Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’

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Real Estate Marketing with Social Media

Posted by Brent on June 28th, 2009

To remain competitive in today’s environment, real estate professionals and home builders must understand who their buyers are, where they are doing their research, and how to effectively communicate their brand message.   As we continue to see a dramatic shift away from traditional media, home builders and marketers are seeking advertising channels that are most cost effective, more targeted, and more measurable. 

homeInternet marketing is earning greater recognition as the industry becomes more educated about the valuable marriage between creativity and technology.  Social media is one of these strategies that is gaining fantastic momentum.  Social media as a marketing strategy has made so many advancements in the past 12 months that it is hard to keep track.  The online marketing space has redefined how companies brand themselves, communicate with customers, and allocate marketing dollars. 

Transparency is the only way builders can remain relevant and competitive.  The old days of companies hiding behind their “big brand” are over.  Companies that are engaging in social media are committing to real customer interaction and showing who they really are as a brand and as a team.  This article aims at providing insight into why we should care about social media, how it is redefining the way we market products and services,  and how to use it effectively to sell homes.

Why Should We Care About Social Media Marketing?

Home builders and real estate professionals need to understand that their buyers are in fact online and are using social networking sites on a regular basis:
• According to the National Association of REALTORS “Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers 2008″ 87% of home buyers use the Internet to search for a home.
• According to a 2009 Facebook statistics report, the fastest growing group on Facebook is now the 35 to 54 year old demographic growing at growing at 276.4% in the first six months of 2009.  The 55+ demo is not far behind with a 194.3% growth rate.
• According to Nielsen, unique visitors to Twitter increased 1,382 percent year-over-year, from 475,000 unique visitors in February 2008 to 7 million in February 2009, making it the fastest growing site in the Member Communities category for the month.
• YouTube is now considered the largest vertical search engines in the world with well over 70,000,000 videos (as of March 2008)

Redefining the Marketing Landscape

The hybrid approach:  Social media marketing has created a fusion between real estate marketing, advertising, and customer relations.  The most successful real estate focused social media campaigns combine all online and offline marketing efforts and truly engage the audience.  The companies that use these strategies effectively are fully committed and spend considerable time on these initiatives.  Once a campaign gains momentum, the social platforms (i.e. Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube) become real communication tools.  Builders can now actively interact with potential buyers and industry professionals in a more personal manner.  Consumers want to see user-generated content and learn about your brand from people outside your organization. 

Branding:  We should be careful about how we define “branding” as it applies to marketing and advertising.  Sometimes branding can be thought of as that marketing strategy with an indefinable ROI.  Actually, it is of course much more important.  These days it doesn’t take just good advertising or PR to brand your company.  For home builders that already have a distinct brand image social media is about creating trust and transparency while still protecting the brand.  Once a real estate professional or home builder begins social media they should encourage everyone in the company to contribute.  A builder’s brand shouldn’t just be about the homes and communities.  It should be about the team of people driving the business.  If the Simon Cooper of Ritz Carlton is a regular blogger and uses Twitter, that should tell us something.

Cost Effectiveness:  Just like any other marketing strategy, Internet marketing and social media should be designed to support a builder’s sales goals.  With budgets being tighter, it is crucial to design a marketing plan that contains strategies that are measurable and can produce a desired ROI.   One of the key ways that Internet marketing and social media are more cost effective is because it is targeted.  With social media marketing, an effective campaign starts first with setting goals, doing research, and defining the audience.  There are many great social media tools available to help plan and manage campaigns.  The key element for measuring results should be in the analytics.  All social media pages should link to the company website and gradually build traffic and conversions.

10 Tips for Getting Started

1. The team:  Whether your hire a social media agency or consultant or use an in-house team, you have to be committed to investing in the process.  It’s all or nothing.  If you outsource, it is still recommended to have someone in-house directing the message and strategy.  The more your buyers and potential buyers communicate with you, the more you will have to remain involved.  If you plan to build an in-house team, enlist the help of some Internet savvy interns for some extra man power. 

2. Website:  Do not spend time and energy engaging in any online strategy until you have a website that is user-friendly and designed to foster conversions (i.e. building an email list, capturing registrations, and generating sales).  Your website will always be your most important foundation from which any online marketing strategy will be built.  Make sure to have Google analytics installed in your site so you can actively monitor traffic levels, traffic sources, bounce rates, and time on site. Be sure to have a great database management system for capturing and organizing incoming leads. 

3. Blog:  Keep in mind that social media is first about providing value to your online community and building trust.  The best place to start is with a blog.  Blogs are easy to set up and show your customers that you care about what’s going on in your industry.  Word Press blogs are a great recommendation and very “Google-friendly”.  Be sure to build your blog into your website as opposed to having it as an external site.  Write about current topics that people can relate to and never make your message self serving.  If you don’t think you have time for all this, think again.  Like physical fitness, if you care about it and are committed, you will make the time.

4. Facebook, Active Rain, Twitter, YouTube:  Set up a Fan Page on Facebook.com and profiles on Twitter and ActiveRain.com.  You will build a large network in two ways: (1) networking within the online community itself and inviting people to “join” your fan club or “follow” you on Twitter; (2) driving traffic from outside sources to your profile pages, which you can accomplish this by having links to your profile pages and encouraging people to follow or join. 

You will keep them engaged by having good content (i.e. your blog articles is a great place to start).  You can set up an RSS feed so that your blogs are automatically posted to your Twitter page and Facebook page.  Set up a YouTube channel and start adding content.  Most builders have some kind of video or TV content so start adding it to your YouTube channel and Facebook fan page.  To create new video content, purchase a simple flip camera and shoot three to five minute videos at your properties.  Interview sales representatives, property managers, and even owners. 

5. Communicate & Build a Following:  Your efforts will be fruitless unless you have a loyal following which takes some time to build.  The more effort you put into it, the better your results will be.  Ask your social media partner for effective ways to build a following on Twitter without spamming the community.  Be active on your profile pages on Facebook and ActiveRain.  The more value you have to offer the more people will talk.  Management should lead by example and get involved.  Encourage all employees and sales people to be a part of the network.  Once you have some momentum you can start incorporating your special incentives, promotions, events, grand openings, and other creative messages.  When communicating special offerings, remember to include links to landing pages that give more details and have very clear calls to action like simple registration forms. 

6. Online/Offline Integration:  Include links to all of your social media profile pages and YouTube channel on your website.  Also make reference to these sites in all other marketing and advertising efforts.  If your fully engaged in social media and offer a great resource to potential buyers, why not brag about it?

7. Track Results and Conversions:  The best way to really track results is to be sure your social media platforms are always pointing back to your website and landing pages.  From there you can use your analytics to watch how much traffic is coming from these sources and how its converting. 

8. Get your sales teams involved:  Every member of your sales team should be active in their own social media efforts and the company’s.  Just be sure that there is some level of control to the overall message being communicated through your social networks. 

9. Get your communities involved:  All of a homebuilder’s communities should have their own Facebook and Twitter accounts and be actively involved in the company’s network as well. 

10. Get Creative:  After you gain momentum, the sky is the limit.  Your social network sites then become a platform for creativity and true customer relationship management.  Develop new concepts like special promotions, events, and contests.  Make it fun for people to be inlcuded in your online community.


Social Media Consulting

Posted by Brent on June 8th, 2009

Social media continues to draw attention and buzz in the marketing world and will continue to evolve.  As a stand alone industry it is very new and generally thought of as a “service” within the Internet marketing umbrella.  However, the foundation of social media is really about client/customer communication and conversation.  Regardless of what some social media “consultants” might say, there is still not a black and white way to measure complete ROI with social media alone.  The most important take away though is that without that active “conversation” with customers, you are not making progress with your social media strategy.

As the buzz grows, social media consultants have been coming out of the wood work…actually, due to the economy, ALL kinds of consultants have been coming out of the wood work as people transition between jobs.  There is nothing wrong with this but as the volume grows, the range between actual experience and self proclaimed expertise grows. 

There are two ways to offer social media marketing as a service:  (1) consulting; and (2) actual implementation/management.

When seeking social media marketing services, many companies need everything from the research and strategy to implementation and management.  Its usually a bandwidth issue.  The company doesn’t know enough about social media nor do they have the internal resources to actively engage their online audience and manage a full campaign.  This of course is totally normal and good Internet marketing/social media companies can provide this.  The downside is the long term scalability and accuracy of the “message” being communicate to the audience.  If communication between the service provider and the client is clear and regular (i.e. the client at least has one point of contact helping develop the strategy and message) then this type of relation can work very well.

On the other hand, many Internet marketing companies are leaning more to the consulting side rather than trying to implement and manage the entire effort.  The benefit to this is that it gives the client the internal knowledge and capability to control their own client communication (via social networks).  The consultant’s role is very robust however and involves continually educating the client, research, strategy, initial set-up and training, and ongoing management.  The consultant plays an ongoing role overseeing the team on the client side.  The long term take away though is that the client is empowered to take the reigns.  Some companies fear this of course because they don’t want the client to “learn” the best practices and fire them after a few months.  There is always that risk but if the consultant is doing their job, there will be real ongoing value as social media is a constantly changing environment.

Which approach is better is really based on the needs of the client but in the long run the client should learn as much as possible so they can play a close role in the online “conversation”.

So how do you choose a social media marketing company?  The list of ways to choose a social media cosultant is pretty much the same as when you research an Internet marketing company.  One of the main things I wanted to point out however, is that the more well-rounded a firm is the better.  There is always value in a company that focuses on one thing and does it well.  However, these days the lines between different online marketing strategies are very grey and most compliment one anther extremely well.  For example, social media and organic search engine optimization (SEO) are huge compliments.  I would always recommend ensuring the two strategues are tied together.


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Twitter: Explosive Growth VS. Retention

Posted by Brent on June 3rd, 2009

As we all know Twitter has grown immensely in the past few months due to major media hype and droves of celebrities jumping on the social media band waggon.  According to Nielson, Twitter will face an “uphill battle” due to the void between explosive growth and retention.  Twitter’s retention rates are around 40% month after month of people who actually return.  We are seeing people set up profiles and play around for a few days or weeks then never return.  So how will Twitter combat this and give user’s more reason to keep coming back?

Studies show that sites like MySpace and Facebook even had better retention rates in their early days…even during explosive growth periods.  Often you will see fast growth lead to lower retention but these two sites experienced the opposite:  fast growth lead to even higher retention.  See the chart below:

social_network_loyalty

Notice the consistency of MySpace and Facebook over Twitter.  Of course, there could be many reason for this.  Obviously, Twitter has fewer “bells and whistles” than the comprehensive social networking platforms like Facebook.  Over time they will need to give users more functionalities (which I am sure they are working on) to keep them on the site longer and coming back every day.  Of course, Twitter has made quite a name for itslef as a powerful social media marketing tool, but for it to continue to hold that title it will have to retain users.  Like anything else, establishing user loyalty will be the key to their long-term success.

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Anytime, anywhere, videos on Twitter

Posted by Yashar on May 22nd, 2009

Receiving information via television is so 2000 Late! If you want to view your favorite TV shows, movies, trailers, etc, you can do it by going to Hulu.com, download them from your iTunes account, PS3 video store, Amazon video, YouTube, and now you can even view videos through Twitter. Social Media is becoming more than anyone ever imagined!

There is a new site called twitmatic that allows you to search for any search term you want. It then performs a search from all tweets posted with a video link and presents them to you in a nice legible format. If you type in Star Wars for example, you are presented with trailers, spoofs, Star Trek vs Star Wars video, and much more. This is why Social Media for businesses are becoming so vital.

Business who have not embraced Social Media yet, need to know that everyone else is embracing it. If your business has a video online, it is important that it is a compelling video you want to showcase to the world. If you want it to be found via YouTube, ot in this case via twitmatic from posted tweets – it needs to be compelling.

Social Media is here to stay. It has been embraced by radio stations, newscasters, celebrities, and pretty soon everyone else around you.

Twitmatic

Social Media: Gaining Acceptance

Posted by Yashar on May 16th, 2009

Here at IMI, we have been big proponents of using social media for all kinds of businesses. Social Media is not, and should not be exclusive to tech companies, and this can be seen by giants such as Starbucks, Whole Foods, and more. Social Media is the replacement of what PR and traditional marketing used to conduct, and as a result businesses are jumping on the bandwagon so they will not stay behind.

According to Business Journal, social media has begun to gain wide acceptance.

“More than two-thirds of those who responded to the most recently completed Business Pulse survey said they use sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for work.

About 12 percent said they use social media only for business. About 18 percent said they use it only for personal enjoyment.

Another 37 percent said they use the sites for both reasons.

About 11 percent said they have tried the sites but don’t use them while about 19 percent said they have never been to a social media site.”

These numbers keep changing daily.  Social Media is here to stay, but to be successful your business must have a clear cut plan of what it needs, what it wants, and what audience it is intending to rech out to.  Additionally, because running a social media campaign is a job in itself, many businesses cannot afford to hire a full time person to do an overwhelming task.  This is where hiring the right Social Media company comes into place.  They have the knowledge and expertise, and will assist you in obtaining what you need without breaking your bank account.

All Things Online – ATO

Posted by Yashar on May 14th, 2009

Our very first ATO – All Things Online. Expect one new episode every week.


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Social Media for Luxury Brands

Posted by Brent on May 7th, 2009

Social media marketing experts would all agree that no two social media campaigns are alike.  Many are similiar and use the standard Facebook/Twitter foundations of course, but the strategies and target audiences are usually different.  The most effective viral marketing campaigns start with extensive research and planning.  Any good social media marketing company will help you plan for success by researching the online space to see how and where you need to position your products and services. 

But what if you need to tackle very high-end luxury brands or want super elite networking opportunities?  Are Facebook and Twitter going to provide a solution to these needs…probably not.  Below are three of the top social networks that happen to be “invite only” and are home to top business leaders, CEO’s, entrepreneurs, and influences in entertainment, media, fashion, sports, finance and international business.

A Small World (asmallworld.net):

This site is growing enormously and has members such entrepreneurs, business leaders, etc.  Over 65% of the members live in Europe and over 10,000 are business owners and CEOs.  Members use the site for everything from networking and business transactions, to event planning and random acts of kindness.

Decayenne (decayenne.com):

This is another great elite social network with members having an average age of 33 and many have masters level educations.  The key areas of profession are finance and banking.  Members cover Europe, USA, Asia, South America, Africa, and the Middle East.  Members exchange business ideas, engage in lucrative transactions, get married, and buy and sell real estate.

Qube (qubers.com):

This site was originally developed by a luxury lifestyles group and members come from across the glode.  Many reside in European countries.  The sites hosts a wide array of user-generated conversations on topics including business, travel, charity, real estate and more.  Business is the most popular forum where members seek to do deals and post various needs such as website designers and real estate joint ventures.

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Using Your Brain on Twitter by Twinking

Posted by Mike Martin on April 22nd, 2009

The next evolution of has occurred this month as University of Wisconsin-Madison biomedical engineering doctoral student, Adam Wilson, posted a Twitter status update just by thinking about it.

twitter-brain

This application would be useful by those suffering ALS, spinal cord injuries, or brain-stem strokes who are unable to communicate verbally or by typing.

The interface as it stands now registers brain activity when viewing a keyboard displayed on the screen.

The process is similar to early phone texting as the system redundantly confirms via your brain signals which letter you absolutely want inputted on the screen, thus taking quite a while for a message to complete.

Adam told the Wisconsin Technology Network that he has seen people accomplish up to 8 characters a minute, thus a 140 character Twitter tweet by twinking would take over 15 minutes to complete.

Research scientist Gerwin Schalk states, “This is one of the first – and perhaps most useful – integrations of brain-computer interface techniques with Internet technologies to date.”

So now people can really know what you are tWinking.

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Taco Trucks Using Social Media Marketing?

Posted by Brent on April 14th, 2009

You bet!  The following example is one of the most aggressive (but simple) gorilla marketing efforts (via social media) done by a simple Mom and Pop Korean Taco Truck in Los Angeles.  The good old days of big marketing budgets may be over for a while but small companies with large visions are killing it with social media.  There is a big difference between basic social media and social media down right.  A company must make a true committment to these efforts if they want to see a tangible ROI.  The soft an easy approach usually doesn’t work.  A good recomendation is to hire an experience Internet marketing company or social media marketing company to handle this effort.

Take a look at how Kogi tackled the world of late night Korean BBQ tacos with agressive (but meaningful) use of Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and blogs. First, the set up a great looking

kogi-logo-final

website with a design feel that you would not expect from people in the late night taco business.  After that they used the following basic SEO and social media marketing tactics. First, they realized that content is king, but not just with thoughtful blogs and articles.  Although they have a great blog.  They developed a large inventory of videos as well to fill the site with rich media in a Google friendly way (i.e. YouTube videos).  They also set up an account on Flickr and use Youtube to marketing the videos.  They have a powerful SEO campaign because the site has great basic SEO coding and the rest is in the valuable content (a good mix of copy and video as well as great inbound links developed through their social media efforts).

Next, they did what any good social media company would do and found out where their target audience was hanging out online.  Twitter just so happened to be the most responsive tool in their soccial media tool kit and they are up to a following of about 14,000.  The next step is crucial and where many social media campaigns fall short.  They actively and regularly interact with their audience.  They don’t just post comments and truck locations on Twitter, they use it as a real communication tool. They talk to their customers, get feedback and even include them in branding ideas, t-shirt designs, etc.  This gives their customers a sense of community and ownership.  It sounds crazy because most of their customers visit them after being at the clubs and bars all night!  But it works!

The company has a true sense of authenticity and transparency.  They know their customers and their customers know them.  They started as a simple mobile taco stand and know have two trucks and customers that stand in line for over an hour late at night to get their hands on the awesome tacos!  The best part about their social media campaign is that they have a good product.  None of this works in the long run if there isn’t something great on the other end for the consumer.  In fact, that is where the world of Web 2.0 can bite you.  This leads into a discussion of online reputation management, but we will dig into that later.  More to come!


Follow the Social Media Herd – All 14 Million of Them

Posted by Mike Martin on April 8th, 2009

 

This is a pretty telling chart showing where the social media herd is going over the past year.

It will be interesting if Google pulls the trigger to buy Twitter in the coming months and if either company can find a way to truly monetize it.

Is your business on Twitter and how are you leveraging it to help you and your customers?

twitter-dominates-unique-visitors

 

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