Ribeezie: Social Media Business Strategy for Real Estate & Small Business

Less Broadcasting Please

I don't like to tell people "you're doing it wrong" because you know what, we all do it our own way. And that's ok. But there is one thing that has to be said because I see people new to social media do it all the time!

STOP BROADCASTING!

Blatant self-promotion and the hard sell really doesn't work around here. Do you know why? It's because people really only care about two things: 

1. Finding a solution to their problem(s).
2. Being entertained.

If you're not offering one or the other, you're not providing much value. Period.

Deliver Edutainment:

A friend of mine used to always say that you have to strive to deliver "Edutainment" (the art of educating and entertaining). Here's a few things to keep in mind:

• Give away your Top Shelf content for free (through your blog, ebook or newsletter)! If you're selling a coaching (knowledge-based) product then it's ok to hold back a little but still, deliver the goods through your blog for free.

• Have fun with it (it's ok to have a sense of humor). You're not writing a college paper or essay. It's ok to get casual and conversational in your writing. And if you through up a "Just for Fun Friday" post that makes me laugh, heck, that's ok too.

• Remember, relationship before the sale. You know the old mantra: People do business with people they like. Well it's true! You have to hang out where your customers are hanging out on-line (on social networks, blogs, forums, etc.) and engage with them first. Friend them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter and start a dialogue that allows you to get to know one another. Then and only then, are they happy to promote your product on your behalf for free (and often times without you even asking them.

What do you think? Do you think people broadcast a little too much online? How do you find a good balance between engaging for fun, and broadcasting to make a sale?

Social Media: the best way to learn is to just do...

Yesterday I gave a presentation to the Arcadia Association of REALTORS® Young Professionals Network (it was a great group). As in most presentations that I give, there's always someone in the group that I bump into with some resistance. Here's the thing, in real estate, there's no one "right" way to do things. You do what works for you. For some, that involves social media. For others it doesn't. 

How Do You Know If It's Right For You? 

The best way to learn is to just do. It's like riding a bike for the first time. You might not get it right away. You might mess up and fall. But after a ride or two, you slowly start to get it. 

• Join Facebook (it's easy). You sign up for an account like you do anywhere else. Don't know if your clients are "social media savvy"? Here's a neat trick, Facebook allows you to import your email database. Do it. You'd be amazed at how many people in your database area already on Facebook. 

• Get on Twitter and tweet. Here's a short list of people to follow who I think are doing it right: @EvangelistaLA, @ChrisBrogan, @Startabuzz,@FunomenalRltr, and @unmarketing. Give them a follow, say hello and start tweeting. 

Then, the brilliant folks over at MyTechOpinion wrote an excellent resource titled: 

Twitter for Real Estate Twits

• Start a blog and just write. You can do this for free at wordpress.com. My friend Laurie March did this and now her site is hopping with readers and comments. 

• Subscribe and start reading other blogs both inside and outside of your niche. I use Google Reader for this (the folks over at Common Craft have anexcellent video tutorial for you). Here are some blogs to read and subscribe to: Problogger.net, Copyblogger.com, ChrisBrogan.com, AgentGenius.com and Ribeezie.com (heh, that's me).

Remember, you wont' always get it right straight from the beginning. That's ok. The trick is to pick yourself up and start riding again. And if you have any questions, well, that's what the comment box is for...ask away!

Meet the Founders of Posterous: interview with Sachin Agarwal & Garry Tan

Posterous (the service we've all grown to love), was founded back in mid 2008 and is showing some strong numbers to date:

It's basically a simple web publishing platform (a blog) and well, it does so much more than that! Text and files are easily uploaded to the site via email. You simply send your content to "[email protected]" and viola, you're set. It also embeds video, MP3's and other sorts of media into a player and has the ability to turn images into galleries. Not only that, it then syndicates all of that content to others social media hotspots like: Facebook, Twitter, your blog and more! 

Pretty rad huh? If you haven't tried it, you should... We can connect here: http://www.ribeezie.posterous.com

Then, join me for an interview with Posterous Founders: Sachin Agarwal and Garry Tan.

    When: Monday, October 26th

    Time: 10:00am PST

    Dial-in Info:

Phone Number: (724) 444-7444

Call ID: 31897

Q&A: 

After talking to the Founders about Posterous, we're going to open it up to some Q&A with them. I'd really love to hear how you, as an Agent, are using posterous if at all. Drop me a comment with a link to your posterous account and if you have any questions for the guys, leave 'em in the comments as well. 

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This call is being organized via TalkShoe. You can either subscribe to my TalkShoe page here or listen through the widget below. 

Listen. Learn. Provide Value. Engage.

I just got back from REBlogworld and Blogworld & New Media Expo 2009 (two events that I'm definitely very passionate about). And I think Amanda Coolong (Chief Correspondent at Techzulu) said it well: 

 "1 word to sum up @Blogworld: EPIC. Major kudos to Rick & co. Amazing speakers, well attended, niche experts. Great @techzulu coverage #bwe09" - via @acoolong

300+ speakers, thousands of attendees (estimated 2,200), lots of learning & collaboration! There's nothing more inspiring than learning direct from the experts and then taking the time to mingle with them face to face. As Darren Rowse said: "Face to face meetings count for a lot!" I agree...

The hardest thing to do after getting back from a conference is gathering your thoughts into one coherent stream and plan of action. So, with this post, I thought I'd offer you my thoughts based on the sessions I attended and the overarching theme of things learned at #REBW09 and #BWE09. 

Listen: 

In just about every session at Blogworld, "Listening" was a big part of implementing social media successfully. Personally, I agree! You can't begin to provide value to an audience if you don't listen for the problems/questions you audience members are having. 

Here, go read Chris Brogan's post on the subject: Grow Bigger Ears in 10 Minutes

Learn:

There's not one "right" way to use social media. We all have different objectives. Different ways of doing things and communicating. Learn what others are doing in their space. And then just do and adjust accordingly. 

Again, read Chris Brogan's post: You're Doing It Wrong

Provide Value:

Again, you can't offer value without listening first to your audience. So listen. Then, offer value by sharing things via your social media that educates and entertains (my buddy @TPEntrepreneur calls it: Edutainment). 

The only challenging thing about social media and tools like Twitter is that it gives people unprecedented access to you which implies certain time constraints. You need to work on managing expectations with folks and customer service needs to be a top priority. If @Zappos did it, you can to (and they sold for close to a billion). 

Lastly, realize that face-to-face (as Darren said), truly accounts for a lot! It truly does. So as much as you engage with people online, do the best that you can to take some of those connections offline. I'm thinking meetups, tweetups, Facebook events and more! 

Engage:

Social media isn't a place for robot behavior. (Disclaimer: I on occasion am guilty of scheduling tweets. You click on the links and read 'em and you even retweet them. So I continue to share them. And yes, I do respond to @ replies). If you're thinking you can get away with using social media to "push-market" your service/product, you have another thing coming. Chris Brogan has a great analogy about that too.

So instead of focusing on the "hard sell" first, focus instead on engagement: meeting new people, responding to emails, tweets, Facebook status updates, sharing photos and more... Engagement is the key to it all!

So there you have it, a simple but effective strategy to leading a successful social media campaign: Listen > Learn > Provide Value > Engage.

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Follow me on twitter for more cool tech & social media tips and connect with me on Facebook. 

[New Poll] How much time do you spend working on your blog each week?

Most people don't realize that blogging: 

• Building a blog (design, etc.)
  
• Writing fresh new content
• Marketing your blog

...takes quite the investment of time and energy. A good investment tho for those looking for a way to cost effectively market themselves via the web as it turns out. Many folks market their real estate services or other small business successfully via their blog. 

Here are the stats according to Technorati's 2008 State of the Blogosphere (I don't know if they've released the 2009 report yet, if they have, please let me know so I can update this post): 

Even Gary's social media count offers some staggering statistics. 

Basically, Blogging = Cost Effective Marketing

And it works! But in order to get there (in order to author a successful blog that generates traffic, comments, leads, etc.), you need to promote your blog right, produce new content consistently, invest in the design and engage with your readers. 

For some people, all of this comes easy, for others it takes quite a bit of work. With that in mind, I thought I'd take a poll to ask how much time you spent on your site on a weekly basis: 

My intention is to follow up this post with a series of Best Practices for being more efficient with writing, marketing, reader engagement, etc. But first, how much time are you spending on your site each week? 

[Image Source: Technorati 2008 State of the Blogosphere Report]  

Make It Easy for People to Reach You

I read a recent post from Sarah Worsham and it was dead on in it's advice. The post was about contact forms on blogs/websites and how you go about letting prospective customers reach you. See, a lot of sites (too many in my opinion), hide their contact information in an effort to prevent spam and to keep away from solicitors. This is understandable, but at the same time, if you're making people put work in just to reach you, isn't that effectively just saying... 

 

I Get It. 

You're trying to prevent spam and stay away from tele-marketers so you slap a contact form up there and presto, problem solved. I know A LOT of real estate agents who do this on their blogs/websites. 

BUT, on the other hand...

I think that qualifying prospects is part of your job. This means dealing with and weeding through the spam and solicitations from tele-marketers. Making your contact information as visible as possible on your website and on every page so that when a prospect who's fumbling through your content suddenly has the urge to contact you, they know where to do so rather than having to put work in to find you. 

What do you think? Am I wrong here? 

The Realtor - a short video parody

Where I'll Be This Month

Wow October came by fast! This month's a big month for a couple of different reasons: it's my birthday (I'm not saying when), and I'm participating in a few big events (it's what I love to do. In fact I think I attended my first big conference when I was 17; it was the ALPFA National Conference).

In any case, this is some of what's coming up... If you're going to be at either of these events, drop a comment with your contact information (Twitter ID, Facebook link, etc). I'd love to meet up!

REBlogworld - October 15th, 2009

I don't have a big speaking role at REBlogworld this year but I'm excited because my company (the Real Estate Tomato) played a big role in re-branding and re-designing the new site. Additionally, myself and a few other folks from the Real Estate Tomato (Jason Benesch) will be representing this year in Las Vegas!

Personally, I think that REBlogworld and Blogworld New Media Expo is a "Must Attend" event and I'm not just saying that because I have a vested interest. I'm saying that because the conference as a whole represents an excellent opportunity to learn from folks that I consider to be thought-leaders in the social media space and it represents and opportunity to network and collaborate with colleagues. The connections you'll make at an event like this are simply put, priceless. 

For a look at the schedule behind REBlogworld this year, visit the site: http://reblogworld.com/reblogworld-2009-program-schedule

CVAR Social Media & Technology Symposium - October 22, 2009

This is a big event for the Citrus Valley Association of REALTORS® and the Young Professional's Network because it's their very first Social Media and Technology Symposium. I'll be leading the Social Media track in room number 1 for the day and a technology track featuring the good folks at Docusign and Winforms taking place in room number 2 (there will also be an IMRMLS and a mobile technology session). 

So far, the association and YPN have done a fine job of driving registration amongst their association members with the existing count at 92+. For more information on this event please contact [email protected] or visit the event website. 

IVAR Social Media Workshop - October 29, 2009

The Inland Valleys Association of REALTORS® participated in their first ever Triple Play Partnership social media event with me last month. The event was a great success with members from three real estate associations in attendance: Inland Valleys Association of REALTORS®, Tri-Counties Association of REALTORS® and the Pacific West Association of REALTORS®. 

This time around, IVAR will be bringing a this one day social media event to it's members from Riverside and San Bernardino counties. For registration info please email [email protected] or call (951) 346-4517. 

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If you're going to be at either of these events, please let me know, I'd love to connect! And for information on upcoming events visit: http://www.ricardobueno.com/speaking or contact me at [email protected]

Seth Godin on Social Networking

Seth Godin's blog is one of the few blogs that I subscribe to via email and that I read just about every day. This video below is an interview clip from AMEX's OPEN Forum wherein Seth Godin talks about Social Networking for Business. A gentleman in the audience asks a question that I'm asked daily by REALTORS® and Brokers: 

"My question is on social networking for business. Is it valuable for business? Yes or no? And if yes, for what types of businesses?"

Seth Godin on Social Networking: 

My favorite line from Seth is this one: 

"Networking is always important when it's real and it's always a useless distraction when it's fake. What the internet has allowed is an enormous amount of fake networking to take place." 

There's A LOT of truth in this statement (in my opinion). I think that the biggest mistake that people make when they jump into social media is they engage in blatant self-promotion and focus less on building relationships. They use their blogs, their twitter streams and Facebook updates as press stations to talk about themselves and they do it in such a way that screams desperation and that is just simply unattractive (there's not quicker way to lose a sale than by spamming me with your promo's). 

Those that are doing it right, are the individuals who are out there building relationships and growing their network one true fan at a time. See, if you believe that business is built on building relationships, then you need to make building relationships your business. This means responding to every comment, answering every email (and phone call), responding to your status updates (Facebook reference) and your @ replies (Twitter reference). To reference Chris Brogan, "make the relationship before the sale." At the end of the day, it really isn't all that difficult... 

What say you? Am I off base here? 

And the Winner is...

On September 16th I ran a contest for a shot at winning a copy of Chris Brogan and Julien Smith's "Trust Agents." Well, I decided to hold on announcing the winner while Chris came to speak at Chapman College on September 29th... 

Long story short, I got one of a you an autographed copy of Chris Brogan's book (w00t w00t!).

And the Winner is...

[Disclaimer: the links above are affiliate links. If you buy a copy of the book, I might get lucky and earn enough to by myself a latte; or raffle off another book!]