Online Real Estate Technology

Business-to-business (B2B) companies are participating in the social space, but they are not yet as engaged as their business-to-consumer (B2C) brethren and face greater internal obstacles, according to a report from digital marketing agency White Horse.

Comparable numbers of B2B and B2C marketers were not doing any social marketing at all, but business-oriented firms were much more likely to say they had social media accounts but little marketing activity.

One reason: More than one-third of B2B marketers surveyed said there was low executive interest in social media in their company, compared with 9% of B2C marketers who said the same. Overall, about one-quarter of corporate marketers told White Horse they needed to learn more about social media to justify investment in the space, but the issue was more pressing for B2B respondents.

Fully 46% of B2B respondents said social media was perceived as irrelevant to their company, while only 12% of consumer-oriented marketers had the same problem. B2Bs also reported a much greater preference for traditional marketing tactics.

There was also a large disparity in the proportion of B2B marketers who said they were not measuring social success at all, at 34%, versus just 10% of B2C respondents.

Other studies have shown that B2B marketers are more effective at measurement because they focus on outcomes that matter to their bottom line, such as lead generation.

A major computer security firm has urged Facebook to set up an early-warning system after hundreds of thousands of users were hit by a new wave of fake sex-video attacks.

British-based virus fighter Sophos warned users of the world’s biggest social networking site to be on guard against any posting entitled "distracting beach babes", which contains a movie thumbnail of a bikini-clad woman.

In a press statement, Sophos said the malicious posts appear as if they are coming from Facebook users’ friends, but it urged recipients not to click on the thumbnail.

By clicking on it, users are taken to a rogue Facebook application informing them that they do not have the right player software installed, Sophos said.

It tricks users into installing adware, a software package that automatically plays, displays or downloads advertisements to their computer, and the video link is spread further across the network.

Sophos said that "hundreds of thousands" of Facebook users were believed to have received the posts over the past weekend.

It followed a similar scam that spread on Facebook the week before involving a fake posting tagged as the "sexiest video ever".

"It’s time for Facebook to set up an early warning system on their network, through which they can warn their almost 500 million users about breaking threats as they happen," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"A simple message appearing on all users’ screens warning them of the outbreak would have helped in halting the attack," he said.

"Unless something is done, it won’t be surprising if there is another widespread attack this coming weekend, affecting thousands more users."

The social networking site is already under fire for revealing users’ information too freely on the Internet.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said Monday that the website "missed the mark" with its complex privacy controls and would reveal simpler features in the coming weeks.

Social network usage explodes

Usage of social networking sites rose sharply in 2009, thanks to the ever-increasing popularity of Facebook. eMarketer estimates that 57.5% of Internet users, or 127 million people, will use a social network at least once a month in 2010.

“There is no doubt anymore that social networks, reaching more than 50% of the total US Internet audience, are an essential part of the Internet experience,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report “Social Network Demographics and Usage.”

By 2014, nearly two-thirds of all Internet users, or 164.9 million people, will be regular users of social networks.

Last year, the social network audience widened sharply beyond the base of teens and young adults who popularized the activity. This year, 59.2% of adult Internet users will visit social networks monthly, up from 52.4% in 2009.

“Teens and young adults are old news,” said Ms. Williamson. “This year, 60% of Internet users ages 35 to 44 and one-half of those in the 45-to-54 age group will use social networks at least once a month. Women, especially moms, are still driving much of the growth.”

By 2014, these changes will become more pronounced. More than one-half (56.8%) of 55-to-64-year-old Internet users will visit social networks regularly that year, up from 34.3% in 2009. Even seniors 65 and up, only 14.1% of whom used social networks in 2009, will get in on the act, reaching 37.9% penetration in 2014.

“The connections and interactions that social networking makes possible didn’t even exist a few short years ago,” said Ms. Williamson. “Status updating, commenting and sharing openly are all activities that will not go away.”

I had a little snigger to myself after reading an article in the Saturday papers that had suggested that Kevin Rudd, the current Prime Minister of Australia, had artificially boosted his Twitter follower numbers to make himself appear more influential in the social media world. The article goes on to suggest that a substantial number of his Twitter followers are based outside of Australia in countries such as Ecuador and Belarus.

If Kevin has inflated his numbers, he has done nothing that a lot of other individuals haven’t done to appear more influential in their chosen field, in fact I wrote an article about this called How to Fake Your Twitter Followers last year.

It’s easy to fake and inflate your social media following on sites such as Facebook and Twitter to make yourself look like a guru, but what is more of an issue to me, and I’ve seen it starting to appear more and more in business lately, is when KPI’s are tied to how many followers a marketing manager can generate.

This sends a totally wrong message to Marketing Managers that numbers are more important than quality when it comes to your social media community.

To me, quality amongst your social media followers should be far more important, and choosing who you should follow back is also a consideration when it comes to being recognized by search engines such as Google, they place more emphasis on quality of connections than they do on numbers of followers. 

Tying a marketing managers KPI’s to how many followers they can generate is nonsense, it displays a total misunderstanding of how social media should be used by senior management in these companies, KPI’s should be based on developing a solid following of consumers who will engage with you, who will buy your product or service and who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer as a company.  

Trying to judge your ROI is going to be far more difficult as well, having an artificially inflated following will not convert into sales, why? because the majority of these followers have no interest in your company or product, they’re just along for the ride.    

Your KPI’s should be based on building a solid community of quality followers.

Using this strategy is far more effective in creating increased sales and conversions than concentrating on building large numbers in social media, particularly when looking at your ROI.

So remember, the catch phrase is quality over quantity, it’s far more effective in the long term if you want your social media strategy to be successful.

Twitter was hit by a bug on Monday that caused users of the micro-blogging service to lose the followers of their accounts.

‘We identified and resolved a bug that permitted a user to ‘force’ other users to follow them,’ Twitter said.

‘We’re now working to rollback all abuse of the bug that took place,’ the San Francisco-based startup said in a blog post.

Twitter’s explanation came after a number of users of the fast-growing short-message service reported that the number of people listed as following their accounts had plummeted to zero.

‘Follower/following numbers are currently at 0; we’re aware and this too should shortly be resolved,’ Twitter said.

Twitter, which allows users to pepper their followers with messages of 140 characters or less, said last month that it has topped 105 million registered users and is adding 300,000 new accounts a day.

Story from Bigpond.com

Property prices in Australia could start to fall as a result of interest rate cuts and a cut back in mortgage lending, it is claimed. Despite prices increasing by up to 20% in the last year, a six interest rate rises in the last eight months could put the brakes on and there is evidence of a slowdown, experts believe.

REAL estate experts are bracing for the housing market to finally slow down, as the effects of the latest interest rate rise filters through to buyers.

According to Australia’s largest real estate group Ray White, turnover in the first three months of the year is sluggish compared with last year, up only 8%, the smallest increase since the global financial crisis.

The reduced activity has continued in to April, said Brian White, joint chairman. ‘Judging by our April results, it looks as if the interest rate increases are having an impact on activity. With the additional interest rate hike, it would be the first time that the Australian market has not shrugged off the pattern of increases in the past. At last, it would appear that the ambition of the Reserve Bank to slow down the residential activity has been achieved,’ he explained.

Another outcome of soaring prices is an increased in those struggling to make mortgage payments. According to independent interest rate monitor RateCity about 27,000 households have already missed mortgage repayments and thousands more are expected to fall behind after the latest interest rate rise.

The number of securitised home loans more than 90 days in arrears has rapidly increased from 0.05% in January to a current rate of 0.6% it said.

The worsening financial crisis in Europe could also affect the Australian market. Some analysts even believe there might be a rate decrease later in the year, although most are predicting they are likely to remain on hold.

‘There will be a slower housing market in Sydney in the second half of this year, even with a normal economy,’ said SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher. But he added that if the euro zone woes worsen there would be the potential for quarter on quarter falls at the end of the year.

Residex chief executive John Edwards believes price growth will moderate and he forecasts 5 to 8% overall. The top end of the market would do best, while some cheaper areas of south western Sydney were already going backwards.

According to Australian Property Monitors economist Matthew Bell prices in the most expensive half of the property market would rise at twice the rate of the bottom half.

Story from PropertyWire.com

Athletic equipment company Nike dominated the top 10 viral videos selected by video-content distributor goviral for April 2010, landing three videos on the list.

Two of Nike’s videos were light and entertaining in tone. However, the number two video, “Earl and Tiger,” was much more somber. Recontexting old an audio recording of pro golfer Tiger Woods’ late father Earl Woods describing himself into a questioning of Tiger, the video asks Tiger what he was thinking and feeling, and if he has learned anything (presumably relating to his recent sex scandal). The video itself is a single black-and-white shot of a stone-faced Tiger Woods facing the camera, wearing Nike golf gear.

One public service announcement made the list for April, “Give Earth a Hand” from nonprofit environmental group Greenpeace. The video was released for last month’s Earth Day celebration and suggests that Greenpeace’s work requires participation from many people.

In a repeat of a trend seen in March 2010, many of April’s videos centered on athletes or some type of athletic activity. In addition to the three Nike videos, there was also a video from Coca-Cola highlighting the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, a Samsung video featuring possibly staged precision tricks with business cards, and a humorous Old Spice video centering on a heavily muscled man flexing his talking biceps and abdominals.

The top 10 picks for April, with links to view on YouTube:

1. Heineken – Men With Talent, agency: TBWA
2. Nike – Earl and Tiger, agency: Wieden & Kennedy
3. Old Spice – Flex, agency: n/a
4. Samsung – Master of Business Card Throwing, agency: The Viral Factory
5. Coca-Cola – Quest, agency: SANTO
6. Nike – The Secret Behind Nike Air, agency: n/a
7. Sony – Around the World in 80 Seconds, agency: Rapp
8. Nike – Music Shoe, agency: Wieden & Kennedy
9. Greenpeace – Give Earth a Hand, agency: n/a
10. Nestle – I Like Big Butterfingers, agency: n/a

About the Rankings: goviral issues a monthly top-10 list of viral video rankings on its site, including additional commentary about the videos, their approaches and why the firm thinks they are viral or likely to become viral in the future.

Facebook and Twitter clearly surpassed all other major social networks in US year-over-year growth during March 2010, according to data from The Nielsen Company.

In March 2010, Facebook reported 117.1 million unique US users at home and work. This represented 69% year-over-year growth from 69.1 million unique US users in March 2009.

While Twitter only reported 20.1 million unique US users in March 2010, this still represented strong 45% year-over-year growth from 13.8 million unique users in March 2009. It is also worth noting that Twitter had a negligible 520,000 unique users in March 2008.

Myspace.com had the second-highest total unique US audience in March 2010 with 42.1 million users. However, this represented a roughly 25% drop from 55.9 million unique users in March 2009. As recently as March 2008, Myspace.com was the undisputed leader among major US social networks, with 61.3 million unique users.

LinkedIn and Classmates Online reported US unique audience declines of 12% and 30%, respectively, between March 2009 and March 2010. LinkedIn’s March 2010 unique audience total of 13.9 million is still almost double its March 2008 total of 7.9 million, while Classmates Online has lost about 15% of its unique audience in that time (13.6 million to 11.5 million, with a bump to 16.4 million in March 2009).

Global SocNet Traffic Dramatically Rises
Globally, more unique users spent far more time on social networks in March 2010 than in March 2009. Unique audience grew about 20% globally, from 261.7 million to 313.7 million. Total global minutes spent on social networks more than doubled, from 55.7 billion to 113.1 billion. Average time spent per user grew about 45%, from three hours, 32 minutes and 49 seconds to six hours and 25 seconds.

SocNet Usage Rises in Feb.
On average, global web users across 10 countries spent roughly five and a half hours on social networks in February 2010, up more than two hours from February 2009, according to previous data from Nielsen. Overall, the active unique audience to social networks grew nearly 30%, from 244.2 million in February 2009 to 314.5 million in February 2010.

Facebook was clearly the most popular social network globally in February 2010. Facebook’s reach extended to 52% of active social network users, and the site averaged 19.16 sessions per person and time spent of five hours and 52 minutes per person.

More Realtors are stepping up their use of technology in their work, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2010 Member Profile.

The 93-question survey profile is based on 6,830 responses from NAR members. Statistics for compensation, earnings, sales volume and number of transactions correspond to calendar year 2009; the rest are from early 2010.

Realtors’ median gross income fell 3 percent in 2009 to $35,700, according to the survey report, while net income rose 0.9 percent, to $23,400. NAR attributed the increase to a drop in total expenses, to $5,480 from $5,810 in 2008.

Most Realtors (59 percent) were licensed as sales agents, while 42 percent were licensed as brokers or broker associates. In 2009, brokers and broker associates had a median gross income of $49,100 and sales agents had a median gross income of $26,600, the survey found.

That compares to a median income of $49,300 for brokers in the previous annual study, and a median income of $28,400 for sales associates.

More than half of Realtors (56 percent) reported using a smartphone daily or nearly every day, compared with 42 percent in last year’s survey.

The less experienced the Realtor, the more likely he or she was to use a smartphone daily: 66 percent for those with two years of experience or less, compared with 48 percent for those with 16 years of experience or more.

Social media use also shot up: 51 percent of Realtors actively use social or professional networking websites, compared with 35 percent in the 2009 Member Profile. All age groups except those 60 or older reported at least a 52 percent rate of social media use.

Ten percent of Realtors reported having a blog, up from 7 percent last year, while 63 percent reported having a website, up from 60 percent last year. Realtors reported a median 3 percent of their business came from their website. Those who spent $1,000 or more to maintain their site said the site generated a median 19 percent of their business. Realtors spent a median of $220 to maintain their sites.

More Realtors also used digital cameras (30 percent vs. 27 percent), instant messaging (28 percent vs. 22 percent), and GPS (28 percent vs. 22 percent) daily in early 2010 compared to last year.

This year, the typical Realtor remained a 54-year-old white female with a median 10 years of experience who has at least some college education and owns her own home, according to the profile.

Realtors typically got 18 percent of their business from past clients — the same as last year. They got 20 percent of their business from referrals of past clients, up from 19 percent last year. Real estate was the sole occupation for 77 percent of Realtors, though in only 45 percent of households was real estate the primary source of income. Gross median real estate household income dipped to $89,100 in 2009, compared with $91,500 in 2008.

Brokerage sales volume remained at a median $1.2 million. Realtors completed a median seven transactions in 2009, the same as the year before. About 12 percent, also the same share as in the previous survey, did not complete a single transaction in 2009.

The median size of a real estate firm rose to 29 agents and brokers, compared with 23 last year.

Of all survey respondents, 74 percent were very certain they would stay in real estate for the next two years, while 18 percent were somewhat certain. These figures are largely unchanged from last year.

Original story from Inman News

I recently came across a speaker and coach who during a recent seminar stated that all business needed to participate in social media was a Facebook page, now this coach is well known in the real estate industry as a motivational speaker and sales trainer, he is also a working real estate agent operating a very successful office, so the business owners who attended this session will believe what he says, unfortunately for them his advice is not only wrong, it is totally misleading.

So lets state for the record, a Facebook page and Twitter account do not constitute a social media strategy, in fact it is far from it.

This again highlights how you can be misled by so called social media experts who run around the country spruiking advice like this.

Facebook and Twitter are only part of a broader overall strategy and these are tools, which you use to communicate and socialise with your customers.

This raises the other big issue that companies have, and that is they don’t know how to be social, in most cases business gets involved in social media because your competitors are doing it, not because it opens up communication channels with your customers and allows your business to be social.

Today everyone of your customers is a reporter and every reporter is a customer, so being able to directly tell your story to your customers is a very valuable component of an online corporate communication strategy.

Before you start using a tools based strategy, which is what you have if you are just using Facebook and Twitter, think about what sort of relationship you want with your customers, connecting with them is a very valuable asset to your business in building lead generation, sales and loyalty.

Social media is fueled by passion, so work out first, who you are, what you are and what you are trying to communicate, before you start. Most companies take elements of the business that are not really passionate and try and make them social, elements such as features and benefits etc.

Creating your own unique content is really important with social media, content and  passion become the king. Translating that into other mediums is also very important. Creating blog posts for example and then turning those posts into Podcasts and Video and distributing via YouTube and ITunes.

Video is a massively under utilised tool in business, and I predict in the next 12 months will have far greater influence than it does today. You now have the potential to have a streaming TV channel at your disposal, every piece of content you generate can be transferred to video.

There is more to creating your social media strategy than just Facebook and Twitter, stretch the boundaries with social media, remember it’s about passion, it’s about you, it’s about your brand and most of all it’s about your customers.

Reach out to them across all the channels available to you, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.