Archive for June, 2010
Luxury Realtors Ahead Of The Marketing Curve
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing on June 4th, 2010
According to an Influential Marketing Blog, Realtors in the luxury home market may be ahead of the curve when it comes to building personal brands and other marketing practices in general.
There has been a strong increase in attention to personal branding since the rise of social media. Professionals in all industries are finding new ways to better build their reputation in order to advance and make sales. This is something that Realtors, especially those in the luxury market, already know all too well.
Realtors understand that credibility is everything and social media has effectively expanded this idea into other industries. Personal branding for CEOs is more important now than ever and it’s thanks to social media sites like LinkedIn.
What Else Have Realtors Been Doing Well?
One thing that is required in luxury real estate marketing is high quality visuals. This includes videos and photos. Both of which can be leveraged for great gain in social media on sites like YouTube and Flickr. Realtors know that these extravagant properties will only sell if they are beautifully showcased on the Internet. Visuals are crucial in Real Estate and data proves that consumers in all markets like visuals instead of type. This is why YouTube is so popular.
This raises the question of whether or not your own property photos are properly telling the story. If you are a community that considers its pool a large selling point shouldn’t you focus on having some incredible visuals of it. Don’t stop at photos, you need video as well because of its relevance in search engines and its emotional appeal. Isn’t that what selling Real Estate all about?
One last point
Most luxury Realtors are a part of the communities they sell in. This gives them a significant amount of credibility. This is just like joining social networks. These networks are communities that you must join to gain credibility.
Social Media Is Changing More Than Just Marketing
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on June 3rd, 2010
Social media is doing more than just changing advertising and marketing. Some think that it is changing the world and there are plenty of examples that support this claim.
Maybe the greatest example of how social media is changing the world lies in a quick overlook of Barack Obama’s run at the White House. From the very beginning Obama and his campaign team utilized the power of social media. They understood what it meant to connect with people and the staying power of campaign videos on YouTube. Did you know that Obama’s campaign videos received 110 million views at an estimated 14.5 million hours of viewing? Experts believe that this kind of exposure would have cost somewhere near $47 million.
With the help of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, Obama took social media all the way to the White House defeating two better-known politicians in the process.
This Is A Great Reminder for Marketers
Besides Obama’s presidential campaign, social media is altering the way we communicate, learn, and consume. It is important to remember that social media was designed for communication, not commerce. While communication has always been an intricate part of commerce, it’s still preceded when it comes to social media.
This has always and will continue you to be the big mistake made by marketers and companies. People are on Facebook to talk and interact. This can most certainly be with brands but the communication aspect must always come first. You have to earn the right to sit at the table. You wouldn’t sit down at a random table full of unfamiliar faces and just start trying to sell real estate would you? You have to form relationships first.
People use social media for reasons other than consumption and commerce. These are secondary reasons for its use and marketers need to remember that. It’s about making yourself accessible on their terms and gaining their trust. It’s not about sending all of your friends and followers direct messages about your product. This is what most of us call spam.
Can Linkedin Help You Sell Real Estate
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on June 2nd, 2010
If you look at the majority of social media marketing strategies you’ll probably notice that there are three components commonly used. It seems that Facebook, Twitter, and a Blog are almost always used interchangeably. This makes sense considering their broad reach and lack of specifics in demographics. I think there are certain marketing strategies that make sense with Facebook and not so much with Twitter. It really depends on whom you are trying to talk to and what you are trying to achieve.
What about LinkedIn?
LinkedIn has gained some serious steam over the last year. Members have grown by 31% and show no real signs of stopping. The average LinkedIn member is a 43-year-old college graduate making $107,000 a year and more than one quarter are senior executives. This sounds like a demographic that a lot of luxury real estate companies would like to capture. Thanks to LinkedIn’s advertising model, they can.
If you’re selling luxury condos in Atlanta than you know that LinkedIn members will meet most of your target market’s characteristics. It makes sense that luxury real estate companies are advertising here knowing that key demographics are using this network. With an ad delivery system similar to Facebook, LinkedIn is giving marketers a great opportunity to reach a more specific audience.
While this is great, it’s important to note that advertising on LinkedIn is completely different than using other social networks for a social media marketing strategy. You should view the use of any PPC advertising program the same way you view Google marketing. These messages are not social in their structure. They’re just being used on social networking sites. The same goes for Facebook. Beyond its advertising program, LinkedIn is still useful for professional networking and job hunting. Not for selling real estate.
