a matter of debate. Facebook page “Living in Ann Arbor,” which is sponsored by broker Ann Arbor Real Estate, said on Inman News’ Facebook page that Tumblr is actually more challenging to use than platforms like WordPress and Blogger.

“The Tumblr editor interface isn’t as good as WordPress.com or even Blogger.com if you are going the free route” and “want to gain a social following and share your posts freely,” Living in Ann Arbor said.

Living in Ann Arbor added that WordPress.com and Blogger have features that perform the same function as Tumblr’s reblogging tool. “If one was to use a platform for content curating — I still don’t think that Tumblr is the best option.”

Living in Ann Arbor said the GIF to the left conveys its view of the Tumblr acquisition

Regardless, with the site now in the limelight, many business professionals may also begin to gravitate towards Tumblr in order to fish for millennial buyers and sellers, since the site “tends to skew a lot younger” than other social media sites, Lance said.

In addition to potentially shedding light on a new avenue for agents to intersect with younger homebuyers and sellers, Tumblr could open up promising paid-advertising opportunities.

One of Yahoo’s main objectives is to milk Tumblr for advertising revenue. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said Yahoo would initiate that process by putting ads in the Tumblr “dashboard,” a content stream much like Facebook’s News Feed, The Los Angeles Times reported. Later, Yahoo might allow users to post ads on their blogs themselves, and share revenue earned through the ads with Yahoo.

“If an agent is really trying to focus on millennials or first-time homebuyers, specially in a specific geographic area, I think that could definitely be an opportunity,” Mayer said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

What do you think about Yahoo’s acquisition of Tumblr? Leave your comment below.

Copyright 2013 Inman News