Duncan Wierman’s Blog

Creating a "buzz" for your real estate businesses is essential. You got to get the word out.  Social Media is a great place to start.  But where?   There are a few people who promote a "done for you"  method,  BUT BEWARE! 

As I have written before, social media is about engaging an audience,  It its not a "set and forget" one time action. There is no social media marketing wand that someone can wave and target  an audience that  ill automatically start coming to your website. And what works for one person may not work for another.  Throwing up a few pages around on different sites also will not work. See prior post on Web 3 service.

The process of creating a "buzz" doesn't start from creating a Blog or creating a video, it's a social media strategy that encompasses social media and word-of-mouth marketing.  You will find below a compiled a list of social media tools that you can use to build your social media marketing mixes.

1. Blogs

Blogs have become a great tool for social media marketing. That is first because, if optimised correctly, it can be used to drive traffic to a website. A good blog will help in creating internal links, fresh content, active community or non-search engine traffic.

Examples of popular blogs where you can create your account are: Wordpress, Blog.com, Bloggers.com, Typepad etc.

2. Microblogging

Just as blogs, microbloggs offer huge opportunities for business promotion. That is both through content consistency and good optimisation. Few of the most used are: Posterous or Twitter.

3. Online video

The importance of online videos has rapidly increased during the last years. Popular video sharing websites are: YouTube and Vimeo.  There are methodologies that using these services, that will allow you to dominate your competition

4. Photosharing

Social media is all about sharing! Therefore, there are numerous platforms that allow photo sharing with your friends. Some of them are: Flickr, Memeo, and Photobucket.

5. Podcasting Podcasting

is part of the new media tools that are offered to both promote services. Check out Blip or RadioPodcast.com

6. Presentation sharing

Another great way to put your brand's name in the spotlight is by offering presentations on topics of interest for your audience on presentations sharing websites. They are increasingly gaining in popularity nowadays. Some of them are: SlideShare, MyPlick, Scribd, AuthorSTREAM, or Myplick.

7. Social networks:

Applications, fan pages, groups, and personalities Social networks are the place to present, promote yourself as well as to keep in touch with your targeted audience. You can read a list of most popular on our blog on Top social media network sites!

8. Crowd sourcing / Voting

Crowd sourcing is an effective go to market model because it can be used for developing marketing efforts, research, and education.

9. Bookmarking/Tagging

Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Examples of popular social bookmarking websites: Delicious, Digg, Diigo, Fark, Mixx, MyBlogLog, Newsvine, Propeller, Reddit, Slashdot, StumbleUpon, Yahoo! Buzz. 10. Discussion boards and forums

10. Online forums are a great way to market your products/ services and interact with other professionals or your audience. Engaging your audience in your niche forum can bring high value to your site and brand too.

11. Content aggregation

Content aggregation offers you the chance to bring all news and feeds around your online communities accounts in one place. Some say this is the future of social media. Emerging content aggregation websites: Bloglines, FriendFeed, Lifestream.fm, Lijit.

12. Brand monitoring

Social media is also offering a variety of tools that help businesses understand the positioning of their brand. Popular examples are: Buzzlogic, Radian6 or Reputation Defender.

13. Ratings and reviews

The best way to find out where your website stands or how your brand is perceived by others is through ratings and reviews. See Yelp, Getsatisfaction.

14. Widgets

For those who are trying to promote their own brands, they can create their personalise badges using interesting widgets on Facebook, Twitter and other networks or simply use WidgetBox or Spring Widgets.

15. Wikis

Wikis are our online encyclopaedia. A short list of wikis: Wikipedia, Citizendium, Aboutus, Pbwiki, or Wetpaint.

Along with all the new ways of publishing your content on networking sites, it is important to publish your articles on publishing sites like Ezinearticles, eHow, Google Docs, IdeaMarketers, Yahoo Articles Group and submit your press release on important specialised sites like i-Newswire, PR.com, PressReleasePoint, PRLog.org.

Social Media Marketing can be very confusing at times. There are many networks and channels to choose from, creating presence on all the channels is very time consuming and randomly choosing any network is not a good social media strategy. I can tell you that major corporations are struggling to understand what social media marketing mix they should use to make their brand successful in the online world. You need to have your web marketing strategy include social media too.

It is very important to identify which channels are suitable for your business depending on your target audience /demographic.  Real Estate Investors who treat their businesses seriously must plan a step by step online marketing strategy.  My Platinum Virtual Investing and Marketing System will help guide you all the way and it provides SUPPORT by telephone , email, and remote access to help you  succeed.

Get it now at http://www.duncanwierman.com/secrets

One of the newest forms of  hype information “gurus”  are  pushing is for real estate  investors to use Web 2.0 .  This basically means they want real estate investors to be marketing on social networking websites to connect with prospective clients.   The problem that many of these investors are running into, is that they are not able to effectively generate the leads, or when they do, they are not convert these interested parties into actual clients.

Yes, Web 2.0 can be used as part of a larger marketing strategy,  BUT it is not a “miracle” pill!! Web 2.0 and marketing thereupon still has some inherent factors that you must realize.  Firstly that many people who get involved,  quickly lose interest !!   There are a few things that you should avoid that will give you a much better chance of succeeding using Web 2.0.  Many of these gurus have not even figured out yet!  (It never ceases to amaze me how  small their social networks are as information gurus, yet the  pump you full of their expertise??  Would you not want to follow someone who has “mastered” marketing? )

The first thing that you must do is make sure that you commit to a schedule each and every day. You must publish your listings and pictures at the same time every day so that interested parties will know when to look. The problem with releasing this information at random times is that most people have hundreds, if not thousands, on connections on these sites. Therefore, they are receiving an overload of information every day, so they have to filter through this information and pick out the things that they are truly interested in. All it takes is for someone to miss your listings once for that person to move on to someone else, so it is well worth your time to make these posts. Also, make sure that you monitor your company on a consistent basis, as this will allow you to answer any questions that potential clients might have immediately. By actually communicating with people by using Web 2.0, you can bring your services into these peoples’ worlds, which will make you much more accessible for them.

When you are making your daily updates or posts, make sure that you provide value for your followers. If these people feel as though reading what you have to say is a complete waste of time, you will not have a whole lot of success. Even if you do not have many new listings on that particular day, you can still provide these people with information that they can use. You do not have to write a whole lot, but it will be well worth your while to provide these potential clients with some information that can help them going forward.

One statistic to remember is that if you are unable to convert people to visit your site within the first 30-days, these people probably will never become a customer of yours. People who are joining your social networking sites are likely interested in purchasing a home right now. Therefore, they are following you because they believe that you can be of service to them. Once a certain amount of time has elapsed, these people will no longer be interested or will have found someone else to give them a similar service. They will probably get tired of visiting your site as well, since they obviously do not like what you are offering.

The truth about Web 2.0 strategies is that they can work, but you must be committed to making them a useful part of your selling routine. It is not as simple as signing up for an account and inviting people to join, as you must be prepared to convert these people into sales in the same manner you would over the phone. This is not a way to put your business on auto drive, but is rather a method of connecting with your clients in a new and exciting way. By being able to instantly connect with many different people who are interested in what you have to offer, you can definitely increase your chances of success. Make sure that you are active on a daily basis on many different social networking websites, as this is how solid leads are generated online.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Web 2.0 sites should look as professional as possible. You do not want to look like someone who has never used a computer before, so it might pay to have someone help you out with the design. Also, remember that this technology should be used to build up actual leads. When someone shows interest on one of these sites, make sure you follow up in the same way you would a phone call. This is the way that an increasing number of people are expressing their interest in homes and you are selling yourself short if you do not at least follow up. This is a supporting method of providing your prospects with the information that they are looking for, so try to provide them with as much as possible and then move to the next step.

The key here is to act as professional as possible, as difficult as that might sound while using Web 2.0. Since these are social networking sites that are normally reserved for friends and family, you will have to work extra hard in order to provide these people with the professional real estate investor that they are looking for.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they think that if they just put up a few interlinked squeeze pages by a Web 3.0 company is going to bring them hundreds of leads.

Each individual has to take responsibility for their own lead generation using their Web 2.0 sites. I have seen some companies charge 1,000’s of dollars saying they have “created” miracle money pumping squeeze pages for use with Web 2.0 (or Web 3.0) that provide no such results. The fact is that these companies cannot possibly provide the daily work that needs to be done to generate leads. Honestly, ask yourself, how many leads do you convert into sales from companies such as these companies?

By being able to learn and utilize these sites efficiently will definitely put yourself ahead of the other investors in your city, as many of them have not yet figured out how to use Web 2.0. There is a very good chance that social networking will be the next big boom in advertising, so get involved today, and be at the forefront of this new method of selling homes.