Internet Marketing Basics for Realtors: IDX participation

In all the hubbub about listing aggregation services like Trulia and Zillow or the classifieds site Craigslist or any number of other new and emerging real estate services out there, some simple basics can get lost. If you are a real estate professional interested in getting the property you list seen by the most people there’s often a basic tool available to you: MLS IDX participation.

I know that it isn’t new or sexy. In fact, it’s really old. But getting your listing viewed by people who are genuinely interested in buying property can be achieved right out of the gate by participating in your MLS IDX. The people who see your listing via the MLS IDX are likely to have the following traits:

• Interest in buying property vs kicking tires
• Interest in working with a Realtor
• Interest in the geographic region served by your MLS

That’s the basics. If someone meets those characteristics then you probably want them to see your listings. By participating in your MLS IDX program you make it easier for more qualified people to see your listing.

Once you’ve got that basic piece down, then go wild with all the other aggregation and syndication options you can. In some MLS programs they will even handle the syndication themselves. If not, your web developer may be able handle automate the syndication as well (I know the real estate websites we make at Union Street Media can have syndication options enabled).

But start with the basics. Don’t miss out on all those people interested in buying, interested in working with a real estate professional and interested in your area.

Why video is good for marketing real estate online.

[Ed. note: The Real Estate Internet Marketing blog welcomes a new voice to the blog, our intern Tom Cull. We think you'll enjoy his perspective and experience working with video in this and other posts.]

Remember when “Video killed the Radio Star“? According to The Pew Internet & American Life Project, almost 15% of all web traffic comes from You Tube and other video-sharing platforms. Couple that with Google’s increasing ability to index video into top search results and using video becomes a key component.

Many small businesses are jumping on this bandwagon as people are becoming more accustomed and willing to watching video online as they are to read text, especially with advertising. Using platforms like YouTube also saves on storage and bandwidth costs with great distribution possibilities from social networking.

But a caveat, large or small it is important to follow some basic rules of online video to communicate your message effectively and not turn off the viewer: Read more

Other Readings: Strategies for change

Spending too much time managing new technologies to deal with your core business? You’re not alone. Let’s look at a brace of Harvard Business Review articles that address change, technological disruption and strategies for coping then close it up with an amusing video. Read more

Internet Marketing Basics: Time-sensitive blog topics

Sometimes news breaks that is very interesting to your target audience (usually something that has an impact on their wallet). When the news breaks, there may be a lot of stories and reports about the topic in general but often there is very little useful reporting on how that bit of news effects your local market or how people can make the best use of the information.

Adding local context and use to a time-sensitive news event is different from writing about a seasonal or recurring event (4th of July Fireworks, for example, happen every year). With a time-sensitive news event you want to publish quickly and get right to the point with your useful, localized tidbits; all the big news brands will handle the general context for you.

What makes for a good time-sensitive blog topic?

Writing a post about a time-sensitive topic means you have to stop what you’re doing, understand the issue and then figure out how your audience can use the information about that topic. Since it isn’t a recurring event, the post may have limited long-term value. So you want to pick the right time-sensitive topics to blog about. Here are some characteristics to look for:

• There’s something in the topic that has a direct impact on the lives of your audience
• Other news outlets are providing the general overview information (so you can focus on how your audience can use the information)
• You can afford to take the time to write your post before the news cools down

Once you have your topic, pound away on the keyboard and get your post out there.

An Example: February 2009 Stimulus Package

As I write this blog post, there’s a new stimulus package going through Congress. This stimulus package will likely have some impact on housing markets across the nation. If you are marketing real estate, I bet there’s something in that bill that will be of interest to your audience. Here is the search data from Google Insights about the stimulus bill:

Looks like a rising trend, something you can perhaps use for your internet marketing.

Since stimulus bill is a national topic other news organizations are doing the heavy lifting for explaining what’s happening:

• Michigan Business Review is rehashing an AP story
• Forbes is running Reuters’ story on Obama’s support of the bill
• The New York Times is discussing how the bill got smaller before passing

There’s probably more, those are just the ones that I found at 3pm on the day the news is breaking. Somewhere in that bill is likely some information that real estate agents could find that might be helpful for home buyers or home sellers.

If you can find that information and, ideally, put it together with actionable local resources for readers, then you’d have a blog post to help insert your name and brand into the national conversation about real estate and the stimulus bill.

So go write your post and be sure to do the following:

1. Insert local context wherever possible
2. Include some step-by-step ways to make use of the information wherever possible
3. Get the post live as quickly as possible

Guess which post I wrote, in order to capitalize on the current time-sensitive topic of the housing stimulus?

 

Internet Marketing Basics: RSS Feeds

 

You’ve probably seen the little orange icons and “subscribe to my feed” buttons on sites you’ve visited (you can see some over to the left of this blog post, in fact). You might even have read articles where people argue about things like RSS and Atom and so on. Maybe you’ve heard of things like Google Reader. This is an article written to help you start using RSS feeds to help your online marketing efforts. Read more

New Sites Launched By Union Street Media

It has been a busy month here at Union Street and we have quite a few new sites which we wanted to share with you. 

One is Boundless Journeys’ new site. Boundless Journeys is a high end adventure travel company based out of Stowe Vermont. Their new site launched on the 15th of January. 

The city of Winooski has rebuilt their entire downtown, changing it from a sea of parking lots to a walkable neighborhood with parks, restaurants and waterfront promenades. Many of the developments have chosen Union Street Media to create their online presence and were launched the second week of the month.

The different developments are:

 

The Champlain Mill

 

The Cascades

 

Keens Crossing

 

 

 

We here at USM are very pleased to add these sites to our portfolio!

USM in the News: SEO, Real Estate Marketing Online and Print Media

Union Street Media pulled a hat trick of news mentions this week. We think the readers of our blog will find something of value in each these articles as well.

Search Engine Optimization for Small Business

Our director of web strategy, Gahlord Dewald, was quoted in the Burlington Free Press for an article that discusses the marketing discipline of search engine optimization (SEO) from the perspective of a small maple syrup producer. Dewald says he was very happy to offer his insights to the story and encourages you to read the sidebar, especially Nicole Ravlin’s excellent tie in to social media at the end. [Please note that Gannett time-limits the availability of their articles, so the link may cease working sometime in the furture--read it while it's hot]

Future of a Daily Print Newspaper

Union Street Media founder Ted Adler was quoted in a feature story about Free Press publisher Brad Robertson in Seven Days (the Burlington-owned weekly paper and kind-of competitor to the Free Press). Ted makes note of Brad’s innovative change-agent style. If you’re interested in what’s happening in news media, the article provides a great perspective from outside the big shakeups going on in the larger markets.

Examine the True Costs of Your Online Marketing Efforts

Gahlord answered a Q&A about which types of skills and technologies will be most useful to real estate professionals engaged in online marketing for Inman News. He encourages business owners to evaluate whether their current low-cost methods of marketing are truly low cost.