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I had a friend that told me that he had new clients that were concerned whether or not he was going to use Twitter and Facebook to help sell their property.  I guess he was trying to gain my disapproval of the usage of these two online juggernauts since he did not like to use computers too much, and he liked to use more older, conventional methods to sell real estate.  Unfortunately, I had to welcome him into the 21st Century and inform him that he should consider at least learning about these two online applications, especially since his clients thought that they were important.

I Know They are Everywhere, But Will They Help Me?

I can see why they would think that way.  After all, Twitter’s and Facebook’s logos can be seen all over the Internet, television, cereal boxes, restaurant menus, motel brochures and every place else.  Personally, I don’t really think that people are going to go onto Dr. Wart’s Footpads Facebook page after seeing it advertised on T.V., but that’s just me.  However, as for  small localized businesses, and people in a particular real estate market I think it would be invaluable.  For one thing, real estate sales is a very social type of business that relies on networking and connecting with groups in a particular geographic market.   Since sites like Facebook and Twitter are social bookmarking applications, wherein the demographics indicate that professionals and businesses are using them more and more to sell things and services;  it is a very important tool for the real estate professional.

As you will no doubt see in my latest video, just as with Facebook, Twitter can target your geographical market.  You can easily network with other people and businesses in your area and develop friendships that will prove to be invaluable.  Remember, people are more apt to do business with you if they know you and like you so connecting with them on a social bookmarking site can help further your marketing efforts and area of expertise.

In my last blog post I talked to you about the peril of marketing though having only one channel or marketing venue.  I also mentioned the fact that it is very important for you to get involved with other types of business ventures which are related in some way to your real estate sales or business.  Remember, if you are making money from only one source or direction, then you should not be sleeping well at night.   If you want to read the grim story of what happened when Google changed its relevance ranking which was in my last post, then click here.

Why You Need More Than One Marketing Channel

In this episode, I want to talk to you about how you can expand your sales into other marketing channels and business ventures.   As I stated earlier, you need more than one marketing channel in case the others don’t work, or the conditions change.  I personally know a bunch of people that love direct mail marketing.  However, in several states there is legislation in action that is trying to implement a “don’t mail” list. (Just like the “don’t call” list that has already passed in most states.)  So, if the only method of marketing that you have been using is through direct mail, then the conditions may change and you will have a serious marketing problem as well as a serious income problem.

Let’s Make a List!

One of the ways that you can diversify your marketing as a real estate professional, is to sit down and brain-storm all of the possible methods that you could keep in contact with your past and current clients as well as listing ways you can acquire new clients and listings.  Why is keeping in touch with current and past clients so important? Because it is far easier to get referrals from them than it would be from people you just met.  So, just for fun, let’s make a list of some of the ways you could market yourself as a real estate professional.

1. Email
   1. You could have a blog or website to collect these addresses from people that come to your site.
   2. You can use an auto-responder to keep in touch with a whole list of people just with a click of a button from an online email service, like Aweber.
   3. Publishing an online newsletter which would be in full color and show pictures of the houses you have listed would be a great way of marketing properties, while showing clients that you are going above and beyond typical representation
2. Online article marketing
   1. You could direct people to your website or blog by writing articles for online syndication services like Articlesbase or Ezinearticles.com
   2. You could also write for syndicated blogs and online newsletters that are published by other people, which would also help to establish you as an authority
   3. You can create electronic books of your own and sell them through companies like Amazon
3. Blogging
   1. Writing a blog post about your profession or the houses that you are representing
   2. Posting good high quality comments to another authority blog site can help to lend credibility to your professionalism
4. Website
   1. You can direct prospects to your personal, updatable website by using some of the above mentioned methods to show properties that you have as listings
   2. You can have online streaming videos that show properties that are hot on the market
   3. Posting free reports that can help buyers save money or help sellers prepare their properties to be sold

In my next posting, I will show you more methods of marketing that can be made in the off-line world which will lead people to your website. This is a method where you can automatically collect their contact information while you sleep!

In my last blog post, I wrote about the fact that using a marketing medium such as Facebook or any of the other social networking sites in just five minutes a day was probably a fantasy. If you are going to use these vehicles to market your real estate, you need to have a strategy and spend a little more time on them. However, having said that, I would like to say that you can use some of these social networking sites in a manner that will allow you to quickly post to them on some days rather quickly. What do I mean by that? Well, here is an example:

You will write a great 500 word article that is well written, clear and concise. This article you will not post to your blog, but you will use it to post multiple times on the Internet using article sites, social bookmarking sites, and any other place that you can put them. On every single one of the copies that you post, you will place a link back to your website and a notice at the bottom of your article. You will tell everyone that they can post this article on their websites or blogs as long as they leave your bio information and links back to your site on the article. This will give you back-links to your web site or blog which will help your search engine rankings.

The reason that you are not going to place this article on your own blog or website is because you are trying to avoid duplicate content issues with Google. Google does not like duplicate content, however, if your article appears on many other people’s sites with your consent and back-links that is great for you. It might not be such a great thing for them, but that’s their problem.
So, using this strategy, you can post this article onto your social networking web site, and let everyone on there know about it through the newsfeed. (I give a demonstration on how to do this with blog posts as well.)

If you are going to make brief posts at least once a day to several sites like Facebook, then it won’t take you very long. You will still have to make friends, write articles and comment on other people’s opinions on there to build friendships and credibility, which does take time….More time than just 5 minutes a day I’m afraid.

Here’s the video:

Resources:
Facebook for Beginners

Google Trends for Facebook

In this next video, I am going to show you how to use Seo (Search Engine Optimization) Tools to get noticed on the Internet.   It is not enough to just write a blog post or web page you have to follow a certain procedure to make sure that you will get indexed and noticed by Google.   As I told you on one of my earlier posts, if you do any kind of marketing on the Internet it is either going to cost you money or you will have to do the grunt work yourself.

Take my video posts for example.  It takes me the better part of 2 hours to create these videos per episode.  I’ll bet most people look at those videos and think, “Shortcut!”, but that would be far from the truth.  Here are the steps I have to take to create a video blog:

1. I research what my video post should be about.  I don’t want to blindly create videos and if I can make series of them that relate to each other I consider hat factor as well.
2. I then do my keyword or care-word research.  I want help my blog post get found.
3. I prepare my PowerPoint slides with intro and exit info.
4. Selecting websites or pages to use as examples.
5. I then make the recordings; usually I have to make them several times because I’m not as articulate as Larry King or Oprah.
6. I then have t edit and add tracks to the video capture.
7. After all of that I try to write an intro so that word content on my blog stays fresh (Oops! Add another ½ hour!)
8. Then I will have to watch the video for accuracy and to make sure it makes some sort of sense.
9. I then have to take the completed rendered clip and use BitGravity to place it into a video viewer for the Internet.
10. Then I past and post into my blog.

Now, I’ll bet everyone thought that making these real estate marketing videos was a snap.  As you watch consider these SEO tools while watching my video, remember that any type of marketing that is worthwhile takes time, work and commitment.

The First Step in Internet Blogging is a video tutorial on exactly what a real estate professional must do whenever he or she posts to a blog. It is not enough to write a post; there are several things that you must do whenever you post to a blog. Listed below are some of the things you need to consider before posting.

1. You need to do some search engine optimization research You will need to know what words or phrases people are looking for. (Did you notice that the title phrase “First Step Internet Blogging” was little unusual? There is a reason for that.)

2. What tool should you use to find out what people are looking for? Note: This tool is great and 100% Free!

3. How can you use Google to find out how well you are doing? There is one simple technique that can help you find phrases and keywords and how much competition you will have when you rank for certain terms and words.

Once again, I want t encourage you to sign up for my FREE Real Estate Technology Marketing Course. It is loaded with ideas tips, strategies and graphics that can help you gain maximum exposure on the Internet.

Resources: SEObook (http://www.seobook.com) – A great resource site for anyone getting their feet wet in search engine optimization.

The National Association of Realtors this July released some very interesting statistics on how people use different methods for locating real estate properties.  This article should be very revealing to some of you real estate sales professionals if you haven’t considered what methods of media and advertising home buyers are using.  Please bear in mind that these percentages are taken from surveys that asked which multiple methods of searching was used by the home searchers.  So, a person could select more than one method of media that was used in their search.

First of all, the data collected reflected home purchases up to the year 2009, wherein first time home buyers exceeded repeat home buyers by 47%.   The median age of first time home buyers was 30, while the median age of repeat buyers was 48.  This may give you some insight as to how to market to these different types of buyers, as the older crowd tends to be more conservative than younger buyers.

But the real meat of the report was in the area of marketing.  Home books or magazines were at the bottom of the marketing list with only 26% were used by home searchers, followed by newspaper ads at 40%.  Open houses were 46% and seeing yard signs came in at 59%.  The last two categories that were compiled should prove very encouraging to most of you real estate agents out there.  87% of the people that were in the market for a home used a real estate agent to help them locate their new home, and the #1 method of searching for a piece of real estate was using the Internet at 90%.

Now, for those of you that are in real estate sales that think that they can afford to ignore the Internet and all of the new, wonderful methods of communicating with people, like social networking sites, may want to think again.  If you are not using sites like Twitter, Squidoo, or Facebook, as well as using your own website, blog, online newsletter, or email campaigns (still free as of this writing) then you may want to check out a couple of books from Amazon on the subject.  If that’s too expensive for you, you can be even cheaper still by going to my blog and downloading my free course called, “Marketing and Selling Real Estate Using the Internet” which is loaded with 10 years of strategies FREE to those of you that really want to excel in online marketing and sales and leave the other agents eating your dust.

While I must admit there are many other marketing techniques that the survey did not include, like direct mail campaigns, (still a very powerful method) and referrals, there is a clear indication that there is gold on the Internet and learning how to extract it may be a good idea.

Source:  National Association of the Board of Realtors (http://www.realtor.org/library/library/fg006)

Mark Ellis is an Education Technologist that has a passion for technology in teaching and sales. He has a Master’s degree in Education Technology from Boise State University and a BA in Music Education from Lynchburg College. Mark is a syndicated writer on the subject of technology in selling real estate and his information – packed course “Marketing and Selling Real Estate Using the Internet” is free and can be found here: Expert Realtor Web Blog.

I was recently looking around on the Internet looking for technology information.  Being an educational technologist, I am always looking for ways to not just teach people utilizing technology, but also methods real estate agents can use technology to sell and market properties.  I just happened to come across a great blog called – MyTechOpinion which is a blog on how to use technology for real estate.  This blog, just happened to have a review of an online video service  called Animoto, that just about anyone could use.

I have been using video and studying how to implement it in education for several years now, and I have come across several ways a person in sales or marketing can use this facet of technology to boost their sales.  One of the reasons that online video is such a big deal right now, is because video is very appealing to Google.   Last year, I made a video for Boise State University called “Facebook for Beginners“, and you can see the results on the link I just posted.  Not only did I get high rankings on Google, but also a plethora of places on the Internet by using video sharing sites. (More about those in another blog post.)

Getting back to the subject of Animoto; this is a service wherein you upload pictures and videos and then post them to Animoto’s website or server. You can then you can create a slick video pretty fast utilizing this online video service. You can post as many videos as you like and make them look professional using Animoto’s  editing and effects tools.  You can also add sounds and music, plus add call to action buttons to your uploaded video.   This is real important, because it eliminates the learning curve, time and expense of software that you would have to buy.

However, despite the ease and convenience of using a video service like this, there is a subscription cost of about $249 dollars per year to use it.  Also, you will still have to know how actually shoot the video and upload it to Animoto.  The problem I have seen with most online videos, is that people love to use their web cameras to shoot just their faces. One of my pet peeves is whenever I see someone make an Internet guru style video from their front car seat while driving. ( As if just any poor, dumb schmuck couldn’t make a video from his front car seat.)  If you are just dishing out information, you could always make a recording or a podcast which would be a heck of a lot easier.

The other thing you need to consider at all times is quality content, which actually takes time to write and then present. As online video becomes easier to produce, more people will be competing with it and I’m sure in a few years not only will the novelty wear out, but also people will become more aware of the time they are wasting watching something that has little or no value.  It would a benefit to you to take the time and create great content on the Internet no matter which media you choose to use. Remember, your name is going to be on it and people will see and recall your professionalism or lack of it.

So, there you have it, another great way to get your video online so that you can promote and market real estate or just create some shameless promotion for yourself.  You can view Animoto’s website by clicking on the link provided.

Mark Ellis is an Education Technologist that has a passion for technology in teaching and sales. He has a Master’s degree in Education Technology from Boise State University and a BA in Music Education from Lynchburg College. Mark is a syndicated writer on the subject of technology in selling.

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By: Mark Elmo Ellis

If you are a real estate agent you know that one of the best investments you can make is a cell phone.  The problem is not deciding whether or not to purchase a model, but what type of model you should invest in.  There are usually five distinct functions that a cell phone can perform which would be vital to a real estate agent: contacting clients, scheduling, MLS searches, sending pictures and mapping (finding locations).  Many of these functions can easily be handled by the Blackberry Bold by T-Mobile.

If you are familiar with the previous Blackberry design, you will notice that this model has a much sleeker body, which will make it much easier to transport and hold in your palm.  The chassis also has leather like surface on the back of it so that it won’t slip out of your fingers so easily and it has chrome around the edges of the phone to give it a comfortable feel as it rests in your hands.  Just like previous versions of the Blackberry, you have Talk and End keys and the trackball has been replaced with an optical trackpad.  The trackpad makes the scrolling much smoother and by merely pressing down you can select items on the screen. The keys have also been modified with raised edges so that you can feel them as you type in your messages.

The real value to a real estate agent is the communication and multimedia capabilities of the Blackberry Bold. Taking photographs of properties is very easy with the photographic interface. By clicking on the photograph icon, your Blackberry will move to a photograph display that makes taking pictures very easy.  The screen has a display range of 480 by 360 pixel resolution at 240 pixels which gives you a good, clean image.  You will have the ability to send the pictures by way of multimedia messaging to your office or clients. Because you can always be connected to your agency, the Blackberry Bold can access MLS listings for any client instantly.  No longer will you have to ask the office secretary or an assistant to look up vital information for you when you can easily look it up yourself.  This cell phone also has office scheduling features and an address book application that will store clients contact information on it.

Just last week, I took several pictures of several homes with the Blackberry. I had to send them to the home office and when I arrived and checked them on the office computer, the results were excellent.  The best part of using a cell phone in this manner is the speed and number of pictures that you can send.  With the Blackberry, this task was a snap and saved me loads of time

On the downside of this product, I had a problem hitting the small keys with my large fingers while texting.  Most people will not have that problem unless they have large hands.  The browser window is a little smaller than many models, but that should not hold anyone back from purchasing the Blackberry Bold.

To see and read more about the Blackberry Bold and other accessories for real estate agents, click on this link.

Mark Ellis offers you the opportunity to visit his Real Estate Agent resource website at: http://www.expertrealtorweb.com to see a full line of electronic tools and accessories for real estate professionals.  To access a full line of cutting edge devices and sales courses, visit http://www.expertrealtorweb.com by clicking on the link now.

Take a Look at Our Cell Phone Products

It looks like Freddie-Mac has once again lowered interest rates on Fixed Rate Mortgages which will bring them down to an all-time low.  This is real good news to investors that have the cash and wherewithal to weigh in.  The current FRM is now at 4.69 and from what the President spoke about at the G20 meetings this week, more incentives may be up for home buyers to grab.

The downside of course, is the unemployment rate that is creasing the nation at about 10% on national average.  Sales of homes have also dropped to a measly 2.2% which doesn’t make the economic situation any brighter. However, for cash rich investors willing to take a risk, many of these homes could become excellent parts of their portfolios if they play their cards right.

I made a recent post at a forum I frequent called “Get Clients Now” which is an excellent book written by a wonderful lady named C.J. Hayden. Anyway, I sort of got on a personal pity party and complained that I wasn’t making enough sales with my real estate websites. So many times, you get into a support group or forum and you will say or write something and nobody answers. So, I posted a short blurb about how I was a little depressed. I could not believe how many responses that I received!!! Not only did I get a lot of responses but they were great responses! I had so much advice and insights into this business, I couldn’t believe it. well, I had to respond to these folks and I dug up some info about our economy that you may find very interesting. Here is my response:

*********************************************************************

I really love you all. Your responses to my weak, lame post about
being depressed almost made me cry. I am sorry that I posted
something that was so chicken-*%$#&! (You fill in the blank.) I think
the reason that it takes me so long to accomplish things in life is because I put
myself on a pity-party. So, I am going to try to approach this from a
military strategic point of view, by attacking the problem and trying
to change the situation instead of letting it change me. So, I really
mean it when I say I deeply appreciate your help.

So, first of all, I would like to respond to several of you that
thought that the real estate market may be flat as well as the rest of
the economy. Here re some very recent statistics.

The source for this information is from “A marketers guide to
discretionary income”, the consumer research center”
www.conference-board.org

In November, retailers posted their greatest gains in 6 months.
Actually in 2007, both retail and wholesale revenues of U.S.
businesses were up versus 2006. Black Friday shoppers turned out in
bigger numbers and spent more than in any prior year!!! Consumer
spending is way up because more American households have more
discretionary income than ever before. From 2002 to 2007
discretionary income increased from 53 million to 73 million.

The average households extra cash this year? 24,335.00. November was
the 51st straight month of job growth. So, despite the hoopla about
all of the mortgage crisis problems and layoffs, Americans are doing
real well. If you don’t believe me, just drive across the Mexican
border in Juarez, and you will see why everyone is leaving there.
That is poverty, big time.(I used to live in El Paso and went to
Juarez a lot!!)

Anyway, Real Estate is starting to show a rebound in certain parts of
the country. I know here in Kentucky, many people from the west coast
are moving here and buying up cheaper real estate than they can get on
the West Coast. Tennessee is also going to b a hot spot. Lots of
beautiful country homes with country side surroundings.

So, I think there is still loads of money to be made selling Real
estate it s just going to move into other areas and sales people are
going to have to market themselves using methods they have been
ignoring for so long.

Anyway, I am going to save the excellent suggestions that you all
posted and I promise to not whine anymore. I just have to put my nose
to te grindstone like I have never done before.

Here is what I did this week:

1. Wrote excellent ad-copy and sent it to a bunch of Lawyers. I
decided to try to get their business as well.

2. Added more to my Website to include a forum: www.expertrealtorweb.com

3. Made 4 blog posts.

4. Posted links to my site.

5. Sent out 40 newsletters.

6. Sent out about 60 emails.

7. Did a little Networking (I gave a copy of my Newsletter to my
banker today)

Anyway, I have been marketing for awhile, but this is my first week of
actually doing the Get Clients Now schedule.

God Bless all of you that responded to me. If I can help you all at
all, please let me know.

God Bless,

Mark

www.expertrealtorweb.com
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