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Have you tried Google’s Wonder Wheel?

The next time you run a search on Google:

1. Choose the “Show Options” link located just below the Google search box.

2. A side panel of useful sorting options displays.

3. If you choose Wonder Wheel from the “Standard View” category, a wheel display of relevant search terms displays. By simply clicking on one of the search terms will display a new sub-wheel of relevant search terms and so on and so on. It provides a more intuitive graphical display and makes the task of narrowing down your search results a little easier. It’s also a fantastic way to research relevant and related key words for website and Blog article Search Engine Optimization. Kudos to my friend Scott for sharing this cool insight.

Online Classified Services

Just like a newspaper, the internet has had “classified” websites for a long time.  Some of the original bulletin board services (BBS’s), when the ‘net was fresh and new, were glorified, online swap meets.  Someone had some hardware, furniture or something that they needed to sell and they offered it via their BBS.

Craigslist is the 800 lb Gorilla

If you’ve not heard of Craigslist, check out the site and learn how you can expose your listings to a much larger audience than just your local MLS.  We’ve used Craigslist to market our rentals and first time home buyer priced homes.  Every time we put one of those listings out on Craigslist, the phone and email inbox light up with inquiries.

Craigslist isn’t the Only Gorilla in the Mist

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Trulia and Zillow: Online Area Experts

You’ve no doubt heard about Trulia and Zillow.  Did you know that both services want agent input to help answer consumer questions?

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Social Media, Blogs & Twitter: Oh My!

19 Reasons You Should Blog And Not Just Tweet

Great post on why you should not simply focus on one network in your SocNet strategy at the detriment of other networks.

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn…they all have good aspects in trying to connect and re-connect with friends, family, past clients and soon-to-be clients.  The one thing they all have in common, other than being able to absorb a LOT of your time, should be your…

Blog.

Your Blog is Where Your Heart Is

Yep, I’m saying that you should treat your blog like you would your home.  In thinking of your blog as your home, let’s stretch the analogy a little further.

You invite a bunch of “followers” to your home for a get together.  They drive to your home, come in through the front door, admire your taste in [fill in whatever hobbies float your boat], grab a drink and head out to the deck where the grill is working its magic.

Once you’ve gathered a few folks in this manner, you simply have a good time.  Make sure everyone’s comfortable, the conversation is good and the food and drink are plentiful.

5.  Secret everyone knows:  most of Twitter is just linking to blogs and content on the open web.  Being the end product people are actually interested in and focus their attention on is where your ideas will be studied carefully, not in the cacophony of Twitter.

Easy, right?

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Social Media in Real Estate

What is Social Media?

Social Media according to Wikipedia, “are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings.” The different social media outlets aim to integrate both media (print, audio, video) and interaction between the content creators and the consumers of the media.

Social Media? Like MSNBC?

No doubt you’ve heard about Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. All three of these social networks (SocNets) have their place within the online community as places to “gather.”

You’ve also likely tried to get involved in one SocNet or another and found yourself asking, “Why do I care what these people are doing right now? Heck, why do they care about what I’M doing?”

Both are valid questions, however the point of social media is to have a conversation with prospective clients across the internet. Remember, the National Association of Realtors states that nearly 90% of real estate consumers utilize the internet to find information about their next foray into real estate.

So, if 90% of consumers are utilizing the internet, that means that as an agent, you need to be found in as many places as possible across the ‘net….just like your listings!

[but that's an entirely separate subject and article]

Why SocNets? Think Chamber of Commerce…

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The New Real Estate

The last few years have seen a massive shift in how real estate is done. The basics of real estate sales still work and work well. In addition to knowing how to get deals closed, today’s real estate market requires you to know a lot more about how information moves.The two areas where the real estate industry has seen a gigantic shift is in: 1 – the crumbling of house values;
2 – the heavy emphasis on systems and technology to close transactions.

Where Have all the Values Gone?

[apologies to Paula Cole and her song Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?]

Seemingly, the halcyon days of real estate are behind us when you could list a home, throw a dart to choose the price and the home would sell in a week. Sellers were ecstatic, agents elated and buyers were just happy they purchased before things got too expensive.

Then the house of cards collapsed…

Now, agents have to justify to sellers why their home is worth 20-50% less than when they purchased. Buyers are having a field day applying the boot to sellers that NEED to sell.

Agents, meanwhile, have adapted as they know best. Some, who saw the declining values as never-ending and too much work, bolted the industry. Other agents, comfortable with their communication skills and an eye for the long term, saw the drop as their time to shine. These agents KNOW in their hearts that by serving their clients well, during the period of a down market, they will reap the rewards when the market turns…

Transparency…there’s that word again

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Twitter for Real Estate

You know something has hit it “big time” when Oprah is using and talking about it:

This social network has been a buzz word for some time now.  What separates this Social Network (SocNet) from others is its ability for one person to reach thousands of others in a short period of time.

Pictures, audio and anything else you can point to via a website can be shared on Twitter!

Real estate agents, being the social animals that we are, have jumped on SocNets, and twitter, bandwagon.  In fact, it appears as though the real estate industry as a whole has grasped the power of this particular social network more so than any other industry!

But I’ve Heard…

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As a Real Estate Agent, Don’t You Want to Try this Just Once?

Here’s a funny reminder of the stereotype that Realtors(R) get stuck with periodically.

Fortunately, for consumers, not every real estate agent fits this mold!

However, even though this video is quite exaggerated, high pressure agents ARE common – especially right now since business has beome skinnier.

If you have any hint of ‘need’, consumers will smell it a mile away and will run from you like you’re from the Night of the Living Dead.

High pressure sales ’stench’ comes from the lack of predictable business. And realizing that this is huge problem for agents right now, when we were deciding what product to launch theRockStarAgent.com with, we decided to roll out our  lead generation systems first. We figured getting agents a steady flow of predictable business in the face of the current housing debacle would bring the most value to agents.

And in the first month since launching, we have already had 40+ agents take advantage of our Automatic Lead Generation course.  It features over 7 hours of video and a 65 page manual that takes you step by step through the process of creating your own online lead generation system.

What’s cool is these agents are already getting a steady flow of business from this system and it has solved their ‘commission breath’ problem.

They no longer have to ask,”Do you have your checkbook with you TODAY?”  or, “DID I AKS YOU?”   

Communication and Information

Is your message getting out?

How?

How do you find information and convey it to your clients?

The Trouble with Twitter

It may sound odd, but this little social media site, twitter, is kicking up some huge discussion.  And the real estate industry is leading the discussion.  As an industry, real estate agents have instinctively known the usefulness of networking.  After all, it’s a great job, well done when an agent is able to go through their network to bring a buyer to their client’s home for sale.  Your solving two problems simply because you “know people.”

Twitter is networking on a much larger, faster level.  My best description about all social networks (SocNet), not just twitter, is that they are like Chamber of Commerce networking meetings, without geographic boundaries.

There are some other benefits to being apart of any SocNet, including twitter:

• the ability to connect with other professionals in different markets and learn from their practices
• the ability to connect with clients coming to or moving from your market place
• the almighty Google indexes all public “tweets” on twitter and other SocNet updates
  • huge if you want to capture eyeballs for a specific search term, like “[community name] real estate” [nudge, nudge, wink, wink]

The Trouble with Twitter

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