09May

Testimonials are Dead

Testimonials rely on the concept of “social proof”; the idea that we look to others to help determine how we should behave. For this reason, testimonials are a powerful component of advertising. As with most things, overuse and abuse has diminished the effectiveness of the typical testimonial. Something more authentic is the only way to [...]

22Mar

Effective Communication with Social Media

On March 9th, I had the pleasure of speaking to over 200 new home sales and real estate professionals at SMC SalesCamp. My assigned topic was “Effective Communication with Social Media.”
The videos below contain my full presentation.
In this presentation, I was able to introduce the concept of Lead Curation – Creating an environment conducive to growing connections [...]

09Feb

Want More Facebook Fans? Don’t Buy Them. Earn Them.

I do not become your fan by clicking a button. The click merely affirms the work you’ve already done.
If I’m a true fan of a business (not just in the Facebook sense), I am rooting for that business’s success. I’m an advocate for the product or service. I feel a sense of pride when I [...]

01Jan

2010 is Going to Make You Cry

If new media marketing was an onion, 2009 peeled away just the surface layer of potential. However, in 2010, we’re heading deep into that onion – get ready to cry… in a good way. Last year’s new media tools are maturing, and their business purpose is quickly coming into focus for more and more users. [...]

29Dec

Are you Sharing Enough? Presentations, Video, Content, etc

Upon reviewing 2009, and planning for 2010, I realized I want to be sharing more content than I have in the past. I rarely get the opportunity to write as much as I like (and that’s a goal, too), but mainly I thought about the volume of media I’ve produced over the last year – [...]

29Nov

Location, Location, Foursquare. How the Game will Jolt Mobile Real Estate Marketing into Prime-time

I am convinced that the mobile web offers some of real estate’s most exciting opportunities in the next 5-10 years.
Some of the ideas I’m about to share are certainly not the “show me some case studies” type, but most great opportunities are best identified early, no? And as is the case with all impactful technologies, those [...]

02Nov

Tweet This: 99 Ways for a Home Builder to Use Twitter

Twitter is, by far, the most difficult social tool to explain. It’s not just difficult for builders to see the why of Twitter, but it’s also difficult for most to understand how they could use Twitter. I’ve decided to tackle the how issue in this post with a list of 99 ways for a home [...]

27Oct

When the Numbers are Too Big to be Relevant

I’ve started to get a bit numb to the huge number of stats regularly thrown about regarding the use of social media. Yes, I am impressed at the growth and the impact of the social web just like most others, but it’s gotten more than a bit concerning recently. First, I’m concerned that the hype [...]

30Sep

Social Marketing is Providing Customer Service BEFORE Someone is a Customer

While I’m far from a major real estate investor, with a partner I own a vacation rental property that is about 3 hours from my home. For many reasons, including the shear distance and weekly activity, we pay a management company to run the day-to-day for us. Overall, I’m happy with the job [...]

08Sep

Lessons from Mr. Miyagi

Ever read a blog post or article only to be left unclear about the message at the end? I follow a good number of company/corporate blogs; not because I love all of them, but because I like to see how businesses are using them, and look for what I think are successful implementations.  A consistent flaw [...]