Real Estate Marketing Tools &Tips from Real Estate Virtual Assistant, Megan E Barber
In the Facebook blog, it was announced just last week that Facebook has officially reached 1 Billion monthly active users. That is quite a number! As a lover of stats and infographics, I wanted to show you today this great one I stumbled upon on Pinterest recently, illustrating some of the numbers on Facebook.
Source: blog.katapult-studios.com via REVA on Pinterest
Photos are the kings of web content now. I’m not just talking about the importance of having photos on your listings. I am talking about the skyrocketing popularity of visual based social networks like Pinterest and Instagram and how much more attention getting and engaging images are.
There has been an explosion of photo sharing on the web. You may have heard , “Facebook is the Photo Economy“. More than 90 billion photos have been uploaded since Facebook launched. 6 billion pictures are being uploaded monthly. I am sure that you have noticed in your news feeds that a large chunk of the content you see are images now. So it may come to you as no surprise that photos tend to grab more attention in your news feeds. The engagement rate on photos versus status updates is about 2:1. What does that mean? People are more likely to “like” and comment on photos as opposed to status updates.
But it is not just Facebook where images are important. The visually based social network, Pinterest (which I’ve talked a lot about recently) continues to soar in popularity. People are using it to curate information they like, that inspire them, and brands have found a way connect with customers in an authentic way. In the first quarter of 2012, Pinterest had 11.7 unique visitors. This image reliant social network is a force not to be ignored. And of course, there are some great ways to make good use of it and apply to your business.
Now is a good time to seriously consider infusing your marketing with more visual content. This is especially great if you struggle with coming up with new thing to write about for your real estate blog. These images can then be easily be shared across social networks and can be a potential traffic driver.
Images have a way of communicating ideas, emotions and more, in ways that words sometimes cannot. They capture more attention and have a higher engagement factor on your social networks. Examine ways to improve your use of images on your website and social media. Then get involved with visually based social networks like Pinterest and Instagram. This “photo economy” is about more than just your listing photos.
What are your favorite ways to use images in your marketing? Are you an avid Pinterest or Instagram user? Let us know in the comments below! We would love to hear about it.
You may have heard about the new Facebook profile interface, the Facebook Timeline. (If you haven’t yet Check out this complete guide from Mashable) It is quite a radical change to the overall look and function the Facebook profile that they started previewing to users back in September. Now they are rolling it out for everyone to have access too, and should become the default profile setting for all users in a upcoming months.
Want to go ahead and change and play around with the new Facebook Timeline now? They’ve made it easy! Here is now:
(tips courtesy of Mashable)
What separates Rich Real Estate Agents from the Poor Real Estate Agents? Check out this awesome infographic and survey from Active Rain. Lots of striking information in this, definitely worth checking out.
Believe it or not, there are only 11 weeks left in 2011! We are firmly in the 4th quarter and have you examined your progress on your 2011 business plan? Are you flying blind without one? Well whatever your answer, there is no time to waste. The time to implement is now if you want 2012 to get off to a great start.
Some say that if you start your business January 1st 2012, you are already behind. Real estate is a lag industry and things can take 60-90 days of implementation to see any results. So if you don’t start until January, you may not see any results for several months (especially in this slow economy).
The best marketing advice I’ve ever received is to ramp up your marketing efforts and activities in the 4th quarter so you can see your results once the new year hits and get it off to a fabulous start. If you wait too long, you may find it harder to reach your business or revenue goals because you were waiting for leads to convert and get those marketing results to appear. Market for next year starting NOW!
Starting now, there are probably a few things you can be doing differently, or at least get started on, that can get your 2012 started off right. For example, you can:
It is the perfect time to examine your current business plan (if you have one) refine it, in start implementing NOW so you can have a fabulous 2012. So take some action! I want you to start it off with a bang!
Have some marketing ideas you can implement now to get next year off to a great start? I would love to hear them! Please leave me a comment below!
Old school vs. the new school. Traditional marketing methods vs. Social media marketing. Ways of the past vs. the wave of the future. Around the online real estate world, a small debate was going on about the different schools of thought on real estate marketing methods such as social media and online marketing, and the more traditional routes such as cold calling, door knocking, and direct mail.
Some have quickly taken one side over the other, dismissing the validity of the other point. The “old school” folks cheer on the statement that social media is a total waste of time. The “new school” people think the ones who deny the potential of social media are dinosaurs of the industry that should step aside. I think the the bigger picture here in this debate is that a balanced approach using both old and new methods is necessary to succeed in this market.
Is social media a complete waste of time? I don’t certainly think so. If you know me, you know that I am a big social media fan, and use things like Facebook and Twitter quite often personally and for my business. I have even signed new clients that I’ve met via social media.
Social networking can certainly have potential to be a time waster, with the virtual farms, virtual mafia, and the penchant to announce what one had for breakfast. Certainly if you spend too much of your time living on Facebook and Twitter, you are not going to get much done in general, or be able to effectively work with your clients. But if you handle your social networking activities correctly (strategically), you can get potentially attract new business through your social media engagement.
It is also necessary to have the right mindset and expectation about the potential business social media marketing can bring you. Connections that you attract through social media can take a long time for them to convert to actual business, much like other internet leads. But if you look at the bigger picture, social networks are a great tool to foster new relationships with prospects by engaging with them and repeatedly be out in front of them.
Through some of the more traditional methods of cold calling, and door knocking, most of the “old school” gurus direct agents to go through their database, sphere or lists looking for buyers and sellers that are ready to make their move RIGHT NOW. And then they’ll instruct them to cross the prospect off the list and move on the the next if the are not ready to do business in the immediate. Where this differs from social media marketing is that you are spending little time incubating those warm or cold leads, and going directly for the hot ones. While this approach may be successful for some, it is not for everyone, and even some prospects find this type of communication a total turn off (Hello Gen Y?).
Both social media marketing and more traditional prospecting methods both have their place in today’s marketing plans. Cold calling for hot leads can help you generate business that is ready to move right now, while social media marketing can help fill that pipeline of incoming leads that can eventually warm up to actual business too. I believe a balanced approach in your marketing plan is best.
There is no one marketing method that is the magic bullet. But use any combination of them with the right approach and mindset, and they will bring you new business.
What side of the debate do you stand on? Or what marketing methods have yielded the best results for you? I want to hear from you, so please comment below!
RISMedia just released this fantastic new video today about the impact of social media and mobile internet on the future of real estate. It is evident that they worked hard on this. This video has some good stuff to get you thinking in case you are on the fence.
This is a great video that illustrates what is coming in the future. But I don’t think social media is THE magic bullet. I have a post upcoming that talks about this more, so stay tuned!
Let me know your thoughts on the video. Leave me a comment below!
Check out this fun video inspired by the onlineschools.org infographic about the latest Facebook stats.
The World Is Obsessed With Facebook from Alex Trimpe on Vimeo.
![media httpsocialcomme gGElv.png.scaled500 1 in 11 humans Are on Facebook [infographic]](http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/megbarberva/tlqsEEnjJEIfsyfnukoBvyzJeiFoxjfeEwyhsihECwuuHqDCBfEvclpBcaxe/media_httpsocialcomme_gGElv.png.scaled1000.png "1 in 11 humans Are on Facebook [infographic]")
I ran across a few great infographics on Social Commerce Today, including the above illustrating the growth of Facebook over 2010, top brands, and demograhpics. Click the image above to read the great post.
Anyone out there still unsure about the importance of building a presence for your business on Facebook?
![1 in 11 humans Are on Facebook [infographic]](http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_c.png?x-id=ad979a21-5c6a-42f4-b552-5f20332391fa "1 in 11 humans Are on Facebook [infographic]")
Facebook has changed once again, though this time we were expecting it. Facebook pages now have a new look and some awesome new features. In the midday hours yesterday, the much buzzed about preview of the new Facebook Pages was rolled out. The official switch date for all Facebook pages is March 10, 2011, but yesterday Facebook gave many the option to upgrade their pages early (which of course I did).
So what in new with Facebook Pages? Let me give you an overview.
New Look
The new Facebook pages now closely resembles the new Facebook profiles that were rolled out in December 2010. Now they feature the addition of the 5 image banner at the top of the page and tabs have been removed and moved to the section beneath the page’s Avatar. So now any of your custom FBML tabs, or applications you’ve added to your page have been moved to this new spot.
Another change to the look, albeit small, is they’ve added an “Edit Page” button in the upper right hand corner of your page, instead of a link below the page avatar.
New Features
Now here is the best part. Facebook has added a bunch of fantastic new features that make managing your page and your page’s content so much better.
What stays the same?
Your custom landing tabs have remained the same width as before at 520 pixels wide. So no need to fear making your costom tabs you worked so hard on even narrower.What else?
The location of the tabs has moved to a much less conspicuous place (as noted above). They are small links directly under the page avatar. So this means if you want to draw attention to your custom page tabs that you (or your assistant) have worked so hard to create, then you will need to get creative and perhaps draw attention to them using your page avatar.
Also, rumor has it that Static FBML will also be going away after March 10, 2011. Pages that are currently using custom tabs with FBML, can still remain. But it has been rumored that one will not be able to create new tabs using FBML. What will take it’s place? We shall see.
Overall, I think the changes that Facebook has made to the are pretty great for those using Facebook pages for real estate, or any other industry. It gives many more options on how you can display yourself and your content, and it is a fresh new look.
What are your thoughts about the new Facebook Pages? I would love to hear it, so please leave a comment below to state your thoughts or your questions about the new pages setup.
Coming soon: A full video review for my Getting Down to Basis series displaying layout and giving the lowdown how-to on set up the new Facebook Page.
Recent Comments