Between seventy and eighty percent of the effort in social media marketing is wrapped up in content creation. By far, it is the most daunting task in terms of time commitment. It is the fundamental reason that NCI has been growing so quickly over the last year as more than 1200 local companies began deploying turn-key social content and marketing programs as clients of one or another DigitalSherpa social media solution service.

As experts in making things simple for our clients when it comes to social media marketing, we were struck by the excellent post by Tami McCarthy, CEO of NCI’s public relations firm TMG, entitled #1 Way to Jumpstart Your Social Media Dialogue:

So much talk about how to leverage social media tools and having a content strategy can be daunting for anyone just starting out on the powerful digital platform we’ve all come to love (or loathe) – the social web – that I thought it would be helpful to those of you who are ready to engage, but do not yet know where to begin, to have a way to just jump in. Taking that first step – which could be writing your first 140 character tweet, blog post, posting an update on your company’s Facebook page, or perhaps you want to shoot that first Flip video for your YouTube channel – whatever it is, that first message about who you are and what you stand for, for many, can cause palms to sweat and heads to pound.  Take a deep breath.  Here’s a simple way to get started and get talking, without much risk. Ready? Say “Thank you.”

Who doesn’t like to feel appreciated?

…In my business, whenever a reporter writes about one of my clients, or interviews them on TV or the radio because of a pitch I did, I follow up with a “Thank You.”  This is something that I’ve religiously practiced for over 15 years. These days my notes can be hand-written or sent via direct message on Twitter, or a simple email.  It’s amazing to me that even to this day, journalists are not just appreciative of receiving it, but surprised by this.  And the best part? They remember it, and they remember me.

Tami does a good job connecting simplicity, what we understand to be powerful in familiar channels of communication, and a way to address the growing flame telling everyone to join in with the rest of their business and personal circles on the social web.  Just thinking about ways to be useful and memorable in your communications will work.  Getting started can be as daunting a step as it is an important one:

Forget about the social media revolution (not really), but we all know the mega-numbers by now: pretty much everyone in every demographic uses social media for information in some facet of their life, and that is only going to continue for years to come. Let’s start a new social media etiquette revolution together.  Of course, we’ll all keep sharing important links to articles and research and all sorts of data that makes the social web the useful place that it is.  But taking a moment to say “Thank You” to those who have helped you grow your business will go a long way in creating a two-way dialogue that builds a relationship of trust and respect.  And if you are just getting started, and feeling a little behind the eight ball, this is a great way to get started.  Conversations around gratitude lead to sparking new ideas for working together in other ways, or just staying top of mind, which as any marketer knows, ultimately helps shape behavior (be heard, be remembered!).

Tami reminds us that getting started can be one giant hurdle. A combination of understanding, expertise, and time management can easily get in the way. For real estate professionals that sense the opportunity and want to feel expert and confident with an optimal investment of time and money can now turn to BrokerSherpa to manage their campaigns for a low monthly feel. Feel free to contact us and we can tell you more.

Real Estate agents using content and minding their social networks can stand out, bringing attention to themselves in ways that more traditional marketing tactics are not designed to accomplish.  One of the largest hurdles brokers and agents must clear is understanding that social media content demands a different genre and approach to content than profile photos and listings.

On one hand, creating content that is generically helpful to consumers using the Web to get smart about their next transaction, and using social platforms for distribution of the content,  makes a broker or agent discoverable  by consumers who don’t already know them. This is the first part of the challenge for not just real estate professionals, but for all local businesses who have traditionally thought about marketing in terms of what they have for sale, product and service advantages, and calls to action.

As an adjunct strategy, real estate professionals have the opportunity to further define and localize their expertise by using content that broadcasts their day-to-day activity in their local market, often nothing more than highlighting typical in-market activities that until now, never presented themselves as valuable marketing content. Chris Brogan does a good job of illustrating this in his post If I Were A Realtor :

If I were a realtor looking to use social media for my business:

I’d write a blog about the location where I was selling.

I’d take tons of pictures and post them on the blog.

I’d shoot walking tour videos all the time with a Flip camera and post them.

I’d shoot interview videos with people from my community.

I’d host meetups and tweetups for local residents, inviting people who are house hunting.

I’d find various niche communities (developers, stonemasons, parents) and start community platforms for them on Ning.

I’d empower as many local businesses onto the Net as I could, and help them get successful.

I’d encourage as many people in my community to join Twitter as possible, and I’d bundle them into a list.

I’d consider setting up hyperlocal news and events sites, or at least empower/support their construction. I probably wouldn’t put pictures of me in a tie (or a dress) and write about the rates. I probably wouldn’t pitch you dozens of times in a row. I probably wouldn’t just rehash links to listings.

It is this combination of real estate professionals becoming  discoverable by publishing and distributing content that consumers are looking for in their self education process and also sharing their own activities to tightly weave themselves together with the local community and housing market in a thoughtful and active way that creates powerful social footprints that drive more listings and transactions.

BrokerSherpa lends all this expertise to its clients and streamlines the process to save time for the busy real estate professional. There are broker or office programs as well as individual agent campaign options.  Give us a call or contact us by clicking here and sending us an email and we will put social media to work for you for a low monthly fee.

Social Media has powerful benefits for Brokers and Agents who are trying to bring attention to themselves in a world of smarter consumers and home shoppers or sellers. Building your business and personal brand to drive more transactions has become more complex. Here is an illustration of one way to think about integrating social media and social media networking into your marketing mix:

We are helping  Real Estate brands, Brokers,  and Agents to understand and execute their  social media content and social networking strategies for low monthly fees.  We would be happy to help you.

BrokerSherpa is a revolutionary Internet marketing service for the real estate industry from Network Communications, Inc., the parent company of the country’s largest real estate media business including The Real Estate Book, Unique Homes, several local and regional Homes & Lifestyles magazines and websites and more.

BrokerSherpa provides a turn-key solution to building and managing a social media marketing program for real estate brokers and agents.  BrokerSherpa takes the risk and complexity out of social media marketing, creating a new kind of Internet marketing presence for a real estate business. The program is designed to:

• improve visibility on Google and other search engines
• increase web traffic
• rely on regular content creation and distribution to enhance connections with prospects and local communities while turbo-charging referral networks

The power of Internet content marketing for building personal and business brands combined with the explosion of social media tools and networks, specifically blogs, Facebook, and Twitter, creates a unique opportunity for real estate professionals to get active on the web and bring attention to themselves.  By providing important content aimed at consumers seeking local, relevant information while they are navigating through the process of buying or selling real estate, BrokerSherpa builds audience and a total web footprint, bringing attention to the agent, broker, and brand.  Social media tools help real estate professionals drive their visibility and become discovered by more consumers when they are most active and seeking information to make them smarter about their next real estate transaction.

For a low monthly fee, BrokerSherpa will develop and execute a complete social media Internet marketing program. This is a fully integrated approach with a custom blog at the core and a network of blogs for agents that are part of a brand, office, or broker network. Content management, social network identities, training, tools, SEO and reporting analytics are all included.

BrokerSherpa  provides the following services for an affordable, fixed monthly fee:

Content Management

• Blog hosting and maintenance for your Broker and/or Agent blogs
• Ongoing content creation and management; regular blog posts with content that is created specifically to bring attention to your business and personal brand when consumers are most actively considering a transaction
• Featured Properties
• Featured Agents
• Content feeds to blog networks
• Individual listing posts
• Content that you want to share about personal local favorites, tips, and favorites that define you, your community, or your business.

Social Network Development Maintenance

• Creation of social identities for your business on Facebook and Twitter
• Development and publishing of content to your social identities
• Recruiting and development of your social network connections among your clients and prospects
• Monitoring of your social network activity

Training

• Social Networking
• Leveraging Content and Tolls in BrokerSherpa program
• Building your following
• Turning listings into discoverable post content
• Getting comfortable with social platforms
• Turning your day into a content stream
• Integrating broker and agent social networking

Internet Tool Development / Search Engine Optimization

• Periodic enhancement and upgrade of social media tools, such as blog platforms, interactive widgets, etc.
• Analysis and refinement of Search Engine Optimization performance for your professional business blog in search engines such as Google, to increase traffic and raise your business and personal brand’s profile.
• Assistance in tracking web analytics for your business’ website to understand the impact of your social media campaign

Reporting Analytics

Monthly reporting and analysis will include:

• Leads
• Blog Traffic
• Search Word and Term activity
• Referring site activity
• Facebook and Twitter networks

If you are interested in learning more, please contact us here or directly contact Adam Japko here

There’s literally 1000+ twitter tools out there.  I’m sure that most of them have some valid use, but I can’t imagine managing all of them!  Perhaps the biggest challenge for real estate professionals using social media tools is to simply choose only the best tools that will save time — not suck time    This is particularly true for busy real estate brokers who are hoping to automate social media efforts, or atleast delegate & systematize the process.

I only use a few twitter tools in my business, like twitpic & hootsuite, but I recently added TrueTwit, a service that verifies new followers to make sure there is a real human attached to the account.  It also effectively verifies that they are paying attention to the account (and the emails associated with that twitter account as well).

I love this because it feels like a double opt-in confirmation that these folks might really be interested in my message.  Now, instead of accumulating just miscellaneous followers, I’m only adding real users who have specifically confirmed their interest.

Oh, and did I mention that this is all happening automatically?

Social Media time savers is what we need — no more time suck tools please

Just read a cool post today on MyTechOpinion about twitter tools.  Really the post was about OneForty.com which is a fantastic resource for all kinds of twitter tools.  @nik_nik just created this new toolkit specifically for real estate pros. Her list is interesting, but I think it’s going to be different for everyone – depending on how they use the tools, etc.  I guess that’s the point of what OneForty is doing here, everyone can share something about how they work and others can gleen ideas from each other.

I think the three essential twitter tools for real estate are Hootsuite.com, Tweetdeck and Tweetie (or some other mobile app for twitter).  I love OneForty.com now too!  It’s really a twitter tool itself — the toolkit, huh?

What tools are you using?  How’s that workin’ for ya?

Just thought I’d share this short presentation about Integrated Marketing.

It makes 2 important points:

#1.  All your social media should pull traffic back to your “home base” (usually your blog)

#2.  We have to provide a clear path to contact for the consumer to connect with us (translation = Lead

Hope this helps…