via activerain.com
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.
Rich Real Estate Agent, Poor Real Estate Agent
11 Weeks Left in 2011? Let’s Get Ready for 2012 NOW!
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:
- Start a blog or dust off that blog you have been neglecting and post regularly (at least 2-3 times a week to start)
- Give your website a makeover and make sure the focus is on the consumer, and not what a great REALTOR you are.
- Create or find deliverables that your prospects would actually want to sign up for and get those leads starting to come into your pipeline
- Increase your visibility on Facebook and make a business pages focusing on the neighborhoods and communities you serve.
- Start up on Twitter and be visible, engage, and share with your followers.
- Start using video! Promote your properties, your expertise, and your market area
- Be sure to keep your social media activities ongoing and never let anything get stale or make people wonder if you are still in business.
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!
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Recommended Reading {6.13.11}
There have been some great articles out there lately touching on subjects closely related to real estate, social media, and marketing. So here is my latest edition of recommended reading, things I think you should know. Enjoy!
5 Secrets to Being Successful on Twitter – This one of the best articles I’ve found explaining the nuances of Twitter and how to use it correctly for your real estate business.
5 Common Real Estate Website Myths – Debunked – A fantastic article from Geek Estate Blog. Still believe your Broker’s site is good enough?
Your Facebook Business Page is Worthless – The Future of Real Estate Marketing- Your Facebook page not living up to your expectations? You’re probably doing it wrong.
4 Tips To Maximize Your Twitter Marketing – Social Media Examiner – It is all about planning organizing and expanding.
5 Ways iCloud Will Change How Real Estate Teams Run Their Businesses – Apple’s new iCloud service will be a game changer on the consumer market. This article highlights the practical uses for your real estate business. Great news for Mac users (of which I will soon join the club), but also PC users will not be left out.
Want More Sales? Pump Up The Experience – Amp up the consumer experience for your buyers and sellers. Make sure to wow them with these tips.
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Social Media vs. Traditional Marketing – There Is No Magic Bullet
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!
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The Power of Information – New video from RISMedia
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!
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Happy 5th Birthday Twitter – 5 Things You Should Be Doing on Twitter
Today is Twitter’s 5th birthday! I am an obvious lover of Twitter. I have been using it for over 3 years , or 3 years, 120 days and some change to be exact. It’s been fascinating to watch over these years how it has transformed the cultural landscape and how it has become the major source for breaking news on events and disaster updates.
I love it and have found it to be a source for business and a great place to market to potential clients. But I do see that Twitter is not for everyone. Many real estate pros still ask, why should they bother with Twitter. Well in the spirit of Twitter’s 5th Birthday, here are 5 ways you should use twitter.
5 Things You Should Be Doing on Twitter
- Use Twitter to listen and interact to your clients and your sphere of influence. You can monitor what is going on in their lives, see what anyone is saying about you, and help them get to know the real you.
- Make sure your tweets are something relevant and newsworthy. Nobody much cares about what you’re having for breakfast. So tell them about a deal you just closed, a fabulous new home that listed, or breaking news in your neighborhood.
- Drive traffic to your blog and website with Twitter. Just wrote a great post about a hot button real estate issue or new listing? Post the link on Twitter, or better yet, have your most recent blog post get populated on your Twitter feed automatically through apps suck as HootSuite and TwitterFeed.
Image via Wikipedia
- Make good use of Twitter lists, to help segment and organize those you are following on Twitter.
- Use an app that will make your tweeting life easier. My all-time favorite that I use is HootSuite. You can schedule tweets, organize your twitter streams by lists into different columns, as well as analytics and tracking of links you broadcast. Not only that but you can use HootSuite to manage multiple networks. TweetDeck is another app that has similar capabilites, but not browser based.
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