Do You Google?

When looking for information on the Internet, do you say, “I’ll Google that?”

Many people use Google as a search engine when they are looking for something.  Some use yahoo or Bing to find information but they may still voice the word “Google” to search.  Google has turned into a “generic” term for a specific search.  The word association is similar to Kleenex for tissues which come from many different sources.

Google+ is the social media arm of the Google products and a venue that is a must for all business today.

The power of Google IS the 800 pound gorilla in the room.  Think about it, you need to be where SEO starts.

If you are not using Google+ in your social media mix YOU NEED TO! 

Why learn one more social media venue, you may be asking?

Simple, Google is Google and they are indexing conversations on the Google+ format in the Google search. If you are looking for SEO, Search Engine Optimization, then you need to be on the Google+ platform with all your valuable content.

Consider this fact, if you are talking about real estate in Albuquerque on your personal or business google+ page and someone searches Albuquerque real estate, your conversation will come up in the search and the consumer can join in on the conversation if it is open to the public.  This applies to any business, product or service talking about what they do can be shared on a search.

Basic deductions of why to be on Google+, Google is using their own content to help the consumer with searches . 

By participating in Google+ and actively engaging in conversation the consumer has a much better chance of connecting with you than someone NOT sharing in Google+.  The 800 pound gorilla is just that, the big man in the room and if you want to be at the top of the Search Engines for SEO then you need to be playing in the Google park.

Five reasons why you may want to engage at Google+:

1.  Are you looking to spark that “discovery” gene inside you about the world? Google+ brings the world to you!  International participants are eager to comment on your photos or posts to share their experiences along with their business, products or services.  It’s like a 24/7 networking opportunity where people are having fun meeting individuals they would never have connected with in real time.

2.  Getting out of your own sandbox and into another might open new doors you never thought were possible.  Quit talking to other people in the same line of business and discover your passion with music, art or photography.  Talk to new people about your hobbies, see how they have grown their business in the arts and they will naturally ask you about what you do.

3.  When engaging with people in different business or areas your intellectual capabilities will be stimulated and take you to a new level of experience.  As you group people in “circles” you will be able to share with your clients or other people across the country, connections that will be helpful to them.

4.  Google+ Hang outs offer opportunities for 9 people to share a video conference which can also be connected to live streaming where others can watch all over the world.  The 9 in the hangout will be able to see one another and there is the capability of sharing a youtube presentation.  If you are in the real estate business you can invite selected clients to attend a hang out and you can share with them photos via youtube of the best deals in an area or a listing that has incredible terms.  The sky is the limit of great things you can do in a hang out and present valuable content to those you serve.  Think about having a hangout with a lender and 8 first time home buyers.  They can ask questions and learn from each other in the comfort of their own home.  Small groups are easy to handle, maybe even consider a lunch crowd to discuss inspections or various aspects of a transaction.  If you are a buyer or seller would you like this type of service?

5.  Claim your brand page before everyone gets on the wagon.  Remember SEO,  what would people search if they were looking for what you do?  Albuquerque Real Estate,  Denver Real Estate, Albuquerque Pizza, get your brand name so you will have it in the Google+ system and your page will come up when people are searching.

Follow me at Connecting The Dots Around The World or Cosmic Cow Pie and let’s have some fun! Check out my about page and see how you can have everything from your website at one url link. This can become your signature line.

Keep your facebook pages but spend the time engaging and building relationships on Google+

Need some help navigating all the Cosmic Cow Pies?  Get your free 30 minute consultation to see if you are on track with your social media strategy.

Real Estate Agents tend to look at the bright side. We are eternal optimists, it seems, even when authoritative sources may say otherwise.

The housing market crash and mortgage meltdown affected not only the U.S. economy as a whole, but every agent’s market to some degree. Some markets have fared better than others. Home prices may have finally bottomed out in certain areas, and show signs of stabilization. Other areas are faced with distressed properties and a declining market.

When will the market return to normal?

Agents may be waiting for signs the market is returning to its pre-crash hay days. They may be waiting a long time, and in the interim, opportunities for business may be passing them by.

Approximately 22% of mortgages are reported underwater—that’s approximately 10 million mortgages. According to CoreLogic, 4 million mortgages are currently in default as of the end of 2011.

Without a doubt, it’s an agent’s business to know their local market. My local real estate market happens to have experienced some of the worst effects of the housing market crash. Accelerated, new construction that went on during the boom time, the crash hit us especially hard–decreased home values, but also severe loss of jobs and those jobs related to the new construction industry.

While much of the country was experiencing 9% unemployment, my county of Riverside and the adjacent county, has 18% and upwards unemployment. It’s going to be a long haul back to a “normal” market, or a housing market that isn’t mostly distressed properties—foreclosures and short sales. This could be said for many areas across the country.

In 2008, I made a choice to grow my real estate business by listing, selling, and negotiating short payoff for homeowners. With a current market inventory in 2012 of approximately one-third to one-half short sales, these numbers convince me it was a good choice. I continue to be in business and have carved out a niche for myself and my real estate business with short sales.

Unless an agent plans on becoming an REO listing agent, working on behalf of banks to sell their foreclosed properties, an agent will be left with a smaller pool of standard sales. There’s nothing wrong with an agent choosing what type of sale they will focus their business on selling. Some agents refuse to have anything to do with short sales. That’s okay, too. I’m pointing out there’s an opportunity for agents if they so choose with short sales.

If an agent has the mind, will, and some say, stomach (I like to say heart), to take on short sales, they will be rewarded not only with a viable source of real estate sales, but also with the satisfaction they’ve helped homeowners avoid foreclosure and saved their local communities from vacant, distressed, bank-owned properties on the market, which bring home values down even further.

“Short Sales Are Here To Stay…For Some Time” © 2012 by Pamela Seley Graphic purchased licensing, Microsoft Clipart

Last week I received a curious email from an Albuquerque friend who got a mortgage from me. They wrote:

“I am looking for some part time help with an upcoming project, and I need temporary staff – this many people for a fixed number of hours and I am willing to pay them well.”

I was tickled and found it interesting she thought of me. After all I’m a Mortgage Lender, not an employment staffing person, but she sent the message to me asking me “Who Do You Know Who….”

Are you the “Go-To” person in your circles? Do people come to you for advice? Do people call you to ask you to refer them to someone else in the community – a plumber, a handyman, a moving company, a Realtor? It’s a great way to stay in touch with your clients.

“What about direct mail campaigns?” you may say. “That is how I stay in touch with my clients! They get something in the mail from me several times a year!” Well, that’s lovely that you may send out a magnetized calendar with your business card on it to all your clients or a generic formulated newsletter, but seriously I personally get about a half dozen of these a year, and I don’t need any more calendars, and it doesn’t give me valuable information about who you know, who I may want to know or what other resources you can provide.

If you’re not the Go-To person, why not? You need to know that by not being a “Maven” or a “Mensch” you are potentially missing out on market share of Mortgage Business in Albuquerque and throughout the State of New Mexico!

What is a Maven? A maven is a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others. The word maven comes from Hebrew, via Yiddish. What is a mensch? A person of integrity and honor. (Thank you Wikipedia)

More than growing your business, you need to be cultivating your clients and business associates to think of you as The directory for community resources. You don’t want them to pick up the yellow pages or Google anything – you want them to come to you FIRST for information, resources, referrals or recommendations. Why? Because then you know you are always top of mind with them.

Become the “Go-to” person for your circles and you’ll discover it’s like being on speed dial. You’ll be the first person your people think of when they need something. When your people are out in the city, or travelling the state, if they hear something, see something, are in a conversation with someone who needs your Albuquerque mortgage experience and service, you are going to be the first person they call. And that, my friend, is a better return on investment than any postcard or direct mail campaign will ever bring.

“Mortgage Lenders: Are you the “Go-To” person in your circles? © Melinda Potcher 2012

Creating maps for your real estate listings on Google Maps is a great way to showcase your marketing expertise on your real estate blog or website. Once you’ve created your first map you’ll see how easy it is!

To help you get over the hump and create your first custom map here’s an excellent video tutorial on how to make custom maps.

In this video tutorial you will learn how to:

• Make a Google Map for your real estate listing
• How to add an icon to your Google Map
• How to change the font
• How to add a photo of your home for sale
• How to add a link back to your real estate website

This video was created by Michelle Gibson who sells Real Estate in Wellington FL including townhomes and condos. Michelle is an active short sale agent.

“Add Pictures, Color and Custom Links to Google Maps” video copyright 2012 Michelle Gibson
“Google Maps for Real Estate” Copyright 2012 Rich Cederberg

If you read part one of this series hopefully you’ve already downloaded Tweetdeck and started using columns. The columns should have helped you see the difference between the updates for everyone, mentions of you and direct messages for you. You’ve started to get a feel for how columns can move at different speed. In this respect, Twitter is more complex than Facebook, but don’t let that overwhelm you. It’s more fun and interactive too.

Now let’s get a little more advanced and talk about one of the cooler of features of Tweetdeck, the Hashtag.

Hashtags are used to organize Tweets by subject. Adding the # symbol before a word or words (with no space) groups the tweets into streams that anyone can follow, whether they follow you or you follow them.

Here’s the real benefit of this – If you search by hashtag you’ll be able to see posts from hundreds or even thousands of people that you have never met in person or online. You won’t have to follow 100,000 people to see the small percentage of updates that pertain to real estate.

To follow a hashtag you’ll want to add a column for that hashtag. Adding a column is really easy:

• Click Add Column in the upper left hand corner of Tweetdeck
• When the window opens click on the “search” icon
• Type in a #hashtag (try #RealEstate, #Mortgage, #YourTown for instance)
• Hit enter and you’ll see Tweets that have been tagged with that hashtag
• Click “add column” in the lower right hand column.

You should now see a column dedicated to updates that are all tagged with your hashtag.

I open and close columns all the time, depending what I’m interested in that day. For instance, during baseball season I love to search and create a column for #Cubs. Other Cubs fans have tons of things to say. Or if I’m working I might open a column for #foreclosures and see what kind of articles people are writing or tweeting about that day. Using a hashtag you can search for virtually anything.

Who creates these hashtags? Anyone can, including you! You create them as you tweet and as you search. The only catch to creating your own hashtag is that it’s difficult to have others adopt it if it’s too specific.

Using hashtags for search is really helpful in finding information, but using haghtags is also incredibly helpful in filing information. This is one aspect of Twitter that I absolutely love. Unlike Google, where you are never quite sure where the search engine is going to file your blog post, with Twitter you use the hashtag to dictate where your post update gets filed. It’s easy to expose your blog or webpage to a super focused audience.

Let’s face it, with only so many hours in a day you can’t go out and take the time to follow everyone, but you don’t really have to. Get creative with your use of  hashtags and you’ll be expanding your opportunities to learn and to connect with an ever expanding number of followers.

“Understanding Twitter for Real Estate Part Two: The Hashtag” © Rich Cederberg 2012 | Post image purchased from istockphoto.com

You might have a dozen blogs out there, tweeting everything in sight, and have 3 or 4 facebook business pages but does anyone care? Do you have less than 10 followers and hardly any Facebook “likes”? So what if Google finds you? If no one else does, what’s the point?

Here are some simple ways to increase your online traffic:

• 1. Connect with the Sharing Crowd.

If you only share to those that never post, hardly ever check their Facebook status or forget to tweet, then you’re not marketing to a target audience. Find those that are on Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook that are very active and follow them; retweet them; share posts of theirs and let them know about it. They may return the favor and by that, get you more hits from their group of followers. SEO is social and if no one finds you via other people, Google really won’t care.

• 2. Use Images and Link them back to the source – YOU!

Take you’re own photos and upload them to Flickr and other online photo sharing sites. Optimize the picture and give it a link back to your original site so that others may want to find you or follow you for more photos or learn about what you are actually selling. Example: Say you are listing a home in Ruidoso New Mexico and you want to focus on the area and neighborhood around the listing. Take your photos of the area and post them so that when people search for Ruidoso, your pictures come up and naturally link back to your site for the listing or your services. If they’re really great photos, they might even get shared among groups which is what you really want.

• 3. Link to previous posts, pages and sites within your article.

If you find an article is really getting some traffic and traction (look at your analytics for this) go back and edit the post throwing in more links throughout the content to different related posts so you take the reader on a journey of your best posts. This may get more shares, more traffic and more views.

• 4. Find related sites that allow comments and use your keywords as the link to your site.

Example: If you sell homes in Chelan Washington, link your website in the comment to your name which could be “Chelan Realtor”. This will be a great keyword and it also identifies you as the Chelan Realtor that left that comment. Make sure they are not canned comments either but actual responses to the topic at hand. Engage the author and come back for a response and continue to dialogue if necessary. This creates attention, traffic and perhaps a client.

• 5. Give your email signature a boost.

Make sure on every email you include links to your website, social media, or buzz words that will help draw attention to your site. A good example if you’re a Realtor, use a catchy phrase such as, “Get a snapshot of the latest Olympia Real Estate Market Report“. This works great for buyers or sellers as both may be interested and will create a follow through to your site. Make sure all your contact information is on the website and that they can find you everywhere online just by your email.

Getting more online traffic is not all in a day’s work. It takes time and commitment but the payoff can be enormous. Take the time to do at least one of these steps a week in the next month and you will be light years ahead of your competition shortly.

 ”Tips to Increase Your Online Traffic” © Tammy Emineth, 2012 

This is the first in a series of several articles intended to help real estate agents understand how to use Twitter in their real estate businesses. I’m assuming that if you’re reading this you have already acknowledged that Social Media is not just a time waster but that it is a valid business strategy. Indeed, the days of the non tech savvy Realtor are coming to an end and real estate is becoming more what it truly should be, a career for those who love to not only to meet and connect with new people but more importantly who love to market property using the most powerful resource available, the internet. Stick with me through this series and you’ll be ready to get started.   

This article is not for people who have never tried Twitter, it’s for the many people I talk to every week who tell me that they have tried Twitter, but they just don’t get it.

Until fairly recently, like about a year ago, I was one of those people. Until, that is, I discovered Tweetdeck.

When I was brand new to Twitter, I went to Twitter.com, followed hundreds of people and sat back to watch and listen. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I didn’t have a clue about what was going on. I followed too many people too fast and the tweets were whizzing by so fast that I could barely read them, let alone try and figure out what the @’a #’s and DM’s were.

Then one of my more Twitter savvy friends told me to try Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is easy to get. Just type “Get Tweetdeck” into Google. It’s free, fast and easy to download.

When you first sign on to Tweetdeck you’ll see that it looks much different than Twitter. It’s a different color and a totally different layout. I admit, I just like the look and feel of Tweetdeck better than Twitter and better than Tweetdeck’s cousin Hootsuite.

The best of of Tweetdeck, however, isn’t the cooler look, it’s how you can view the stream of information in separate columns.

Here are the three columns I always keep going:

• Home. This means all tweets by everyone you are following.
• Me. Putting the @ symbol before someone’s name is like saying “Hey, I’m talking to you!” The update or Tweet still appears in the Home column which is moving by quickly but it also appears in the Me column which moves by much more slowly. In fact, unless you’re Conan Obrien or Ashton Kutcher it’s probably going to be there in your Me column when you go back the next day.
• Inbox. This means I’m talking to you and only you. It’s like a secret message, those things you don’t want out there for everyone to see.

For me, Using Tweetdeck sorted out my Tweets into easy to comprehend categories. I finally understood when someone was speaking directly to me or to anyone else for that fact, or when they were just launching something out into cyber space to see if anyone wanted to respond, hoping to “get lucky.”

In the next post I’ll talk about the beauty of the #hashtag plus adding and removing columns so that you can choose topics to follow.

Twitter is awesome. It is faster and cooler than Facebook and it’s better for your real estate business too, if you can learn to do it right.

Don’t worry. I’m gonna help you. Please check back soon.

“Understanding Twitter for Real Estate Part One: Get Tweetdeck”  © Rich Cederberg, 2012 

Just when I though Scoop.it was the coolest new social media thing ever, I learned about Pinterest from my not-too-tech-savvy wife Vicki. She sent me an invite on my birthday last week as a joke, she thought that it was funny that she knew about the site before I did. After all I’m the social media junkie in our house!

However,  my wife is a visual artist and evidently she and some of her Facebook quilter friends have been using it for some time to share photos of quilts and other inspiring images.

So I gratefully accepted the invite and started looking around. There were already tons of people there I knew. How embarrassing to come to the party late!

What is Pinterest

Evidently Pinterest (my spellcheck does not like that word at all!) is one of the fastest growing social media sites ever. It’s growing fast because it’s all about photos,which are fun and easy to share, and it’s incredibly ease to use.

You use Pinterest to collect and share photos. You are the director or curator of your own little corner of the internet. You become an “Image Curator.” The previous article here on ExpertRealEstateTalk.com (ERT) was about a social media site called Scoop.it, where you collect or “curate” articles. While Scoop.it is awesome for sharing blog posts and interesting articles about real estate with your followers,  Pinterest is awesome for sharing your real estate related pictures.

Pinterest is like a giant online bulletin board. Every user creates their own bulletin board, or boards. The bulletin boards are where you “pin” photos for your friends to see.

So you “pin” interesting things. Pin + Interest = Pinterest.

Oh, now I get it!

Getting Started on Pinterest

For now, Pinterest is by invite only. No worries, contact me and I’ll send you one. Once you are a member you’ll see that Pinterest has started you out with several default bulletin boards. Don’t worry, you can change the title of the boards to match your interests. This is where you can get creative. See my boards.

The next step is to add the “pin” button to the favorites bar of your browser. Read how. Then you are ready to get started! As you browse the internet and see interesting images, you use the “pin” button to add the images to your bulleting boards.

Now the Fun Begins!

Once you’ve got your bulletin board(s) started you want to go looking for your friends and check out their boards.

Here’s what you can do once you’ve found your friends boards:

• You can “like” you friends pins. Sounds very facebooky!
• You can comment on other pins
• Share your friends pins. This is called a “repin,” (like a retweet)

Oh, and One More Really Super Cool Thing

Looking through the help menu I saw this “How to prevent your account from appearing in Google search.” Really, how to prevent this? Why would you want to? I guess some people might want to retain privacy.

Not me! I want to appear in Google search in as many ways as possible!

Really, the most exciting thing about Pinteresting is not the social media aspect of liking and sharing my friends photos, it’s that the photos I pinautomatically link to their original source. Stop and think about that for a second friends. They link back to their source. To your blog and to your website.

Pinterest is fun. It’s a great way to discover and share great web images. Don’t be reluctant to try another social network, now that we’ve all been trained by Facebook, new sites like this seem like child’s play. Start today!!!

Now I’m the first to have to try the new shiny toys but, this year, I made a New Year’s resolution that I was going to go easy on the new toys with regards to signing up for social media sites at every turn.  I have a tendency to sign up for everything and when they go nowhere, I’ve wasted a considerable amount of time ‘working’ those sites.  It’s difficult enough to stay abreast all of the social media and online trends that we must in order to share our information with the consumer and be a top-notch listing agent, representing our sellers in every imaginable venue possible to keep their homes front-and-center!  So, for me this year, less is going to be more!

Despite my commitment of taking it easy in the social media department, right out of the gate, I was introduced to Scoop.It.  Although curating content is nothing new, Scoop.It, among others such as Pinterest and Snip.It, have become quite popular.  For the real estate business, life is so much easier with these curating sites.  Simply put, with a click of a button, we can share interesting content with our readers, including great articles, pictures and videos that we have enjoyed.

Curating is quite easy with Scoop.It…

1.  Simply go to Scoop.It (no, there’s no .com at the end!) and complete your registration.  It will take you just a couple of minutes.  Oh, did I mention, it’s FREE?!  There is a paid version but, for starters, be sure that you’re going to use it before paying for additional features.

2.  As per the instructions, drag the ‘Scoop.It’ button to your toolbar and you’re ready to start curating.

3.  When you’ve read an interesting article that you’d like to share, simply click the Scoop.It button on your toolbar.  You’ll then be able to:

• Change or modify the title
• Change or modify the introduction–make it specific to your area if you’d like
• Add this particular article to a specific ‘topic‘ or suggest a new topic
• Select the graphic or upload a new one
• Choose which social media site, if any, you want to share this Scoop.It links to (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, your own WordPress site and more)
• Post

4.  After you’ve posted, you can visit your topic page and tag your post, feature your post on your page (only one feature per page) and make other edits as needed.

It’s truly just a few clicks of the button and you’ve added great content to your curated topic for others to see.  We’ve also embedded a Scoop.It to our front page sidebar on our home page to share our most recent curated topics.  Simply add a widget to your sidebar and drop the html code for your Scoop.It publication and you’re done!

Everything about Scoop.It is simple and easy and is a great way to share your favorite reads for the day with YOUR readers!  I think I’ll be keeping up with this one–it’s not time consuming and makes a nice presentation for the world to see!

*The New Social Media Trend – Scoop.It © Debe Maxwell, www.iCharlotteRealEstate.com  |Purchased graphic via www.iClipart.com

Social media is all around us. It’s a full time job just to keep up with the latest app, network or social circle much less do our actual full time jobs. How are we going to keep it all straight, do our job, yet be a part of this ever-changing society of online media? While you don’t have to be a part of every social media outlet there is, you should be a member of a few of the tops ones for your business sake.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and maybe Google+ are just a few of the top social media’s out there right now. Being a member of a few popular blogs will also help get your information out into cyber world. But how do you keep it all organized and straight? While we can’t sit all day long on the computer combing through the lists of feeds we can focus our energy on getting our own content and product out there for those that are.

Are you one of those Facebook posters that never read the wall or newsfeed? This is not the best way to get connected. There are Word Press plug-ins that allows you to post directly to Twitter which in turn posts to Facebook and LinkedIn. As convenient as this is, you’re not really engaging your audience. You’re simply tacking something on the bulletin board of social media but not talking to anyone in the hall about it.

Let’s put this into some practical terms. Say you are a Realtor in Vancouver Washington. If you consistently post things to your Facebook page that no one is following what’s the point? It won’t be seen or read. The best thing to do would be to track down some local Facebook pages, say farmers markets, local businesses and services in the same area and let them know you are online, on Facebook and would like to connect with them. This is not the time to promote your business only to get acquainted and let them know you’re here. Think of this as a meeting in the elevator. You wouldn’t immediately start pouting off all the listings you currently have but you would tell them who you are and what you do.

When you “like” their page and post a comment make sure you put a link back to your own page. This is done simply by adding a @pagename at the end of your comment. This links your page name to the comment and they can simply click on the link to head to your page. This works really well if you are using your personal page as a comment instead of your business page. You can always toggle back and forth from your business page to your personal page as a point of reference.

Maybe you sell Sedona real estate; you will want to let people know where you are by mentioning who you are in your comments. Find other people to follow subscribe to and “like” and when you comment let them know where you’re located. This helps them pin down a geo-location for you in case they ever need you. When someone says, “hey, there was this Sedona chick, what’s her name?” They can find you easier when you brand yourself to your area.

Maybe you sell a variety of things or in different markets. Consider Eileen Schreiber; she sells and markets in Sedona and the Flagstaff real estate area. She has different Facebook pages for each and different websites. Think of this as multiple personalities. You may choose to market yourself as both all the time and venture out and separate the two. Just remember to link back to your page on every comment regardless of where you are.

So get out there and get more social. You’ll get more “likes” and more business.