Today, propertyadguru.com welcomes a guest post from Richard Fellner, editorial consultant for the recently launched social media management tool, Sobox. Sobox was created by propertyadguru.com owner Classified Ad Ventures.

Richard has 25 years experience in the online marketing world, so he understands the ins and outs of online content, SEO and New Media. Here, he shares one strategy for social media success:

One of the most common mistakes that many businesses make when diving into Social Media is to treat their pages and platforms as a monologue tool; i.e. posting one-sided articles with no reader interaction. By using this “megaphone” mentality, there is no indication whether the content is being read, whether the people who DO read it find any value, or if it incites any action. It thus undermines the real value of Social Media, and represents many lost opportunities.

Dialogues are the next step in the Social Media chain, and are currently the norm for most businesses and individuals. In a dialogue, you interact with your fans/followers on a one-to-one or even a one-to-many basis.  You may post an interesting article or Tweet, read your followers’ responses, and then continue the conversation with your own timely response or follow-up questions. The key here is to use each interaction as an opportunity to develop a stronger, long-term relationship. Dialogues are a powerful tool, and they form a solid foundation for any Social Media strategy.

Truly savvy businesses, on the other hand, are now beginning to treat Social Media as a Multilogue, which is a relatively new term defined as a “Many-to-Many” conversation. Similar to a moderated forum, a Multilogue unleashes the real potential of Social Media, and creates multiple opportunities.

To understand a Multilogue, first imagine a room full of people at, say, a town hall meeting. A question may be put to the group, and someone may stand up and share their viewpoint. Someone else may then build on that idea, add their own viewpoint, ask additional questions, etc. Soon, there are multiple conversations popping up, with related topics being discussed, and the room begins to buzz.

While multiple concurrent conversations can sometimes lead to chaos in a physical setting, the beauty of a Social Media setting is that every statement or question is displayed on the screen – for everyone to read. More importantly, however, the entire conversations can be shared with other people or even entire groups in real time. This generates more questions, ideas and general excitement.

Sound familiar? In essence, the theory is the basis of Viral Marketing – the most powerful form of marketing there is. And it can all start with a single Tweet or Facebook post.

So how can you unleash the power of the Multilogue into your own Social Media project? First, make sure that everyone knows about your Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, etc. Add links to your pages in your email signature, on your website, your brochures and flyers, your display signage, on your shopfront window, etc.

Next, ask plenty of questions within your pages and tweets. People love to share their views. Ask for opinions on things like interest rates, the best neighbourhoods for school-age children, sea-change vs tree-change, or what the biggest obstacle for first home buyers. Don’t be afraid to cover controversial topics (e.g. Sydney vs Melbourne) as those can generate great interest and interactions. Maybe you could try a “Name the Neighbourhood” competition: post a photo of a house or famous landmark, give a clue or two, offer a small prize and see who can guess the neighbourhood or region. It may even be a photo of a house you’re selling, which may not only send traffic to your website or listings page (as people try to match the picture), but could also give the house some extra exposure for an open house or auction.

As people respond to your posts, follow up immediately with your own posts. The key is to keep the conversations interesting, fresh and constantly moving. As they say: Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd.

By regularly interacting with your followers — and keeping your brand at top of mind — you’ll boost your Social Media exposure, and maybe even have some fun along the way.

Welcome to another instalment in our new agent strategies series, where agents from around the globe share their tips for success in online marketing.

Today’s strategy comes from Andrea Swiedler, a realtor with Prudential Adams & Associates in New Milford, Connecticut. Read on to find out how she increased her traffic with a combination of blogging and SEO:

I believe success online is a combination of things, not just one thing. Blogging will keep my content fresh, while SEO has a very big place in both my blogging and my websites. Without using SEO even the blog would fail to make it on page one.

Before I came to ActiveRain and started blogging and learning about the right way to direct traffic to my blog and website, my stats were down – the only way you could find me was if you could spell my name! I went from stats like 192 unique visitors in March of 2008 (pre-blogging) to 692 for March in 2010.

I am sure this is a direct result of blogging and SEO combined. Although that may not seem like a large number, I am located in a town with a population of about 26,000 and a lagging market. The other towns I cover are much smaller – 3,500, 3,000, you get the picture. These towns have a fair amount of luxury second homes. A very tough market indeed. So all in all, I am very pleased with the results I am seeing and only expect it to increase as my skills with SEO and blogging increase.

To understand what is going on a bit better I have Google Alerts set up for a few of the keywords for my website. Google has started picking me up almost instantly when I write fresh content on a subject.

Again, blogs work, SEO works. I have had leads that came from the Internet – leads that closed sales. Those are the important ones!

Got a great online marketing strategy you’re keen to share? Get in touch with us at editor@propertyadguru.com. For more SEO tips, check out our guest series here.

As an online marketer, you’re probably well aware of the importance of search engine optimisation or SEO (if not, check out our guest series here). You also may have noticed a similar acronym popping up recently – SMO, which stands for “social media optimisation.”

Social media tends to rely on users rather than search algorithms to promote content, so the idea of “optimising” your content for the social web might sound strange at first. But the fact is, you’re probably already implementing a number of SMO strategies without even realising.

Wikipedia strips the definition of SMO down to two key points: social features added to content, and promotional activities.

Social features might include things like adding an RSS feed to your blog or allowing visitors to share your content via tools like “retweet” buttons. The promotional activities your undertake as part of SMO usually take place outside your website. These include things as simple as commenting on other blogs or highlighting your content via a status update.

By now, you’ve probably realised that SMO is already a big part of your daily online activity. But how do you make the most of it?

Back in 2006, marketing blogger Rohit Bhargava coined the term “social media optimisation” and set out five SMO rules:

1. Increase your linkability. In other words, make sure you have content that is worth people’s attention in the first place.

2. Make tagging and bookmarking easy. The easier it is to share your content, the more people will do so.

3. Reward inbound links by mentioning those people who link to you somewhere on your website.

4. Help your content travel by offering content such as PDFs and videos that can be easily added to other websites.

5. Encourage the mashup. In other words, don’t be afraid of people re-using and re-working your content. As long as you’re attributed somewhere, it will usually result in more attention for you. 

Since 2006, more SMO rules have been added to the list, bringing the current total to 16. Luckily, anyone who blogs interesting content regularly and participates in at least one online community is probably following many of these rules already.

If we had to choose the most important rule for agents, it would be number nine: “know how to target your audience.” That’s because the better you understand the people in your local real estate market, the easier it will be to find them online, provide them with interesting content, and ultimately create leads and sales.

A few weeks ago, we looked into Facebook Ads and found out exactly how to create one from the ground up. Now, Facebook has released its own guide to help people get the most out of its targeted ads.

Guide to Facebook Ads goes over every aspect of the process, from how to make your ads stand out, to budgeting, ad delivery, and best practices. Those who want to get really familiar with the process can even sign up for a webinar here.

For those still considering whether Facebook Ads are a worthwhile investment, the best practices section of the guide is a good place to start. This covers gaining more fans, acquiring leads, and driving awareness, providing a good overview of what Facebook can achieve in these three key areas.

For the record, the above ad for All Nippon Airways was featured as one of Facebook Ads’ success stories after it earned the company a 25 percent click-through rate – a marked improvement from its usual eight to 12 percent.

So exactly what kind of local information should you be including? For some inspiration, let’s head over to Hawaii and check out bestofhawaiirealestate.com.

This website is making local information a key part of its strategy, having just announced the addition of new “top five things to consider” sections covering each area.

The section “top five things to consider when moving to Oahu”, for example, covers topics such as population, air travel options, and even the local surf scene. Browsing through the website, home hunters can also find information on topics such as:

- Schools and education

- Residents’ cultural backgrounds

- The local arts scene

- Shopping

- Nearby scenic spots

- Wildlife

- Local food

The website doesn’t go into huge amounts of detail, opting to sketch out the main features of each location in a few short sentences. Best of all, bestofhawaiirealestate.com didn’t have to spend hours researching every single topic – their information comes straight from residents who answered the simple question “What’s your favorite part of living here?”

So if you’re struggling with the idea of implementing local information into your website, take a leaf from bestofhawaiirealestate.com – keep it short, simple, and look to the locals for your ideas.

In part one of this series, we heard about the importance of local knowledge, new business models, and research skills for agents who want to provide value in age of online real estate. These are themes that our next two industry commentators are in tune with.

Kelly Millar, CEO of social marketing tool SOBOX and former consumer marketing manager of Australian property portal realestate.com.au, says agents need to position themselves as “trusted advisors” for those looking buy and sell.

“It’s not just about the actual transaction,” Millar says, “but building long term relationships with customers and prospects, and positioning themselves as a credible and knowledgeable resource.”

“Whilst agents have always understood the value of a database of prospects and customers, social media channels provide an avenue for agents to take these relationships to the next level,” Millar adds.

“They can engage with people in the most interactive environments, be it via their blog, Facebook or Twitter page. They can listen to their prospects and customers in ways they never have before, and find opportunities to build their business through online engagement with consumers in a timely and relevant manner.”

1000wattconsulting.com’s Brian Boero has plenty of insights for agents in his blog posts, and says a seemingly obvious yet fundamental shift needs to take place if agents are to stay relevant.

“Agents who want to prosper today must get better at things that are important to their clients,” Boero says. “Better at marketing property. Better at negotiating. Better at pricing. That sounds like a rather obvious statement, but when you consider that real estate has been conditioned to recruit marginally skilled people and train them on selling themselves it’s actually quite radical.”

“Agents that can’t work a spreadsheet, pull the right online marketing levers, and price and negotiate in a manner commensurate to the gravity of transacting shelter are going to struggle,” Boero adds.

What are your thoughts on the role of real estate agents in the online age? Let us know in our comments.

Welcome to our new Agent Strategies series, where we get the inside word on how agents from across the globe are marketing themselves online.

Today’s strategy insight comes from Jim Cheney, an agent who works in Rincon Valley, California. Jim is using a formula that should be familiar to most readers – driving traffic to his website via a regularly updated blog. Jim’s story shows just how effective this simple strategy can be:

“I’ve been a real estate agent since 2003, and mostly advertised in the local newspaper and Homes and Land Magazine. The newspaper was about $400 a month for classified and open house ads, and Homes and Land was $800 per issue for a full page ad. At the end of the year I would have spent thousands of dollars on advertising.

In 2009 I took a technology in real estate seminar presented by Dick Betts, a national real estate trainer. I learned of the positive aspects of blogging, and how and where to blog. I try to blog daily, and am the top blog producer on Active Rain for Sonoma County.

I recently began “hyper local” blogging where my blogs are about local issues related not to my city, buy to my neighborhood (Rincon Valley). My articles are keyword rich, which makes my blog pop up on the the first page of a Google search containing “Rincon Valley property” as the search term.

I get one to two contacts per week from potential clients who visit my web page. When I ask these contacts how they became familiar with my website, they tell me they found it while searching for property on the Internet.

I no longer do print advertising. I get more leads now at a minimal cost ($30 per month for an Active Rain premium membership) and the cost of my website, saintfrancisproperty.com.

I’m lucky that most of my peers have not realised the power of blogging or SEO, and still rely on print advertising. I’d be willing to bet only 10 percent of the agents in my office know what SEO stands for. I laugh when I look at the local newspaper classified section and see seven listings advertised in a city that has hundreds of active listings.

I know that eventually my peers will catch on and I will have more compitition for Internet clients, however I will be far ahead in the game, and to tell you the truth, am not really concerned.”

Got a great online marketing strategy you’re keen to share? Get in touch with us at editor@propertyadguru.com.

If you’re reading this article, chances are you’re well aware of the challenges the online age has created for real estate agents. Those in the property market can now draw on a vast range of tools and resources to help them in their transaction, and not all are convinced working with an agent is the best strategy.

When potential clients can access a vast range of market information and property listings online, and even buy and sell their own properties via the Internet if they choose, how do agents highlight their value? That’s the question we asked a number of industry commentators, each of whom had a slightly different set of suggestions.

Andy Salo, founder of US For Sale By Owner website yigdigs.com, argues that Generation Y will change the way the real estate industry works, but that there are two ways agents can remain relevant.

“Real estate agents should continue to be extremely knowledgeable about their local area – selling prices, trends, areas that are doing well and not so well, and knowing amenities that are appealing to buyers in their area,” Salo suggests. “Being seen as a knowledgeable guru will always be valuable.”

Salo adds that agents need to be open to new business models and compensation structures. “I truly believe that the 6 percent commission will go away as we know it today,” he says. “Buyer’s agent commissions will likely stay in some form, but seller’s commissions will migrate to a la carte services.”

“I believe a forward thinking agent today can get out in front of this trend by offering creatively priced services including flat fee MLS and discounted service packages. A smart agent I believe should brand themselves as an expert consultant rather than sales person for hire on commission.”

Jim Kimmons, real estate blogger for about.com, says that while home hunters now have access to huge amounts of local information, “a lot of it is either inaccurate, of little value, or both.”

“The value of a real estate agent to their buyer in the future will be enhanced by their ability to sift through the information and sources, advising their client as to what is valuable, what is not, and what is actually detrimental to their interests,” Kimmons says. “The real estate professional should visit and learn about the places where their customer is getting information, assess its value and accuracy, and be ready to condense the best of it to help their clients.”

Kimmons goes on to explain that sellers have the same set of problems, as online valuations can use information from sources that aren’t necessarily reliable.

“A thorough set of CMAs from the MLS – one for recently sold properties, and another for currently listed competition – is one of the most valuable services the listing agent can provide,” says Kimmons. “The listing broker can also help the seller to sort through all of the online marketing resources and show them which are actually of value in getting their home in front of the greatest number of qualified buyers.”

We’ll have more advice from our contributors in part two. Until then, let us know your take on the issue in our comments.

While plenty of real estate professionals start a blog with the simple aim of generating more website traffic, many quickly find that the day to day realty of blogging is tougher than they first thought.

Coming up with ideas in the first place can be difficult enough, but what about when your readers decide to take you to task on what you’ve written? How do you confront negative feedback without the conversation degenerating into a mud-slinging match?

For a few tips, let’s take a look at a recent example of negative blog feedback from New Zealand. Market leading portal realestate.co.nz recently unveiled a complete redesign, prompting a swift backlash on the portal’s blog.

realestate.co.nz CEO Alistair Helm did a couple of things right in responding to the criticism in the blog comments:

To begin with, he responded personally to as many commenters as possible, addressing many by name.

Helm also kept his answers polite and comprehensible, even though the situation was, he admitted, “personally disappointing.”

Finally, he thanked each commenter for their contribution, despite that fact that most were critical of the new-look website.

Helm has a major real estate portal’s reputation to consider, so there’s little chance his responses were going to be anything different. That said, there’s no reason real estate agents shouldn’t take the same approach when negative comments pop up on their blogs.

When you think about it, there’s a lot more at stake than winning an argument with a commenter. If you can respond to a negative comment with some forethought and poise, you’re also presenting yourself, and therefore your business, in the best possible light. And that has to be a positive.

[Image: thesituationist.wordpress.com]

Just like real estate photography, video in real estate varies widely in terms of quality. There are plenty of videos out there that could make even the most settled of home owners wonder whether they should consider moving, and plenty more that probably have even the most dedicated home hunter reaching for the pause button.

So which factors make the difference between a video that enhances a listing and one that does it no favours? Is it the vast amount of money spent on a professional video service? Not if you follow these easy tips:

1. Stabilise the camera if at all possible. Even if you don’t have a tripod available, using something to steady your arm as you pan through each room will go a long way towards reducing that seasick feeling in your audience.

2. Practice filming as often as you can and learn from the results. Are you standing too close to your subject? Are you moving the camera around too quickly? Of course, constructive criticism from others is another excellent way to get the answers to these questions.

3. Edit if at all possible. In the interest of getting a video online quickly, many agents forgo the editing process and simply upload as soon as they finish filming. The problem is that these videos would almost always have looked more professional with even a few dissolves between shots or a quick fade-to-black at the end.

4. Explain what we’re looking at. Another trend in real estate videos are those silent videos that simply show the exterior or interior of a property without any explanation. There’s no need to chat the whole way through, but a few details here and there will go a long way towards connecting your viewers with the property.

5. Enhance where you can. Music is an obvious but extremely effective addition to any real estate video as long as it’s kept subtle and unobtrusive. On the topic of sound, if you’re not keen on having your own voice in the video, try highlighting the property’s features by adding subtitles at appropriate points.

For Mac users, a simple program to edit and enhance your videos is iMovie, while PC users can get started with Movie Maker.

Once you’ve mastered the art of the perfect video listing, your next challenge will be video SEO, which you can read more about here.