The BVAS Connection» Real Estate – General

What is the ROI of Pinterest?

Megan E. Barber — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:17:42 +0000

Facepalm - Image via Wikipedia

“How do I leverage Pinterest for my real estate business?”

The title of this post, as well as the above question is starting to get asked a lot around the real estate marketing circles and social networks I follow. And I must tell you, it makes me cringe to hear it. Many agents are joining this relatively new network, looking increase their marketing reach and hoping it’s the holy grail of lead generation. Frankly I think they are missing the point and purpose of Pinterest, and may be sorely disappointed in the lack of “ROI”.

Just what is Pinterest, some of you may you be asking? Pinterest is an new-ish social network where users can Pin images, putting together a visual collection of things they love, their interests and inspiration, etc., on pin boards users create in their accounts. These pin boards can be related to anything from food to crafts, fashion to home decor. The possibilities are endless.

Personally, I LOVE Pinterest. For me it is a great source of creative inspiration, craft and DIY project ideas, home decor ideas, recipe ideas, and a place that I can daydream by pining images of my dream home or dream vacation spots. For me Pinterest is fun and and inspirational.

Where I believe that people are really going wrong, especially those that want to “leverage Pinterest for their business,” is that marketing and self promotion is not in the spirit of what Pinterest was designed for. Just simply look at #3 on their list of the Pinterest etiquette guidelines:

Avoid Self Promotion

Pinterest is designed to curate and share things you love. If there is a photo or project you’re proud of, pin away! However, try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion.

When embarking on any new social networks, Pinterest or otherwise, my advice is to first explore it and really observe. Get an idea of what this community really is about. Observe how other users are utilizing the network. Then go have fun with it. On Pinterest, you may find that you can create new connections and meet like minded people you never knew before. But don’t have high expectations that it will be a magical source of lead generation.

If you are looking into to Pinterest purely as a way to promote yourselves, your listings and generate your business, then frankly I think you should move along. Pinterest is not exactly the place for you, and I think you will find very little ROI, if that is your main goal. Your time may be best spent elsewhere.

There are certainly ways to use Pinterest and relate it to your real estate business, and you can do so without shameless self promotion. Coming up in a follow-up post, I will show you come creative ways to use Pinterest as it relates to real estate, and show you some examples of those in the real estate industry who are doing it right. Stay tuned!

And if you want to follow me on Pinterest, find me here. You will see that I am definitely not all business all the time.

The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Pinterest for Marketing (hubspot.com)
What Is Pinterest and Why Is Everyone Talking About It? (accesscomptech.wordpress.com)

Megan E. Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 10 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan and her team Virtual Assistants provide top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. Megan E Barber is also the creator and author of The BVAS Connection and VA Mommy.

Rich Real Estate Agent, Poor Real Estate Agent

Megan E. Barber — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 00:30:53 +0000

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.

Posted via email from megbarberva’s posterous

Importance of REALTOR Safety

Megan E. Barber — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:08:45 +0000

Being a real estate agent can definitely be a difficult job at times. From managing several buyer and seller clients at once, to tracking paperwork and juggling upcoming closings. But he thought that your real estate career can present you with some dangerous situations, hardly ever enters your mind. Some scary stuff in the news lately is driving home the fact that Realtor safety should become a priority.

Realtor safety concerns are nothing new. Several years ago, when I worked in the front office for a major real estate company, the company had decided to offer self defense classes to their agents which some thought was silly. Since the subject came up, my broker then told me this story:

She was working with these first-time buyers, showing them several properties on the weekends over a few weeks. One Saturday morning, she was setting up a few showing appointments for the day, and called one particular owner-occupied home where a pleasant gentleman answered. He said it was the requested appointment was fine and he would make sure to be out of the home.

Since this was the first appointment of the day, she decided to get to the property ahead of her clients to preview it herself, open up curtains, turn on lights, etc. When she unlocked and opened the door, about 10 feet in front of her was a man sitting in a chair with a shotgun in his lap, starting straight at her. She quickly apologized for disturbing him, backed away, closed the door, and got in her car. She had her clients meet her at the next property instead.

Now that scary situation turned out to be ok for my former boss, as she was unharmed. But it has stuck in her memory and has always taken extra safety measures ever since.

The news tell us that some agents have not been so lucky.

Last year, two Realtors were found murdered in separate incidents, one found shot in a vacant home he was showing, and one found in burning home.

Back in April, an Iowa Realtor was found murdered at an at a model home open house.

In July, a Tennessee agent was attacked and robbed during a showing appointment.

Just last month, an Oregon broker was targeted in his office and shot by a revenge seeking gunman.

A few weeks ago, northern Ohio agents were warned that a man was calling female agents for evening showing appointments, to possibly lure them into vacant homes and sexually assault them.

The sad list goes on.

Real estate can be a risky industry. Agents can often find themselves traveling alone, meeting with and showing properties to people that they don’t really know well or at all. There’s worries that violence against Realtors is on the rise. And it is not just women that are victimized. (check out his report)

What can you do to keep yourself safe? Though past violent incidents don’t always have a common thread, and there is no way to prevent every crime, agents should certainly take any step necessary to protect themselves.

Take a self defense or martial arts class.
Google new prospects prior to initial meetings to sniff out anything fishy if you can.
Meet them for the first time in a public place, such as your office during business hours.
Call or text someone to let them know where you’ll be and who you’ll be with showing properties.
Use a tool such as Moby, which is a mobile app for your smartphone that can alert chosen contacts with a need for assistance and also tracks your location. And it’s FREE!

Do what you can to increase your awareness and fine tune your gut instincts. Please stay safe out there!

The Power of Information – New video from RISMedia

Megan E. Barber — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:42:37 +0000

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!

Funny Real Estate Video – Old Spice Parody

Megan E. Barber — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:50:04 +0000

Real estate videos don’t have to be boring. In my search of some entertainment in the real estate world, I have seen that there are a lot of Old Spice parodies popping up lately. But this one has to be my favorite:

My favorite part: “I have balloons tied to my ankles.” Well done Landmark Realty.

You can view a few more real estate related Old Spice parody videos at the Agency Logic blog here.

Have you tried your hand at comedy in your videos? Found any recent real estate videos that have made you laugh lately? Leave me a comment below and let me know about them.

Pay Attention to Your Online Reputation – The Story of My Nightmare

Megan E. Barber — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 13:22:58 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

One’s offline reputation can be tarnished by some gossip around town that can eventually fade way. One’s online reputation can be destroyed by a few poison words that can be indexed in Google forever.

That brings me to my post today. I am disgusted that I have to address this issue at all, but the time has come where I have to publicly address the injustice of the situation I’m facing and defend myself against completely false allegations. I have been quietly living through this nightmare for 6 months and I am finally now going to speak out and tell my story. Buckle up and get ready for a long one.

Approximately six months ago, I received an anonymous email from someone stating they’ll “won’t be doing any further business” with me based on claims on a complaint website regarding me and my business. This came as a complete surprise as I had no idea who this person was that had implied they have done business with me. It was from an anonymous gmail address. When I went searching for said complaint, I was shocked and completely horrified by what I found. (I will not be linking to the offending site, but if you are smart and know how to use Google, I’m sure you can find what I am referencing.)

What I found was a so called “consumer complaint” website with horrific allegations made against me by a “third-party” poster, that I am a child predator. It was complete with my name, company name, links to my site, videos, displaying my home address and a map, etc. What is worse, links to the complaint on the site where indexed on the 1st page of Google in searches for my name, my business name, etc.

It almost goes without saying, but I will say it here. The allegations that have been made against me on that website are of course patently false and have no basis. Anybody who knows me would know that those ugly things said about me cannot possibly be true. I am a work-at-home mother to a small child, running a small business, trying to make an honest living. There is no possibility that what have been accused of can be remotely true. It is clear that some sick and deranged person had set out to do serious harm to me and my business. To this day, I still do not know the person who has done this to me or why.

My first course of action was to contact the owner of the supposed consumer complaint website, and kindly ask that they please remove the false and defamatory content from the website. I was sent a response that shot down my request citing their policy that they never remove reports that are claimed to contain defamatory, even if the original author requests it. They do this in the name of free speech and to avoid “rampant censorship”. But they suggested 2 courses of action:

Contact the person who made the complaint (who, may I remind you, was basically “anonymous”)
Take part in their “COPA” program where I can pay them $4999 a year to be able to defend myself

This same website’s policy and FAQ displays a “go ahead and sue me” attitude, because they are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. (I won’t go into it’s merits or details, but you can find more info here too) IT was soon after this initial contact that a 2nd false complaint appeared on the site, not of the same ugly nature, but still completely false and still damaging.

I did consult an attorney to see what my options could be, but it didn’t leave me with much hope. Unfortunately, I am a small business and do not have the deep pockets of a large corporation to be able to come up with the tens of thousands of dollars to front for legal fees to be able to fight this in court. The only real course of action I had left was to file complaints with the state attorney general offices in my state and the state the website is located in. I had done so nearly 6 months ago and now it’s just a waiting game if the state attorneys choose to take any action.

So why am I waiting until now to tell my story? Frankly, I was embarrassed that such awful things were being said about me and did not want to give it publicity. Also, I did not want to bring much public attention to it because I did not want to give that website a boost in traffic. Though I have tried to rise above by continuing to provide great services to my clients, marketing my business, and blogging, with the hope that this ugly content would be buried in Google, but it is still coming back to haunt me. If I do not speak up, it still leaves the allegation open to question, and I cannot have that anymore. I can’t have potential clients Google my name a have these outrageous allegations cause them to question my credibility or my ethics.

It is horrible that such things can be done to innocent people, especially small business owners, and they have little recourse. This could have happened to anyone in my industry. Someone with a vendetta and a few poison words has the potential to destroy businesses and lives. Online defamation and libel needs to stop and I wish people would not be able to easily hide behind anonymous names without consequences in cases like mine.

Let it be known that again, that the allegations made against me are completely false. I, Megan E. Barber, owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, am a good, decent human being, an upstanding citizen, and do not have so much as a speeding ticket to my name. I have been a victim of online defamation, and it has been nothing short of a nightmare. I don’t know what the absolute solution is, but I wanted to start by getting my side of the story out there and making sure there is no question about my ethics and integrity.

I will not stand for it anymore! And you shouldn’t either, so I invite you to please share my story.

How To Create a Facebook Page – Video

Megan E. Barber — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 18:39:08 +0000

In this latest installment in the Getting Down To Basics series, I created a video tutorial for how to create a Facebook Page for your real estate business. In a recent post I went over the differences between a Facebook Profile and Facebook Page, so here I am going one step further.

I have encountered many agents that knew they needed a Facebook page for their business, just didn’t know how to actually make one. So in the following video I made, I show you just exactly where to go to create a new page and some basic page setup. Enjoy!

I want to hear from you! Have anything to add, or a request for future tutorials? Please leave a comment below and let me know what you want to hear.

2011 Is Bringing Some Changes – Don’t Miss Out!

Megan E. Barber — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:25:23 +0000

Ho Ho Ho and Happy Holidays from the Real Estate Virtual Assistant team at BVAS! 2011 is a few weeks away and will be bringing in some changes here at BVAS, including new rates. Here’s my video with a little announcement for those thinking about partnering with Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions in the near future…

New higher 2011 rates will be effective after January 15th. S new clients thinking of signing on with our services and want to get in on the current 2010 rates, you have until January 15, 2011 to sign on. This applies to all services including our Retainer plans and Pre-paid Blocks.*

Rate increase happens at midnight on January 16th so don’t miss out!!!

**Current clients will not face a rate increase at this time. You will be grandfathered in at you current rates.

10 Ideas for Real Estate Video – Part III

Megan E. Barber — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:41:50 +0000

In part 3 of my series on the 10 ideas for real estate video, I give you two more content ideas for your real estate videos. Make sure you didn’t miss Part 1 and Part 2.

5. Real Estate Q&A

Create videos of the Q & A variety. Have some frequently ask questions that you want to address? Create a video that can answer those. You can also create call to action on your blog or website and invite your viewers and readers to ask you questions about real estate, the market, about your local area, anything. Then, create a video to take the opportunity to answer each of those questions to broadcast on your blog and YouTube channel. It is a great way to showcase your knowledge and expertise about your business and local market. If you are not an expert when it comes to a particular question, or they happen to be of a legal nature, enlist some of your professional friends and colleagues (attorneys, loan officers, etc) to speak on your video to answer those questions.

(As in your offline life, be sure that you make videos answering questions that you truly know the answer to. Make sure not dispense legal advice or give definitive answers to subjects you truly are not trained or experienced in.)

6. Interview Your Happy Buyer and Seller Clients

Ask your past and present clients to let you interview them a little bit and share their personal experience in buying or selling a home. Invite them to tell their personal story about the buying/selling process, their fears, their excitement, and what they had learned. With your buyers, you can try doing this immediately after the closing table while clutching their new house keys and filled with excitement about moving in to their new home.

You can ask your clients to add a little testimonial for you and the end, but it’s not totally necessary. Just showing real people that are happy with the outcome of their real estate transaction, and that you were the one behind helping them could be testimonial enough without actually saying it.

If you do one of these kind of videos, be sure to have a video release form getting the right to use the image/video of them with permission to use in your blog, YouTube channel and other marketing purposes. It’s good to have all of your bases covered.

Good luck and happy video recording! There are four more real estate video ideas to come, so stay tuned.