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

Mt Ascutney Hospital Wins Web Site Award

Great news just through that one of our site designs, Mt. Ascutney Hospital, scooped a silver award at the National Aster Awards in the website category.

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.

Get two months free: Refer a Friend

Union Street Media is excited to announce our new Refer a Friend program.

It’s easy!  Know someone looking for a new site? Simply fill out the form on our Referral Program page and we’ll take care of the rest. All you need to provide is your name, your friends contact information and business type.

If your referral signs up for a new site with USM, you will received 2 months of FREE ongoing fees!

Related articles:

• Chamber presents Entreprenurial Spirit Award to Union Street Media
• G. Dewald to be a panelist at Blogger Connect

Chamber presents Entreprenurial Spirit Award to Union Street Media

Last night at the 98th annual Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce dinner, five awards were presented for emerging talent, community service and leadership. The Chamber selected Union Street Media as the recipient of The A. Wayne Roberts Entrepreneurial Spirit Award.  The award is presented annually to a local business that exemplifies entrepreneurship, leadership, creativity and business expertise.  During the presentation, former Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle lauded Union Street Media for its record of consistent growth, community service, and dedication to producing quality work for Vermont businesses and firms around the country. Mayor Clavelle went on to describe the founding of the firm in 1999 while Ted Adler was still a student at Middlebury College and praised Union Street Media for its position as a nationally recognized pioneer in the development of Web sites for REALTORS.

The packed room — full of 700 business leaders —  responded warmly to Ted Adler’s recognition of the support Union Street Media has received from the Chamber, Vermont Software Developers Alliance, the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund and the Peer to Peer Collaborative, a business mentoring program. In addition to recognizing his business partners Andy Vota and Jon Adler, his acknowledgment of Champlain College as a source of hard-working, talented, ambitious staff received cheers and a round of applause. (A number of Union Street Media’s team hails from Champlain). Ted also acknowledged the efforts of the LCRCC in its support of the Adler family’s many creative ventures, citing his brothers’ success with The Skinny Pancake (a Burlington creperie) as an example. Most people aren’t familiar with the family connection between Union Street Media and The Skinny Pancake, so the reference elicited oohs and ahhs.  For more on this, read the feature story on the Adler entrepreneurs from July of this year.

When pressed for comment today, Ted said “We have an entrepreneurial spirit at Union Street Media that permeates our culture.  From the first days of the company out of my Middlebury College dorm room, we followed the simple business premise of “find a niche and fill it.”  Starting with our partnership with the Vermont Association of REALTORS in 2002, we have helped REALTORS leverage the power of the Internet.  With 87% of home searches beginning online according to the NAR, our work is helping our clients in this challenging market more then ever.”

For more information on last night’s event, check out the Burlington Free Press article from today.

G. Dewald to be a speaker at Blogger Connect

Union Street Media’s director of web strategy, G. Dewald, will be a speaker at Inman News’ Blogger Connect event in New York City on January 7, 2009. The title of his talk is: “Getting it! Understand your Readers,” is sure to be lively. Dewald hopes to bring the same open, straightforward insights and practical tips on developing data-driven internet marketing strategies he shares on this blog to the panel.

If there are specific online marketing topics you are hoping to discuss at Connect this year, be sure to let him know.

Meanwhile, some reading to get you started:

• Get an overview of using analytics to listen to your customers.
• Listen to Google to learn how people are using mobile devices.
• Use existing research to learn how your customers are using social media online.
• Use your analytics keyword report to listen to your customers in their own words.

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

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.

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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