Real Estate Marketing SEO Blog

Google Social Search Explained

Google is always testing new search features. And Google labs is always full of new, interesting and sometimes useful things. Google is fascinated by the social media as they obviously have felt the exodus away from their engine to Facebook and other social sites. Check out their new social search.

ERA Repositions Brand

Anne Blumenstein
ERA's new VP of Marketing
anne.blumenstein at era.com

ERA Real Estate recently concluded their International Business Conference (IBC) and Anne Blumenstein joined me for Fun Friday to discuss their new moves and how agents and brokers alike may learn something from this new rebrand effort. Laugh at me as I put my foot in my mouth within the first 30 seconds of this interview.

ERA Brand Map

Anne Blumenstein is vice president of marketing, ERA Franchise Systems LLC. She is responsible for the shaping, development and execution of the company's market-facing direction and all marketing strategies and functions in the communication of ERA Real Estate's value proposition to its affiliates and their consumers. Blumenstein's group ensures the implementation of a range of marketing initiatives that includes interactive marketing, advertising, public relations and direct marketing Anne also works with franchisees to assist them in optimizing the value of their affiliation with ERA Real Estate.

Blumenstein joined ERA Real Estate in 2009. Prior to that she served as vice president of field marketing and media for the Carl's Jr. division of leading fast food operator CKE Restaurants where she oversaw local restaurant marketing, media planning, advertising placement and consumer promotions. Additional marketing and franchise experience includes work with the Jack in the Box restaurant chain, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. and McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants, Inc.

Experienced in the targeted use of digital marketing, social media and public relations, Blumenstein brings more than 20 years of integrated marketing experience to her new role, as well as a successful track record of developing franchise support and growth models.

Anne Blumenstein earned a BA in Economics from Humboldt State University, and an MBA in Marketing from Loyola University Chicago.

Rank Quickly in Google with Social Media SEO

 

Check out this video and find out how to get easy rankings in Google. Look for a word under 50,000 or less competition. Rank in Facebook pages, notes, and Twitter. This is a follow up to my recent blog post Does Social Media Help Your SEO? Notice in the video I do not say that Facebook Fan Pages can get ranked. 

 

GEO Fencing

I recently found a cool tool that you might think is useful in your real estate business. I interview Chris Thorman who  writes for Software Advice, a web site that provides reviews of software for property management.

What is geo-fencing?

Geo-fencing involves setting up a virtual perimeter around a geographic area. Geo-fences have been used for  tracking senior citizens with Alzheimer's disease, tracking mobile employees, and even monitoring hazardous cargo.

The idea is that once the person or object that is being tracked leaves a certain area, or crosses outside of the geo-fence, a notification is sent to another party.

Is geo-fencing being used by consumers now?

Advertising company Placecast is one of the first companies to actively work with retail chains (North Face and Old Navy to name a couple) to use "location-based mobile marketing" as they say.

Essentially what Placecast has done is set up geo-fences around those retail stores and when consumers get close to those stores, they're automatically sent a marketing text message to their smartphone specific to that store. Placecast has a video on their web site that explains the concept very well.

How can geo-fencing be used for marketing real estate?

With that retail store example, hopefully you can see how geo-fencing could be a very effective marketing tool in real estate.

Real estate companies could set up geo-fences around the properties they are selling. Potential real estate buyers can come to the real estate company itself or head to their web site to input their specific home requirements.

From there, all the real estate buyer has to do is keep their smartphone with them. Once they get close to a property that matches their requirements, they're automatically alerted on their phone with marketing message:

"3 BR  2 BA ranch-style home available for $219,000. Big yard and a pool. 719 Longview Rd. Come take a look!"

It's the perfect merging of buyer requirements, location and timing.

How close is this technology to being a reality?

Like I said before, Placecast is doing this for retail chains at the moment. Xtify.com is another company doing geo-fencing marketing. Their service isn't real estate specific but it could easily be altered to market all types of properties.

I imagine the major obstacles to using this technology in real estate isn't the accessibility of the technology but rather needing the local MLS data to input into the geo-locating database. Obtaining that data and using it in this manner could prove to be an obstacle.

How is geo-fencing different than other GPS based real estate applications on the market?

There are plenty of mobile apps out there that let you fire up a program and find real estate for sale near your location. The beauty of using geo-fencing for mobile marketing is that it makes the consumer's search for real estate passive instead of active. All the consumer has to do is go about their normal routine and be notified of properties that match their needs.

Page Rank Bar Myths

As far as SEO or search engine optimization, that green pixie dust that shows up in the Google Toolbar used to be everything to getting a top ranking in Google. Today it is at best two months late. And more than likely very, very flawed.

In case you are not aware ever since Google has had a tool bar that attached to your browser they have presented their Page Rank of the page that you were browsing.

For a long time this was the gold standard for easy rankings. Why?

PageRank, named after Co-Google founder Larry Page is about links to and from a page and their relative value. So if you could know that a page has say Page Rank 7. And you got a link from that page. It was pretty much assured that you would get a top position in pretty much whatever keyword phrase you wanted.

Google changed this years ago by making the Page Rank bar meaningless. Some say it is running two months behind and I say it still is meaningless. Either way Google also added more additional factors in a link when evaluating a page and its links.

So in the above graphic, I illustrate even though the Page Rank bar shows no rank, the page is still indexed in Google despite the lack of color in the bar. Therefore the Google bar does not have much value.

Rapid Fire Content Syndication

See how I syndicated my post yesterday through the use of Ping.fm

Realtors Top Marketing Preferences

 

Home Gain just released a survey of REALTORS. The goal was to determine the top marketing choices. The results are surprisingly offline.

As with all surveys or polling I see anymore I take meaning from it with a very cynical eye. Poor scientific methods and cooked books seem to be so common they are hardly noticed. Recently Global warming scientists and Big Pharma have been busted for cooking their so called science. While online  folks can say whatever they want to say.  I have seen real estate vendors running press releases of "survey results" while in actuality it was nothing more than an online poll on the front page of their website.

I am not implying any wrong doing from good ole Home Gain. I am just being skeptical of their methodology. For example they mention at the top of their press release that:

HomeGain Survey Identifies Real Estate Agents’ Top 10 Marketing Preferences

Recent HomeGain survey reveals the top marketing choices of real estate professionals in 2010; Referrals ranked number one; MySpace ranked last; Realtors show continued interest in using postcards/mailings

Preference does not mean efficacy, it merely is an implication. Therefore, is this list below truly a list of what is working in today's marketplace? That goes unanswered until you get to the list which says 10 "effective marketing strategies".  So we get the words choice, preference and effective.

Which leads me to believe perhaps the study is flawed, or maybe the PR writer got lost in the words. Nevertheless here is their finding:

Top 10 Effective Marketing Strategies for Realtors (Cumulative Average Scores, 1 = Least Effective / 10 = Most Effective):

* Referrals (8.7)
* Featured Listings (4.8)
* Email Campaigns (4.7)
* Postcards/Mailers (4.6)
* Blogging (4.1)
* Online Lead Generation Services (4.0)
* Facebook (4.0)
* LinkedIn (3.6)
* Outdoor Ads (3.6)
* Print Ads (3.6)

Top 10 Marketing Objectives for Realtors in 2010 (Cumulative Average Scores, 1 = Least Likely to Use / 10 = Most Likely to Use):

* Referrals (8.9)
* Email Campaigns (5.7)
* Postcards/Mailers (5.4)
* Featured Listings (5.2)
* Facebook (4.9)
* Print Ads (4.3)
* Blogging (4.2)
* LinkedIn (4.1)
* Online Lead Generation Services (4.0)
* YouTube (3.5)

Now, I let me interpret this. I have been saying for years that a terrific marketing strategy is to go where everyone else ain't. Direct Mail works.  It should be part of anyones sequential marketing campaign. Notice I say sequential, not send to the world without a purpose.

Any marketing be it Facebook, email, or snail mail should have a step two, three and beyond. 

Top takeaways:

• Careful on what is written as fact.
• Realtors still prefer plug n play solutions for their marketing.
• Referrals are still and always will be the number one lead source.

Does Face Book Help Your SEO?

On Social Media Helping Your Search Engine Optimization

It was about 2005 and I had an email conversation with this astute fellow named Mike Koenig from San Diego. He was selling an information product about online Video production. The key component being that getting a video onto youtube was easier to rank for "long tail key phrases".

He said look at this result I rank on the first page for "San Diego Probate Attorney". My dull witted reply was, "no you do not, that is You Tube that ranks in the top ten!"

We went back and forth and then finally I got it. So what if it was You Tube? It is still the Attorney's video. And of course the video has all his contact information.

Bling!

The Lightbulb came on.

Today some are calling this the faceless web. Whereby you can get phone calls without someone even visiting your main website.

So let's look at why you would want to have a video on You Tube or a post on say Face Book or Twitter.

I. Traffic- In some circles this is called parasitic marketing. Taking advantage of the traffic generated by a large website like You Tube or Face Book.

By posting links to posts automatically or semi-automatically an author can get their post syndicated or repurposed to numerous outlets all over the web.

II. Links- Links matter to Google right? I hope I hear a resounding YES! Ranking in Organic search is mostly all about the links. A profile in You Tube may provide you a link, however most of the links are nofollowed. Nofollowed means the value of the link is not respected by Google.

III. Brand- Having a Fan Page in Face Book can enhance your brand if enough people are indeed fans. The fact that you communicate online through the new media can illustrate your business personality as well as your transparency.

IV. Connection- Now more than ever there is an ability for the public to just pick up the phone and call you, Instant Message You, comment you or Email you through the membership portal. These portals allow multiple methods for your public to contact you.

So How Does Social Media help your SEO?

Technically it doesn't. Sure you can get a link in some cases like at Twitter. But even there the link lacks any custom anchor text. And for the link to have value it must be backed up by links to it. And where do those links come from? Your friends on Twitter.

"You earn reputation, and then you give reputation. If lots of people follow you, and then you follow someone--then even though this new person does not have lots of followers," his tweet is deemed valuable because his followers are themselves followed widely,Google Engineer Amit Singhal says. It is "definitely, definitely" more than a popularity contest, he adds.

"One user following another in social media is analogous to one page linking to another on the Web. Both are a form of recommendation," Singhal says. "As high-quality pages link to another page on the Web, the quality of the linked-to page goes up. Likewise, in social media, as established users follow another user, the quality of the followed user goes up as well." So maybe the social sites can get your profile or posts ranked. So you are really taking advantage of the large portal's own SEO.

But how do they know you have a friend? Ech hem....drum roll please. A Link!

Let's look at the three we have mentioned:
Twitter- Twitter allows you to get ranked in three ways.
a. Your individual posts-Page is indexed in Google however the links are no followed.
b. Your individual profile page (http://www.twitter.com/profile name)
c. Your real time tweets-Google is now feeding in realtime conversations such as those occuring at Twitter. If you have ever seen these threads of conversation you will surely think someone has been hitting the Vodka over at the Googleplex. I am doubtful that this feature will continue. As I mentioned in my last post. The Twitter conversation at the ROP convention looks as if your are reading conversations posted by severely handicapped 8 year olds. With all due respect to real handicapped 8 year olds as I am probably being too kind to the adults.So if you get into a real conversation which most Tweeters and especially Realtors do not,then your realtime chats may get into Google. Lucky you.(sic)
D. Someone else's Tweets and their syndication. If you are Retweeted by a Tweeter then you will be on his or her post(s) also. Along with their syndicated Tweets to other networks.

So that is Twitter. I will produce a Video for Twitter SEO,You Tube SEO, and Face Book SEO soon and add it to this post.

So does the social media help your SEO?

No. At best they give you a link. Being on the social media is sort of like taking advantage of the host site's SEO (authority). Any Realtor who has used Active Rain gets that concept. There are plenty of opportunities by the way than the usual suspects. Zillow and Trulia offer Realtors opportunities to publish on their websites. Additionally, many local based portals do the same. And these probably offer more direct opportunities for you than these larger new media portals.

The Big Equalizer

Google is betting on users using their Google Profile to search. For a couple years now you would get personalized search results based upon your own habits. So if you go to your own website while signed into Google you will see your site is number one.

I always have thought this stupid because I have bookmarks galore to tell me where I want to return. I go to Google for new stuff. But I digress.

So Google has this new social search feature that is part of its personalized search. I have not researched it yet. But I will be offering a full report with the video .

Social Media: The Truth Shall Set You Free

It was Vegas, Summer of 2008.....

I was sitting in a persuasion and marketing conference hosted by Dave Lakhani. Dave is one of my favorite marketing persuasions teachers. In fact, I credit him for starting this blog. The first of its kind in the real estate space. The event changed not only my business view, but I dare say my life view.  The thing was meat and potatoes and none of the typical conference hype. It was called Renegades of Persuasion.

This is another talk than Renegades of Persuasion

There was a couple sessions that extolled the virtues of the social or new media. Now IMHO this is the ** next to there was no hype. There were a few self appointed experts on the issue that was in the audience. They pitched Twitter hard and in fact were Tweeting the entire time. They were chatting about what the teacher was teaching. I thought it akin to the digital equivalent of passing notes back and forth in the 3rd grade.

I remember chatting with a guy who is a pharmaceutical salesman who was bumming big time that he wasn't hep to Twitter and all its virtues. He was literally having an anxiety attack.

I told him to relax. And not to buy into the hype. I asked him to tell me who his is his typical client? He told me that he sells to Doctors but usually that is through their office managers. "Exactly"! I told him. "Do you seriously think that an office manager, let alone a Doctor is online doing the social thing?"