Great New York Times Article on Engagement Thresholds

On the 25th of June the New York Times published an article by Barnard Lunn entitled Build an Insanely Great Web Service. Not only is this article worth reading because it gives the reader the opportunity to read the work “suck” as a descriptor in a New York Times article which I just find amusing, but it offers a great model of the engagement thresholds that websites and services need to think about. The article is written using a start up web service as a model. The applicability of what the author Mr. Lunn says does not stop there, however. The concept can easily be transferred to any website and web service. Viewed through the lens of real estate sites, we see a clear structure in which to think about how users interact with websites. The time thresholds that he lays out are:

• 30 seconds: “I get it.”
• 3 minutes: “I’ve used it and still get it, and it has not annoyed me yet.”
• 3 days: “I find this really useful or fun.”
• 3 weeks: “I am raving about this to other people.”
• 3 months: “I couldn’t imagine not having this, and I’m boring my friends telling them about it.”
• 3 years: “How weird to see this on Oprah.”

(Lunn, Barnard, New York Times 6/25/09)

Now, I am not saying that your real estate website is going to end up on Oprah — though I would not rule it out. But in the mean time, lets look at this structure in the context of a well designed real estate site being used by an interested potential buyer. (Please note that I am going to add a threshold that I feel was overlooked):

• After 3 seconds visitors should like the site design, be able to identify where they should look first and find it easy to read. (Things to think about: Design and Layout)
• After 30 seconds visitors should have clear idea of what your site has to offer them and most importantly what the next step is that they can take. (Things to think about: homepage content and calls to action)
• After three minutes, your visitor has used some of the functionality on your site. If it is well organized and the functionality is intuitive, they will still see the value in your site because they will find that they can easily access the information that they are interested in. (Things to think about: ease of use of your sites functionality and navigation)
• After three days they have fully explored your site, read information on you, your market area and used all the applicable functionality. They find it useful and at this point contact you. (Things to think about: quality and amount of information available, easy and obvious conversion tools)
• After three weeks they have found that your website integrates seamlessly with their property search process and your personal service. They continue to use the site to save searches and ask you questions as you set up viewings. (Things to think about: Lead management and contact utilities)
• After three months they have found the house they want and close on it. They can’t imagine what the process would have been like without your website and your personal attention. (Things to think about: how integrated is your website to your current client management)
• After three years they are ready to buy again and call you . . . or they see you on Oprah and are really impressed. (Things to think about: the value of continued contact with past clients, how good Oprah looks in that pant suit!)

Using these time thresholds as a structure to think about your website is a great way to take a tough look at how your site encourages the engagement of potential and existing clients. If your site is not up to snuff, the possibility of losing potential buyers at any one of these 6 stages is a very serious reality.

The moral of the story is always look at your site from the user’s perspective. Your site should be all about what the potential client is looking for and what you can offer them that they haven’t even thought of yet.

New Site Launches by Union Street Media

We have been hard at work here at Union Street Media. In the last month, we have launched 4 great new websites.

Camp Takumta is a wonderful camp here in Vermont for children who have or are battling cancer. The camp has been serving children in the Vermont and Upstate New York area for 24 years. Their new site incorporates photo galleries, a blog and a dynamic calendar to allow parents and campers to stay connected through out the year.

Oleet & Co is a Burlington based financial services firm that specializes in mergers and acquisitions. The firm (formally Worth Mountain Associates) Advises New England companies as they navigate the tumultuous financial market, ensuring a prosporous and productive future.

In the past month we have launched two new Real Estate related websites. The first is Tami Pelletier Real Estate LLC, a real estate office in Weare, New Hampshire. Tami Pelletier specilizes in all kinds of Southern New Hampshire Residental Real Estate and has more than 19 years of experience in the feild.

The Grand View Commons is a new water front community in Wolfboro, New Hampshire situated on Wolfboro Neck on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee. The community offers waterfront and interior homes conveniently situated a moments from the downtown of one of the oldest summer communites in the country.

We are very pleased to add these new clients to our portfolio.

Social media links for Real Estate sites

At Union Street Media we have rolled out another new feature with our new detail view social bookmarking and links toolbar, courtesy of one of our talented progammers. It comes standard with new Real Estate web sites and will greatly enhance their social media presence and the ability to acquire a wider audience in the relevant areas.

This feature enables rapid sharing of information about listings, bookmarking blog posts about your local service area or a quick email to friends and family. It’s easy to use and provides a choice of platforms depending on what you want to achieve. Bookmark your favorite listings with Google bookmarks for example or Twitter a listing to an engaged group of followers and receive instant feedback. Use the Facebook function to participate in real estate groups or people looking for particular properties in certain areas.

As people become more accustomed to these links and use them more and more it adds further usability and interactivity for the viewer. For the realtor adds superb SEO opportunities especially in garnering relevant, inbound links from trusted sources.

Examples of our sites with this feature are:

Bryan Bomba

BCK Real Estate

Greybeard

Filtering Noise from Twitter

Can you have too many followers?

10, 50, 100, 500? There is surely a finite amount of conversations any one person can follow and how well relationships can develop by “drive-by” remarks. It is also true of people following you. How do you provide good value to say a thousand people that follow you?

From a business point of view it is sensible to maintain a smaller volume of followers that are truly interested in your business to keep people engaged and vice versa. The best way to achieve this is to grow organically, which is often a good maxim in business. With the use of APIs (application programming interface) that artificially generate lists of friends you risk becoming a spammer. Much like all interaction with the web it is perhaps wiser to focus on good contributions in your local or national community with content that people want to hear about rather than empty tweets that will often get lost among all the other noise.

Relationship building has become the currency of social media and like any relationship needs to be cultivated, therefore putting a marketing hat on and talking “at” people is not going to cut it in this medium and there won’t be much value gained.

What do you think? Leave your comments.

Adam Hergenrother, USM client, named to REALTOR Magazine’s 2009 “30 Under-30″

Congrats to Adam Hergenrother!

Adam was recently selected to REALTOR Magazine’s “30 Under 30″ for 2009.  A longtime Union Street Media client, Adam and his wife Sarah recognized early on that that a strong online presence is key to building a business in real estate.  They have been able to convert the leads they have collected online into sales and are now one the top REALTOR teams in the Burlington area.  Union Street Media has worked with Adam since 2006 and are honored to be a part of his success!