David A. de Bruyn

Woke up this morning to find my Twitter all 'abuzz. Perhaps as the perfect follow up to the last article where we discussed how to use Twitter to help your Real Estate business, Kye Grace, a Vancouver BC realtor has decided to hold a 72 hour straight open house at a heritage-style condo in the City's trendy Gastown area. The concept is simple - he wants to treat the open as an event, and used social media in conjunction with local media to generate buzz, and provide a huge turnout for his clients. He has even gone one step further and asked local businesses to help sponsor the event, as a great cross-promotional community advertising venture. This truly embraces what social media & "2.0" technology is about. A special section of his website has been setup for the event, and you can tune in live on video, watch his video blogs on Viddler, follow him on Twitter, or if in the area you can head down (any time of day or night) this weekend and check it out.

Kye's website for the event can be found here.

I plan on popping by to see how well the event is going, so check back for updates!

Update - More info from the Vancouver Sun can be found here.

By now you have probably heard of a "new" internet tool called Twitter. Twitter is a free, web based social networking application that allows you to connect with friends and associates around the world. In a nutshell, twitter allows you to send out "tweets", small messages 140 characters or less, to a network of followers who have opted-in to receive your message.

Twitter was founded in 2006 by a small group of internet entrepreneurs that included Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey. Williams is credited with coining the term "blogger" before developing and selling the blogging platform Blogger to Google in 2003. Dorsey came up with the concept for Twitter as a way to use text messaging to share a user's status easily among friends. In 2007 the service began to gain steam and started winning awards, rapidly growing its user database.

In April of 2007 the presidential election campaign for Barrack Obama began using the service as a way to connect with the "younger demographic". One year later the @BarackObama account on twitter had the most followers of any user on the entire system. The campaign used the service as a way to instantly communicate ideas, itinerary changes, and campaign trail stops. The results were astonishing, with a single click, a simple 140 character message had the power to instantly be broadcast virally across the country, filling an event or auditorium almost immediately.

The million dollar question is whether this powerful tool can be harnessed, and used to further your Real Estate business. The most important aspect of this service from a marketing standpoint is that the "followers" of an account have chosen to receive content from the account. They are interested and curious in what the individual's message is, and they are paying attention by choice.

The current method of contacting your database electronically is typically via email. Although email marketing can be effective if targeted properly, it has been losing effectiveness thanks to the increase in spam. Think of the pile of junk mail flyers you might find in your mailbox and how easy it is to get lost in the pile - email (especially drip campaigns) can work the same way. They often get filtered out as junk by service providers, before even reaching the desired target. If the message does make it through, it can quickly become lost in a sea of email garbage that the average user gets on a daily basis. Security software vendor Softscan claimed in 2008 on average over 96.63% of all email sent was spam.

So... where to start? Well begin by signing up at www.twitter.com and selecting your username. For most Real Estate agents, it is probably a wise choice to use your actual name - it humanizes your business and allows for authenticity and "transparency". Once you have established your account, it is time to begin finding and developing your following.

Most people find their first few followers from their existing contact base. Keep in mind that any time you "reply" to a message on twitter, your reply will get seen by that person's base of followers. I would suggest finding and following people you share common interests with, and can contribute to the "conversation". You will find that a following begins to develop, especially if you are tweeting out relevant, exciting messages. No one to follow? Feel free to practice and come find me on twitter @debruyndesign.

As you begin to send out your tweets, watch very carefully to avoid overt self-promotion. Twitter is a great marketing medium, but is still mainly a social networking tool. Your website traffic and personal brand will grow faster and stronger by contributing value to the medium and your following rather than by sending out self-promo messages. Blatant self promotion will cause your list of followers to shrink - rapidly.

So what to tweet? Anything that comes to mind! New listings, open houses, foreclosures, links of interest, local events. Some members regularly tweet their lunch meetings, finding that they not only run into others at the restaurant, but by both tweeting and including their user names, they get great cross-promotional exposure on each others network of followers. A witty comment about a hot topic or current local political event can set off a firestorm of traffic, resulting in a large spike of followers.

There is no right or wrong way to communicate with your database, but one of the keys to Real Estate success is making sure that you do reach out to your contacts, regularly. Think about trying out Twitter - it is free, and quite simple to set up & use. The beautiful part of the system is that you are speaking with people who have volunteered to listen. It will get your name out there, and if used properly will help increase your credibility online. A plethora of blogs & websites have sprung up dedicated to the software so there are resources everywhere if you want to learn more. Happy tweeting & stay tuned for more articles in our Social media for Real Estate series!

Century21 continues to make headlines with their dramatic shift away from conventional media in favor of online marketing, display ads & Google / search engine marketing. I have been following this story very closely, as it represents a very important shift in corporate mentality where such a large Real Estate company has diverted their massive advertising budget to the online market.

Century 21 claims that their new marketing efforts in 2008 boosted online lead generation by a whopping 237% over the previous year. To top that off, the company claims that their "cost-per-lead" has dropped 62% from 2007 - a figure most in the industry will find astounding.

If ever there was proof that the Real Estate industry as a whole MUST shift their fundamental thinking (and spending) into new media & online marketing, this is it.

More information from InmanNEWS on this story can be found here.

According to a recent study by the National Association of Realtors [2008] an estimated 87% of home buyers now start their search for a property online. Over the course of the last 10 years, the internet has literally changed the way real estate is bought & sold. It has changed the way people buy & sell property forever. It has also had a profound impact on how people select their Agent. No longer simply the guardians of the information, Real Estate agents in this changing marketplace must adapt to compete for sales, and for clients.

We now live in an age where information is cheap, and readily available. Consider the stat above for a moment. It is now a fact that most home buyers take an “armchair” approach to property selection. They research from home, gather information and conceive opinions long before they ever set foot in an Agent's car. The information contained in the online version of your listings must not only be accurate, it must now be compelling. This is competitive sales, and thanks to the market there is competition everywhere.

Critical analysis of the new sales process shows that the decision to buy a particular property is now made regularly before the viewing. The information, content & imagery you post online for your listings is VITAL to getting the buyers off their couch, and in to view your property. As an industry, we must move past the "passive" approach of "post-it-and-they-will-come" listings. Your listings are literally out there online, fighting for their lives - help them out!

So what then are the solutions? There are many ideas, many products that are out there to help your listings stand out. Professional photographers, virtual tours, talking homes, the list goes on. I feel that although these are important tools for an Agent to use, they fail to consider what actually makes people buy.

These "triggers" are the marketing gold of the Web 2.0 world. What compels a buyer to get off the couch & actually move from the virtual world to the real world (and part with real dollars)? I suggest that you start trying to determine the triggers that are working in your market, in your demographic. Start with this, call your last 5 buyers (or the ones you trust) and ask them the following questions.

1. Where did you start your home search? Did you call me first or begin online?
2. Of the homes we toured in person, how many had you previously seen online?
3. Of the homes you suggested (that I had not considered), what drew you to them?
4. Consider the home you eventually purchased, what drew you to that over the others?
5. Was the home you purchased better or worse than it "appeared" online?

Consider the answers to these questions and then look back at the orignal listings. You should find some very common threads (keywords, visual methods eg: tours / photography). Use these as a guide for your next listing.

Watch for our upcoming series of articles dedicated to adapting your Real Estate marketing to a 2.0 world.

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