The idea that a generic, faceless, edited quote about how great you are will make me want to buy your product is absurd. Please stop using them.

I know you’ve handpicked those statements.

If you don’t give me something authentic, I’ll find it elsewhere. I have lots of options for real opinions on a business – Google Local, Yelp, Facebook, Foursquare, among others.

I want to hear from the people that don’t like you,  not just you’re biggest fans. I want a real view of you, not the filtered version.

I want the testimonial to come directly from the person. I want to see a photo of the author and see the comment linked back to an online profile (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) somewhere so I know its a real person. I want to see what the user typed themselves, not what you edited.

The generic testimonails (i.e. “This is the best thing ever. Everyone should have 3 of your product”) are a waste of space at best, and at worst, an insult to me and the rest of your prospective buyers.

There are better options:

• Unedited video interviews
• Unedited audio interviews

And even better options:

• Facebook comments widget
• Disqus comments for pages
• Custom comment tools

If you don’t know how to use one of these above, find out how you can. The old method is a waste of time.

Photo credit: Adrian Clark

Related posts:

1. Don't be Afraid of Customer Criticism
2. Lessons from Mr. Miyagi
3. Self-Prospecting with Social Networks

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 into prospects. I’m looking forward to digging deeper into this in the coming days/months.

I’ve also included my presentation, and the handouts made available to the attendees below. Please feel free to share this with anyone you think may benefit.

Part One Video:

Click here if you can’t see the videos, presentation, or handout

Part Two Video:

SMC SalesCamp Spring 2010 Handout

Related posts:

1. Are you Sharing Enough? Presentations, Video, Content, etc
2. Yes. A Camp for Us.
3. Self-Prospecting with Social Networks

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 see people using the product or I hear of the business’s growth. I’m invested. The business’s success is my success. That connection does not get created with the click of a button.

The volume of real Facebook fans you have is a trailing indicator of how your customers feel about you. You will not earn more real fans with giveaways and coupons. You’ll just build a list as impersonal and generally ineffective as the average non-customer email database. They will ‘hide’ you from their stream quicker than an ‘unsubscribe’ request.

Having a lot of Facebook fans alone doesn’t make you a popular company, just like having stacks of business cards doesn’t make you a good networker.

The businesses I’m a fan of have worked for that type of respect and investment from me. They didn’t give me a coupon in exchange for my allegiance or fandom. They built that respect before I was willing to click the button.

If you’re unhappy with your volume of fans, consider doing more to earn the allegiance of your customers before you ask for it.

Related posts:

1. Don't be Afraid of Customer Criticism
2. What Makes Start-up’s Different from Traditional Business and Why You Should Think Like One.
3. Testimonials are Dead

The opportunities that I recommend paying attention to in 2010 have not changed much from what I recommended in 2009. They have, however, become much more targeted. I think 2010 will be less of the “year of new“, and more of the “year of better.”

In February of 2009, I presented “Internet Marketing: Five Things You Must Know in 2009″ to the Home Builders Association of Maryland. In that presentation, the key items I outlined for builders to focus on were:

• Website analytics
• Search – SEO & Paid Search
• Video
• Mobile Internet
• Social Media

Below you can see the slides I presented then:

Can’t see the slides? Click here

As I’ve prepared and reviewed marketing plans for 2010, many of the topics are generally the same, but in most of the categories, the specifics have gotten a lot more specific – AND the synergies [sorry for the buzzword] between them have all gotten stronger. Here are some examples of the convergences I’m talking about.

• Search Engine Optimization – What shows up on page one of a Google search, now more than ever, is impacted by real-time social media conversations. Additionally, the opportunity to have video results appear on that page have increased. Clearly, any 2010 SEO strategy is fully integrated with the social media and video strategy.
• Video - Moving beyond last year’s basics of high-quality and YouTube, in 2010, video will need to be a driver of traffic via search engines. It will need to be produced faster, and it will need to be available in more places – company website, YouTube, blog, Facebook, mobile friendly options, among others.
• Mobile - The continued proliferation of mobile phones offering a rich internet experience has made mobile a more realistic and justifiable investment. The cost of developing iPhone “apps” are steadily decreasing, as is the cost of developing a mobile website. In 2010, the focus will go beyond just being mobile. The prizes will be found by making the mobile experience fast, relevant, and rich – This means including prices, photos, easy contact options (integrated with the phone), social media integration, and mobile friendly video.
• Social Media – This year will bring out big evolutions in social media – Companies will focus on better integrating social activity into their own website, and everything else they do online, and many tools will simply mature to a level making it easier to recognize their business value.

So what will you be working on in 2010? Anything you think I missed?

Related posts:

1. A Nearly Free Mobile Website Option for Home Builders
2. Mobile Marketing and New Homes – A Perfect Fit
3. When the Numbers are Too Big to be Relevant

So I’ve decided to take a serious dose of my own advice and go through 2009 to share what’s still relevant, and continue to share more throughout 2010.

Have anything in your digital archives to share? Here’s a few good places to start:

Video: YouTube will almost always be (one of) the right place(s), but also consider Vimeo from non-commerical high quality video, UStream for live streaming video, and Qik for brief video updates. Find my new profile on YouTube.

Presentations (PowerPoint/Keynote):  Slideshare is the place for this. You can also add an audio track to turn your slides into an all out presentation. Great to share a recorded webinar. Find my new profile on Slideshare.

Papers: Scribd is my preference for this. I uploaded my “Intro to Social Media for Business” paper there early in 2009 and it quickly racked up over 3000 readers. Find me on Scribd.

Look for upcoming posts to include some of 2009’s media.

Related posts:

1. 2010 is Going to Make You Cry
2. Self-Prospecting with Social Networks
3. Effective Communication with Social Media

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 companies that identify and take advantage of that potential sooner than their competitors, have an advantage. They gain critical “trial-and-error” wisdom that will take their competitors years to learn.

Check out my posts from September and November of 2008 for a primer on my thoughts about Mobile Marketing for New Homes and Home Builder Mobile Marketing with Google. Below I’d like to hash out what I see as the next step (not that, as an industry, we’ve taken the first one yet.)

What we’re just beginning to see is the power of the Internet, combined with location specific relevance, combined with mobility, combined with personal recommendations. Yes, all of this has taken off with a game by the name of Foursquare.

For those of you not familiar with Foursquare, I encourage you to check out their website and even sign-up to play – I was excited when the game was finally made available in my hometown of Baltimore. The short explanation – Foursquare is a game where users who register (for free) use their mobile phones to “check-in” at any location/business to which they travel – gas station, coffee shop, deli, school, etc. Players are rewarded for check-ins based on volume, frequency, and consistency. After regular check-ins at a particular location, a user may be awarded the status of “Mayor.” For example, a Foursquare player may carry the title of “Mayor of Starbucks – East & Main” or “Mayor of BP Gasoline – Downtown.” Players are also connected to their friends, getting to see where their friends have traveled, and even receive notes and recommendations left by their friends.

Why should any business care about Foursquare?

First, Foursquare is building a very reliable local directory. I’m sure more than a handful of people have been frustrated with local business directories online. Foursquare is using its players to build an accurate database of local business and is using the GPS data from their phones to help.

Second, Foursquare players are “early adopters,” meaning they tend to be early users of new technology, and have a lot to do with a product’s evolution into the mainstream. This also means that they have a high likelihood to be influencers within their social circle; i.e. other people go to them for advice.

Third, Businesses can identify loyal customers. Most businesses would like to think they know all their regulars, but for many, it’s not realistic. Businesses can identify those regular patrons and reward them. Many businesses in popular Foursquare cities, like New York, already offer discounts and specials to whomever has been crowned “Mayor” of their establishment – Click here for a sample. What better way to reward customer loyalty, and encourage others to visit more?

Fourth, Research. Where do people go after they leave your business? What competitors are growing/shrinking their popularity? What else do people do around or near your business?

And if those aren’t good enough…

It seamlessly integrates with Twitter and Facebook making it easy for people to tell all their friends where they are, too.

Two great places to learn more about how businesses are using foursqaure:

foursquare.com – Great samples, and the company has made a commitment to provide data to businesses in the future – Like web analytics for real life… Truly, this could develop into the online-to-offline traffic connection we’ve been wishing for since the dawn of the Internet.
Robert Scoble – In a recent blog post he shared quite a few examples of how businesses are using Foursquare. Its more tech and less business, but a great read.

So what does all of this mean for home builders and real estate?

Lets look at the key features of the game/service:
We’ve given consumers a fun tool that encourages them to log the places they’ve visited.
We’ve got a tool that employs geo-location to suggest new places to its users.
We’ve got a tool that encourages its users to leave “tips” (aka reviews at times) for their friends.

Below are just a handful of ideas:

1. A “Parade of Homes” where users would check-in at each model using Foursquare. Reward participants for checking in at all the models on the tour, and encourage them to leave “tips” for future visitors. A little while ago I projected that within 18 months, somebody will do this. I’d love to see it happen sooner.
2. What about organizing a Realtor tour? Encourage agents to visit your models on a tour, or simply encourage them to “check-in” at your models more often (with clients preferably).
3. Reward your regulars. Identify the agents who visit more than one of your communities.
4. Partner with a local business and offering their “check-ins” some type of bonus to stop over for a model tour.

But wait… there’s more

Foursquare recently announced it released an API (Application Programming Interface) – a way for other companies to build on top of its service. This means that almost any company who can think of a creative or useful way to use Foursquare’s service, can now integrate the data into another system. When announcing the release of its API, Foursquare shared that an integration is already under way with the Layar browser for Android powered mobile phones and iPhones. Not familiar with how cool Layar is? You can see an example video here. Mashable.com also has a nice write up on why this API is big news.

Waste of time?

Foursquare has been called a waste of time by some. How many remember when the Internet was called a waste of time? I still hear that from some people today.

Some of the thoughts I shared above use Foursqaure as the basis for the idea, but it may not actually be Foursquare that is eventually used to accomplish them. Like many tech startups, they can be bought in an instant, or their technology duplicated by someone with a better twist. With the release of its API, Foursquare has empowered a new world of possibilities. The eventual tool the home builder and real estate world embraces may not even look like Foursquare.

Who knows, maybe there’ll be a white label Foursquare solution available to Home Builders Associations, Property Management Companies, and Multiple Listing Services?

Most of this is a bit far out (not the concept, but the timeline). I don’t expect to see something like this for a while (maybe 3-6 months in an urban market), but I see amazing possibilities here.

What model home couldn’t use more traffic? What model home doesn’t want more visits from influencers in the community? What home builder isn’t trying to attract and identify active Realtors?

So, what are your thoughts? Waste of time, or real potential? I’d love to hear from you below.

Related posts:

1. Mobile Marketing and New Homes – A Perfect Fit
2. Homebuilder Mobile Marketing with Google
3. Mobile Real Estate Marketing Just got Awesome… thanks to Trulia

50 Things to Twitter

Helping them buy
News:
1. Tax credit news article
2. Local real estate values article
3. News of a local restaurant opening
4. News article about mortgage rates
5. News article about kitchen design trends
6. Share an article on the tax benefits of home ownership
7. Share an article about a nearby vacation destination
8. Share an article on green building
9. Share an article on energy efficiency
10. Share details of the local Home & Garden show

Information:
11. Link to the town/city entry in Wikipedia
12. Link to local public transportation map
13. Share a link to a Google map referencing local points of interest

Local Interest:
14. Share a link to information about the local school fundraiser
15. Report on the local high school football game
16. Share photos of a local fair
17. Link to school performance report
18. Link to news article featuring a local school student or athlete
19. Share news about a traffic detour

Help your prospects/owners:
20. Share when you see a local “help wanted” sign
21. Share a link to a local storage space rental place
22. Link to local coffee house coupon
23. Share a link to a business owned by a community resident
24. Direct people to a contingent buyer’s current house listing to help it sell
25. Remind your followers when it’s time to plant bulbs
26. Remind your followers about little league sign-up deadlines
27. Share tips to help contingent buyers/prospects sell their current home

Fun:
28. Share a photo of the trees as the leaves change colors
29. Share photos of the best snow sledding hill in the community
30. Share a photo of a sunset in the community
31. Share photos from a community cookout
32. Tweet about the neighborhood kids’ lemonade stand
33. Tweet about the local babysitting/pet-sitting service
34. Tweet about your resident’s car for sale
35. Invite followers to a community cookout

Community News:
36. Share a photo of the new community entrance monument
37. Share a photo of the freshly planted flowers in the common area
38. Share photos of the new community center under construction
39. Announce that the community pool has opened
40. Announce HOA Meeting

Gratitude:
41. Congratulate new home buyers
42. Congratulate new home owners (Tag them in the tweet if they’re Twitter users)
43. Thank a local Realtor for visiting a community (Tag them in the Tweet if they’re Twitter users)

Promotion:
44. A new community grand opening
45. A new model grand opening
46. A new floor plan being offered
47. A new option incentive
48. A new lot release
49. A new interest rate special
50. A special price on an inventory home

49 Ways to Listen on Twitter

Listen for names:
1. Listen for your company/brand
2. Listen for your community names
3. Listen for your salespeople’s names
4. Listen for your competitors’ names
5. Listen for your competitors’ community names
6. Listen for people talking to your competitors

Listen for home buying conversations:
7. Listen for people tweeting your city and “new home”
8. Listen for people tweeting your city and “move”
9. Listen for people tweeting your city and “Realtor”
10. Listen for people tweeting your city and “foreclosure”

Listen to public opinion:
11. Listen for people’s opinions on the economy
12. Listen for people’s opinions of the real estate market
13. Listen for people’s opinions on mortgage rates

Listen to Realtor conversation:
14. Listen to local Realtor conversation about the market
15. Listen for Realtor mentions of new homes
16. Listen for Realtor conversation about your brand
17. Listen for Realtor conversation about your competitors
18. Listen to Realtor-to-consumer conversations

Listen for news:
19. Listen for mortgage news
20. Listen for financial news
21. Listen to local politicians
22. Listen to local economists
23. Listen to your local Chamber of Commerce
24. Listen to news from local newspapers
25. Listen to news from local real estate bloggers
26. Listen to Wall Street conversation about your brand

Listen to other industry sources of advice:
27. Listen to conference news (International Builder Show, PCBC, etc)
28. Listen to industry new sources (@builderonline, @bigbuilder)
29. Listen to industry associations (@homebuildrs, @nsmcnahb)
30. Listen to industry sales trainers (@jeffshore & My Twitter List of Trainers)
31. Listen to industry technology consultants (*cough* @dennisoneil *cough*)
32. Listen to green building news (@ecohomemagazine)
33. Listen to real estate brands (@trulia, @zillow)

Local Interest:
34. Listen to a local charity

Listen to consumer conversations about design trends:
35. Search for “whirpool tub”
36. Search for “granite kitchen countertop”
37. Search for “Trex deck”
38. Search for “kitchen remodel”
39. Search for “sustainable” & “home”

Listen for opinions about the city/town of a prospective community:
40. Search for conversation about area businesses
41. Search for conversation about area traffic
42. Search for conversation about area schools
43. Search for conversation about area recreation

Use Twitter to ask for feedback:
44. Ask Twitter for feedback on your new floorplan
45. Ask Twitter what’s important in a new home
46. Ask Twitter what would be a meaningful incentive
47. Ask Twitter what community amenities are important
48. Ask Twitter for feedback on a new website design
49. Ask local Realtors for their opinion on a new community location

I will always believe that I get more out of Twitter than I can ever put into it. Even though I gave only 49 listening examples here, good conversation rules apply. You should be listening a LOT more than talking.

I’d love to keep this list growing – Got any other ideas I could add to the list? Share them below.

Related posts:

1. How is Twitter Changing Communication?
2. Self-Prospecting with Social Networks
3. Location, Location, Foursquare. How the Game will Jolt Mobile Real Estate Marketing into Prime-time

I’ve written about social media hype before, and I’m going to talk more about it in a future post, but here I wanted to share just a few thoughts about the numbers.

The media coverage of social technologies lately has been something like “300 million this,” “1 billion that,” and “4th largest country.” The numbers have become too large to be relevant to the individual user, but music to the ears of a spammer.

Telling me 300 million people are doing whatever may be something I find interesting. Telling me 100,000 people share my interest in a topic will grab my attention. Telling me 1,000 people enjoy my favorite past-time every day is intriguing… But telling me 5 of my friends are doing something will make me move.

While we don’t have a tool (yet) to break down online activity by topic in this way, I came across this great counter that does help to make the numbers a bit more manageable. By making the counter start at zero, users can get a sense of the speed of conversation, instead of just the volume.

Thanks to http://personalizemedia.com for making such an awesome tool embeddable.

Related posts:

1. Internet Marketing Deja Vu
2. Are you Sharing Enough? Presentations, Video, Content, etc
3. Self-Prospecting with Social Networks

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 the management company does for us.

Despite this general satisfaction, I really dread phone calls and emails from them… all of them. Why you ask? I only hear from my management company when they want us to spend money… something broke, they want something upgraded, they’re suggesting carpet shampooing, etc. I’m not debating the need for the work, but their approach to communicating with me is flawed. The ONLY time I hear from them is when they need to send me a bill or suggest I spend additional money.

Stick with me. I’ll get to the part where this is related to being a trust agent.

As I thought about the feedback I could give to my management company, I was reminded of customer management trainings – those that preach multiple positive contacts throughout a relationship to minimize or negate the impact of a negative contact. If all I ever hear from my property manager is bad news and bad feedback, then I associate them with bad things. Paying for things, despite their necessity, FEELS bad. Most people don’t like to part with money unless the experience surrounding the purchase feels good.

It takes a big effort to offset a negative. Many will tell you it takes five or more positive touches to offset one negative touch. If I got a monthly phone call, or maybe even a monthly email from my management company sharing a positive review from a recent renter, I wouldn’t hate hearing from them so much. My severe dread of their communication would almost certainly switch to indifference at a minimum… At least I’d take the call when it came in instead of sending it to voice mail. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the bad news I associate with their communications, I’d be really happy. They may even get some evangelism out of me.

So as I thought about this relationship between positive contact and customer service, the correlation between it and the teachings of the social web became clear. The general tenet of the social web is that you must give before, and a lot more than, you receive. Chris Brogan suggests that you promote others 12 times more than you promote yourself. As is with most successful offline relationships, its not a good idea to walk up to someone you’ve never met and ask them to do anything, let alone give you money. A warm relationship, one where a connection already exists – a connection that is not solely dependent on the transfer of money – will be much more likely to develop into a long and beneficial professional one.

So back to tying all this up.

The example reminds us that an abundance of positive associations with a product or company make the impact of the occasional negative associations less or non-existent. We know that generally people associate parting with their money as a bad thing, and that this feeling is amplified when doing so in a unfavorable business relationship.

So what if I was the recipient of these positive associations before I was even a customer? What if instead of always asking for money (asking for the sale), a business also built a valued relationship where a friend or prospective client associated said business with positive insight and experiences. Wouldn’t that make it easier to ask for the sale at the appropriate time? Isn’t this really what we talk about when describing online etiquette… helping people buy a lot more often than asking them to buy?

What I really want from a company is customer service when I’m still a prospect. I want good things from them before they ask for my money. I want to know that my relationship with them is not solely dependent on a financial transaction. If there’s enough positive connection, I’ll feel good about parting with my money when the time comes.

Share:

Related posts:

1. Want More Facebook Fans? Don’t Buy Them. Earn Them.
2. Don't be Afraid of Customer Criticism
3. Self-Prospecting with Social Networks

I understand why a lot of corporate blogs are written this way. There’s a fear that if the company says something too direct, or potentially objectionable by a customer, the company could alienate said customer. The flaw with this type of thinking is that in this effort to be all things to all people (which is an impossible goal for anyone, let alone a business), the post says nothing – making it unremarkable and ineffective.

Most of you have seen The Karate Kid with Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita. At the point in the movie where Daniel is about to begin his training, Mr. Miyagi shares some good advice. He says in his rough English,

“Walk on road. Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later, get squish just like grape.”

What Mr. Miyagi was trying to communicate here is that you can’t walk along the center undecided. If you want to make something happen, and not get squished, you need to make a decision, pick a side, and make a statement.

Balance has its place, but an abundance of balance can also stop something from moving. You want blog posts to move and inspire, and that can’t be done with generic messages. It’s okay to say something that’s not all that popular. Most blog writers are looking for more subscribers, attention, and comments. Posts that make a statement will make all those things happen. So, throw things off balance a little. Pick a side. Say something.

Agree/Disagree? Feel free to “make a statement” below.

Related posts:

1. Your Home Page is your Elevator Pitch
2. Don't be Afraid of Customer Criticism
3. Social Marketing is Providing Customer Service BEFORE Someone is a Customer