Online Real Estate Technology

One of the easiest ways to stay up to date with the latest on social media, technology and internet marketing, is to get the news delivered straight to your email inbox as it happens.

By subscribing to our weekly newsletter, you’ll receive the latest updates on research, technology and social media as well as tips and handy advice on how to improve your internet marketing.

Included in our weekly newsletter is advice on how to improve your web sites rankings on search engines such as Google and we also look at the impact of social media and technology on search engine rankings.

We respect your privacy and one of my pet hates is when you subscribe to a newsletter, your email address is sold to 3rd parties and you get a whole heap of spam, we do not sell or promote your email address to anyone, so you can subscribe with the knowledge that your email address is protected.

If you would like to get our newsletter delivered to you, please click on the subscribe link below and you’ll start to receive our weekly updates.

Yes please, Subscribe me to Mike Andrew Consulting’s Weekly Newsletter

The next social media training day, this time for real estate agents will take place in The Great Northern Room, Ellerslie Event Centre, Ellerslie Racecourse Auckland New Zealand on Wednesday the 6th of October.

The morning session is now fully booked, so the only session now available is the afternoon session commencing at 1:30pm.

You can download the flyer with all the information on the sessions Social Media Training Day New Zealand Registration Form or you can book by faxing the completed registration form to 00617 5534 1046, you can also email your registration form to amazing@iangrace.com.au.

The afternoon session is filling very fast as room is limited, so the earlier you register, the more likely you’ll reserve yourself a place.

Your speakers for the day will include Ian Grace and Mike Andrew

I’ll look forward to working with you on the day.  

During the past week I’ve met with a number of small business operators and we’ve talked about social media and how they can integrate it into their on line marketing strategy. Using social media networking channels to not only promote your business but to help market products and services is a very cost effective way of driving new business.

Surprisingly, I’ve met some resistance to the concept, coming from an electronic advertising media background, I’m always on the lookout for ways to drive my business, and developing on online presence that I use as a online CV has been very successful for me in generating leads and driving new clients for my consulting business, and I’ve done all of this with very little financial output, as the social media networks I’ve set up have created a distribution network which allows me to get my message out very fast and very efficiently.

Some of these businesses I’ve talked with are now pulling back on their social marketing efforts and several of them are stopping their marketing all together, right at the very time that the number of consumers using social media in this country is growing at such a rapid rate that it is almost impossible to keep up with it.

Now why would you do that?

Lets look at the research first before I answer that question, The Nielsen report,released in mid March shows just how aggressive the growth is amongst Australian Internet users, close to four in five Australians or 78% of the population shared information,photos and links. Twitters audience grew by more than 400% in 2009 and more than one quarter of online users read “tweets” in the last 12 months. 14% of Twitter users followed companies or organisations via Twitter.

Nearly 2 in 5 Australians are now interacting with companies via social networking sites, which reinforces the point that we are very open to engaging with brands and companies online. Nielsen themselves make the statement, “The opportunities for brands and companies to tap in to the social media phenomenon are really just beginning to emerge and to date we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg”.

The facts are this, nearly 9 out of 10 Australian internet users (86%) are looking to fellow internet users for opinions and information about products,services and brands, and Australians engagement with online word of mouth communication is going to increase in coming years as social media plays an increasingly important role in consumer decision making.   

In some cases, businesses have banned Facebook altogether in the office environment, and I know of one big media company, that actively monitors their staffs internet browsing and terminates their internet access if they use the site during working hours.

Given that the average Facebook user spends 8:19 hours per month on the site, and that’s the average, I know some people who spend considerably more per month than that on Facebook, small business needs to find a better way to harness this giant, banning it from their business is not the way to control it.

Now to get to my question above, why would you as a business pull back on your social media strategy at the very time that it’s gaining so much popularity?

The answers are simple:

1. Lack of Resources

2. Fear of negative comments and inappropriate content appearing on company sites

3. No clear rules,policies or procedures being set up within the strategy framework

4. Lack of knowledge of social media within the business  

5. No strategy in place, just add hock usage of sites because everyone else is using it

6. Lack of a risk management assessment

7. No reputation management strategy in place

8. Fear of the Unknown

9. Older Business owners with a traditional view of marketing

10. Marketing managers with little or no experience in social media marketing

11. Fear of competitors gaining business secrets

These are a few objections that I’ve personally encountered and in every case, none of these businesses has a marketing strategy in place that covers online.

Don’t stop your social marketing efforts, but do put in place a strategy that covers the essential areas that you need to have locked in place before you begin your social media activities, these are:

1. Risk Assessment – Make sure those in your business understand the risks involved and put in place polices and procedures before you start

2. Define very clearly your reasons for using the sites, what strategy will you employ and how will you manage the engagement from online users. Each site you use needs a very clearly defined set of rules and game plan. Set these for each site you use and monitor the performance of your plan, build engagement and community around your business.

3. Clearly identify the rules, what can be published and what type of information do you want out in the public arena, what is acceptable and what isn’t. Get your staff to sign a disclaimer and make it clear to them what the rules of engagement are. Very important to do this before you start.

3. Resources – Select a social champion within your business and use them to build your profiles and encourage them to help build your community online. Don’t ban it, play it smart.  

4. Online reputation management – Now essential for every business working on the web. Set up your management, monitoring and repair rules no matter how big or small your business is. Make sure you know what online consumers are saying about your business and you know how to manage and control those comments if found.

Having a strong online presence will be, no is essential, for your business if you want to compete. No point banning it, you’ll just end up doing your business damage and giving your competitors an advantage, and I really can’t see the sense in that, can you?.      

Optus brand reputation management non existent

I recently invested in the new iPhone and have really enjoyed exploring the technology, however just recently I’ve noticed a recurring problem and that is my iPhone will drop out during both received and dialed phone calls.  So you can imagine my frustration when on a call and the call drops out, this happens at least 2 out of every 10 calls. So like most people today, I decided to search for the problem or I should say solution on Google, and what did i find? loads of information on the problems the iPhone network, in particular the Optus 3G network is having, and why there are drop outs. This information ironically, being provided by forum sites and other disgruntled consumers experiencing the same problem, nothing from the network that I’m with, which is Optus.

The number one result on my search query on Google is a forum site and contained within this site are numerous complaints about the drop outs, all citing the Optus 3G network not being up to spec as the cause of the problem, there are also complaints about Optus customer service and the lack of responce by Optus to customer complaints, some taking up to 2 weeks just to get a return phone call. But the interesting thing to me is the total lack of input from Optus on this site, now surely you’d think that a service company would be either monitoring this site or at least have a strategy to deal with all this negativity about their product and service, and don’t think that Telstra is any better at dealing with complaints, because they are not.

This brings me to the impact that social media has on brand building, consumers now have the ability to complain publicly about issues they are having with any company, and a simple search on Google will usually brings these forum and blog sites up at the top of the search, making them easily accessible to anyone wanting information or to complain about the service or lack of it from any company.

Business today needs to be very aware of the impact these sites can have on generating business from the web, and an effective web based brand monitoring strategy needs to be implemented and service related industries including real estate offices and agents really need to make sure they have both a monitoring and response strategy in place… Now I don’t know if Optus monitors or is even aware that these sites are on the web, but they should, the comments, complaints and opinions of current customers should be a prime concern, because if I’d read this forum before getting my iPhone, i would never have used Optus, and to allow the comments found on the forum site to continue without company moderation or input is just plain stupid.

So beware, take your on line reputation very seriously, you don’t want your brand or reputation destroyed on the web, imagine if you did a Google search on a prospective employee and found complaints and comments about them, complaints about their lack of service and response or their rudeness in dealing with clients, would you then hire that person? No I didn’t think so, well it works both ways.

You can no longer take your reputation for granted, you need to set up your strategy and a good place to start is by using this 3 phase process:

• Monitor

• Manage

• Repair

Start by monitoring what is being said about you or your brand on line, and you can do this by simply creating a Google alert for your brand name or keyword, if your brand is mentioned on the web then Google will notify you via email once a day of who,what and where you were mentioned.

This is the easiest and cheapest way to keep track of your reputation.

I’ve been working on a social media strategy paper for a top real estate franchise group and it’s kept me fairly busy during the last couple of weeks and that’s the reason I haven’t been very active on my blog for that period. As part of that strategy, I’ve been looking at the impact of social media on brand building and especially the impact blogs have on the purchasing decisions of consumers.

Blogs, play a major role in influencing the purchasing decision amongst women in particular, and in a recent survey in the US, 85% of regular female blog readers said they were influenced to make a purchase as a result of a review or comment posted on a blog.  So with that in mind, if you’re the company that gets it right, you have a good chance of getting the sale, but what happens if you are on the receiving end of a negative review or comment. How do you protect your brand and how should you respond?

Your customers can now read, listen, discuss and research their purchasing decisions and you need to work harder at customer service than ever before, if you are finding negative or damaging reviews about you,your brand or service then use this as a wake up call. The world of social networks, business review sites and blogs has provided the disgruntled consumer with a voice.

Every employee in your company is now responsible for your brands reputation, and when you as a company, start to live up to your reputation, it becomes a lot easier to manage your brand effectively on line.

If you do find a negative review on any of the sites, resist the temptation to respond defensively and do  not allow any of your staff to respond, you could put the Streisand effect in motion. 

What can be used to deliver a negative can also be used to promote a positive, so use it wisely.  Remember it’s very hard to remove a negative comment or search engine result, but you can promote a positive, just like the company in this video has done. 

If you’d like any additional information on how to manage your brand effectively on line, please ask me, I’d be happy to help advise you and get you headed on the right track.

Consumers are talking about you and your business

On Line Reputation Management, four words that you as a business owner should be very very aware of, why? because these four words can ruin your reputation and can directly influence whether a consumer does business with you or your company.

I’ve just got a colleague of mine to join Twitter and on checking out her Twitter page last night, I was surprised to find that she hadn’t used her own name. I mentioned this to her this morning on our way to the seminar at Fraser’s in Perth and Sarah replied that her name and variations of her name had already been taken. Now, if you are wanting to get into social media or even market on the web under your own brand, it is vitally important that you buy your domain name.

It is now just as important that you register your user name on social media sites as well, because if you don’t someone else will. Being able to use your name to build your profile or brand is vital to your success on the web and you need to ensure that you own it and register it. By having a consistent image across all social sites allows your followers or devotees to find you and follow you, plus it has the added benefit that you don’t have to remember hundreds of user names.

So create a user name, preferably one that identifies you instantly and register it across all social sites, you can use this great web site to check if your user name is available. Some sites will not allow your full name and limit the number of characters that you can have, so create a user name that is consistent and easy to remember.   

Register it on every site you can find, you’ll never use most of them, but at least you will own the user name and this will stop others from high-jacking your name or brand.

If you have popular web site or blog and have lots of followers, there are some users on the web who will try and grab your name and create their own logins, so now you have been warned.

Go forth and Grab it quick before it is gone, gone gone!!

I refer back to my post on buying your domain name and how important that is to you and your office, and this week I’ve been in Bundaberg conducting internet marketing audits for some of the real estate groups in the area. Upon checking this out with each office it appears that they still do not or haven’t thought about, buying these domain names that relate to their geographic area. If you are part of a franchise group or an independent agent, I believe you should buy the domain name that reflects your local area, if only to stop someone else from buying and using that name as a redirect on the local area search.

Lets say I own mikeandrewrealestate.com.au and I’m based in Bundaberg, I should be buying all variations on this including mikeandrewrealestatebundaberg.com.au. This stops any other agent or office from using that domain name. Without owning these, you really are allowing other competitors to come in underneath you.

I found in Bundaberg and in Cairns last week that some agents are not doing this, and even if you don’t use the domain at least you will own it.  

Also check out extending this to social media platforms and I’ve included a link to Peter Fletchers therealestatemarketingmaven.com blog post on this very subject.

Please let me know if you need any help with this and I would be glad to assist

One of the vital ingredients of on line marketing is your web site which has to be attached to a domain name. This week I’ve been conducting on line marketing audits for agents in North Qld and one of the checks that I conduct is whether you own your domain name. Surprisingly I’ve found that in most cases the business owners don’t. Not owning your domain name is the same as not registering your business name, someone else can come in underneath you, register the domain name, effectively stopping you from ever using your own name for your web site domain, worse still, they can then try and sell it to you for exorbitant fees.

So get on to the domain registration sites today and buy, if they are available, your business name,your own name, and all the variations within your suburb or area of operation, and buy all of the domains, including the .com, .com.au, .net, .net.au and the .mobi versions.

Protect your self and your business.

If in doubt ask me via this blog and I’ll help you.

Last Monday I flew Jetstar to Newcastle and I was motivated to write this post after seeing an add on TV for Jetstar last night, the TV commercial portrays them as the fun airline with smiling staff and offering great service etc, I’m sure you’ve all seen commercials like this one, with companies all pretending to be something in reality, they are not. On the way back from Newcastle, I flew VirginBlue and in the inflight magazine, there is a article from Brett Godfrey their CEO talking about their new service to LA being delayed by a strike at Boeing in Seattle, and then he goes on to to mention how we will soon be able to experience their great service on long haul flights, well, as a very frequent flyer with both VirginBlue and Jetstar, I’d have to say, “What Service”, at best most of their staff are pleasant, there is the odd one who really doesn’t want to be there, the cabin service is adequate at best, and with my company having just paid over $300 for the return fare, I still had to buy my coffee and wait an eternity for my baggage. I’veencountered Jetstar refusing to take a passenger who turned up 5 minutes late for her flight from Tasmania, because she was late checking in, and then the flight was delayed by 30 minutes, so who then compensates us for their non on time performance? Now if you flew each airline once or twice a year you probably wouldn’t notice these little niggles, but as a frequent flyer I notice, and really the fares aren’t that cheap and the service, is almost non existent, especially for what I pay for that service.

So what’s the point to this post?     

Over the years I’ve encountered real estate agents who have advertised how they use the latest technology to market properties, and work with buyers and sellers. There is in fact, one agent in the South of Brisbane, who advertises himself as Mr Technology and his marketing is all based on how he uses the latest technology to market on behalf of his vendors and respond to buyers enquires. well, I have to tell you that over the past 3 years I’ve sent him numerous emails about his properties advertised on the net, and I’ve never had a response yet from him, in fact it has become my lifes mission to get him to respond. Sadly I have to report, I’ve still been unable to get him to do so, and if you look at the number of email enquiries that still go unanswered today, about 30% of emails sent to agents go unanswered, we still have some way to go in eductating agents on how to deal with the internet consumer and their changing communication needs.

So again, “What’s the Point of this post?” It’s to raise with you the point, that if you advertise you, your agency or your service, then be true to that advertising. If you are marketing yourself as an agent who uses technology then make sure you use that technology correctly.

Have a best practice policy in place that ensures response times to emails is immediate, make sure your listings are complete and contain all the information that today’s internet consumer is looking for, and make sure your agency is what you say you are.  

This is most important when marketing on the net, because the internet consumers first experience with you will be what they see on the net. Are you using technology in your agency to it’s best potential?  Are you offering your vendors/clients all the newest technology to market properties?, are you using social media networks effectively?

If not, then rethink your strategy, be what you say you are, because when times are really tough, the consumer will look more closely at you and your service.

Don’t let them down!!!