Real Estate Social Media Marketing: “Blue” paper

“Social Media” is a the current darling of the internet marketing industry. In case you’re still trying to figure it out Batchblue (the firm that put Jonny Adler on screen to Motley Crüe) recently released a great little tipsheet on getting into social media with a real estate focus.

It covers social network sites, video, microblogging and Twitter (though how they could miss my real estate themed Twitter resource I’ll never know ).

Definitely worth a minute or two of your time.

Google Pagerank Toolbar update

This is for the SEO geeks among us. But it appears that Google has updated the Toolbar Pagerank this past weekend. I’m happy to note that the Union Street Media site is holding steady, that this blog debuted favorably and that our internal pages, like our real estate web design page, are also now earning more Pagerank than previously.

I’ll go into a little more detail about PageRank for those internet marketing folks who are just getting into SEO and all that after the break. Read more

Tweetburner is another tool for social media measurement

Just a quick heads up: Similar to the Cli.gs service is Tweetburner. So far I’m finding that Tweetburner has a prettier interface with charts and all.

Also, it has my requested “time of day” style reports. So you can start to learn when people are paying attention to your Twitter posts

It does give you a slightly longer URL though (twurl.com vs cli.gs) so if you need every precious character then perhaps Cli.gs is the better choice.

Jon Adler is famous

Jonny Adler  was the MAR convention and was approached by Michelle Riggen-Ransom from batchblue.com to talk about using social media.

In true Union Street Media form, Jonny gets down to business and gives you a clear task and takeaway to get you rolling with Facebook. Complete with an example.

Maybe we should get Jonny to write more here on the blog, eh?

A bunch of other folks from the convention also talk about how they use social media. Twitter gets props, ActiveRain, Trulia etc all get some props and ideas of how people are using the tools.

Video after the jump. Read more

Cli.gs is a tool for social media analytics

For those of you who are happily using Twitter as a business tool, it probably won’t take long before you start to wonder if all those shortened links are doing you much good.

Certainly you can look in your analytics for Twitter as a referrer. But that won’t tell you much as the link itself gets passed along. Also, if you’re linking to a site for which you don’t have analytics access, you won’t know your level of influence (or your followership’s interest in the topic you posted).

Cligs similar to ListingNumber: a service that will give you a short URL along with some basic tracking information. You can track your link as folks pass it along from Twitter to blogs to wherever.

Just like comparing impression-based advertising with click-based advertising, you can measure your influence and the “quality” of your followership. What’s your click-through rate on Twitter? Use Cligs and find out: Clicks divided by followers. Sweet.

Another handy thing with Cligs is that they forward with a 301 redirect. This means that search engines will index your content directly. Pretty handy for SEO.
To make things easier, Cligs has a bookmarklet, so you can quickly shorten links and dump them into Twitter. Then all you have to do is watch the clicks roll in.

Simple, fairly blunt instrument.

What kind of insights might you discover by measuring click-throughs from Twitter?

Well, as with most social networking tools and sites, there gets to be an obsession with how many followers anyone has. At first, that’s always the easiest metric to gather: “I have 70 followers, I must be important.” But if you post your blog link and no one clicks on it, maybe you’re just a blowhard and folks are ignoring you. Or maybe all those followers are spambots or something. Who knows.

Since you are tracking your click through on a per-post basis, you might also use Cligs to help figure out what interests your followership.

Using Cli.gs to help you listen to your audience

As of today I have 71 followers. So outside of random people clicking from the Twitter home page, if I completely overload the Interest circuits I’ll get all 71 of those followers to follow the link. Pretty unlikely, I’ll admit. Here are some real world examples from some recent links I sent out on Twitter:

• 13%: A mention of the internet marketing intern position that is open at Union Street (incidentally, I added the USM careers page as a result of feedback I gathered from 4q… boy I’m a good listener)
• 18%: Quick thoughts about some information that @jowyang shared
• 20%: Union Street’s Groundswell Award submission.
• 21%: A link to my old animation reel
• 34%: A notice about AnalyticsView having a free options

Based on this raw data it looks like I can maybe count on about nine or ten folks to follow my links on a regular basis. And perhaps upwards 15 if it’s something that really gets them.

Suggestion for Cli.gs: Add the time of day the clig was created. Twitter, being mostly ephemeral, is very sensitive to time-of-day differences. We could, of course, Twitter-stalk all of our followers to identify when they are most likely to be active and then make your most important Tweets at that time… but the “time created” would probably be quicker and effective enough.

Update: Day after I posted this, Cli.gs updated their analytics interface. Now they have a graph how the Clig is used over time (at the resolution of one day). It would still be sweet to get a time-of-day chart for all Clig’s so we could identify what time is best to release our best Tweets.

Review of uses for Cligs in measuring Twitter

Here’s the rundown in a bullet list because everyone loves bullet lists:

• Measure your influence
• Find out what your audience’s interests are, based on what they click

What have I missed? How would you use the service?

Mobile phone? Sure. For texting.

Neilsen is reporting that “Americans each sent or received 357 text messages a month then, compared with 204 phone calls.” Moreover, this is the third quarter in a row that text messages beat out phone calls.

After the break, the chart that gives a breakdown of usage by age. Some of which might surprise you. Read more

Conference Season Rolls On

I know you really wanted to hang out with Ted and Jonny in Vermont. But you lived too far away. Well if you’re in New Hampshire go say hi to Ted at the New Hampshire Association of Realtors Annual Convention. Be sure to ask him for a tutorial on how to use the Flip video camera.

And if you’re in Mass. then go hang out with Jonny at the Massachusetts Association of Realtors conference.

I’m sure that either of them would love to talk about Union Street’s real estate web design, baseball or both.

Verde Montagne Imports

Union Street is proud to launch Verde Montagne Imports, the exclusive retailer for Frattoria Lischeto of Volterra, Italy. The site makes excellent use of our custom design services on a Wordpress CMS with integrated ordering system.

I’ve been memed.

Every now and then the blogosphere has a slow day out and a “meme” is spread. While “meme” normally refers to any short, digestible bit of truthiness/buzz that spreads like wildfire, in blogland “memes” are usually a question or set of questions that you’re supposed to answer.

Memes spread from person to person, like a cold virus. A person answers and then passes it on.

I have received my first meme ever. From no less than Joseph Ferrara over at the Sellsius Real Estate blog.

I met him for the first time in person over a lunch organized by Pat Kitano at Inman Connect SF ‘08. He’s behind the Good Sam Real Estate Network, a project that is built around the idea of helping people avoid foreclosure. I recommend you check that site out. Karma goes all directions.

Alright, so here’s the meme: 6 Random Things You Wouldn’t Know About Me Unless You Asked

1. I once apprenticed at a letterpress, setting metal type by hand.
2. I was a competitive pole-vaulter as a freshman in high school.
3. I have played a solo on French Horn on stage at Carnegie hall.
4. I grew up in North Dakota.
5. On occasion I will let a telemarketer try to sell me something just to hear the pitch as well as to have some fun seeing what happens when I bring the conversation off their script or flowchart.
6. I choose to believe in the existence of Champ, the monster who resides in Lake Champlain, because it makes life more interesting. I also have a normal, well-adjusted friend who grew up around fishing and boats who has seen Champ.

According to the code of meme-dom I must pass this question along. For the recipients who are tired of these chain-letter type things, my deepest apologies.

Sean Bossie, IT Systems Manager over at Wright Realty who really gets this internet marketing thing.

Bill Simmon, teacher videographer man-about-town who will probably chuckle quietly about being memed.

Anyone at the 7DVT staff blog because local is what matters.

Adam Fullerton, Marketing Intern alumnus of Union Street Media.

Century 21 Advantage

Century 21 Advantage, a Burlington VT real estate company, launched with a new real estate web design by Union Street Media. Their site makes great use of our custom graphic design services, featured listings, integrated IDX search, one-click searches, and more. Watch for more as we move their blog over to their own domain.

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