Archive for June, 2007
Never Blog Alone
I created my first blog two years ago. I used Blogger to set up a place for my local Toastmaster club to post news and information. It ultimately failed. Club members didn’t use it. I know I wasn’t really using the blog in the normal way, but I thought it would be a good alternative to a static website. Eventually I discovered Wikis and abandoned the blog format. (It was a good move. Kudos to WetPaint).
My second blog was also a failure. I was going through a weird phase of life and developed an obsession with Kierkegaard. I thought a blog would be the perfect place to discuss my appreciation of him. It failed because I wasn’t really passionate about the subject after all and with zero readers became a chore. I think I had a total of four posts!
My third blog wasn’t a complete failure. I had learned a little from reading other blogs and started to pick up some key points. The most important was “purpose”. A blog needs a purpose and it should be clear to the blogger and reader what the purpose is. I thought I really had it my third time. I started a blog on social networking with the intent to write about what was working and what wasn’t. It worked for about two weeks. I had a few readers and comments but I fizzled out. The purpose wasn’t strong enough for me to stick with it.
That brings me to this, my fourth blog. I’m the first to admit that I have a lot to learn. But, I’m committed to the process of blogging. Everyone has their own experience on this blogging adventure. For me, the best experience is one that is shared.
I’ve finally joined technorati! Via this post. And I got my first comment on my post yesterday! I’ll never blog alone again…
<a href=”http://technorati.com/claim/icccupds2″ rel=”me”>Technorati Profile</a>
If you blog, share your experience. What’s the hardest part about blogging? Why do you keep doing it? How long did it take to get comments? If you haven’t started blogging yet, what holds you back? What would you like to know about blogging?
One of the most common complaints about beginning a blog is that it takes too much time. It’s true – it can be ridiculously time consuming. When we discuss this (in the class “Connecting with Today’s Consumers”) the general consensus is that real estate agents that blog are spending too much time with the computer and not enough time “pressing the flesh”. I think the benefits of blogging or participating in social networks have the potential to blow the socks off of traditional networking alone. But that is for another post…
In the spirit of not blogging alone…here are a few of my favorite blogging tips:
Hugh Hollowell – A Politically Incorrect Entrepreneur
Problogger – Blogging for Beginners
Lorelle on WordPress – The Magic and Fun of Incoming Links
8 comments June 12, 2007
How to lose a customer in one day
Using technology to develop leads is an art. But seriously, is it an art just to have a conversation? More often than not, I find it is. Here is an actual exchange of emails I’ve had with a real estate company. I started receiving emails after landing on one of their listings on Edgeio.
(I’ve copied and pasted from my email so forgive the various fonts…)
May 15, 2007
Good Morning.
The link below is the new property inventory on the market that matches your search specifics this morning.
Are these properties that I’m sending to you what you are looking for? I would appreciate some feedback from you, I want to make sure my parameters are correct.
xxxxxx
Real Estate Professional
Hi xxxxxx,
I am not looking to buy a home right now. I am a marketer/educator and was doing research on Edgeio.
Thanks for checking though,
If you are interested in learning about new ways to connect with today’s consumers you can check out this site or come to one of my clock hour classes.
June 2, 2007
Hello Tami,
Click the link above to view the new property inventory on the market that match your specifics.
Are these properties that I’m sending to you what you are looking for? I would appreciate some feedback from you. I want to make sure my parameters are correct.
New xxxxxx agent
Real Estate Professional
June 6, 2007
Hello Tami,
Click the link above to view the new property inventory on the market that match your specifics.
Are these properties that I’m sending to you what you are looking for? I would appreciate some feedback from you. I want to make sure my parameters are correct.
xxxxxx
Real Estate Professional
Hi xxxxxx,
Just to follow up again ( I think we spoke on the phone last week…at least someone from xxxxxx realty called me). I’m not in the market for buying or selling right now. So you don’t need to send these.
Out of curiosity, are you familiar with the kingsgate neighborhood in Kirkland?
Tami
June 8, 2007
Hello Tami,
Click the link above to view the new property inventory on the market that match your specifics.
Are these properties that I’m sending to you what you are looking for? I would appreciate some feedback from you. I want to make sure my parameters are correct.
xxxxxx
Real Estate Professional
Notice the underlined text. I was asking about the neighborhood because my neighbor is getting ready to sell her home and is interviewing agents. I had a lead! What’s the response? Just the same old auto responder.
Acquiring leads is pointless if you aren’t going to have real conversations with them. It seems ridiculous to be talking about this but not as ridiculous as it has been to receive constant auto-responders. I’m not naming the company (in the above email exchange) because quite frankly this is not the first time this has happened. I frequently shop websites and I’ve had this experience with a number of companies. The one commonality is they are all companies who pride themselves in their use of technology and provision of leads to their agents.
The mentality here must be that lead generation is a numbers game. How else do you explain this? Whatever is is – it is definitely not Web 2.0.
The companies and agents that are winning with today’s consumers have learned to engage customers and have taken a genuine interest in what their customers are saying.
2 comments June 11, 2007
Home Seller Experience
“So what’s the buzz on realtors? In short, they’re trailblazers. Instead of utilizing “just another website” to promote their business objectives and expertise, they’re fully using the methodologies behind Web 2.0 (blogs/podcasts/RSS) to further promote the services they provide. There are a slew of articles about companies/organizations using blogs and podcasts to promote the mission, vision, and communication structure of their business objectives, however, real estate is the leader. ” Impressive. Especially coming from a consumer who used a blog to share the good, the bad, and the ugly, when he put his house on the market. HomeSellerExperience.com
Every real estate agent could learn something from reading this blog. There are a couple entries that are really, really insightful. Real Estate and Blogging, Home Selling and Technology, and Scenario-Style Questions for Agents.
This seller also talks about wanting feedback (from people who had gone through the open house and showings) and was completely disappointed with his agent for not being more proactive in communicating. In his words, “Recently, we’ve had some concerns about our agent. Nothing serious, but some little items we feel should be addressed. Our first concern is the handling of showing times. We prefer to have our agent coordinate the phone calls from other agents and then relay the information to us. It was going smoothly until this past weekend. Twice we had showings that he “forgot to mention” to us and it was quite frustrating. We asked our agent to please let us know every showing time that has been scheduled. Second, we’ve have not heard any discussion from our agent regarding feedback from other agents. I’m sure its a little extra work and often generates the same answer, but we’d like to get a sense of what other agents feel about our home. Third, we feel that the marketing of our home is quite lacking in terms of what other agents are doing/offering for their clients. There are a slew of alternative sites to market a home and our agent simply either doesn’t recognize them or knows how to use them.” Full entry is found under New Twist.
Digest that and then check out this entry on ActiveRain: Feedback – lawsuit
Things that make you go hmmm! Finding a way to provide good feedback (with everyone involved) could be a great differentiator to an agents portfolio of value…
What do you think?
Add comment June 6, 2007
Sneak a peek at the future
Google maps is adding street view
Street View gives you navigable 360-degree street-level imagery in Google Maps for selected cities. You can see images for a spot and take virtual walks along that street. So when you’re trying to find the perfect outdoor cafe for lunch with friends or want a glimpse of the neighborhood you’re considering moving to, use Google Maps to see what the spot actually looks like, as if you were right there in person.
Currently Street View imagery is available for the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Las Vegas, Miami, and Denver; and we expect to launch this feature in many more cities soon.
Check out San Francisco . Seriously, you have to interact with this to really get it.
Or follow the Google’s demo link in the left panel of the Google Maps page.
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/index.html
Add comment June 1, 2007
