The service is automated, so all you need to do is post your listings to your cityblast.com account.

Registration is free. You choose the city that you would like to receive listings for. Unfortunately, as a Facebook app, the site requests the following:

We do not recommend allowing a company to have such unfettered access to your personal information, contacts, information people share with you, to post to Facebook ‘as me’, or to access your data any time.

Without granting permission, we were unable to go further with our review of the service.

On completing social media pages for our customers, we recommend that they immediately change passwords and attend to privacy and security settings.

For more information on security and privacy concerns with social media, please contact us at: info@thetouchmarketing.com.

If you are a real estate agent with a passion for home decor, architecture, and interior design, I would suggest that you take a look at Pinterest.

Pinterest offers a service that allows you (and millions of others!) to set up bulletin boards for your favourite images and video. You ‘pin’ your material to your boards.

You can display your bulletin boards privately or publicly, share content with others, make friends, and enjoy the images and video pinned to bulletin boards created by other people.

The emphasis is on displaying attractive, designer images rather than overtly commercial ads.

Pinterest is not for everyone. It might be for the real estate person who lists high end homes and would like to express themselves through collecting images and video and posting original content to their boards.

Take a look. As a real estate professional, remember to obtain permission for images and video for which you can identify the source. Be sure that the materials you display are in keeping with the public image in your business plan.

To sign up, you will need an invitation. If you are a friend or client of Touch Marketing, let us know if you want one.

You can reach us at: info@thetouchmarketing.com

Certainly an enterprising real estate salesperson and brokerage can    

… And being a good Social Media citizen means participating and contributing. Twitter is somewhat easy to use. Just type out quick Tweets and Re-tweets to your lists, so long as the messages are interesting, clear, and relevant to the intended reader.

Along with getting our own messages out to others, a powerful use of Social Media for estate people is Listening. Listening to what is being said about personal life decisions affecting real estate, communities, and real estate people.

Recently, McDonalds offered a Twitter campaign that solicited positive experiences with its restaurants and products. The campaign was received with waves of Twitter scorn – within hours!

I include one link to the news story, but there were hundreds. Fortunately, McDonalds monitors its online reputation carefully and was quick to make changes.

Imagine this nightmare scenario. You or one of your real estate salespeople do not show up for an appointment with a difficult or unpromising customer (not that you would ever do this, of course!).

That person complains on Twitter about you.

This draws hundreds of complaints from various people about you, your brokerage, and real estate people in general. These complaints appear in Twitter streams. The Twitter streams can be read directly but also appear on multiple other platforms such as websites that include streamed Twitter messages from various sources.

Couldn’t happen?  Glenn Batten in a blog post, “The Ugly Side of Twitter”, several years ago, posts Twitter streams in which this type of  scenario takes place.

The worse thing about this nightmare scenario is that unless you are following your name and brokerage and industry on Social Media, it might be days before someone personally mentions it to you.  You could be out there diligently pounding the pavement to serve your clients and drum up new business. You are doing everything the sales trainers tell you to do. In the meantime, your reputation is being dragged to the bottom of the ocean through Twitter comments and you don’t even follow Twitter.

We recommend that our clients carefully and regularly monitor their online reputation or have someone do it for them, especially on the speedier Social Media like Twitter.

If you would like to discuss your online reputation, drop us a line at: info@thetouchmarketing.com.

To point out a few: Michelle Smith’s Corbett Connector is outstanding.  Michelle’s blog is currently running a series of posts on people (Real live people on a real estate agent’s blog! And not just people who are giving the agent a testimonial plug). This blog places the agent squarely in the centre of their community. It might be fair to assume that an agent who is so plugged in might know what is going on with real estate.

http://corbettconnector.blogspot.com/

I appreciated Thompson Realty’s The Phoenix Real Estate Guy. The word that came to mind is ‘balanced’. This blog offers a balance between words and images, useful real estate information and community events. It has a fresh, contemporary look while maintaining a folksy feel. I would suggest doing something about the change from double column to single column and inserting links into the blog posts.

http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com/

In the newbie blogger department, visit Maja Butler’s brand-new Bellevue Luxury Properties blog.  Maja offers a great blend of real estate, local events, and recipes (I looked at this blog just before dinner time). Lots of great written information on this blog with helpful links and tags. Maja is off to a good start but is posting too often to be able to keep up the work with fresh material. I would suggest that Maja cut back to less-frequent posts and aim to be in it for the long haul.

http://bellevueluxuryproperties.wordpress.com/

I was grateful for receiving so many links to blogs.

A few pointers:

All listings, all the time, make for a very dull blog.

Likewise, a blog that is too commercial is like just looking at television commercials without the programs in between.

Mix in your listings, real estate information, with live people stuff that adds colour and interest and an implied local expertise for you.

Too much video on your blog looks cool but can be challenging for small screens, weak Internet connections, and short periods of time.

Too much text in long posts goes unread… So I will stop here!

real estate blogs?

Image via bluebison.net

I would love to find and follow some new real estate blogs with original content and great photos and video. If  you do a great blog or know about some great real estate blogs, post them in the comment section below.

Why? I am interested in real estate and in visiting my neighbourhood, communities where I have lived,  places I have visited, and destinations I would like to visit.

A good real estate blog will give me some good ideas about what is taking place in a particular market and help me to stay current with that community.

There is a lot of ‘canned content’ out there. Brokerages, agents, or their content providers provide some news that has been boiled up and served to many over dozens, if not hundreds of websites/blogs. There is a place for borrowed material when we are distracted by other concerns or our creative well is running a little dry.

But the gold is in the original content.  Real estate agents have a unique perspective and for various reasons, mostly busyness I suppose, they do not get around to sharing it in their blogs.

High-quality original content is what will bring me back to your real estate blog.  People like to read blogs that are a blend of useful information and entertainment.

You can have a very simple blog design without a lot of frills. You can post as little as once a week. Just be sure to understand that your reader is not a loyal and polite friend. They are visiting you because you have something to offer them.

An added bonus: Google and Bing continue to make changes that are directed toward rewarding original content. So without cost, you can boost your SEO in the right direction.

Here is a short list of suggestions for starting:

1. Review. Take a look at your plan for 2011. How did things work out? Why?

2. Put it in writing. Summarize your expectations for the coming year: The economy and micro-economy of your community. Your health, family situation, and financial needs. Include the various opportunities and risks that your real estate career faces in the coming year. What is the competitive picture like?

3. Set targets. What are your specific targets for 2012 (e.g. $$$ gross commissions  for the year, $$ gross commissions per month, $$ business and personal expenses per month, taking into account the annual sales cycle, # of sales per month, # of leads per month, # of advertising markers and hits per month.

4. Contingency plan. What are you going to do if things aren’t going well in three months? Six months? What if there is a local disaster? What if you encounter a health or family problem?

5. Communication. It is important to have multiple sources of prospects and referral sources, redundant channels of communication, and a clear idea of how and what you are going to share with people.

6. Collaborate. Be sure to discuss and debate your plan with others among your family, friends, and business circle. Don’t be afraid of pessimists, worry warts, and cynics, but don’t let them hold you back from making bold and creative plans.

7. Success. No set of projections is bullet-proof, but whatever you do, plan for success.

(For a fun kindergarten book about making big plans):

If we can help with your business planning for 2012, let us know: info@thetouchmarketing.com.

Being consummate professionals, they are prepared for these ‘spontaneous’ conversations. They carry in their minds, current and accurate real estate information and news. They have thought about how to respond to the big real estate stories that are now in the news and questions like ‘what do you expect the spring market to be like’? For specific questions they cannot answer, they are ready to say ‘I don’t know but I will get back to you’ and to take information for follow up. You know that they will, in fact, follow up on the promises they make.

They dress like the successful and confident persons that they are. They always carry business cards and a smartphone and present themselves as trustworthy and responsible friends.

In 2011, many savvy real estate people have easy-to-remember Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+) names and addresses and can offer these verbally and printed on their cards. This simple step allows people to continue their casual, no-pressure conversations with you online,  Perhaps immediately via smartphone.

A final tip:  Many real estate agents will choose to stay constantly available, possibly by Smartphone, while travelling and taking time away.  Others will be away on tropical cruises, relaxing on secluded islands in the South Pacific, or snorkeling off of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Whatever your plans, Social Media is an excellent way of staying in touch – for free…. And be sure to keep in touch with us here at Touch Marketing: info@thetouchmarketing.com.

Have a merry Christmas from all of us at The Touch Marketing!

But… if you don’t want to… your Facebook friends will do it for you. Because Facebook is dramatically changing up its profile set up. They are calling it Facebook Timeline.

From birth to .... the 'scrapbook' of your life according to Facebook

With Facebook Timeline, what you get is a virtual scrapbook which chronicles your online life. The Timeline tells your life story through sharing the images, video, and text that you have posted on Facebook over time.

Facebook will pull together all kinds of elements about you and your life and present these elements in a clear and beautiful way. Looking at the Timelines will be endlessly fascinating for millions of people, this holiday season.

It could be interesting and surprising for a lot of us. Do you remember that certain boy/girl friend in high school that you no longer want to talk about? You know, the one who has tragically slid into a tragic life of sin and crime? You know, the one you left behind to establish yourself as an award-winning real estate agent with a sterling reputation for integrity, professionalism, and community service?

Through Facebook’s amazing ability to make online connections and references, that person may suddenly loom large in your Facebook Timeline.

Your challenge? To monitor and manage your online reputation, to properly set up your Facebook privacy settings, and to carefully edit your history of Facebook posts for items that no longer match the persona you want to present to the world. For help, drop us a line at: info@thetouchmarketing.com.

Have you been thinking about giving Google+ a try? Google+ is Google’s answer to interactive social media.

For those of you who are old pros in using Facebook, much about Google+ will look familiar.   Google has created some interesting features that will appeal to many users and are useful for your real estate business.

1. Google+ Integration

If you use Google products and services, you will already appreciate that Google offers a suite of products that are free or very inexpensive to use (their google search ads pay for almost everything they do).  For real estate salespeople who are already using gmail, google chat, and other google products, the Google+ social network is an opportunity to use the Google networking resources and tools. Google is relentlessly building Google+ into a long list of online services.

2. Circles

You might find Circles to be useful for organizing your contacts into groups. Some Circles users find it easier and less cumbersome than the Facebook groups.

3. Mobile

Mobile is important to many real estate people. Google’s mobile app is already pretty good and getting better, especially with Google’s Android phones.  Google will be using Mobile as one of its biggest competitive tools in the battle with Facebook.

4. Search

Given that Google made its fortune on search, the company’s developers typically do a great job of integrating search into its online offerings. Circles is no exception. The search functions work smoothly and are much superior to what Facebook offers.

5. Lots more…

Give Google+ a try. Google+ has attracted millions of users but is not expected to quickly catch up to Facebook. There might be a tendency developing in the marketplace to use Google+ for specific purposes such as for your contacts who are big Google fans, or certain groups of business contacts. Google has developed brilliant and free ways for sharing documents, video, and images and collaborating on projects.

We highly recommend Google products for simple and inexpensive collaboration.  We would love to hear how you are using Google+. Drop us a line at info@thetouchmarketing.com

As they cruise along through websites and social media pages, they will accumulate impressions of their marketplace, community, and the real estate salespeople who serve their part of the market.

Pay attention to what the competition is doing online!

The biggest mistake that we see real estate people and their web designers make, is only looking at their own stuff or stuff that they personally like. What we suggest is that you look at the other sites and pages that people will come across in your area and the high end of the real estate market.

Do an honest assessment of your web presence or get a professional assessment done for you. How do you stack up against the luxury home market competition?

Exclusivity

Real estate people, by the thousands, have fallen into the habit of following the crowd in putting up standard-issue websites and social pages that all look the same. Then they attend popular guru seminars to find out why they get no activity. And then they are persuaded to buy the latest mass-market tools that thousands of other agents will buy.

If you have worked hard to secure some of the best listings in your community and  high net-worth home buyers and investors, you don’t put them into the mass-market ‘cheap suite’.  You want to provide solutions that reflect the client’s commitment to quality and exclusivity.

Emotion

We suggest that you pay close attention to the personal and emotional experiences that people have when they visit you online.  Use a simple, elegant design. Include up-to-date and easy-to-use functionality.  Pay careful attention to privacy and security.  Offer appropriate links and testimonials. Establish an upscale personal image.  Maintain a focus on appropriate listings and high-quality relationships.

To talk about online marketing for the luxury home market, get in touch with us at: info@thetouchmarketing.com.