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Mobile-Friendly or Say Goodbye
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on January 11th, 2012
Is your website mobile-friendly? Do you still think that technology is not worth the 
extra effort? Not necessary?
With the increase in smartphone owners, iPads, Tablets, Nooks and so on, companies will have to make sure their website can be accessed through these devices. If your company has an outdated website that depends of flash technology, complicated fonts, or long loading times you can expect people to abandon it quicker than you can say www.
People often access their favorite websites from their smartphone or tablet while at work, in the airport, waiting at the doctor’s office, the bank, or just about anywhere else they find themselves having a moment of downtime. If they can’t access your business information, your company loses out.
What’s Important in a Mobile Site?
Creating a mobile version of your site doesn’t have to be painful or expensive. In fact it’s typically a smaller version of your existing website with a more simplistic design. The important thing is to identify the key actions you want your customers to take when accessing your mobile site.
Here are some basic tips:
Screens are smaller, which means the fonts are smaller. Eliminate non-essential copy.
People are not going to fill out long contact forms using their phone, especially with coffee in one hand or while driving. If you must have a form, keep it simple: name and email only.
Phones will never be as fast as laptops. Try to limit the size of files and images on your mobile site to minimize loading time.
All numbers should use this simple code that will initiate a call when your customer clicks (or touches) on the phone number on your mobile site. No one will make the extra step of writing down or memorizing your number and then dialing it manually. It’s 2012!
Most smart phones are equipped with GPS technology. Make sure your location is “findable” to mobile searchers.
All in all remember: when creating your mobile presence, simpler is better. Reduce the content and file size, limit the amount of typing your customer is required to perform, and take advantage of smart phone capabilities by adding click to talk numbers and location finders.
Is your site mobile-friendly? Has it affected your business in a positive way?
What’s Effective in 2012 for Real Estate Marketing?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Real Estate Trends on January 10th, 2012
So, it’s 2012 and there are a multitude of options for marketing real estate. What should you spend your advertising dollars on? What funds allocated in your budget will offer the biggest reach, influence and return in the new media world?
ActiveRain, the largest blogging platform and professional social network in real estate, conducted a survey of 1,910 real estate professionals asking the simple question of “what is the most effective real estate marketing or advertising that you do?”
Here are some highlights from the survey results and how you can make it work for your community:
- Referrals and word of mouth were the most preferred, making up an overwhelming 26% of the responses.
- Second place was tied with 13% of responses: Blogging and traditional Direct Mail. This includes postcards, mailers, and printed newsletters.
- Next 12% of responders listed Internet Marketing as a general category. It can be assumed that this category is comprised mostly of pay-per-click ads, such as Google AdWords.
- Finally, networking received 8% of the responses. This includes partner referrals and face-to-face meetings.
Most Effective Real Estate Marketing Plans
Even in this digital age, real estate professionals continue to favor more traditional offline, hand-to-hand marketing techniques: referrals, direct mail, networking, and open houses. Blogging is viewed as an effective medium as well, but it must provide value in order to stay in that 13%.
Most Effective Real Estate Websites
Real Estate professionals polled consistently listed ActiveRain, Craigslist, Facebook, Zillow and Google as the most effective sites for their business. There were very few mentions of WordPress, though as an agency we find it to be at the top of the list for delivering valuable information and gaining a targeted audience. Noticeably absent were Trulia and Realtor.com.
What do you think? Do you agree with the poll? Is there something that works for you that the survey left off?
If you need help with your 2012 marketing plan, let us create a balanced, effective mix of traditional and new media customized for your community’s needs.
What Are Your Advertising Resolutions?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on January 5th, 2012
With the cusp of a New Year upon us, it’s common for us to start to plan resolutions in our personal life. Perhaps you want to lose weight, get in better shape, or stop smoking. But what about your advertising methods? Couldn’t they use a little resolution list as well?
Will you use video this year?
Video is a great way to reach customers, yet fear often stops people from utilizing it to its fullest potential.
With the latest changes to the YouTube homepage, the experience is more of a social feed now, which gives marketers a powerful opportunity to enhance their brand exposure.
Rich media, in conjunction with video, is now more effective than simple Flash. When considering rich media campaigns, also think about including video to increase intent.
Will you start to mix social media with your display advertising?
Making display ads social increases the conversation with your customers, which is the top goal for all new media.
Do you try making your social media pages a primary destination rather than the website? How about setting up banner ads for interaction rather than broadcast only?
Social sharing is now becoming the norm when it comes to ads, blog posts, and even websites.
Are you going mobile with your ads?
I know you’re afraid, but its inevitable – users are now moving more and more to a multi-screen experience via desktop, mobile, and display and marketers must create these experiences in order to keep up.
Most mobile advertising now includes location-based strategies automatically – learn to use them creatively.
Remember – there’s no one right mix for every customer or client. By constantly being aware of your social media presence, you can evaluate the right person, the right timing, and the right message for your business.
Social media is not going away any time soon, but it will keep refining itself. Are you doing the same with your message?
Will the Real 2012 Housing Market Prediction Please Stand Up…
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Real Estate Economics, Real Estate Trends on January 3rd, 2012
When you search for housing market predictions 2012 on Google, it returns roughly 1,650,000 results. As you start scrolling through these well-respected sites and their corresponding articles, you are left scratching your head and wondering what to believe. From gloom and doom naysayers to cheery hopefuls saying the worst is behind us, experts are heard quoting a spectrum of possible outcomes.
CBS News strongly feels that the nation’s real estate balance sheet is slowly turning around.
To further quote the positive article, the official unemployment rate dropped to 8.6 percent, even as the labor participation rate dropped to about 62 percent. But the better news is that the U-6, which is the broadest measure of unemployment, fell below 16 percent for the first time since the Great Recession started.
Of course turning around the housing market begins with well-paying jobs so that people can once again afford a mortgage and insurance premiums.
Fannie Mae chief economist feels that people will not undertake the financial obligation of homeownership until they are positive their personal financial situations are on the upswing. But according to their November National Housing Survey homeowners do believe their home value will rise at least 0.2 percent over the next year.
Another positive sign is that interest rates continue to hover at a historic low level, saving homeowners who can refinance hundreds or thousands of dollars per year.
New construction still leads the industry in the slow bounce back. There are even some markets where existing home sales are picking up as well, which benefits agents, appraisers, attorneys, and mortgage lenders.
CBS News also notes that the biggest indication that the housing market might begin to normalize is that the number of homeowners who are seriously delinquent in their loan payments is shrinking.
Does this mean the market will magically shift to normal in 2012? No, but hope remains that it will be a better year overall for real estate.
What do you think? Which news source resonates best with your own personal and professional outlook of 2012?
Why Isn’t My Facebook Community Growing?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Social Media on December 20th, 2011
Are you wondering why your Facebook Page’s community isn’t growing faster and why people aren’t engaging?
Growing a community is harder on a Facebook Page than on other forms of social media. The level of engagement and result of your efforts must be tied to a goal for you to fully understand how to leverage Facebook for your audience.
What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to generate traffic from your Facebook Page to your website? Are you using the Page as a hub for your online strategy? What do you want your fans (likers?) to get out of the experience? It’s important to know your objectives before you can really analyze what’s not going the way you pictured it.
Here are the top seven reasons your page may not be taking off:
1. Are You Promoting It?
Do you have like boxes on your blog and website? Do you display a Facebook badge on your site? Is it in your signature? Do you have any promotions or announcements in your other forms of advertising that mention your Facebook page?
2. Are You Updating Regularly?
Frequency builds momentum. This doesn’t mean 8-12 posts a day, but you should have a plan and stick to it. By starting with 2 to 3 posts each day, you can observe how people react and make adjustments along the way.
3. Is the Content You Post Engaging Enough?
If your audience isn’t encouraged to participate it won’t. You have to post questions and openly ask for opinions. Picture your page as a Q&A forum in which you share your knowledge and expertise in your field to solve problems. Posting links and “how to” updates are just a small piece of the puzzle. People will stop paying attention to broadcasts – they need something fun to make them think and get them juiced up.
4. Do You Use a Variety of Media?
Facebook makes it easy to post photos, videos, comic strips, notes, and more. Your audience needs variety to keep their interest. Mix it up a bit.
5. Do You Customize?
Do you have a landing page or welcome tab for first-time visitors? While Facebook doesn’t offer a great many ways to stand out from the crowd, this is one place where you can really shine.
You can have a welcome video, run a promotion, integrate a sign up form with your email list, or just make some really fun graphics to enhance your users’ experience and leave a great first impression!
6. Do You Answer Posts?
This may seem like a no-brainer, but once people comment you really need to be present to turn the comment into a live conversation. Even if you don’t agree with or know how to answer the comment, say something. Engage. Converse. It is key if you want to build loyalty in your present audience.
7. Do You Look at Your Analytics?
By paying attention to who is frequenting your page and what they click on the most, you’ll be able to make decisions and actually see how testing different approaches can impact the outcome. Facebook is not about you, it’s about delivering a better experience to your audience.
By putting in a little time and effort, you can understand who is engaging, what types of content drive the most conversation, what times and days are best for your posts, and more.
What about you? What actions make a difference on your Facebook page?
How Are Builders Catering to the Single Woman Buyer?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Demographics on December 15th, 2011
Single women continue to be a major force in the real estate market, according to MSNBC and the National Association of Realtors. The demographic accounted for 20 percent of all homebuyers in the past year, whereas single men only made up 12 percent of the total.
Realtors and builders are taking notice of this trend. In new home construction, builders are putting in extras such as security features, gourmet kitchens and yards with little to no maintenance required.
What else is important to this demographic?
Safety. Industry experts also say a building’s proximity to public transit and parking factor into this equation. Late working professional women would take notice of a parking garage and controlled building entrance.
Socializing opportunities and luxury touches. Events, areas for entertaining, spa, massage room and fitness centers with all the bells and whistles are a huge draw for the savvy woman buyer.
Respect. There’s unfortunately still a perception that single women are gullible—that they can be suckered by a wily contractor. In today’s market, that’s an unfair characterization: they’re smart. They’ve done their research. They probably know more about a building’s floorplans than the salesperson.
When women buy for themselves, they are excited about turning the home into something that reflects them and who they are—this is a continuing trend that should not be ignored by builders and developers.
How to Get More Twitter Followers
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Social Media on December 13th, 2011
When it comes to Twitter, do you have tumbleweeds blowing around your account? You may be seduced by those ads you see for tools that promise 1,000 Twitter followers in one click… but let’s be realistic. Many of those will be spam followers, or even worse: your account will be marked spam for mass following so many people at once.
While I always say it is the quality of followers you want, not quantity, there are some surefire, tried and true ways to get yourself an audience.
It starts with your profile picture
There are two schools of thought here. People relate to people, and this is social media after all. It’s best if you have a real person as your profile picture. Perhaps it’s the CEO or President of your company. People absolutely adore the idea of being able to have a voice in front of a person that’s normally unreachable.
The other is using your brand. Your logo, if it is known in your market, will speak volumes and hopefully generate a feeling of trust before you even type your first tweet.
Either way, photos of a building, product, or a group of people typically do not do as well when it comes to interaction and rapport.
Tweet regularly but mix it up a little
There’s nothing that irritates me more on Twitter than someone who ONLY posts links. Worse yet, only links to their product or service! There is a balance; people want to see you as the expert you are, so tweeting helpful tips and SOME links to other people’s helpful articles are definitely a plus.
Questions are always a great way to encourage engagement. You can speak your opinion about something in your industry and ask your audience what they think.
Getting personal once in a while helps people remember that there is a human behind that tweeting dashboard. Especially if it is a time-sensitive personal comment. Sometimes my most retweeted updates are the ones where I temporarily bare my soul about a current event or family anecdote!
Play nice in the same sandbox
The times have changed. While we used to view everyone in our field as a competitor (or arch nemesis), we find today that collaborations are powerful and end up being a win-win for all parties. When I tweet about what a great article someone in my industry wrote with a link to it, I am now doing several things:
- Bringing an additional resource to my followers
- Gaining the trust and appreciation of the person who wrote the article
- Gaining exposure to their audience, who will most likely end up following me
- Setting the stage for them to do the same
- Opening the door to possibly even doing a joint project
Do you see how that works? Sharing resources no longer means you will lose a customer to your competitor; it means bringing the most value in a way that will be remembered, whether a sale happens that day, week, month, or not at all. It’s about forming relationships.
Don’t’ forget Follow Friday
This may be the quickest way to follow and get followers. Every Friday, be sure to recommend to your audience your favorite people that you follow. Believe me, it will be reciprocated.
How do you get more Twitter followers? Which method works best for you?
Luxuries Are the New Must Haves
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Real Estate Trends on December 8th, 2011
For most people, building a new home starts with a list of “must haves” and a list of luxuries that it would be nice to have.
Some new home amenities have transitioned over the years from being considered luxuries to being standard additions to today’s custom home designs. One of those amenities is a home elevator. Once thought to be an item exclusively talked about by Robin Leach, home elevators are actually becoming increasingly common for both contemporary and traditional homes.
Because of multiple levels, a home elevator would obviously allow everyone in the family access to the entire house, even after their mobility may be compromised.
What about the cost of a home elevator? When you consider that a home elevator becomes one of the most-often used elements of a new home, the investment is wise, as it will also increase the resale value of your home up to 10%. A home elevator can also help to avoid injury or damage when transporting objects from one floor to the next.
Another concern may be the space it takes to incorporate a lift or elevator into either an existing home or new home plans. Some companies have released a new option: customizable cab sizes and the ability to remotely locate its control box, eliminating the need for a machine room.
What do you think about home elevators becoming the new standard? Would it be worth the investment in your new home?
What is a Lurker?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Social Media on December 28th, 2011
What are some reasons lurkers don’t participate?
Often they don’t think they know enough about the topic under discussion and don’t want to look foolish. They may also feel like an outsider if many of the other members know each other from a familiar place or common interest.
They may also enjoy reading your content but not feel inspired to take part in the conversation because it doesn’t really speak to them.
How do you bring lurkers out of their shell?
You can offer low-risk ways for them to participate – they won’t feel they need expertise to comment when you present polls, run contests and ask people to share their own experiences.
By tracking links and content most frequently opened you can gauge what lurkers are interested in and what is of value to them. You can even try using different styles and tones to find out what resonates with group members and inspires them to take part in conversations. Include video and photos to appeal to them visually (as long as you’re still being authentic and true to your unique voice).
How have you gotten lurkers to engage with you online? We’d love for you to share your ideas with us by commenting below or doing more than lurking on our Facebook page
Tags: Blog, comment, content, contests, contributor, forum, lurker, participation, polls, social media, Social network
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