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René Fabre - Social Media Marketing

Bye Bye... Summer 2009

I can’t believe it's already one week ago today I woke up in Cannon Beach, Oregon on a sunny beautiful Friday morning. I was on the Oregon coast last Thursday and Friday for a couple of great social media marketing workshops with real estate professionals in Tillamook and Seaside. 


When we finished in Tillamook Thursday afternoon we headed up coastal Highway 101 to Cannon Beach. I was working both days with my good friend Julie Olsen, Ticor Title - Marketing Director for Clatsop and Tillamook Counties. Like all great sales reps I've worked with through the years, she knows only one speed... pedal to the medal!

I was really working to keep her truck in site...

Rockaway Beach, Oregon

I pulled into the hotel after dark and didn't know what my view would be in the morning. I was delighted to see Haystack Rock. It's 235 feet tall and the third largest free standing monolith right off my deck. This picture with my cellphone doesn't do it justice.

Cannon Beach, Oregon

While I was waking up and having my morning coffee a new friend showed up and quietly hungout with me for over 20 minutes.

Seagull sitting on the rail of my deck at the Hallmark Inn, Cannon Beach, Oregon...

Both two hour sessions were great fun and we shared a lot of lively conversation about social media marketing. I love that kind of 'frontier in the air feeling'  I get when I do these events.

I'm reminded how much life has changed. It matters less where we live, on the web we all have equal opportunity.


Astoria Oregon, Astoria Bridge

Driving home, my head was full of ideas. I was already reminicing over the events and people I talked with and listening to the remastered Beatles albums... Help!, Abbey Road, and Sgt. Pepper's... (there's another blog!)...

Heading north into Astoria, a little over 4 hours to my place in Renton, Washington... That's the south portion of the Astoria Bridge over the Columbia River.

Bye Bye Summer 2009...
I learned a lot from you... You were beautiful, interesting, and sometimes a challenge... we had good times and some not so...
I worked I played... I was livin' the dream...

Thank you...

"Here come old flattop, he come grooving up slowly, He got joo-joo eyeball, he one ..."

All photos were taken with my BlackBerry Storm. I balance my elbow on the center console in my Ford Explorer and with practice, mimic my head movement and point it in the direction I’m looking attempting to keep the camera angle the same as my eye level. Later I check to see if the camera saw what I did. Needless to say, I delete most of the photos.

 

All content is © 2009... You are free to use, but please quote the source.

Rene's internet buffet:  Welcome to Rene's internet buffet...

Keeping your online presence manageable and in step - part 2 of 3

It’s important that we aren’t just blowing our own horn all the time. When we participate through conversation in communities like Active Rain we’re not only creating relationship with each other, we’re building a rapport with the search engines. Our relevance on line is greatly influenced by others chiming in about us.


In part one... keeping-your-online-presence-manageable-and-in-step-part-1

we talked about the ubiquitous way of social media marketing. Here in part two we’ll continue this line of inquiry and talk about how the dynamics of group can bolster your ranking.

There’s power in numbers!

Simply put, search engines like Google are robots that crawl the web to find all public content. Remember the search engine isn’t ‘the’ content but the device that finds and organizes it.

Google Spider Pictures, Images and Photos

Search engines have three component parts. First the spider reads the public page and follows the internal links. Then second, it collects, organizes, and indexes what it finds. Third, it sifts through what it has indexed and compares everything to everything else to formulate the (super secret black box) guidelines of ranking so it can decide how relevant your content is to the topic. With all that content on the web, these three things can take a while and until it’s in the index it’s not searchable.


StepRep MyFrontSteps

This is where a program like StepRep comes into play. Like a spider, StepRep continuously searches the net for content that includes us, is about us, or was created by us. With a little first hand feedback to its findings we proactively speed up the indexing process. We’re influencing the robot. We also affirm that the content was indeed us and by this we help reinforce our reputation, authority, and our digital footprint.

Speaking of authority, one of the truly important features in StepRep is the ability to trust others and to be trusted. What are we doing? We’re creating an affiliated association of people (colleagues, clients, contractors, servicers) that are declaring that you are who you say you are and they trust what you say. This is a reciprocal relationship for everyone who participates.

Use the Trust Network area of StepRep to build your network. Notice the right hand column is where you add experts to your trusted list and where you invite others to join you. This relatedness gets very large very quickly. Everyone is the center of their own trust group and by associating with you they share their acquired authority with you via those who trust them. StepRep is providing you with a very dynamic source of linkage and it’s making sure the search engines know about it.

Here on the Rain we blog and comment back and forth with each other all the time. We know we get a lot of ‘Google Juice’ from it. StepRep works well and in concert with this kind of participation.

Blow your own horn

Again, it’s important that we aren’t just blowing our own horn all the time. Part of the search engine algorithm for ranking has a lot to do with our associations and groups. Your StepRep affiliations are your supporters and tell the index that you are the bona fide genuine sincere source in this conversation and they hold you in high regard. That’s big time added weight!

Stay tuned for part three... Welcome to my internet buffet.

related posts:

Keeping your online presence manageable and in step - part 1 of 3

The road to ubiquity...

René Fabre is well known for his innovative marketing programs. He is a sought after speaker and motivator known for his knowledge, keen interest, and insightful approach to contemporary marketing ideas and technologies. His obvious passion for the subject is well known and contagious. As the IT Marketing Director for Ticor Title - Region 2, he frequently gives workshops and round table conversations throughout Washington and Oregon on internet and social media marketing, lead generation, and web presence development.

©2009 ARFCO MEDIA, an Audiorium Enterprise... all rights reserved.

Keeping your online presence manageable and in step - part 1 of 3

In social media we use the term ubiquity to describe a philosophy of online involvement. We accomplish visibility and opportunity by participating in a wide array of communities and conversation. This (we’re everywhere) method by its very nature creates havoc when it comes to keeping your online presence manageable and in step.

The objective is to have the search engines consider us an authority and serve up our conversation as the relevant content it offers when people are online searching a subject for answers. If we’re successful, they will find us and we’ve created opportunity.

The ubiquitous way is a great ideal, but in reality it can be a challenge to manage and monitor. One of my favorite tools for this is StepRep.

StepRep - monitor and manage your online reputation...

StepRep let’s me know what where and when content that includes me is picked up in the search engine index. I set it up so I get alerts on my BlackBerry and I also get an Executive Report once a day around 5:30 PM that includes my stats and ranking over the past 24 hours. It’s somewhat like ‘Google Alerts’ but more user friendly and it includes some really handy features.

Why is this important? I’m saving a tremendous amount of time by letting StepRep auto-search the web to collect targeted findings that include me. Without help, I wouldn’t know the effectiveness of my online efforts.

I can influence and categorize what it finds.

StepRep - search results for Rene Fabre

Notice in the example above that StepRep, based on the predetermined search term “René Fabre” + “marketing” + “Ticor”, found a new entry in the Google Index and it includes a brief synopses with a link back to its source. This is really handy for verification and you can set up as many search terms as you want.

Now I can quickly sort through the findings and categorize these results about me as positive, negative, neutral, my content, or not relevant. What a fabulous tool. I can’t rewrite entries in the index, but now I can influence them.

What we’re doing is assisting Google to index us more precisely. We’re talking to the index and giving it our opinion about its findings that include us to refine how we relate to searches and content.

This is powerful, especially for those who have common names. For example, if your name is John Smith, there are a billion indexed conversations about everything out there on the web that include your name. By identifying an indexed entry as Not Relevant you’re telling Google that content is by a different John Smith.

I can also help the index discern what content is My Content and promote it, Tweet it, and/or publish to Facebook. If I don’t like a finding I can’t delete it, but I can influence its ranking downward by selecting Negative. If it’s a Positive I can vote it up. Which is saying, yes I want people to find this. Neutral just simply means its content, includes a mention, but it neither helps nor hurts my online reputation.

StepRep - Reputation Monitor

StepRep is free. All you need is a Google account to log on. To get the best results make sure your StepRep profile (like your Google profile) is complete and lists all of your online locations. A great tool for keeping your online presence manageable and in step.

In part 2 - we’ll take a look at the tools that enhance your online presence through the people that trust you and the power of group.

related post: The Road to Ubiquity by René Fabre

market update: Seattle, WA 98115 - Condominiums

Seattle, WA 98115

rental rates
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housingmaps.com
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Residential Transaction Study 8/26/2009
Project description: Seattle, WA 98115 - condominiums
 
yearly market Most recent transaction: 8/17/2009 Market (homes): 1779
year sales mrkt% $/sqft avg price median
2009 47 3% $247 $248,970 $225,000
2008 105 6% $317 $297,670 $260,975
2007 161 9% $323 $296,323 $265,000
2006 232 13% $313 $273,319 $257,800
2005 140 8% $227 $225,497 $204,450
2004 151 8% $273 $248,565 $239,000
 
market by assessed value ranges  
Assessed Value Range # mrkt % last 12mo avg sale $ median sale $
$24,400-$124,399 8 %      
$124,400-$224,399 648 36% 43 $193,646 $191,500
$224,400-$324,399 596 34% 34 $230,345 $238,250
$324,400-$424,399 374 21% 28 $331,833 $325,000
$424,400-$524,399 112 6% 11 $471,750 $481,000
$524,400-$624,399 25 1%      
$624,400-$724,399 12 1%      
$724,400 and up 1 %      
 
property characteristics
1 story 0 avg bldg sqft 981 avg site sqft 108,000
2 story 163 avg year built 1983 avg % imprvd 66%
3 story 642 avg # beds 2 w/ garage
4+ story 974 avg # baths 1 avg garage sqft
 
ownership statistics
Average length of ownership = 6.8
properties owned for:  
0-5 years 848    
5-10 years 433    
10+ years 366  
Average taxes = $2,219
 
 
stats by bedroom count
Market by bedroom count (last 12 mo.)
rooms sales avg price avg $/sqft
1 29 $210,593 $276
2 35 $265,624 $242
3 3 $373,167 $193
4+      
 
 
Ticor Title ITMr2 The data used in this report is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. Ticor Title cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies.
© 2004-2009 Ticor Title Renton WA 98057

market update: Seattle, WA 98115 (non-waterfront) single family dwellings

Seattle, WA 98115







relocation
Hoodeo.com
The neighborhood matchmaker. Best places to live... 

RelocationEssentials.com
Compare cost of living,  schools, salaries etc.


HomeFair.com
Moving Links, cost of living, city & school reports.

 
Residential Transaction Study 8/25/2009
Project description: Seattle, WA 98115 (non-waterfront) single family dwellings
 
monthly market Most recent transaction: 8/18/2009 Market (homes): 14224
month year sales mrkt% $/sqft avg price median
Aug 2009 19 0.1% $230 $484,842 $444,000
Jul 2009 58 0.4% $234 $494,822 $461,500
Jun 2009 56 0.4% $228 $515,967 $457,500
May 2009 35 0.2% $237 $486,674 $425,000
Apr 2009 44 0.3% $226 $543,906 $484,250
Mar 2009 27 0.2% $250 $545,944 $505,000
 
property characteristics
1 story 8269 w/ bsmt 11,744 platted 13,506
1.5 story 3580 avg bsmt sqft 1,003 avg lot sqft1 5,997
2 story 2269 w/ garage 3,384 unplatted 718
3+ story 47 avg garage sqft 309 avg lot sqft2 7,055
avg % imprvd 41% avg year built 1944 avg bldg sqft 2,265
avg # beds 3 avg # baths 2    
  1avg lot sqft of all platted properties 2avg lot sqft of all unplatted properties
 
 
Ticor Title ITMr2 The data used in this report is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. Ticor Title cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies.
© 2004-2009 Ticor Title Renton WA 98057

René Fabre is well known for his innovative marketing programs. He is a sought after speaker and motivator known for his knowledge, keen interest, and insightful approach to contemporary marketing ideas and technologies. His obvious passion for the subject is well known and contagious. He frequently gives workshops and round table conversations on Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Lead Generation.