I’m a “Generation X” consumer myself, and I know how people my age go through the process of buying and selling-and I know the Internet is a crucial resource for finding what we want. As an example, my husband and I have been looking for a home over the past year that fits our particular lifestyle. You see, we love to work hard and play hard.

One of the most important enjoyments is spending time with friends and family on Lake Norman in North Carolina. We spend evenings after work going fishing and cruising the lake on the weekends in our pontoon boat with our 7-year-old son, Jordan. We load up the boat with a packed lunch, lots of sand toys, and meet with our great group of friends and their kids. We can’t imagine this not being a part of our lives.

With this in mind, we have kept our discussions about moving up and buying our next home with a focus on our particular needs and what we enjoy doing with our free time. This is why we start our search for a new home by using features like searching by map first. Why? Well, the answer is, we just aren’t interested in looking at any house that doesn’t have easy boating access. We have no desire to tow our boat to the lake. The ability to easily search homes and neighborhoods by map, and at the same time to be able to see what homes are actively for sale, is extremely important to us. You can find examples of showing properties by map or neighborhoods at www.lindahall.com/lake_wylie_map or www.kristancole.com/arabian_acres1.

You might say, “Well, Tricia, does everyone really want to search like you? You are talking about lake property and that’s very specific.” I’ll admit that’s true, but let me ask you something: If you were a lake property specialist who knew the local lake like the back of your hand and you also farmed the neighborhoods I’ve been looking in, wouldn’t you want me to connect with you? Absolutely!

The reality of today’s real estate market is that the Internet is the first place home buyers are searching for their new home and, therefore, their Realtor. In fact, 80% of current home buyers begin their search online. Of those, 77% select their Realtor online and are planning to purchase within 12 months. It becomes increasingly important for those potential customers with particular needs to find the services you provide in your market.

The key for you to connect with consumers like me is for you to be readily positioned so we can easily find the information we are looking for, and that you can prove that you truly are the expert for specialized needs.

Tricia Fink Andreassen is the CEO and founder of Pro Step Marketing, a branding and Web marketing strategy firm that works with real estate agents to develop and implement Web marketing systems. For more information, please visit www.prostepmarketing.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

So, how should businesses put the “social” in their marketing plans? Consider creating widespread employee and constituent blog content expressly for search. It humanizes an organization, thus making it more relatable to consumers.

Appearing in the organic results of a search engine page is a great opportunity for businesses to be seen by potential customers where they’ll be appreciated. As with any marketing initiative, when your prospect expresses a need or problem, you need to wave your arms with the solution.

In order to accomplish this in search marketing, you must deliver relevant, human blog content that talks about customers’ problems and how you solve those problems effectively. This is the perfect opportunity for blogging; use their language.

Matt Cutts, head of Goggle’s Web spam team, has simple advice for anyone targeting search: “Think about what people are going to type, and talk about that.”

It seems so simple, and yet it’s incredibly powerful.

Here are four simple steps for corporate marketers to drive success for blogging strategies:

-Research the keywords that drive your business.
-Create titled, individual blogs, and target those keywords.
-Encourage all of your employees to create content.
-Solicit customer feedback and reviews.

Thinking strategically
Getting the most out of your corporate blog requires you to think about blogging in a tangible, measurable way. With that being said, blogging’s first corporate benefit is search. Search traffic is the only traffic that can be controlled. Think about the three sources of blog traffic: direct navigation (people who type in the URL or RSS); referrals (people who find blogs because others have linked to them); and search engine queries.

The best you can do on the first two sources is hope that with good content people will navigate to you, or that other sites might link to you. Search, however, is absolutely 100% in your control. If you title blogs with keywords, you know what your prospects are searching for. And if you create relevant content about those terms, you stand a very good chance of influencing not only your ranking, but your traffic. Multiply that over many blogs, and you create a legitimate and appreciated search traffic machine.

The great thing about business blogging as an online marketing strategy is that it makes the customers/searchers really happy. They find the page that exactly matches the ways they’re thinking about the problems - which are their search phrases - populated with stories on how people have solved similar problems for similar people. The net result is low bounce rates, an increase in readership and, most importantly, high conversions.

Chris Baggott is CEO and co-founder of Compendium Blogware, an Indianapolis-based blog software firm. For more information, email chris@compendiumblogware.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

“Understanding the digital conversion and how it may affect your real estate business is key,” says Roger Heuring, group manager, National Marketing with Verizon. “Listing a home that is digital-ready, such as a home already equipped with Verizon FiOS, is a tremendous selling point and one that should not be overlooked-especially in a buyer’s market like the one we’re currently in.”

The switch from analog to digital broadcast television-referred to as the digital TV (DTV) transition-will free up parts of the valuable broadcast spectrum for public safety communications, such as police, fire departments, and rescue squads, creating a safer living environment. Also, some of the spectrum will be auctioned to companies that will be able to provide consumers with more advanced wireless services (such as wireless broadband).

Consumers also benefit because digital broadcasting allows stations to offer improved picture and sound quality, and digital is much more efficient than analog. “Upgrading a home to be digital-ready is a smart investment-even if you are a new homeowner,” says Heuring. “The switch to fiber optics and digital television is a smart move for any homeowner. The numbers don’t lie-a home equipped with FiOS is considered a higher value than a comparable property without it.”

For example, rather than being limited to providing one analog program, a broadcaster is able to offer a super sharp, “high-definition” (HD) digital program or multiple “standard definition” (SD) digital programs simultaneously through a process called “multicasting.” Multicasting allows broadcast stations to offer several channels of digital programming at the same time, using the same amount of spectrum required for one analog program. This means more programming choices for viewers.

If your home sellers have one or more televisions that receive free, over-the-air television programming (with a rooftop antenna or “rabbit ears” on the TV), the type of TV they own is very important. A digital television (a TV with an internal digital tuner) will allow them to continue to watch free, over-the-air programming.

However, if they have an analog television, they will need a digital-to-analog converter box to continue to watch broadcast television on that set.

Congress has set June 12 as the final deadline for terminating analog broadcasts. Under the law, on Feb. 17, some full-power broadcast television stations in the U.S. were permitted to stop broadcasting on analog airwaves and begin broadcasting only in digital. The remaining stations may stop broadcasting analog sometime between March 14 and June 12.

For more information, visit www.agentrewardsprogram.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Here are some simple truths:

The engines want what you want - Why do you use a certain search engine? Google grew to be a dominant giant because they recognized early on that people use a search engine because they want answers, quickly and easily. The content that most directly addresses the search is what they delivered. So, if you want to deliver the very best YourTown real estate content to the Web, Google will recognize it and reward you for it. Make it relevant, and answer searchers’ questions.

SEO is a long term work in progress - Sorry, but there are no real shortcuts. Though Google and other search engines are beginning to incorporate video and podcast results in their search results, the king is still textual content. In your case, it’s a lot of content written around all topics related to real estate in your area. Create lots of content related to:

Homes and land for sale
Negotiations in real estate
Transaction processes
Area and neighborhood specific information
Prices and statistics

Regularity and new content are rewarded - The search engines compete among themselves, just like we do as Realtors. That’s why regular and new content that is relevant to your site’s overall focus is rewarded with better search engine results positions. They’re like newspapers racing to break the story first. Never stop adding to the relevant content on your site or blog.

Ignore fast, easy solutions and do the work - This item is specific to entering your site into directories on the Web. It’s generally not productive, and sometimes costly to pay for “we’ll get your site into 1,000 directories in one day” type of sites. Only directories relevant to your site’s content and focus should be used. You don’t want your real estate site in a junk directory of gambling sites. Locate free directories that are related directly to real estate or businesses and vendors that serve the real estate industry.

Link exchanges are no longer the strategy of choice - One very tech savvy real estate broker told me how his site overnight went from third position for his best key phrase on Google to 83rd. He had more than 300 links that were provided by a third party reciprocal linking service. Once Google decided that they weren’t in favor any more, his position plummeted. All links have some value, but the pages full of “Helpful Links” aren’t really that helpful to visitors.

Links that mean something are very valuable - Unlike pages of “reciprocal” links, a link in your site text to another site, or even another page on your site, is very valuable if it takes the visitor to relevant information. The text of the link is also important. If you’re writing about local building codes, and you want to link the visitor to the county code page, don’t use “Click here.” Your link text, or “anchor text” should be something like: “more building code information here.” Your site gets credit for that relevance. If someone is linking to your site, hope that they do the same, as that’s one of the best links you’ll get.

Balance readability with keyword density - Don’t just subscribe to the-more-keywords-the-better approach. If you’ve targeted a key phrase for a page, use it as frequently as you can, but without sacrificing the readability for the visitor. They shouldn’t recognize it as “search engine fodder.”

Shorter and more focused is better - Professional Web freelance writers who understand SEO will tell you that 1,000 word pages trying to target a half dozen keywords or phrases aren’t nearly as effective as a 500 word page targeting one or two. If you have 1,000 words of text, you probably have two or more pages of information based on more targeted keywords.

With these simple truths in mind, you can avoid wasting a lot of time and money looking for the Holy Grail of SEO. You and Google both want the visitor to find what they want when they click on that search result. Build your site with that in mind for SEO success in the long run.

Peyman Aleagha is the founder and President of RealtySoft.com. RealtySoft provides Realtors with Real Estate Web Design (http://www.realtysoft.com), Real Estate Print Marketing and Free IDX (http://www.realtysoft.com/freeidx.php) solutions.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

According to the company, with the implementation of the CARETS database, Listingbook is able to connect over 95,000 active home buyers and sellers with over 100,000 local Realtors® throughout Southern California. Working with MLS partners in Southern California, Listingbook provides agents and their clients an easy way to search up-to-the-minute listing information, view comparable sales, research local market prices and collaborate online with their Realtor creating a highly effective and enjoyable real estate experience.

“Listingbook fosters an incredibly qualified real estate community and maximizes collaboration between Realtors and the consumers,” said James Barry, president of Listingbook. “We can now combine MLS data from different sources - or in this case - support one massive database of listings. We have been serving Realtors in Southern California since 2007 and with the CARETS implementation; we look to help Realtors market their properties from any MLS in Southern California to the substantial number of real buyers in the Listingbook community looking throughout Southern California”.

For more information, visit www.listingbook.com or www.ca-rets.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

“Savvy real estate professionals are always looking for creative ways to drive traffic to their listings. This auto-generated listing announcement is a cutting-edge tool that produces powerful results, yet is easy to use. Gaining an introduction to their client’s social network in a personal and professional manner is the perfect combination of high tech and high touch. We are excited to add AnnounceMyListing to the many business tools already provided to our subscribers by Regional MLS,” said Patty Connor the CEO of Regional MLS, Inc.

“We are thrilled that RMLSFL subscribers will be the first to use the new AnnounceMyListing tool to promote their properties. What really sets AnnounceMyMove apart from other marketing tools is how we connect the agent to their client’s social network,” said Janelle Odishoo, co-founder and VP of Marketing and Business Development for AnnounceMyMove.com.

For more information, visit www.AnnounceMyMove.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

“Consistency and repetition are the keys to advertising and marketing,” says Cindy Manchester, broker associate and director of training at Chinowth & Cohen Realtors in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Marketing has always played an important role in the real estate industry, and in today’s economy, it is crucial for agents to be able to market themselves in a cost-effective way.

Positive Feedback

“From the beginning, I was attracted to the quality of their pieces,” says Manchester, who has been a client of TPMCO for four years. According to Manchester, the newsletters are not only full of articles that are timely and of value, but the entire process is affordable and professional, making it easy for agents to stay in touch with their clients.

“The positive feedback that I receive from my clients on a monthly basis proves that people are paying attention and that the information provided is what they are seeking,” says Ed Goldhammer, sales associate at Bud Goldhammer and Associates in Vancouver, Washington.

While real estate agents are constantly being introduced to new marketing ideas, the newsletter is one marketing device that has adapted with the times. TPMCO has made it easy for agents to disseminate timely information about the real estate market to a large group of individuals through a medium that works.

“The Personal Marketing Company’s newsletters have been a big advantage because they work,” says Goldhammer. “Not only do the newsletters keep the reader engaged by providing interesting information, but they also reinforce your position as a knowledgeable person.”

Standing Out From the Competition

The Personal Marketing Company works closely with real estate professionals to develop a marketing plan that is right for them. It is especially important in today’s market for real estate agents to equip themselves with a unique selling proposition so they can differentiate themselves from the competition.

“The Personal Marketing Company has helped me develop my own individual marketing plan as well as a personal brand,” says Manchester, “and this allows me to provide my clients with a high-quality newsletter that they have come to expect from me each month.”

Goldhammer has found that working with TPMCO has given him a competitive edge over other real estate agents when it comes to staying in contact with past clients. “As a real estate agent, you have to keep your face in front of your clients,” says Goldhammer. Being part of a family-owned business, “it is crucial for me to stay in touch with past clients as 95% of my business is from referrals and past clients,” he adds. “For a relatively low cost, The Personal Marketing Company offers a professional-looking product that keeps my name fresh in my clients’ minds.”

The newsletters that TPMCO produces and distributes for its agent-customers have given them the advantages of: getting their name in front of a public audience; staying visible; and creating a personal connection, all at a relatively low cost with a polished look, says Manchester.

“Real estate is a business that is based on relationships and it is crucial for me as an agent to stand out and create a bond with my consumers,” she says. “My newsletters show each of my clients that I value the relationship that I have established with them.”

Knowing the Business

Working with TPMCO has been one decision that both Manchester and Goldhammer don’t regret.

“Being partnered with The Personal Marketing Company has been beneficial to me and my company over the past eight years,” says Goldhammer. “Working with a top-notch company that produces a good product that people appreciate has allowed me a unique advantage in my marketplace.”

“Everyone at The Personal Marketing Company knows the real estate business and knows what it takes to have a successful marketing program,” adds Manchester. “All I have to do is maintain my contact database, and The Personal Marketing Company takes care of the rest-from creating the actual newsletter to printing it and mailing it out to my clients.”

With several newsletter templates to choose from, TPMCO makes it easy for agents to personalize the product in order to achieve their real estate needs. Concludes Manchester: “The most important thing to remember is that you have to stand out and create a bond with your consumer.”

For more information, please visit www.tpmco.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Concept

The real estate industry has the opportunity to “take back its future.” For a number of reasons, it has appeared over the last few years that forces, out of our control, were at work to reshape the real estate industry-from technology, to the Internet, to the U.S. Department of Justice, to new business models that are the darlings of Wall Street, to the press, to the divergence of the different generations, and to economic conditions. It is now time to fight back, and in doing so, all concerned will be winners, Realtors and consumers alike.

It is upon this theme that the concept of MLS 5.0 is introduced, as the “MLS of the Future.” It is time to look at what MLS seemingly has “always done,” and bring it into the new millennium. This will require bold initiatives. To get the most out of this paper, you may need to suspend your skepticism and step into the future. Ask yourself: “What is the value a real estate professional brings to consumers when information about everything, including real estate, is so abundant on the Web? MLS 5.0 should provide the tools to enable the real estate professional to deliver value, part of which will be to put the information available into context for the consumer.

Today, MLS is not the only way to gain exposure for listings. Yahoo!, Google, Zillow, Trulia, Craigslist, VAST, Point2Homes, Realtor.com and many more have the potential to expose listings to more potential buyers than ever before-and for a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising. If you were a consumer selling your home, wouldn’t you want it marketed everywhere? In the age of information, consumers and Realtors are becoming more comfortable using these new tools and new databases, and will become even more comfortable as the concepts of Web 2.0 become better appreciated and understood. MLS must reflect the new realities.

Many Realtors are not acquainted or familiar with some of these realities. It will take more than vision to bring the ideas and concepts of MLS 5.0 into reality. It will take courage and leadership, as old paradigms, territorial rights, politics, potential job loss by MLS executives and staff, and fear will undoubtedly create obstacles to successfully altering the mission of MLS. And that is what we are talking about-altering the mission-and with a new vision for MLS. Objections-real and imaginary-will be heard in abundance. Be prepared to field them.

In a follow-up article next month, we will aim to answer the big question pertaining to what the Future MLS would look like, if we were to build one from scratch today.

What’s your opinion? Please write to thefutureofmls@point2.com.

Saul Klein is CEO of InternetCrusade and Point2 Technologies Inc.

For more information, visit www.point2agent.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Sherry Chris, president and CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, said 80% of consumers now use the Internet to research homes and a real estate agent to complete the transaction.

“Tomorrow’s consumer will want to visit sites with as much information as possible.” Chris said. “It will be a combination of the consumer and agent using technology. People are looking for the new opportunity, the new way and help from technology. ”

“[Real estate] companies who [also] have mortgage and title companies are going to be the survivors,” Champion Realty president and CEO Jon Coile said. “The ones who don’t are not.”

For more information, visit http://www.respro.org/.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

For more tips and topics on RISMedia.com, see:

• How to Tell Clients What’s Affordable
  Social Networks and Blogs Popular Online Activities

The survey found that management may unwittingly be fueling resentment by providing connectivity devices without clarifying expectations and boundaries of use. In the best conditions, issuing connectivity devices can facilitate work efficiency and improve work-life effectiveness. In other situations, the practice may communicate to employees that they are expected to never disconnect from work, which can lead to resentment or unhealthy work behaviors. Based on a survey of 627 employees across multiple organizations and industries, this research explored the prevalence of employer-supplied connectivity devices, along with users’ work habits, impact on job performance and employees’ perception of the intended message.

Key Findings
-Of the respondents who said they currently use a hand-held connectivity device, 55% said the company supplied their device.
-Three out of four users never turn off their devices.
-The majority reported that using their device enhanced (either greatly or moderately) their job performance. They most often attributed that to having remote access to tools for doing the job, such as maintaining contact with office colleagues or clients, or shortening response time.
-A very high percentage of respondents preferred work segmentation (clear boundaries between work and nonwork) rather than integration (permeable boundaries so that work and nonwork commingle).
-Only one-third of the total sample thought an employer-supplied device is part of a total rewards system, while nearly half believed an employer-supplied device signifies status or importance in the organization.

Many employees - 42% in this sample - believe being given an electronic device means they need to always be available. In companies that support work-life effectiveness, it is even more important that a clear message is given on how (and how much) technology is to be used in what traditionally is considered personal time.

“In the absence of policy guidelines, supported by appropriate communications about leadership’s intentions, the prevailing cultural norms will be left to shape employees’ beliefs as to how technology is to be incorporated into work patterns,” said Kathie Lingle, WLCP, executive director of Alliance for Work-Life Progress at WorldatWork. “Since the “ideal worker” norm predominates in both national and organizational culture, supplying devices with no mention of boundaries (how much is enough and who decides?) is likely to send a message to employees that their work time is expected to spill over into evenings, weekends and vacations.”

“Talent managers would be wise to assess in advance whether workers would view a supplied device as a perk or a tether,” said Gayle Porter, Ph.D., a management professor at Rutgers University. “If the practice of supplying devices is adopted for performance enhancement or work flexibility, the only way to ensure that employees grasp the true intent is to communicate those objectives clearly. Otherwise, the practice might be misconstrued.”

Survey methodology
Commissioned by WorldatWork, the U.S. survey of 627 employees in various functional positions was conducted by Gayle Porter, Ph.D., of Rutgers University. Respondents ranged in age from 20 to 73, with an average age of 38.

For more information, visit www.worldatwork.org.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Check out these stories on RISMedia.com:

• 5 Recommendations for Navigating Today’s Mortgage and Housing Markets
  How to Sell in Tough Times

Goomzee offers seven steps you should follow to make sure your website or software is designed with end-user experience in mind:

1. Seek the ‘sweet spot’ - According to Nick Finck of Blue Flavor, the ‘sweet spot’ is the point at which your technical goals, business goals, and the goals of your user or client co-exist peacefully. To find this spot, it is evident that one must first map out the following: exactly what you would like your technology to accomplish, what you want your business in general to accomplish, and what users will seek to accomplish when interacting with your technology. Of course, the user’s goals come first, and if you can then tailor the goals of your tech and your business so as not to interfere with those of the user, you have found the elusive ‘sweet spot’.

2. Acknowledge that form always follows function - By defining the goals of your technology, it will become readily apparent which features you must implement to make those goals a reality. Oftentimes, organizations don’t take the time to map out goals and instead spend valuable manpower on artistic design, without any pre-existing functionality. Simply put, this is backwards. Form must follow function…period. Design should be based around the features, rather than trying to integrate functionality into an existing aesthetic setup.

3. Acknowledge that content is king - That’s not to say that the aesthetic design is unimportant. On the contrary, design and functionality are equally integral to the success of your technology. Business Week notes: “People want to get to the content (sic) they’re looking for. The interface is just the means to them and not the end. A good interface will go unnoticed and so will the work of its designer. The better the designer the less you’ll notice their work.”

A logical paradox: the more effective the design and navigation structure, the less it is that users actually think about the design; and, therefore, the less you block users from fully experiencing the functionality of your technology.

4. Keep critical focus on grammatical clarity - Grammar: what was once the bane of your existence throughout your middle school career is now what could make or break your profitability. Basically, if you do not take the time to exercise correct and proper syntax and typography, your messages will be unclear and therefore ineffective.

5. Avoid solutioneering - In other words, ‘thou shalt not put the cart before the horse’. Solutioneering refers to the practice of anticipating points of conflict and fabricating solutions to take care of those points. Most often, solutioneering doesn’t provide the best fix, just a fix. By waiting to properly identify a problem, you have a better chance of providing a solution that fully serves its purpose; as opposed to the pre-emptive fix being a complete waste of time and resources.

6. Allow for failure, and be happy about it - Failure, be it on a grand or minute scale, is inevitable. For this reason, anticipate possible areas of failure, have contingency plans in place, and treat every failure as a stepping stone. In the same way that every ‘no’ is one ‘no’ closer to a ‘yes’, every failure has one key piece of knowledge that can be taken away and applied to future failures, allowing you to “fail better” the next time. Thus, every failure is one failure closer to success.

7. Enable users to easily provide feedback - There are several ways to accomplish this goal. Some simply make it a point to have a live person sitting next to a real phone that rings when users have questions. Others may have some sort of feedback capability on their website, or better yet, embedded in the technology itself. Whichever method you choose to implement, make sure it is both easily accessible from multiple locations and easily navigated by the user. There is nothing more frustrating to a user than not being able to input support requests when they are paying good money to use your technology.

In short, it’s all about the user. Whether you are designing websites or high-tech solutions, the end-user experience is perpetually the variable that dictates your success or failure. For that reason, it should not be a question of whether or not you will bend over backwards to please your client, but how far.

For more information, visit www.goomzee.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Don’t miss these headlines on RISMedia.com:

• Social Networks All the Rage, but Know the Risks
  How to Use Your VOW Website to Communicate with Buyers

According to the company, utilizing its advanced patented imaging technology, RealBiz360’s VuVista Suite featuring i3 Technology and iVuZoom viewing enables Real Estate professionals to utilize high resolution images to create immersive, interactive virtual tours. Now agents can seamlessly create listing announcements that can be sent to their clients to be personalized and emailed to their own personal social network, Facebook and other social networking sites. Each AnnounceMyListing displays the high resolution iVuZoom tour unlike the standard slide show presentation currently being offered to other AnnounceMyMove subscribers.

“VuVista’s^TM publishing feature includes distribution to major Real Estate marketplaces, however the integration of AnnounceMyListing introduces a powerful viral marketing strategy for our agents. We are constantly improving the VuVista platform and this addition is a cost effective way for our members to utilize social media to generate prospects, build referrals and sell their properties”, stated Steve Marques, president and chief operating officer of Realbiz360.

For more information, visit www.realbiz360.com and www.AnnounceMyMove.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

“Real estate professionals need marketing tools that provide listing differentiation more today, than at any time in the last 20 years.” Said Herb Dierks, CEO of TourFactory “Adding the TourFactory Marketing Engine to the AgentAdvantage Premium Website Advantage and premium website listing distribution channels will give agents key tools to elevate their listings and attract offers.”

According to George Salvador, vice president/ general manager of AgentAdvantage, “The collaboration of AgentAdvantage and TourFactory opens new, enhanced marketing solutions to agents and brokers. During these challenging economic times, it is our responsibility to provide innovative approaches for our clients that will streamline their marketing efforts and provide them with a foundation for greater success. We believe adding TourFactory’s Virtual Tours to the AgentAdvantage premium suite of website products does just that.”

For more information, visit www.AgentAdvantage.com or www.DominionEnterprises.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

According to the company, with PowerSearch, Advanced Access agent websites can come up in the paid search results when home buyers search for real estate in the agent’s area. When a real estate agent subscribes to PowerSearch, Advanced Access conducts a keyword analysis and the agent’s website is optimized based on target areas the agent identifies by city, county, or region. Next, a campaign is set up in the search engine-sponsored links with a carefully developed advertisement and keywords reflecting the agent’s focus.

When the agent’s ad is clicked on, the home buyer is redirected to the agent’s landing page. The landing page contains an IDX (MLS) search and, when the user completes the form, the lead is sent to the agent.

For more information, visit www.AdvancedAccess.com and http://www.DominionEnterprises.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

With this relationship, newspaper websites will now include Zillow’s powerful search functionality, whereby users can enter any home address, neighborhood or locality and find Zestimate(R) home values, recently sold homes, homes for sale, open house listings and local market data, on a co-branded version of Zillow.com. Visitors to the co-branded sites can also access all of Zillow’s real estate community content via Zillow Advice, and mortgage rates and information from Zillow(R) Mortgage Marketplace.

For more information, visit http://www.zillow.com/.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

How many hands can they shake? How many meetings can they attend? What’s the cost to sponsor groups, and what’s the membership they impact? These are all questions that illustrate the limiting nature of personal involvement at the local level. Once you realize that Internet social and business networking is exactly the same, but leveraged dramatically, you can get really excited about it. After all, can someone in Oregon see what you’re doing in Florida? They can if they are part of your sphere of influence on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Let’s take a look at the two dominant networks - Facebook and LinkedIn, and at the facets of these sites that can have a positive impact on your website’s traffic, and ultimately bring you a great deal of business. The positive aspects of these sites are exactly the same, though there are differences in how they help you accomplish success and the makeup of the membership.

Facebook is more social, while LinkedIn is very business-to-business oriented. However, Facebook is showing very strong growth, and many business people are finding it to be an excellent resource. You’ll connect with far more consumers on Facebook than you will on LinkedIn, but the business connections you make on LinkedIn can lead to referrals that leverage the value of your contacts.

Both Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to place your personal and business profile for all the world to see. Accomplishments, awards, education, specialized training, and business goals are laid out for everyone to view.

Spending just a few minutes online gives you ample time to ask or answer questions and interact with people from all parts of the country and the world. Your direct contacts have their own direct contacts, creating a possible sphere of influence far greater than any you could develop locally via personal interaction.

A referral or recommendation is much easier, thus you can get more of them. Your direct contacts can recommend you to someone else with a few keystrokes, with no letter or personal meeting required. LinkedIn formalizes the process of expanding one’s sphere of influence more than Facebook. On LinkedIn, there are formalized recommendation formats that can be keyed to your specific areas of expertise. Let’s say that you work both residential and commercial real estate. You can have those two segments of your profile, each with recommendations specific to that expertise.

Both sites allow the sending of questions, but again, LinkedIn has formalized the process more. A question, once answered by all who are interested, can be closed out, and a best answer and good answer selected. The person who supplied the answer builds “expertise credit” in the category. In other words, if you are answering real estate related questions, best and good answers get you more visibility in that category, which creates the possibility for future business.

While listings are all local, as that’s where the homes are that you service, buyers are world-wide. You can network locally for listings, but people moving into your area from afar have no way to know who you are unless they find you somehow. With almost 90% of prospective homebuyers now using the Internet to search for real estate, these networks are one way in which they can locate you.

Feed your site information to the networks with RSS feeds. Both of these sites have ways in which you can have your site content show up automatically once published, allowing you to write it once, and the information will display in multiple places. It’s a personal form of the syndication that news organizations have used for many years.

Examples of more focused networking are RealTown and ActiveRain. The real estate and mortgage professionals who participate on these sites are able to share information, as well as refer business. ActiveRain’s new Listing Router tool allows participating sites to receive leads from other ActiveRain sites around the country.

These networking sites are powerful exposure tools, and you simply can’t overlook them in planning for the future. In all of your entries and interactions on these sites, you’re placing links back to your website, and when you can, to specific pages or posts that answer specific questions. This builds credibility, but also site traffic. And, it’s coming from sources that are real estate related, as that’s the way you’ve set up your profiles.

Peyman Aleagha is the founder and President of RealtySoft.com. RealtySoft provides Realtors with Real Estate Web Design (http://www.realtysoft.com), Real Estate Print Marketing and Free IDX (http://www.realtysoft.com/freeidx.php) solutions.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Clean-coal technology. Alternative energy sources. Plug-in hybrid cars that get up to 150 miles a gallon. These are all part of the bigger picture for a greener America.

But what about the little technology secrets Americans like to keep under the rug? The fact that the American home is teched-up like never before, with shiny tech toys that suck electricity in huge amounts, when one considers the impact in aggregate, as a nation.

Today’s average American home has three televisions, two DVD players or recorders, 1.16 digital cameras, one desktop computer and two cell phones, among other consumer electronics products (the average American household has 24 such tech devices), according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

The fallout: Consumer electronics is one of the fastest-growing categories of electricity use in the home - up from 5% in 1980 to nearly 15% of a home’s total electricity consumption today. By 2015, it’s estimated to be closer to 20% for many homes.

All by itself, the TV (swollen to a size of 40 inches or larger for the “main” TV in the house) represented a stunning 8% of residential electricity consumption in the U.S. in 2007, nearly doubling in just three years.

And, America’s video game console habit consumes as much electricity on an annual basis as the entire city of San Diego.

“I think for a long time most of us thought about the major energy consumers in our home as being our appliances and our heating and cooling and hot water heating. We never thought a lot about our tech products,” says Kathy Kaplan, EPA team leader, Energy Star product development. But Americans didn’t have three TVs per household. “We didn’t watch them as many hours, didn’t use them for gaming, didn’t use them to show our photographs, didn’t have TiVo, didn’t have sophisticated content options that make watching so desirable,” Kaplan goes on. “And we certainly didn’t have all these miscellaneous products that we plug in.”

The good news is that a little awareness goes a long way. There are simple adjustments that consumers can make in the use of their technology equipment and toys to make them more efficient.

Consider reducing the brightness of a TV set, which can cut its energy use by as much as 25%. Getting rid of the screen saver on a computer can save $50 to $100 in electricity costs over a year.

And when it comes to new tech purchases, it’s good to be aware that there are now greener options. Programs and organizations such as Energy Star and the Natural Resources Defense Council have done considerable work to encourage manufacturers to deliver more energy-conscious products.

Televisions

In general, the amount of power a TV uses increases with screen size. A 52-inch, high-definition TV can use as much energy annually as a new refrigerator, and that’s likely to be two times more energy than a consumer’s old, smaller TV. “The typical 42-inch plasma TV uses approximately 100 more watts than a similar sized LCD,” according to Noah Horowitz, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. That amounts to at least $200 more in electricity, over the life of the product.

To do: Turn down the brightness of your existing TV and cut your energy use as much as 25%, depending on the TV. Most TVs (traditionally) ship at an overly bright level, meant for display in retail stores. The “standard” or “home” mode is recommended. When shopping for a new set, look for TVs bearing the ENERGY STAR mark. They are up to 30% more energy efficient than other models. Look for a TV with automatic brightness control, a sensor that automatically adjusts the picture level according to the light levels in the room.

Set top boxes
(Cable box, satellite box, boxes with DVR function, TiVo)

Set top boxes are big-time power suckers. Unlike the TV (which goes into a standby or low-power mode when it’s turned “off”), these boxes run at near full power 24/7. Some of the fuller-featured ones (those with TiVo-like capability) can consume more than 250 kWh a year. That’s roughly equal to half the annual energy use of a new refrigerator.

To do: Ask your service provider for one of the new ENERGY STAR-qualified set top boxes, which became available Jan. 1, or at least ask your provider to investigate getting them. Although it’s a first-step by ENERGY STAR with more stringent guidelines to come in the next few years, set top boxes that meet this first spec are at least 30% more energy efficient than other models - and largely because portions of the device power-down when the box is not in use.

Power strip/surge protector

Power strips or surge protectors are one of the most useful tools for eco-conscious consumers with lots of techno toys. They make it easy to completely “power off” electronics that go into a standby or low-power mode when you think you’re turning them “off.” U.S. households spend about $100 a year on such vampire power. Consumer electronics account for about $40 of those $100. As a nation, those numbers get even more dramatic: It’s estimated standby power accounts for more than 100 billion kWh of annual U.S. electricity consumption and $11 billion in annual energy costs.

External power supplies
(Little black boxes to charge everything from cell phones and BlackBerry’s to computer printers and digital cameras)

They may be small but they’re not insignificant. The average American has five or more of these external power supplies and they are often left plugged in 24/7. These boxes typically were very inefficient, as they converted a lot of incoming power into waste heat.

To do: Unplug power supplies when they’re not charging something.

Video game consoles

More than 40% of all U.S. homes have at least one video game console, according to a recent study by the Natural Resources Defense Council. Assuming half of these are left on all the time, our video game habit as a nation consumes an estimated 16 billion kWh a year in electricity. That’s about equal to the annual electricity use of the city of San Diego.

To do: Save your game and power-down the system when you’re done, and enable the auto-shutdown, power-saving mode if you’ve got it.

Computers

The annual electricity usage of a computer that’s left on and not power managed, can account for up to one-tenth of a car’s carbon dioxide emissions.

Do’s and Don’ts: Don’t disable the power management feature. Most of today’s computers ship with it “enabled.” It tells the monitor/computer when to go sleep (after a preset period of inactivity) and when to go into a deeper, power-saving mode, called standby.

Do plug your computer into a power strip/surge protector and power that off completely at the end of the day, after first powering down the computer. If you’re worried about getting updates from Microsoft, download them yourself.

Do wait till July to buy a new computer. That’s when some of the industry’s most energy-efficient computers hit the market, thanks to a new specification from ENERGY STAR. Desktops and notebooks that meet the new spec will use 30% less energy on average than most other computers on the market.

Do get rid of your screen saver. The screen saver serves no useful purpose and does not extend the life of your monitor. Getting rid of it could save you $50 to $100 on your electric bill over a year.

Do consider a laptop. A new laptop could use up to four times less power than your old computer and LCD monitor.

© 2009, Chicago Tribune.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Of all homebuyers, 87% used the Internet to search for a home in 2008, up from 84% in 2007, 80% in 2006, and 2% in 1997.

“Despite a slowdown in the housing market, real estate consumers have increased their usage of the Internet as their ‘go-to’ real estate information source in order to successfully find the home they purchase,” said Greg Healy, vice president of Operations for ForSaleByOwner.com. “This continues a trend where consumers are becoming more independent in the home buying process and are educating themselves about real estate issues.”

“The Internet is vitally important for marketing a home in today’s marketplace. Home sellers need to know that they can sell their homes without an agent, especially if they use the Internet’s full marketing power to attract the growing amount of buyers who go online to find their home,” added Healy.

ForSaleByOwner.com attracts nearly three times the amount of online visitors as its next closest competitor and offers services that also post customer listings to websites such as Realtor.com, Craigslist, USAToday.com, Yahoo Real Estate, Google Base and Facebook, among other sites.

Where home buyers found the home they purchased- 2001 vs. 2008:

Several recent research projects also contain information that can provide confidence to home sellers that they can sell their homes themselves. For example, NAR found that people who sell “by owner” get closer to their asking price and sell quicker compared to those who used an agent. Separate studies from Northwestern University and Stanford University found that “by owner” sellers are as effective as agents in maximizing the sales price of their homes and, after commissions, come out financially ahead. The September 2008 issue of Consumer Reports magazine reported that FSBO sellers are more likely to get their asking price while agents deliver, on average, a sales price that is $5,000 less than the original asking price.

For more information, visit ForSaleByOwner.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

“Come on. Everybody’s doing it,” they’ll tell you.

These are the same people - friends, co-workers, relatives - who earlier twisted your arm to join other networking platforms such as Facebook, MySpace and Friendster.

Dan Costa isn’t one of them. As executive editor for PCMag.com, he’s well-versed in social networking technology. He’s also a devoted Twitter user, but he doesn’t proselytize. Instead, he wants people who decide to try out services like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Friendster to appreciate their power - for both good and bad.

Costa warned that many people don’t understand that sharing too much personal information can lead to serious consequences, and this goes for any social networking site.

“The thing that’s so unusual about Facebook, is that it seems so personal,” Costa said. “Some of the information you are sharing is so personal, that it makes people say, ‘Wait a minute. What information is out there?’ The answer a lot of times is a lot more than you are aware of.”

“The rules have changed, and it’s not just about social networking anymore,” he said. “Right now, online, anything you do is being recorded. That’s the default position you have to take, whether you’re blogging or using Twitter or even sending an e-mail, you have to assume that it will live forever. That’s a fundamental shift in how we view our privacy.”

What’s more, social networking sites might be the least dangerous. By their very nature, users can share their complaints and push those who control the sites to make changes.

Social networking services tend to be more open than many other online enterprises, said Costa. Any time you make a purchase over the Internet, for example, someone is probably compiling information about you.

“The information is moving whether you know it or not,” Costa said. “The thing about social networking is it tends to be more public, more out in the open. But people who aren’t used to using instant messaging, or Twitter, or Web pages and blogs, still think of it as a little like letter writing or talking to friends.

“It’s very different when you publish something and it’s out there for the entire world to see. Many times you can’t really take it back.”

Setting aside its dangers, Costa does believe that social networking is here to stay. He cites a statistic from a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey that said 11% of online American adults use Twitter or some other service that allows users to share short updates about themselves - called “tweets” in the Twitter universe.

“That’s a pretty remarkable number,” Costa said, noting that the figure includes both Twitter and Facebook users. “I think Twitter’s audience is a little smaller than that full 11 percent. But certainly, it’s really picking up now.”

He said that Twitter’s audience is changing as it grows. It’s fast becoming less of an insiders’ club.

“Twitter used to be very elite, very edgy,” Costa said. “Technology enthusiasts, investors and so forth were getting together on it. Now it’s much more mainstream. The audience still tends to be younger, more connected, more into wireless technologies, heavier cell phone users. They’re pretty much your average early adopters.”

Significantly, users have found ways to use Twitter that extend well beyond describing what they ate for lunch or the television show they’re watching. “The interesting thing about Twitter is that it’s really just a tool like any other medium, like e-mail or chats, or instant messaging,” Costa said. “You can use it for whatever you want to use it for.”

Social networking services like Twitter and Facebook do represent an important change in the way in which Americans communicate, Costa said. “We’ve never been in the place we are right now,” he said. “There’s usually nothing proprietary about the technologies, and if there is, there’s always the chance that something else could rise up and replace it. The difference now, is that there is huge scale. There are more people than ever who are actually using these networking sites.”

Costa said the online world is moving toward an attention-based economy. “It’s more about where our attention is focused. That’s what advertisers want, what media companies want, what journalists want. We want people to pay attention to us.”

© 2009, Daily Press (Newport News, Va.).
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

“We spent a considerable amount of time researching competitive technologies and decided VoicePad best fit our needs as it provides a service to both our listing agents and our buyers agents, said Harold Crye, Cofounder & CEO of Crye-Leike, Realtors. “Consumers are the real winners with this service as they can receive up to date property information on any area home listing - even our competitors - by using the “street search” feature, thus saving valuable time during the home search process.”

For more information, visit www.voicepad.com and http://www.crye-leike.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.