Online Real Estate Technology

If you’re a real estate agent or small business owner just getting into a social media strategy, or already using social media networks such as Facebook and you haven’t yet created a Facebook brand page, then go and create one right now. They are an excellent way of promoting your brand not only to others on Facebook, but also promoting your brand or product via Facebook adds.

If you are considering using Facebook adds or any form of on line advertising then it’s important to understand the searching and viewing habits of the audience you’re trying to impact. Social media sites are changing the way we search on line, and as marketers, relying on this information and understanding where and how your audience views or searches for information on social media sites is vital.

So which are the best days to run your adds or banners, and which days generate the best click thru rates for advertisers? Some new research out today helps shed some light on this and I’ve detailed some of the results for you.

Content posted on Facebook based brand pages has a higher than average click thru rate on a Tuesday, the average click thru rate on Tuesday is 9.89%, the highest of any day. Wednesday follows closely behind with click rates of 9.87%.

Friday and Saturday had the lowest click rates with a very measly 2.67% on Friday and 2.7% on Saturdays. If you  take all the days into account, click thrus for Facebook brand pages average 6.76%. This average is lower than Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but still much higher than average CTRs for display advertising across social networks in general, including Facebook itself.

So really what this research means, is that certain days of the week are better for launching a product promotion, and by really understanding how consumers use social media sites, you and your company can start to target where you’ll get the best return on your investment.

In a nut shell, you really need to have a well thought out communication strategy for updating your Facebook brand page, and an understanding of when to create promotions to get optimum response.

Response to your marketing on social media sites is better early in the week then dwindles and picks up again on Sundays.

What I’ll cover for you in the next post on this subject, are results of the latest eye tracking study on social media pages, where are users eyes focused when viewing these pages and how does it differ from other web page viewing.

This has an impact when you’re deciding to use advertising on social sites such as Facebook etc, does your target market actually look at the adds? I’m sure you’ll find that an interesting read.

About the data:The sample data reported is compiled from nearly 200 million fans impressions on Facebook pages over a five-month period (March – August 2009).

Great Words of Advice

Today whilst visiting a real estate office we got talking about social media strategies and why as a real estate office they should be working towards implementing a social media strategy, not just to farm new pastures, but also to help them in the optimisation of their web site. During the conversation we got on the subject of blogging, and why creating a blog would help their Internet marketing efforts.

Well I have to admit that over the last few weeks I’ve neglected this blog a bit as I explore new areas and work on my web site, so with a little bit of a guilty feeling, I’ve motivated myself to write this article, and you can probably guess what it is about, making sure you create and maintain a disciplined approach to blogging.

In my research I come across a lot of blog writers who after a period of time, and it’s often around the 12 month scenario, tend to get a little bit of writers block and lose interest in maintaining their blog, which is what happened to myself, and in a number of cases the blog gets abandoned altogether.

The Internet is full of abandoned blogs, left in the wilderness by writers who lose interest.

It’s not easy maintaining a blog on a regular basis, you also have to work hard at maintaining your audience and coming up with new content that appeals to your readers.

So today I’ve written a list of things that I will do to assist me in writing articles for my blogs and I’ve listed them below for you, if you are just starting as a blogger I hope they help set you on a disciplined approach and most of all don’t give up.

1. Set aside 1 hour each day to research for new articles – doesn’t matter what time of day it is, just DO IT! – Talking to other people also stimulates ideas for posts. Mornings I find are much better, I can sit in my pajamas and coffee and read.

2.Write when you get urge - A lot of times I’ll come up with an article idea and leave it till later, in most cases later never comes.

3. Create a list of topics and categories – Then write first about what you like or are passionate about. That way you’ll enjoy writing about your favourite topic.

4. Revisit your old articles - Some of these older stories can be updated and rewritten. As some of these topics are changing almost daily, providing updates on these old stories can generate new ideas.

5. Read other Blogs & Bloggers - This will help to create ideas as well, it gets the creative juices flowing and helps with topics and trends.

6. Subscribe to RSS Feeds - Make sure you get updates delivered right to your computer, and use some of these articles on your own blog. They help break up the style of writing and provide different opinions on topics. But remember, always credit the author of the article.

6. Commitment - Now here is the magic word, once you start you really need to be committed to your blog, so create that list.

That is what I intend to action from today, I put it up on my office wall so that every morning the first thing i see will be the list.

I hope that if you are just starting out, this little list will help keep your blog on track and if you have any additions to the list please share them with me.

Hi All,

Just to let you know that I’m now back after my US trip and will adding some new posts over the next few days. That will get the ball started again on this blog, so bear with me while i get my routine back in order. I’ll also be setting up some new blogs that will concentrate on particular themes.

So watch out for those over the next few days and weeks.

Twitter Micro Blogging

As a follow up to my post yesterday about Twitter and the possibility that the honeymoon might be over, I thought I’d share with you new research from TNS Global about why people use Twitter, It’s a nice follow up to my post yesterday, so here are the findings:

41.6% percent of Internet users who used Twitter did so to keep in touch with their friends.

Why People Use Twitter

In addition, 29.1% used it to update their status, 25.8% to find news and stay updated, 21.7% for work purposes and 9.4% for research.

Men and women both used Twitter primarily to keep in touch with friends. Secondarily, men were interested in finding news and women in updating their status.

Users under age 35 were more interested in broadcasting their status than their senior counterparts. Older users were more likely to use the service for work-related purposes.

The average Twitter user interacted primarily with friends and family.

Why People use Twitter

Next-most-popular were celebrities, bloggers, TV shows, co-workers, brands and journalists.

More women interacted with friends, family and celebrities than men, but men were more likely to follow bloggers.

Older users trailed younger ones in interaction with every Twitter user type except journalists and brands.

Who can Twitter users blame for their addiction? One-half of tweeters said a friend or family member introduced them to the site and 33% were hooked by a co-worker.

So there you have it, and if you’d like to follow Mike Andrew on Twitter then click on the link as follows www.twitter.com/mikeandrewre

Well, it may be the flavour of the year, but new research from Hubspot has shed light on some interesting stats on those that use Twitter.

According to the survey 53% of users who have registered with Twitter, have no followers, 56% are not following anyone, and 55% have never even tweeted.

The companies “June 2009 State of the Twittersphere,”  found that more than 9% of Twitter users are completely inactive, meaning they have fewer than 10 followers, fewer than 10 friends and fewer than 10 updates.

Additional findings:

• 80% of users failed to provide a homepage URL
• 76% have not entered a bio in their profile (vs. 20% last year)
• 69% have not specified a location

Active Users are Regular Tweeters

In contrast to those who don’t use Twitter much, HubSpot did find that a large portion of individuals who are actively using Twitter have embraced it, and are tweeting on a regular basis.

Usage findings:

• The average user tweets .97 times per day
• The average user has tweeted 119.34 times in total
• The average user has a following-to-follower ratio of .7738

These stats are really interesting but lets take a look at the information and/or quality of what is being tweeted on a daily basis, looking at the research it shows that users frequently answer questions and communicate with other users rather than just answer the “What are you doing” question

From a location point of view, Twitter appears to be more popular in english speaking countries and cities such as London, larger US cities and Canada.

On doing some research of my own and looking at the stats of those that I follow, I’d have say only about 70% of them tweet on a daily basis, the rest are very passive and some I never even hear from, maybe time to do some culling and have a good ol’ clear out. 

This survey is really interesting in that it almost backs up the Nielsen report released in April of this year which estimated that 60% of Twitter users quit after their first month.

I just wonder, how many of Twitter users who are registered are genuine anyway, It’s not that hard to register a user name, it could even be yours if you haven’t thought to register it, maybe your competitors or a well known brand that’s been slow to catch on to the social media band wagon and just sit on it, that’s why you should read my post on grabbing your social media user name before your competitor does.

CoTweet Logo

Over the past 2 days I’ve had the chance to use a new Twitter application called CoTweet, and having signed up for a private beta testing account and being amongst the first users to play around with the site, I thought I’d give you a rundown of its capabilities.

At the moment it is still in private beta testing but i found it performed very well, apart from one or two little niggles such as getting a message “There was an error loading messages” when refreshing and the site occasionally sent me back to the main log in screen when navigating between screens and functions, that I’m sure will be worked out once testing is finished.

CoTweets main aim is to be a platform that helps companies reach and engage customers using Twitter, and the site has loads of great features that business can use. For example CoTweet allows for multiple users,which is ideal for companies wanting to keep control over what and who is using Twitter, particularly when representing your brand.

Some of the highlights on CoTweet, you can manage up to 4 Twitter accounts during the private beta period. You may share Twitter accounts with others (i.e. invite them to CoTweet with you through the same Twitter account). Or you may keep them unshared, so that only you may tweet through them. The way you might use this feature is people managing a shared account (perhaps for their company) as well as their personal account through CoTweet. Managing multiple accounts through one interface makes life so much easier.

CoTweet Main Screen

With one click you can view the profile of the person you are following as well as all conversations and updates and you can add notes and then allocate that note to other users on the site, this appears on the right hand side of the screen making it very easy to see the information of the person you are following. Another nifty addition is the use of CoTags, so what are CoTags? CoTags are short signatures that allow you to identify yourself as part of a message while sharing an account with multiple people, EG @CoTweet.

CoTweet User Screen

You can also integrate it with a Bit.ly account to shorten your URL’s and links, posts can be delayed which allows you to stagger your posts across the day, or scheduled to go live immediately and you can assign posts for follow up to other users.

Another very nice feature, is OnDuty, a system that keeps your team informed by sending email updates when new @replies and direct messages come in. Unless you’re glued to your Twitter client all day, it’s easy to lose track of messages and the value that immediate responsiveness brings to your brand.

OnDuty keeps you and your team in the loop and allows you to jump in on things as they progress. In the new updates you can not  only change your own OnDuty status, but also that of your team members as part of a new channel menu. Users are able to decide what happens when they’re set to “on” via their settings. At the moment, CoTweet only offer email notification but are looking to expand to other notification tools soon.

The only way to really know how great this application is, is to apply for a private beta test account and start using CoTweet. It’s a great application for companies and another great social media tool.

Mike Andrew's Real Estate Podcast Series

I’ve had a number of people ask me about my podcast series over the past few weeks and where they can download them from, so I’ve included in this post the URL link to download the entire series of 25 podcasts. These are designed as a series for you and you can download and keep them as a reference source on technology and marketing tips.

I’ll continue to update the series on a regular basis so to make sure you get each new episode, subscribe to the RSS feed at www.mikeandrew.podomatic.com, grab the feed from my blog or get them via ITunes by searching podcasts and entering Mike Andrew Real Estate Podcasts.

Let me know if you have any problems with downloading the series.

Tweetlister for real estate agents only

It seems that every time I post these days it’s about Twitter, and that is not deliberate, it’s just that there is a lot of information and applications being developed about and for Twitter. Although sometimes there’s a new application that is released that I can’t really see the value in, for instance, a new application for real estate agents has been released called Tweetlister . This is a free application that allows you to create, manage & schedule Twitter friendly property listings. The site allows you to track contacts as well as download them as an Excel report. 

As a part of your social media strategy, this could be a handy tool, however there is more to using and being succesful on Twitter and other sites than just promoting your product or listing. I can name a number of real estate groups that are just promoting listings and as a result have virtually no followers on the social sites. To make this work for you, you need to build a strategy around the engagement of the on line social media user, not just promote product. It’s about sharing information, about providing support and advice for people as they go on the journey of looking and searching for a home or investment.     

Yes, you read right, it is a journey for most people, as they research on line for  properties and agents to assist and help them, ask yourself the question, are you providing that information, are you there on the journey with them, or are you just out promoting a product. 

Use sites like Tweetlister  as part of your overall plan, but remember, the best way to  create a successful social strategy is engage & interact with your followers.

Anyway, you can already do what Tweetlister offers on other sites, so it’s really nothing new. That’s only my opinion of course and if you have a differing opinion, then I’d love to hear it.

Social Media and Blogs Very Influential Communication Tool

As the first of my blog workshops is due to kick off in two weeks time, I thought I’d take a look at the impact that blogs have on the on line consumer. Sometimes as a writer, I often think about who will be reading this blog and whether the information I provide is of interest or help to the readers, and I think about who is reading and researching blogs like mine on the web.

New research available indicates that blogs are a very valuable source of information, and blogs are particularly popular with women according to research from the US. Blogs sit along side social media in popularity with 53% of the female online population who regularly participate in social media.

In terms of demographics, social media attracts a large number of Gen X&Y’s at 15.4%, with baby boomers not far behind at 13.3%. Blogs are also a powerful tool for companies to utilise to communicate with female on line users, women are more likely than men to make a purchase decision as the result of a recommendation or other customers experience reported about on a blog. In fact the figure is very high, with 85% of females surveyed said they had made a purchase decision from a blog post or the blog had had an impact on their purchase.

The other trend that stands out is the way social media usage is affecting traditional media, when asked the question about other media usage, 57% of the females responded they were reading less newspapers, 47% said they were reading less magazines and 36% said they were listening less to radio. This is higher than the general population decline in usage of traditional media in the US.

So the message for companies out there that have not yet embraced blogs as a corporate communication tool or blogging as a tool to engage and interact with the on line consumer, in particular the female market, is very clear.

Start a blog, communicate and engage the on line consumer and just as important, if you have a business, start to monitor what blogs and blog writers are saying about you and your business or brand, it could be costing you a lot in lost business, lost business that today you probably don’t know you’ve lost.

TwitterJobSearch Logo

There are a lot of third party applications available for Twitter to enable you to use the site better, and as those of you who use the site all the time will know, there is lots of information or links published in Tweets. As I mentioned in my last post, Twitter is launching new search capabilties with an improved search engine to allow you to find all those links and then group them, making them easy to find. When I search Twitter I use #tags, so that I can follow emerging trends in areas that I’m interested in and this allows me to keep up with the latest Tweets on that subject, but I’d never thought about using Twitter to search for jobs, until now.

A new search engine called TwitterJobSearch uses semantic intelligence, link crawling and crowdsourcing to track job and recruitment tweets. It searches Twitter and pulls out tweets it believes to be job adds, meaning you can search for any type of job in any location and the search engine will display the tweets that are relevant to your query. By searching for sales jobs, IT or accountants you’ll get a list of jobs vacant. It is not perfect, as I searched for sales jobs in Brisbane and got a news story in the results, it was still very good.

TwitterJobSearch Job Search Results

TwitterJobSearch claim that “over a 180,000 jobs have been advertised on Twitter in the last 30 days and indexed by them” so this makes it a comparable alternative to the major recruitment web sites.

If you have never thought of using Twitter as a free recruitment site then now is the time to try, if you’re looking for new sales staff or to fill any role you have vacant then this is a free resource for you, you’ll not only be promoting the job to your followers but it will also be picked up by job aggregators such as TwitterJobSearch.

So go forth and advertise.

You can follow Mike on Twitter here and get all the latest on social media and real estate marketing