Tag Archives: content

Search and hyperlocal real estate

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Hyperlocal real estate and the perils of postponement

All the buzz, right? But hasn’t it always been that way?

Seems like everyday I’m introduced to another “search engine” or some type of snake oil that isn’t one. It always—always—strikes me the same way: why would you try to compete with Google? It makes no sense—there is one. I guess it makes sense if you are exceptionally good at algorithms or have developed a more ingenious advertising model, though I think you’d be hard pressed (not to say it’s not possible).

dogpile

dogpile.com

But what is it that makes “search” possible in the first place? It’s not that Google exists. It’s that content exists in hyperspace. If that’s true, why wouldn’t you develop content? It seems to me that that is the way to connect and create value on all fronts. Here’s what happens when you actually sit down and create content:

  • You market yourself
  • It’s free
  • It’s difficult, but it forces you to think through things, which is far better than asking someone to just run an ad
  • You end up getting people to your site that you never would have been able to reach otherwise.

When I started writing on the internet about real estate I realized the clarity it brought me. Then I realized that there was a frequency that could be dialed in that allows the writer (of a blog) to reach an audience. Then I realized that it could “affect” potential business partners—for the better—at least in my case.

Every person that commented on this blog or believed in “social media” (how I almost loathe the words) know what I speak of. But there are a fragmented few that still think that the internet is about “gross” and “net” and “hits” … it’s just not… not at all… the internet is not about anything, except maybe (and this is a big maybe) the transfer of documents. Everything else just came after that.

Figuring out how to market real estate online is easy. But it’s not easy as in cheap. It’s easy if you are willing to put in the work and effort. If, on the other hand, you want to follow the herd… be my guest… postpone the inevitable at your own peril. Technology certainly is not going backwards. It’s going faster. Faster than the people who are actually developing it.

iPad cognition

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Yes, the iPad changes everything. I’m typing this on my iPad, and it is difficult to comprehend that this is so. This is the the iPad’s true glory. It changes the way you think about a computer, which will change the way we consume and produce information–guaranteed.

So maybe the printed word and the printed picture does have a chance… That is a chance to be published on an iPad anyway. If this is the Apple’s first incantation of the new computing, I’m blown away by its beauty alone.

What’s most impressive is it’s ease of use and its power to do (almost) all of the things that my MacBook Pro can do. Yes, I’ve heard the “iPad envy” jokes, but this is a the real deal, and I don’t even have 3G yet, but I will. And yes, the user interface works just like the iPhone does. (we all know what a failure that was, right?)

Much more than that, however, is the input/output effect it has on me. Professionally and personally as a blogger, content marketer and new marketing fanatic.

It’s been said that the typewriter changed the way authors wrote because of its mechanics. (i.e., people no longer used the quill because of the ease of the machine.) The same has been said of the word processor. The idea is that it’s possible Hamlet or Huckleberry Finn would never have been written had Shakespeare and Twain had the mechanical tools of our time. Obvioulsly, this is true, right?

Forget social media and the news the iPad made. It’s not about the device, it’s about the way we use the device.

It’s hard to think of a time where there was no such thing as an iPad. Really. And reading books and magazines is a ton of fun. And it just got started. I’m glad that I learned how to put content on the internet.

Happy Sunday!

Marketing mind of a spammer

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Email is not dead. Blogs are far from dead. Social Media is certainly not a trend. (In fact, discussing Social Media is passé.) Twitter is not dead… neither is tumblr, posterous, friendfeed, etc. You get my point.

What is dead: junk or Spam. Spam is dead. If you have spam in your office or spam-related activity in your office, it’s killing your business. There, I said it. One piece of junk after another. It doesn’t matter if you think it is spam. It’s what I think is spam, because I’m the one receiving it and being interrupted by it. If I electronically receive something I didn’t ask for, or if I receive something that annoys me into submission, it’s spam.

spam is dead

spam is dead

I noticed something about the mind of a spammer. They actually believe what they are doing is work. They believe that the email junk they are sending is commensurate with “hard work.”

There’s something to be said for the table scraps of revenue or the people receiving the junk that are actually converted to business. But, to this I ask, do you really want or need them as clients? Personally, I’d rather work a few extra hours a week and forge meaningful, thoughtful and lasting relationships than scrape up extra revenue for the short-term—but that is me.

Here’s the truth:

If you interrupt someone, it may convert to a sale, a phone call or even a date. But it’s not going to make you relevant in the apparent and obvious shift in attention for eyeballs and market share in the digital age.

I just started using MailChimp for a client and this comes from them. It is well worth thinking about. (Especially if you have the smallest notion that you might be a spammer.)

For one thing, people have different preferences about how they consume information. Some people want to come to your site and browse your latest posts;
some are interested in what others are saying in the comments; and some just want to skim your content via RSS and never visit your site at all. There’s another group of
people that prefer reading your blog in their email clients. It’s true! They may not have many sites they care enough about to warrant managing a feed reader, or they just
like getting email instead of visiting your blog. Whatever the reason, it’s a nice opt to offer your readers so they can engage with you in the way that suits them best.

Again, just because you have the ability to hit send or send text messages (heaven forbid… ugh)… doesn’t mean you should.

What's the best real estate news source?

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Where do you get your news about real estate?

My suggestion would be here: Inman News. This company has the most interesting and the most commanding content. It’s classy and it doesn’t wreak of “gotcha” headlines. There are so many of those out there.

Also, the founder of Inman is also the founder of Vook which is a brilliant idea, also. You can read about that here.

Here’s Brad Inman’s blog. He backs up his business with an authentic voice.

From the outside of the real estate business looking in, this is where I’d put all my chips…

12 Questions to ask about your luxury site

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  1. How do you attract people to your luxury site?
  2. Do you pay someone with extraordinary design skills or do you make sure that there is content there?
  3. Do you think that the design of the site is important?
  4. Do you believe that your site is a first impression?
  5. Do you even think it’s necessary to have a website?
  6. What would you do differently if you could completely overhaul your luxury website?
  7. Does your website have a blog? Do you know what a blog is?
  8. If you do write on your website, do you write openly, honestly and candidly for your clients?
  9. Do you see any value in writing on a blog?
  10. Is your website compatible with the iPhone? (The iPhone isn’t Flash compatible, so it may matter if you design in Flash)
  11. How easy is it for me (if I’m a buyer) to find your phone number, email and your listings?
  12. Do you make me fill out a contact form or can I just click your email and send you a message?

These things, regardless of your beliefs, matter. That’s what the internet is about. Connectivity.

Luxury Marketing Blog on Alltop

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Luxury Marketing Blog now featured on Alltop.

Why does this matter? Does it matter? It depends on whether you value more eyeballs or not. I also guess it depends on what you think of content online. Here’s how Alltop says they select the blogs:

We rely on several sources: results of Google searches, review of the sites’ and blogs’ content, researchers, and our “gut” plus the recommendations of the Twitter community, owners of the sites and blogs, and people who care enough to write to us. Let us declare something: The Twitter community has been the single biggest factor in the quality of Alltop. Without this group of mavens and connectors, Alltop would not be what it is today.

So maybe it doesn’t really make a difference—but I think there are some pretty good luxury real estate ideas going on here. I also think it helps anyone and everyone who either:

  • writes for this blog
  • comments on this blog

I am very humbled to have been picked up on the Alltop feed. When I first saw Alltop on twitter, I really admired all of the blogs that were there.

It is truly a privilege to be recognized by Alltop—now I know how to get there—be glad to help.

The luxury marketing shift

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The changes that have occurred in the past three years, in all business models, have delivered us all to a level platform.

This includes the marketing of luxury opportunities but it will not last much longer.

The speed of this change, resulting in a massive shift in expectation of how business should be executed, is the amazing and also the “new thing.”

The farm

The farm

It took over one hundred years for the dissolution of the Agrarian world and the supplantation of it by the Industrial Age, to be a “finished” product. Those on the wrong side of historical shift suffered. Those on the right side of events, the forward trajectory side, saw profit and success. The length of time that this occurred in, though, did offer the affected population time to get used to it, time to react (or not).

There was time for choice.

The internet—in erasing time and geography, shifting our thought process to a computer’s narrow channel of on/off, act/react—the binary world’s rhythm— means that the shift must be experienced, digested, and worked with “immediately.”  In erasing time, it means “no time.”

Or, “always time.”

It is understood, now, that the consumer is in control of all processes. Expediters of information—isn’t that our role, now, as real estate agents?—must be ready with knowledge of inventory, of area, of statistical market evidence, of listening skills that encompass the virtual as well as the “real” world, and be able to deliver it quickly.

Knowledge, which is about content, is what will differentiate our service.

For a few moments longer, it’s a hybrid phase. This means we can use everything that works, whether its from the quickly disappearing short term past to the still being discovered/implemented future.  Selective and proven results oriented print media can still direct traffic our way, but for how much longer?  It will be replaced, as we are in the position of being forced to repackage ourselves, in the new (and cost effective) media.

The factory

The factory

Good business practices are still an essential component. It’s the methodology that has changed. I prefer the word shift, as it has the connotation of gearing up, shifting up, for a speedier voyage down the highway of marketing.

We exercise to keep fit physically. We keep our personal connections happy to optimize our emotional well-being. So, what are we doing to make sure our business plans keep us on the proactive side of events?   The new media requires us to mesh our corporate and our personal selves—it’s suddenly about transparency, and the consumer gets to decide whether or not to contact us.

It’s difficult to forecast what the technology killer app will be, even by the end of this year.

The Information age

The Information age

The speed of the shift is phenomenal.

Attitude is all, right?  A little bit of insecurity makes our creative juices flow…otherwise, we’d be asleep.

Every morning, let’s repeat the mantra: “in change, lies opportunity.”

Let’s make sure we say it out loud, with firmness.

Do you think we’ll be discussing this in 50 years?

For technorati ZKJUC878T92J

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If you’re a reader of the duPont Luxury Marketing Guide, and you are wondering why this odd title of: ZKJUC878T92J is here, it’s not an aberration, nor is it any information that I may be trying to convey in the realm of luxury marketing.

It is however, something that technorati.com requires in order to authenticate a blog.

Technorati has undergone a complete overhaul in the way in which they rank blogs—presumably for the better. There are a lot of bloggers that try to game the system with artificial backlinks, and ppc, and content scraping.

It seems that this is a good cause (for them and the blogging community) so I’ll try and be as patient as possible.

{update 11/26/2009}

4 long tail luxury marketing tips

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Have you embraced The Long Tail?  Luxury marketing online has one, too. Choosing to ignore it could be costly.

I am certain of this: The online Long Tail is very real. My analysis of my personal website led me to this conclusion, along with an intense 2 month internship with one of the most highly esteemed marketing blogger on the web. (Incidentally, my website / blog has nothing to do with luxury marketing. Nor do I make any money with it.)

If you haven’t embraced this concept—or if you have yet to explore it—it is imperative that it become part of your luxury marketing strategy.

For the past month I’ve been speaking and have been having conversation after conversation with agents, brokers, investment bankers and web strategists. The general consensus is that everyone knows and believes it (search) is going to part of the future, but not everyone knows how to get there—or it seems that there is slight trepidation.

Here are 4 Free (another one of Chris Anderson’s books) tips:

  • It starts here. A blog, website, stream, whatever you want to call it so you don’t feel like you are wasting time. But creating content online for your market, your brand and for your potential clients is a good start.

  • If you don’t do it, somebody else will.

  • Content is not CTRL-C to CTRL-V. Google knows when you do this.

    • and finally:

  • Most people (including wealthy people) scan on the internet. The Long Tail does not equal long paragraphs and lengthy white papers.

    • Online Marketing Guide: Mission Statement

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    Luxury Homes Mission Statement

    But first: 10 things it is NOT:

    1 It is not a public relations platform. {See EDITED wordpress.com for that}

    2 It is not a personal appeal to leverage myself as an author, blogger or marketing representative

    3 It is not to serve as a ‘link’ for information about the distribution, circulation and rates we provide as a luxury media outlet. (you can call me for that – see here for my contact info)

    4 It is not because Social Media, twitter, and Blogging are topping the NYT bookshelves of business books and the next best marketing gimmick.

    5 It is not to persuade you ‘buy ad space’

    6 It is not a tabloid

    7 It is not an effort to create a larger digital footprint.

    8 It is not an effort to use smoke and mirrors in a persuasive effort.

    9 It is not a declaration of a higher authority about ‘the luxury market’

    10 It is not to tell you how to market yourselves. It is a foregone conclusion that if you’ve gotten this far, you are aware of what it means to serve the luxury marketplace.

    This is the mission of Luxury blog:

    To serve as a dynamic online resource for Alex Beattie?., as well as serve as a daily companion for all luxury services, industries, goods and marketers through hand crafted digital content.

    Why you might want to read this:

    For over 3 years, I have met with, spoken to and developed meaningful business relationships with real estate agents that deal with luxury properties. (properties above 1 million dollars) All other things equal, from the day I started as a rep for a luxury publisher, the real estate industry and the media business has evolved—slightly.

    EDIT

    While I can’t guarantee you’ll agree with anything or some this, I can guarantee that it will be from an authentic point of view. Authenticity is something, IMHO, that luxury marketers and marketers want (and probably might even need).