CMAEON's CEO Tim Vasko just returned from New York, where he was invited to speak at the REMarTech conference. One of the presentations he was asked to give was on social media, and how it in particular, is changing the way the Real Estate industry is using the Internet to generate leads, find qualified buyers, and market itself.
Tim's talk, titled Social Conversation Lead Generation, covered some of the most common questions from Real Estate agents about social media: How do you make sure that you are the real estate professional that gets referred? How do you become part of natural social conversation? How do you inspire word of mouth online? How do you find buyers? How do you qualify them? How do you convert them to use you rather than your competitor?
Sound like something you've been thinking about? As not everyone could be in New York to hear Tim's presentation, we have uploaded a Podcast of Tim's presentation, and a copy of his slides. Please let us know what you think in the comments below.
CMAEON's CEO Tim Vasko was recently invited to speak at the REMarTech Conference in New York City. The goal of the conference was to connect the real estate world to the technology and tools that are shaping its future.
On that matter, Tim delivered a keynote presentation entitled 'Web Portal Magic'. The basis was this:
“Don't just build a website – build a web portal that utilizes SEO, social media and interconnectivity to take your web presence to the next level. What is that next level? A web portal that comes out more highly ranked on Google, keeps content fresh and alive with minimal time each week, and engages buyers with interesting content.”
I met with a good friend of mine who deals in the financial sector in the UK today. It was great to see Andre - haven't seen him since last August when the markets went to hell!
The last time we met, I was just discovering that our largest health client had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy - it was a distraction during our regular board meeting in Toronto.
The latest and greatest online buzz marketing tool seems to be Twitter. It's all the rage. Business guys like me are wondering though, will it stick? Obviously, no one really know - so a better question is this: Does it matter to your business?
In today's economy - especially in sectors like Real Estate, Mortgage Banking, or Health Care - transition, uncertainty and economic challenges facing the future of said sectors make business models look more like a Rorschach Test than a Harvard MBA based case study.
What do real estate "marketers" who were in high school or university a just over a decade ago, who became "marketing experts" in real estate and old-school sales guys have in common? The first group, the "marketers", learned their trade in the hottest market ever in the history of real estate. The second group, the sales guys, hasn't had to change a thing for more than a decade, or two (or three or four or even five!). The Internet and information were held close to the vest through the MLS.
Where were today's marketers in the mid-eighties? Many of them were in high school. So - a wise person might ponder - what is their experience in a tough market?
I'm walking in Montreal - looking at the buildings around me - all of which are at once historic and modern. The City is vibrant and alive with activity - no signs of a recession here.
There are bikes sponsored by the city that anyone with a credit card can use for 30 min for free. This is a place that has started to connect to a new model from and ancient history. A place where history has been preserved and upgraded to a modern stability - where the cross-communication between French culture and language to those of English is just a way of life - the natural way of connecting in a multi-cultural structure.
In 1997 (Wow! Thirteen years ago - time flies when you're thinking), while I was a full time Professor at the University of Victoria - I wrote and published a small paper called Technomics: How Access to Information Will Change Global Business. That was before the term "search engines" was part of common, everyday discourse (and before Google was even a company).
Here we are, way after the turn of the millennium, 2009, and what was my dream in 1997 - The Connected Market Space - has become a reality with our flagship site, Realestock.com.
Yesterday I discussed the mistake developers often make in presuming that they themselves are Media Experts. In that same vein, I will show you today how hiring a Print Media Marketing Expert is a not only an outdated but also wasteful mistake many developers often make.
Mistake #4 - Hiring a Print Media Marketing Expert. Print media is not a dinosaur - it's an albatross. The problem with print media marketing agencies is a two-headed one: First and foremost, they are excessively expensive, with no real proven ROI. At 15% - 30% , why would any well founded print media marketing company mess with the web? The fact of the matter is that they don't really use online marketing beyond instances when they are forced to. Second, on the rare occasion that they do decide to utilize online marketing strategies, their vacuous knowledge of this very different technique forces them to lean heavily on their print media background, thus costing their developer clients tens of thousands of wasted dollars.
Just as dangerous as assuming a salesperson has an intimate knowledge of media and marketing - as I touched on yesterday - is a developer who assumes that he or she has that same intimate knowledge.
Mistake #3 - Being a Media Expert. Would a developer hire a general contractor to do an architects job? "Hey, here's a piece of property, Joe. Go ahead and build something, we'll get it sold..." I don't think so, either.
An excerpt from a conversation between Michael Tuff, CEO of Racaria Capital Financial Solutions and Myself
MT: Why has it been so difficult for the process of buying real estate to make the jump onto the internet?
TV: Because the MLS was designed to make it impossible. To buy a house or a car, you need to see it, right? So the MLS system evolved to make real estate agents indispensable. We have traditionally paid tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the key, get in, look around, get the "feel" of the place. However, more and more people are now coming to realize it's not really worth $50,000 to get a key and take a look around.
