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.

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.

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.

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.

Real estate clients’ expectations of online marketing are continuing to grow, so it’s vital that we give them access to a wide range of advertising options, particularly on property portals.

Having a basic listing on a property portal can only provide limited exposure. It’s vital that portals have product provisions that give agents the ability to not only maximise the exposure of their listings on behalf of their customers, but also to expose their own brand.

At the same time, part of any agents marketing presentation should be focused on how their sellers can obtain the best possible result online. Agents spend a great deal of time doing this around offline marketing, but too few really put the emphasis on new media. Yet a rapidly growing percentage of their potential customers are extremely Internet savvy.

So what are the main areas of product that property portals are (or should be) providing to assist an agent’s business?

• Listing Placement: products that provide prominence to individual listings.
• Push marketing products: electronic brochures, email alerts distributed to targeted portal databases.
• Display advertising: banners, skyscrapers, advertorial, pop-ups and other items designed to promote estate agency brands and drive traffic to agent sites.
• Web design: Agency websites, individual property mini-sites.
• Back-office tools: Online products designed to increase agency effectiveness.

It’s my view that the “depth-of-product” available to agents from a property portal should be one of the considerations for agents selecting which portal to advertise on and how much of their marketing budget to allocate to each.

Depth-of-product has the ability to increase the average leads received from a portal quite substantially by providing relevant and effective advertising products. But an agent needs to think strategically about how they can utilise and leverage these products.

If an agent approaches this seriously it could also be a key factor in a prospective customer choosing that agent over their competitor (see our related article: Selling Online Advertising to Vendors).

Along with these products, support should also be available to enable agents to on-sell them to their customers, and to provide agents with the conviction to develop an effective online marketing plan.

To sum up, some of the points agents should consider when choosing a portal include:

Promoting their brand and business:
1. What products are available and what are the benefits?
2. What is my approach and budget?
3. What do I want to achieve?

How can I better promote my customers’ properties?
1. What products are available?
2. Do my sales people understand the benefits?
3. How do I sell and leverage these products?
4. Do I charge the customer? If so, how much?

John Hart spent over six years with REA Group, operator of leading Australian property portal realestate.com.au. Prior to REA, John was with one of Australia’s largest real estate networks, First National, for 12 years, with more than seven as their national marketing manager.

[Image: flickr/aussiegall]

With almost every real estate agent claiming to be the best and most experienced in their area, choosing an agent can end up little more than a guessing game for buyers and sellers. So how do you make sure you stand out to these (often confused) potential customers?

To begin with, it pays to be original. Whether you’re writing a detailed online profile or simply filling out your Twitter bio, steer clear of overused phrases such as “one of the most experienced agents in Sydney” or “knows central London real estate.”

What potential customers want to know is, exactly how much experience does that Sydney agent have? What does that agent actually know about central London? Be precise and you will immediately encourage more confidence in your audience.

Being honest about your abilities goes hand in hand with being precise. After all, if you overstate your qualifications or experience level, chances are that will become obvious as soon as you start to work with a client.

An over-emphasis on resume details is another potential trap for agents promoting themselves online. You’ll naturally want to highlight your professional qualifications, and buyers and sellers are probably interested in them to a degree. But this interest pales in comparison with their need to be sure you understand their location. The trick is to balance out details about your professional life with just as much (or more) information about the area you cover.

As with any content you publish online, it’s worth having one or two people check over it before putting it on display. This will help you catch any spelling and grammar issues, and possibly prompt you to tweak your message to make it that much more appealing.

You’ve done the deal – sold the house, signed the papers, collected the cash and shaken hands. So what’s next? Goodbye and thanks for coming?

Not so fast. It’s now time to switch into post-sale mode and begin communications that will keep your name present in the minds of both buyers and sellers.

To begin with, you’ll need a good contact management system that allows you to find, sort and manage every person you’ve worked with. This doesn’t need to be overly complex. As long as your system is easy to use and accessible – preferably from your mobile phone or PDA as well as from your office – you’re on the right track.

To create this system, you should record as much information about every potential customer as possible. Name, phone number, address, and email are a given, and as you work more closely with people and find out more about them, notes on birthdays and spouse’s/children’s details are great to have as well.

Ideally, you should get into the habit of filling your contact management system with this information as soon as you have it. If it stays scribbled on the back of a business card, that potentially vital information won’t be useful to anyone.

Once you’ve got as much information on past customers as possible, you’ll have a better chance of sending out your communications at the right time. For example, sending out a Christmas email to every contact in your database is fine, but wouldn’t it be even better to send a modified email to those contacts who don’t celebrate Christmas?

Email newsletters including local news or new listings are similar. If you can target those contacts that are most likely to be interested, i.e those that live in or near the area you’re writing about, or who you think might be looking for the kind of property you’re advertising, you’ll be less likely to lose contacts to the “unsubscribe” button.

Of course, most people who give out their email address are aware that not every email they receive will be written for them. But the power of a well-maintained customer database is that you don’t have to rely on people’s patience for the one email out of ten that’s relevant. In other words, with targeted post-sale communications, you can keep in touch with past customers further into the future.

Google uses digital cameras as their example in this video, but the same principles can be applied to text-based campaigns for real estate. This is what Google’s advice boils down to:

- Imagine what your audience is searching for, then use those words in your ad text. It helps to be more specific than “real estate [location]“. Even using the words “Buying a home in [location]?”, for example, tells people more about what you’re offering.

- What makes you stand out? Do you focus on a particular area, or have detailed knowledge of the local market? Mention your unique value proposition to give users a reason to click.

- Include a strong call to action in your text. Click here for a closer look at how calls to action work.

- Give people what they’re looking for after they click. If your ad is for homes for sale in a certain neighbourhood, link it to a section of your website that covers that neighbourhood. Similarly, if the ad is about you as an agent, link to a page that describes you and includes your contact details.

If you’ve never used AdWords before, spend some time on Google searching as if you were looking for real estate in your area. You’ll soon have plenty more ideas about which ads are enticing, and how you can make yours stand out from the competition.

An extensive customer database, built by encouraging potential buyers to register their details with you, is an excellent tool for three reasons:

1. Listing

When going through the listing process, you are able to tell sellers that before undertaking a huge marketing campaign the first port of call is to contact all those buyers you have on your register who may be interested in a property like theirs.

If your register of buyers is more extensive and up to date than that of competing agents, you then have a competitive advantage. Tell buyers that you can be in contact with these prospective purchasers by the end of the day if they list with you.

2. Keeping advertising costs down

If you are in a market where obtaining vendor paid advertising is difficult, having an extensive buyers list you can readily tap into could see you sell property faster and at a lower cost to your agency.

3. Buyers may be sellers too

Registering potential purchasers early enough may be beneficial in sourcing new listings. People often start to look around for a new property before putting their own home on the market. Creating a relationship with them is your opportunity to impress early. For more on this, see our post Buyers are Often Sellers Too.

How do I capture buyers for my register?

You can implement functionality on your website to encourage and capture interested buyers. Things such as newsletter sign-ups, competitions, and property alerts. For a look at how best to set these up, check out our article on calls to action here.

Other ideas for gathering buyer details include:

- Allocate banner advertising for your suburb on a property portal to drive buyers to your site for registration.

- Advertise in your window and any other media, and encourage registration when any contact is made with new people, whether by phone or at a property inspection or auction.

- Develop and promote a Home Buyer’s Guide to use as a lead generation tool and ensure that buyers are required to register their details before receiving a copy. You can promote this on your site and in all advertising and marketing.

There are multiple opportunities for getting people interested in what you do. The challenge is to capture their information and then use it wisely. Don’t over-promise and under-deliver! If you commit to a weekly newsletter, don’t miss your publishing date. If you promise to send out newly listed properties, make sure you do so.

Finally, ensure that you never ever pass on buyers’ details to third parties or anyone who might spam them. Once you have customer details you need to treat them like gold and keep them as up to date as possible.

[Image: olathehomes.wordpress.com]

Your website’s looking great, so why isn’t it generating any leads? Perhaps it’s your “call to action” – the section of your website that prompts browsers to subscribe, follow, or contact you. Let’s take a look at some examples to find out what the options are.

Recently we checked out nestrealtygroup.com, the winner of Inman’s Innovator Award for 2009. They’ve taken a subtle approach to their calls to action, placing the suggestions to “get email alerts” and “contact us” in tiny print in the top right of the website. Scroll down to the bottom of the homepage and you’ll find a miniature RSS feed subscription button, along with small versions of the Twitter, Vimeo, and YouTube icons under the words “find us on”.

Over in Australia, we can see two very different examples. cbrealestate.com.au hasn’t decided to engage with its customers via social media just yet, but they do know plenty of people want to contact them by phone. So their number is displayed in large print in that all-important top right corner.

Meanwhile, firstnational.com.au seem very comfortable with social media, presenting home hunters with large links to its Facebook and Twitter accounts halfway down its homepage.

In the UK, we have London agents Foxtons. Like cbrealestate.com.au, their homepage reserves the top right corner for large text with their phone number. Beyond that, Foxtons has not just one, but four calls to action for their home valuation service.

What these examples show is that there’s certainly more than one way to prompt website visitors to act. Now that you’re thinking about what constitutes an effective call to action, and what changes – if any – you need to make back at your website, consider these points:

Highlight it: Make sure users don’t have to go hunting if they want to sign up for alerts or find your contact details. As a general rule, the top right corner is where people go looking when they want to get in touch.

Simplify it: Keep the word count down and the message clear. Confusing a potential customer is an extremely effective way to make sure they don’t do business with you.

Monitor it: Any change you make should prompt you to track whether it’s turning visitors off or bringing in more leads. This doesn’t have to be a tiresome process – a simple count before the change, and a check a month or so later, should tell you whether you’re on the right track.

If you’re still stuck for ideas on how to make the most of your calls to action, spend a few minutes revisiting websites you subscribed to. What did they do right to capture your email address?