Stretching Your Marketing Dollars

Here is a series of 9 videos about stretching your marketing dollars using online tools – I just watched the segment on Niche Marketing (featuring my friend @pchaney, co-author of my favorite blogging book Realty Blogging!) …good stuff! Other topics include Search Engine Optimization, Social Media,Measuring Success, and more.

9 Ways to Maximize Your Marketing Dollars

Customize Your Facebook Experience

Before you get too deep in to the whole Facebook thing, you probably want to learn about what people can see about you and your activities on the site.  A safe bet is to assume that everything you do and click on is public, unless and until you change the settings of your account. Do this in the Privacy Settings section of the Settings button located at the top left side of your Facebook home page. Go in there and check it out. Whether you are using Facebook for business or personal stuff, it’s a good idea to make sure things are as you prefer.

There is a great article on AllFacebook.com, a blog devoted to Facebook topics, which has some recommendations about what kinds of things you might want to control with regard to your Facebook content. It is interesting to note that you can decide who sees what and that the settings don’t necessarily have to limit everything across the board. There is a lot that you may not realize you can control. Read 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

Happy Facebooking!

Free Blogging Seminar

My Poconos Real Estate Blog is a Typepad blog. I love the Typepad platform and recommend it for beginners and experts alike. It is easy to use and customize, very reliable and the support absolutely rocks!

And if my recommendation isn’t enough, take it from Teresa Boardman, whose St. Paul Real Estate Blog and The Real Estate Weenie are Typepad blogs too. Read her recommendation here.

There is a free blogging teleseminar coming up courtesy of Typepad on February 25, 2009, that sounds great. The topics being covered include setting up your blog, writing your first post, and how to add pictures, video and files to your articles. Read more about it on the Everything Typepad Blog.

Spend an hour to learn the basics and finally create that blog you’ve been thinking about!

New Media Marketing is Prospecting 2.0

As a result of my gushing abount REBarCamp and Inman Real Estate Connect NYC 2009 around the office, I’ve been asked to do a presentation to my company about social media. I received some questions via Facebook in response to a status update I posted about creating this presentation that really made me think more clearly about what I wanted to say to my audience, agents who have little to no experience with social media, social networking, blogging, etc, and who aren’t quite convinced that it’s worthwhile.

So, if you’re already savvy with regard to this stuff, you might be a bit bored by this article. But I would love for you to help me out by leaving your thoughts in the comments  as I attempt to lay out a few basic ideas which will, hopefully, convince some of these agents to open their mind to new (to them) ways of getting business on the web. Some of this may seem rudimentary but I do believe the majority of agents out there are not using the web to generate business, and they probably don’t know who to ask these things. I’m going to use a Q & A format as I think the questions are great and I don’t have to think as hard.

Question

What do you mean by ‘social networking’?

Answer

Social networking is the practice of building business through establishing relationships with people. Here is a more detailed definition. We real estate agents have always done social networking as part of our business, but now with the availability and wide acceptance of social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc), we have the opportunity to reach more people and connect with them faster on the internet.

Question

Is all the time spent on social networking worth it? How much time do you personally spend on this endeavor?

Answer

Individuals need to determinse what kind of time commitment makes sense to them and fits in to their business plan. My time investment in social media probably won’t necessarily work for you, so the actual amount of time I spend (=alot) isn’t really relevant to what kind of time you should be investing. I will say, though, that you definitely do need to make some kind of time commitment and see it through for several months to be able to gauge your return.

Question

Since the hard expense of “social networking” is relatively low, what return on your time (ROT) have you received so far? (An old mentor of mine used to say if you can’t measure it, don’t do it.)

Answer

I have no hard numbers to show you how worth it it has been to me. However, Jeff Turner said something very interesting in NYC in January that really made sense. He asked, “How do you determine the ROI on going to Kiwanis meetings or other ‘stuff’ we do as real estate agents out in our communities?” This pretty much sums it up. Online social networking is networking <period> The nice thing about it is that you can do it at midnight on your sofa in your jammies sometimes if you want!

Plus, as you pointed out, it doesn’t you anything except your time.

Question

Where do I start? Facebook? ActiveRain? Blogging? Etc. Etc.

Answer

Yes.

Find something you like and do it. Facebook is a really great one to start with in my opinion because you can try out all kinds of media in this one site. You have the ability to share photos, communicate via video, try your hand at writing via the Notes application, get creative with status updates, use music to bond with your friends, etc. Facebook is a good way to get your feet wet and to see what really works for you. However, it’s not for everyone.

Question

How does “social networking” stack up to good, old-fashioned prospecting? Or do you consider THIS new-fashioned prospecting?

Answer

I consider this new-fashioned prospecting, hence the title to this post. To me, the new way is much more fun than the old way and, therefore, more likely to be successful because you will actually enjoy it and consistently do it.

Question

What are some of the things that you have done that didn’t work for you?

Answer

I’ve tried out a few sites that I didn’t like, so I gave them up. Also, trying to start too many new things at once was not a good idea.

Question

What are the top three -or- five -or- seven -or (pick a number) things that you should do?

Answer

1) Start reading blogs. Find an RSS reader you like (I use Google Reader), set it up and start subscribing to blogs…industry blogs geared toward real estate professionals (like AgentGenius), real estate blogs which target consumers (from your local area, or not…the idea is to see what other agents are up to), and blogs about blogging and writing. Make time to go through your reader every week. You may not want to read every article, but at least scan the articles for things that interest you. The stuff you learn will amaze you. Read more about that and get a list of my 12 must-read recommendations HERE.2) Find a network or two that interest you and jump in! Facebook, LinkedIn, Seesmic, Twitter, Pownce, Flickr, Blip.fm, YouTube…the list is endless.

3) Learn the rules/etiquette of social networking, try out new things as time allows, and stick with it.

Related Reading

I’m New, I’m Broke, and I’m Finding Solutions

Jeff Turner’s 25 Web Sites For Your Business

The Top 10 Social Networks for Generation-Y

8 Tips to Enhance Your Social Media Effectiveness

These could very well be named the 8 Commandments of Social Media. Check out these basics…mandatory for newbies but also great reminders for those of us who’ve been at it on Facebook, Twitter, etc, for awhile. Presented in a no-nonsense, easy-to-understand way, just like we like it!

Take a few minutes to watch this video, you’ll be glad you did.

1st Step to Being Web Savvy

The amount of information available to us out on the interwebs is astounding. How do you make the most of all that information out there? How can you keep up with the latest information to enhance your real estate business? Sure, you can bookmark all of your favorite sites, but it is really cumbersome and time-consuming to go to each site and find all the articles you need to catch up on. You need a more efficient work flow.

RSS Feed Icon

Enter RSS Feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a nifty piece of technology that allows information providers to feed stuff to users automatically. I am sure you’ve seen this icon on different site around the internet. This symbol is your clue that there is a feed available on the site, so you can subscribe and receive timely updates about things that interest you…this could be any kind of information, blog articles, news items, LinkedIn updates, etc. Accessing the feed is as easy as clicking on the icon.

The Feed Reader is Your Friend
There are various ways that you can gather the articles and information from RSS feeds. I use Google Reader . There are others out there, including one built in to Internet Explorer (search IE Help for ‘Feeds’). It’s really simple to set up your feed reader – you’ll be up and running in a matter of minutes.

Now Go Browse
When you come upon a site that you like and want to stay current on, just click on the subscribe link or RSS icon found on the page. An icon may appear somewhere near the address bar of your browser, too. Either one works. You may need to click again to verify how you want to subscribe, but there is not much more involved.

Speed Reading
When you have a free moment in front of your computer, when you are on floor duty or whatever, go in to your feed reader and scan through the headlines of all of your aggregated articles. Everything will be there in one place so you can keep track of things you’ve read, mark things as favorites, save things for later, or click through to the original website to leave a comment or whatever. Once you get the hang of scanning through your reader, you will be amazed at the number of articles you can devour in a short period of time. You are gonna be so smart!

Some Sites to Get You Started

Here are a few of my favorite sites, recommended to increase your knowledge in real estate topics and in technologies related to the business. Trust me, if you start doing a little reading, you are going to amaze yourself at the things you’ll learn. I have no formal training in any of this computer stuff and have learned just by reading and trying things. Don’t be intimidated by the ‘T’ word – Technology is your friend!

Here are a dozen sites to get your feed reader warmed up!

http://AgentGenius.com

http://Ribeezie.com

http://LifeHacker.com

http://PARealtor.org/blog

http://1000WattBlog.com

http://MakeUseOf.com

http://Blog.Realtors.org

http://BiggerPockets.com

http://Inman.com/blog

http://GeekEstateBlog.com

http://Blog.FlexMLS.com

http://4Realz.net

And don’t forget to click on the little orange RSS icon at the very top right of this page to subscribe to my Tides updates, which will include lots of nifty tidbits of advice to keep you flowing in this New Media stuff!!

Welcome to Tides

I started this blog as a place to keep my tutorials and advice for my peers in the real estate business. Much of this will be geared to my friends in the Pocono Mountains (I know, ocean theme in the mountains seems like a disconnect… but it is my blog and I like Tides dammit :)), but is easily translated to other areas/markets.

I hope you find this site to be informative and fun. If there are topics you’d like me to cover, please let me know.

~Lisa