Realty World Northern California & Nevada

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I had the pleasure of reading a great post by Chris Brogan recently on his blog regarding the number of points of contact he has in his technological worlds. His post addresses the need to sort out where we are actually using points of contact, not just from a business standpoint but what actually makes sense on a regular basis. I recommend reading the post and considering doing some sorting as well.

You can find the post here.

Facebook is a great place to maintain existing relationships and make connections. Facebook will alert you to when your sphere of influence experiences major life changes such as engagement, marriage, birth of a child, etc. Facebook also provides a forum to join groups or fan pages based upon your personal and professional interests and also increase your presence in the community.

Who Shouldn’t Use Facebook

• People who are easily annoyed/offended by the opinions of others. Facebook is a “friendly” forum, which means people will share personal information about their lives, religion, political persuasion, etc. This can be helpful to you – so don’t be too quick to run from it. However, if will be unable to have productive relationships with people whose opinion is different than your own, this may not be the forum for you.
• People who are unwilling to share personal information about themselves. Friends will wonder why you visit their page to learn more about them but are not providing information about yourself. This is your place to put your personality out there!
• People who are only going to post about real estate or post all of their listings – this will have a negative impact on your relationships with others and perception in the marketplace. Facebook is not your own personal MLS page.

Who Should Use Facebook

• People who enjoy interacting with family, friends and others in a community setting.
• People who enjoy sharing pictures, videos and interesting news with friends.
• People who will log in at least once per day and update their status as well as check up on how their friends are doing.
• People looking to build lasting relationships.

Getting Started

If you are a Realty World NCA member, you can log on to the Realty World website and click on the Training tab at the top. From there, click the Online Training tab and then click Social Media/Blog. Here you will find a series of videos that will walk you through:

• Account Creation
• Account Security
• Finding Additional Friends
• Homepage Overview
• Uploading Photos
• Applications
• Events
• Group and Fan Pages
• Adding Outside Content

If you are not a Realty World NCA member, the login steps on the Facebook home page will instruct you with account and profile setup as well as some basics. You may also call the Realty World NCA office to learn more about access to our training tools.

Facebook Dos

• Use a recent picture of your face as your profile picture. Save the pictures of kids and kittens for elsewhere on the site – we want to make sure people recognize you when they search
• Put your real information out there. You don’t have to give your home address but there is no harm in adding your phone number, email and real interests to the profile information section. People can find the same contact info on your business cards, bus benches and Google!
• Make sure you know people before accepting them as friends. This will ensure your page is not inundated with miscellaneous stuff and will give you peace of mind about who can see your profile.
• Be courteous and only friend people that you know. Inviting all of your friend’s friends will only turn people off if you try to pitch them real estate as soon as they accept.

Facebook Don’ts

• Post all of your listings to Facebook – that’s what your website is for! Just like you wouldn’t go to a dinner party with friends and hand them a stack of listings flyers, you shouldn’t send them all via Facebook either.
• Only talk about real estate. – People want to get to know you. It is how you build trust and rapport. You’d be surprised what you can bond with people over (running, knitting, sports, etc.) if you talk about it!
• Make a fan page for yourself your first week on Facebook. – People will be turned off at the presumption that they want to be a fan of you when you haven’t been contributing to the community or their pages/lives regularly.
• Make your first comment to people, “Hey, I saw you’re getting divorced, can I help you find a condo?” Treat people like friends first. Enough said.

Facebook Extras

• Get a Username – A username (also known as “vanity URL”) will be your own URL on Facebook that is “branded” with your name. (ex. www.facebook.com/erinnrobbins) This will help when you include your Facebook page on business cards (which I recommend!) in your email signature and when people search for you. You can get your own Facebook username here.
• Share links, photos, events and videos – Be sure to use the icons below the “What’s on your mind” box to ensure these items are uploaded in an appealing way that draws friends to them.
• Lists – Whenever adding a new friend be sure to add them to an appropriate list. This helps you sort contacts, send material to relevant people and organize your online life.
• Neighborhoods – This Facebook application has thousands of neighborhoods and lots of members in specific geographic locations. This will give you access to people that live down the street interested in what’s happening in their community. The newly released Real Estate Listings function will put your listings in front of the right people. Check out Neighborhoods here. You will be prompted to “Allow” the application. (This application is safe.)

Sustainable Blogging – I believe blogging is a fantastic form of self-expression, a way to showcase your skills, and a medium to dive deeper into subjects than email or other social media typically allow. Below are some thoughts on who should blog, who shouldn’t, how to blog faster and what to do when you want to give up.

Who Shouldn’t Blog

• People with little or no regard for proper grammar or the desire to learn it. (You don’t have to be an English major, but you should know how to correctly spell the words associated with your industry.)
• People who will blog about religion, politics or other controversial or unrelated topics on their professional blog. (You can create a blog for personal interests too – just don’t put it under the one titled real estate please!)
• People who will push their own agenda (trying to make a sale) in every post.

Who Should Blog

• Realtors that know their city/town/community. *Hint – this should be ALL of you.
• Realtors that want to educate home buyers and sellers on the process, market, local industry and issues affecting homeowners.
• Realtors looking to showcase a specialization such as short sales, first time home buyers, second homes, etc.

Blog Topics

• The questions you get via email and in-person all the time! Copy and paste from the email response – remembering to remove people’s personal information first.
• Local events – Talk about all of the events that are happening in your community. Free events will be appreciated by those trying to save and charities, local schools and others will appreciate you mentioning their happenings as well. The holidays are a great time to get started with this!
• Review local businesses. *Hint – Stick to businesses you like and use frequently in the beginning. (Use Yelp for negative reviews.) Let the business know you wrote a blog post about them so they know who you are and what you do.
• Tell people why you became a Realtor. Everyone’s story is different – from 3^rd generation real estate families to people with different first careers, there’s a great bit of human interest into why you want to help people with their homes.
• Seasonal changes and how they affect your home and community. Write about winterizing homes now, spring-cleaning in March, etc. Tourist seasons and road conditions are also big topics.
• Do a monthly market update as it pertains to the national economy and your housing market locally. Send these out around the same time each month so people come to expect this information from you.

Time Saving Tips

• Zemanta – Download this handy tool to have pictures, links and tags automatically downloaded/imported for you based upon what you’re writing about – it’s like magic!
• Use the scheduler in the blog. Found in the right-hand side while you’re writing a new post is the option to “Publish now” – by clicking on “now” you can schedule posts to go live at other times. This will allow you to write two or three posts at one time and then schedule them throughout the week so you won’t have to think about it daily!
• Repost interesting articles and blog items from other blogs/news sources. Only show the first paragraph or a short synopsis, you will then credit your source and link back to their post.

Blog Platforms

If you are a Realty World NCA member, you have a free blog website that is branded with your franchise and ready for you to use. Contact Ron Dillon to get set up or retrieve your password.

Other Recommendations:

• WordPress – Slick and simple designs will grow with you as you bloom into a boss blogger. Get your WordPress now and you’ll be happy you did later.
• Posterous – Good for people posting pictures and those blogging direct from email. It integrates easily with other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. This simple tool won’t allow a lot of customization or advanced options.
• TypePad and Blogger – Basic blogging platforms similar to WordPress. Blogger is a Google product and TypePad is run by SixApart. Both are simple, reliable tools that integrate with services, phones, Facebook, etc.

General Blogging Tips

• Frequency – It is optimal to blog 3-4 times per week, especially at the start.
• Topics – Keep your topics relevant to real estate or your local community. Posting a personal post as the exception, rather than the rule, will make readers more interested.
• Accessibility – Make sure to include your blog in your email signature, on business cards, on your Facebook page, etc.
• Pictures – Try to include a picture with each post. Using a tool like Zemanta will be helpful. If you pull a picture off of the Internet be sure to credit your source.
• Links – Include links to relevant sites and sources in your post to help readers and to increase traffic to other areas of your site. For example, if you mention foreclosures in a blog post, link the word “foreclosure” to a page on your site where they can see foreclosure listings.
• Tags – Tag each post with relevant terms. Even if you have tagged previous posts with a term, it is important to tag each post with the terms. This will help your tag cloud sort so readers will know what topics you talk about often. See this article for more.

I’m the rookie at all the real estate events this year and I can assure you I’ve caused my fair share of waves. I’m a technology and social media industry veteran and often times those in tech ignore a lot of the polite beating around the bush that real estate agents have adapted (because you guys work with the public and we work with machines) so I have developed a certain ‘matter-of-factness’. (I’m also Texan, so I just can’t help myself.) When I’m at events, I ask tough questions and I call “bullshit” when I think it’s needed.

I’ve recently made some comments that some might read as me not liking barcamps. This couldn’t be further from the truth. I have been attending barcamps in the tech sector, where they originated, for years. I have learned amazing stuff and met some of my closest friends and colleagues there. My real take on barcamps is that the real estate industry, with its outgoing and personable ways, has grown them to be too big to be what they were originally intended. Here are some things I would do to build better barcamps*:

1. Narrow the focus. Original barcamps didn’t cover “technology” as a whole – the spectrum of topics is too broad and EVERYONE has something to say about it. If you pick a focus like Facebook, Hot New Startups, Blogging, etc. and allowed the entire session to be focused on that topic, the true knowledge leaders would emerge and people would get a deep dive with greater understanding of the topic.
2. More barcamps, fewer attendees. Original barcamps weren’t 500+ people at a venue all day, they were a few hours long with a small group of people who could really discuss things. By increasing the frequency of barcamps but limiting their size (through venue restrictions, locations, etc. ) you’ll get back to more discussion oriented events.
3. Shorten the lead time. This will help with the fewer attendee issue as well. Months of planning isn’t needed for an event of only 25-50 people, simply an office or coffee shop that will hold them. 72 hours notice posted on a barcamp wiki, Facebook pages and Twitter will work.
4. Sponsorship, schmonsership. If you’re only there for a couple of hours people won’t wander off as much as they keep doing at full day events. They will also be inclined to pay for their own cup of coffee or just wait til afterward to have a drink. When the event is short, what inevitably happens is people have gotten into lively debates and the barcamp actually moves to a bar where some attendees gather after to continue talks.

In true barcamp and blogging style, I welcome and encourage discussion on what we can do to make the camps as effective and engaging as possible for the audience that’s intended.

*** Please note, again, I like barcamps. I appreciate all of the effort that has gone into all of the barcamps I have attended. The volunteers and speakers have the courage to get up in front of people and put themselves out there and deserve kudos. Attendees have made the first step in attending such an event and being part of a new industry – something many haven’t done yet. All deserve kudos.

That is the statement put forth in the latest Levitt and Dubner (authors of Freakanomics) book, Super Freakanomics. Claiming, “Just as you can sell your body with or without the aid of a pimp, you can sell your house with or without a Realtor,” they say. “While Realtors charge a much lower commission than the pimps — about 5 percent versus 25 percent — the Realtor’s cut is usually in the tens of thousands of dollars for a single sale.” OUCH.

Unfortunately, the abuse doesn’t stop there. They continue with, “the Internet is proving to be a pretty powerful substitute for the Realtor.”

While I think the pimp comment is just ridiculous and doesn’t need to be addressed, I do see quite a bit of tension about using the Internet as a real estate agent replacement. While I’ve met a small segment of people in real estate that are working with the Internet to increase their brand awareness and build relationships, the majority of real estate agents I come across aren’t doing this. I hear a myriad of excuses or rationalizations (I just finished a three week tour teaching real estate agents technology and social media – I’ve heard it all now!) for why they don’t need the Internet:

• What I’m doing works just fine.
• It doesn’t work, I know someone that tried it and they didn’t get any business.
• My customers aren’t on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or places like that.

Feeling like the Internet is your opponent and working against it, instead of working with it, can lead to feeling defeated or resentful of the power the Internet has. Here are my responses to each of the reasons given above:

• What I’m doing works just fine. — What you are doing may be working “fine” but what if you could be doing something that works great? Just getting by now may not be the case in a few more years – just look at how much things have changed in the past five years alone. Learning how to make technology work for you, as a part of your business (it doesn’t have to be the whole thing) will pay off in big ways. Don’t stop doing what makes you successful, instead, look for ways to integrate some ways to use online tools to ensure you stay successful and to engage new audiences.
• It doesn’t work, I know someone that tried it and they didn’t get any business. — I hear this a lot, that the agent or someone they know has tried technology and social media and it didn’t work. I equate this to the same things I hear when people try to lose weight and say that it doesn’t work. It is important to not take shortcuts, try to buy expensive ‘quick fixes’ or listen to infomercial sales people who promise overnight results or try to scare you into a decision. With social media and technology, you will need to be yourself, pick the medium that works best for you and your customers, and stick with it for at least 90-120 days before expecting results. Just like building relationships face-to-face in your community, time and consistency is the only way to create sustainable presence online.
• My customers aren’t on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or places like that. — Consumers are everywhere. If these people aren’t “your” customers then they are working with someone else and you could be missing out. Social media and technology use ages are averaging in the late 20’s and early 30’s for most popular sites like blogs, Facebook and LinkedIn. Each year, these numbers grow exponentially, and expand to include more industries and markets. The growth also means that the Internet, like everything else, is maturing and sorting out what works. Much of the noise and frustration is being sorted out or people are at least being given options about exposure to ads, outside requests, etc.

If you are feeling like the Internet is being substituted for you, or overwhelmed – please don’t give up. Forge a powerful alliance with the Internet and harness it’s power to work with your current efforts. There are a lot of great places to get answers – but remember, these answers should be free and not scare you!

We all need to work together to dispel the notions that cause Realtors to be likened to pimps or that they are easily replaced by Internet sources. As always, I welcome your comments, feedback and questions.

In times of plenty we’re all quick to share our knowledge, information and surplus with those around us, but as times of famine (aka – recession) draw upon us, we hoard our knowledge and use it as a bargaining tool, a method of separating ourselves from others and a way to intimidate the competition.

This is COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY and harmful to us ALL.

I have had the recent experience of running into a few self-proclaimed “social media gurus” who recognize Realtor’s lack of experience in the online space and propagate fear and uncertainty as a way of peddling social media/marketing knowledge for a profit.

While I can’t fault someone for wanting to make a profit (as you can see, you’re on the Realty World blog so I’m obviously not working for free) I do take issue with the methodology for getting there. In times of recession or trouble, people look for places to be hopeful and those who can guide them through the tough times. Often times we are lead astray by false prophets and those who prey on our fears of losing business, income and our way of life.

As a social media, marketing and technology professional I am employed because of the knowledge I posses, my ability to implement it to an organization, and the desire to share that knowledge effectively with others.

What I have learned over the years is that when we help others understand and appreciate our profession/industry, we raise the tide of our industry, and effectively all boats in the water. For me, this means helping people seek to know and utilize online tools effectively (whether it means delivering profit immediately or not) will create a more successful social media world and increase its chance at longevity in the market.

I can’t tell you how many Realtors I’ve run into while at CAR events this week who are excited but also a bit turned off or scared, believing that without a blog, Facebook fan page, iPhone, Twitter handle and huge following that they are doomed to fail as Realtors.

As social media professionals, if we do not first seek to genuinely help others understand and properly use social media, we are shooting ourselves in the foot – because people will not stick with too many tools that they have been forced into using that do not fit their lifestyle.

If you leave a social media meeting, website or other experience feeling belittled, ill-equipped and scared – seek knowledge elsewhere, from people who are willing and eager to share it in a non-threatening and empowering way.

Erin Robbins
Social Media & Marketing Director
erin.robbins@rwnc.net

Before there were tags, WordPress.com (and other blog hosing sites) only allowed categories to be used.

Categories allowed for a broad grouping of post topics, but when you wanted to describe a post in more specific terms, more categories were required. That lead to very long category lists inside the blog and very long lists in categories widgets making it harder to find what you needed a backlog of general categories stacked into posts.

Someone realized how silly this was and now have tags as well.

Tags are similar to categories, but instead of a list of words to choose from, you write them in a list (separated by commas) in the tags module of your post editing screen. They are free form words and allow you describe your post in more detail and help people narrow search results to get to relevant information faster.

For example, a post titled “Last Night At El Tapatio” might be filed under the “Dinner” category, but could have tags such as, “taco, margarita, salsa, Mariachi.” This will help people looking for information on where to get good tacos for dinner find something more specific than all of the dinner places in an area. Get it?

Since it may be a bit confusing upon first glance (especially to new bloggers),  here are some common questions and answers that may help you out:

Q: With regards to capital letters, is “Tag” the same as “tag?”
A: Yes. Capital letters do not change a tag. “Blogging” is the same as “blogging.”

Q: Is there a limit to the number of tags I can have?
A: No. You may associate as many tags with your posts as you like.

Q: Is there any advantage to using tags or categories, or both?
A: Tags will allow you to be more specific and narrow searches, so they are recommended. It cannot hurt to do both!

Q: Do I have to use tags?
A: The use of tags is entirely optional (although each post must be attached to at least one category) but they will help filter searches.

It is recommended you limit your number of categories to no more than 10. For real estate experts, good categories include “Buyers,” “Sellers,” “Community,” etc. Your tags can include identifiers that fall under these categories, like “first-time buyers,” “short sales,” or “schools.”

Categories and tags are both useful in helping your readers find posts of interest. You can think of categories as being utilitarian and tags as a more creative way of indexing your blog.

Ron Dillon
Director of Online Education
ron.dillon@rwnc.net

Logorrhea? What’s that? I know… maybe I could have picked a better title. But the more I thought about it, the more I saw it fitting. Let’s start with a clear definition:

logorrhea \law-guh-REE-uh\, noun:

1. Pathologically incoherent, repetitious speech.
2. Incessant or compulsive talkativeness; wearisome volubility.

Example: By his own measure, he is a man of many contradictions, beginning with the fact that he is famous as a listener but suffers from “a touch of logorrhea.” He is so voluble that one wonders how his subjects get a word in edgewise.
– Mel Gussow, “Listener, Talker, Now Literary Lion: It’s Official.”, New York Times, June 17, 1997

Okay, now we’re past that and you’ll hopefully agree that is not something you want. I can tell your customers certainly don’t and are experts at avoiding it. Simply, they are in search for the perception of quality in a relationship with the agent they choose. The notion behind my approach in bringing this to you is simple… In struggling markets a habit that many salespeople develop is one of a compulsive nature to spew information, statistics and the like to consumers. It is a bad habit that can manifest itself into an appearance of personal desperation. I can think of a few time-share salespeople that have a terminal case of this!

What we are talking about is narrowing your focus in real estate; the shift from a general practitioner to that of a “specialist”. Why? Because the perception of quality will always reside in the mind of the customer; whether a buyer or seller in this case.

When you narrow your focus in your blogs, and other marketing channels you become more of a specialists than a generalist. You’ll agree that a specialist is typically perceived to know and understand more (or have higher quality) than that of a generalist. Would a cardiologist know more about the intricacies of the heart more than a practitioner of general medicine? Most people would think so. The perception is certainly true. This connotation is one of the reasons we label you a specialist in our system.

This is where the content of your blogs become very important. Potential customers interested in property in your ‘neck of the woods’ will probably be following you before you even know it. You can become a specialist and avoid catching logorrhea by providing content that narrows the focus to your market and the characteristics your market offers. If a customers asks about a community event you can certainly discuss that, however we should refrain from having your blog be the ‘official’ site of that event and remain focused to real estate related matters you actually specialize in.

Everyone may think they can tell a high-quality product or service from a low-quality one, but sometimes it is not that easy. Does a BMW have fewer mechanical difficulties than a Buick? Are you sure? Does a Cartier keep better time than a Seiko? Are you sure? Is an agent that specializes bank-owned properties know more about local property values than an agent who specializes in short-sale negotiations? Are you sure?

Scott LeForce
President
scott.leforce@rwnc.net

On Friday, August 14, the Realty World NCA staff was up early in anticipation of the day to come, for after months of preparation, the annual RWNCA event had arrived. This year’s event was unlike events of years past. This year, the Realty World event was free and packed a fast-paced agenda into a single day to make the conference more accessible in financially uncertain times.

The day started out with the Brokers Council meeting in the morning, discussing important topics and banding together in the difficult market. As members and guests arrived throughout the morning, greetings began between old friends and new. Discussions ranged from housing markets throughout the region to family updates and more.

The conference opened strong, with Carole Rodoni’s keynote presentation that had the crowd laughing, crying, and standing in ovation. The bloggers panel, lead by Kevin Boer of Domus Consulting Group, featured Realty World’s own Mark Wisterman, Mary Pope-Handy of Luxor Real Estate Group, and Marian Bennett and Pam Buda, both from Coldwell Banker. Their discussion was an eye-opener, centered on how easy and effective blogging can be for real estate professionals.

Trulia’s Heather Fernandez discussed social networking and the products and services that Trulia offers in conjunction with Realty World to provide a total package that helps agents and brokers get an edge on the competition.

Attorney Zachary Roberts was up next, and his lively discussion on the risks and opportunities with loan modification and short sales started discussions, debates and lots of new thoughts in the room.

The day wrapped up with triathlete Erica Davis telling her inspiring tale of overcoming the adversity of becoming wheelchair bound unexpectedly and continuing to strive to accomplish her dreams.

As the general conference ended for the day, cocktail hour began and all discussed new learnings, controversies and commitments to new ideas. We are looking forward to next year’s event already and hope to see you all there!

Check out pictures from the Realty World NCA event in Pleasanton on our new Facebook Fan Page at www.facebook.com/realtyworldnca.

Erin Robbins
Social Media & Marketing Director
erin.robbins@rwnc.net