Disclaimer: we have a good friend that works at the Burlington Free Press and do believe there is a role for print in the real estate advertising model.

This blog article on real estate advertising in newspapers from a veteran media executive is a must read for REALTORS undecided about the ratio of print to web investment. The article states that 6 out of 10 real estate agents think newspaper advertising is useless. However, 80% still buy print ads often just to appease the sellers they are representing!  This is consistent with the anecdotal reports we’ve heard from our clients.

We feel that REALTOR are the expert in their field.  With their knowledge of the market and trends, they are best qualified to know how to market their properties and to whom.  If the high quality leads are coming from the web then this is the sort of quality control that needs to be measured and communicated to sellers.  One client of ours has recently started offering sellers $250 back at closing if he never has to run their house in a print ad.  Think that’s crazy?  Try pitching it as your next listing presentation.

Brian Boardman on real estate marketing

Brian Boardman, the broker and owner of Hickock & Boardman  and a longtime USM client, spoke to us recently about the growing trend of moving away from print to web to market properties.

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!

Although college students perceived as market leaders when it comes to technology adaptation (just behind middle schoolers), they’re not the only ones using their mobile devices to look up real estate.  As iPhone sales skyrocket even in this down economy, users are expecting that your site will load on their mobile device.  The trend is catching on amongst real estate data sites too.  Some newspapers like the Gainsville Sun and sites like Trulia & Zillow are making their sites easier to search using a mobile phone.

You should check with your web developer to make sure your site is mobile friendly.  Some real estate web site developers (like Union Street Media), can create a new mobile template for your site that strips away non-core images & content, which increases the speed that the site loads on the mobile phone.  Check out the two variations of Brian Boardman’s web site to see what it looks like on a web browser and on a mobile phone.

We generally see three types of REALTORS requesting mobile-friendly sites:

• REALTORS who are technology savvy and browse the web on their mobile phones
• REALTORS who’s clients are technology savvy and use mobile phones for real estate searches
• REALTORS in a second home markets

Check out www.adamdow.com if you’d like to see one person that fits all three categories (and was one of the first clients to get a mobile-friendly site from USM).

There are a lot of other cool examples of mobile-friendly real estate web sites out there.  Please share any that you have come across in the comments section below.  Thanks!

This article from the New York Times highlights how savvy real estate agents are using social networking to target their buyers.

Some important points raised in the article include how the new trends on the web are reaching younger audiences for free. This more tactile marketing by many web-savvy professionals are now sending messages on Twitter, getting referrals on LinkedIn, posting blogs, uploading virtual tours onto the Internet and sending text messages and alerts to customers’ phones when homes come on the market.

Bettie Meinel, vice president for career development at Century 21 Laffey Associates, based in Greenvale, said that because consumers are already online seeing the photos and virtual tours, “that is their first showing.” Actually touring the house shows more serious intent, she explained. “If they like it enough, they make an appointment to come and see that property; that is the second showing,” she said.

Also check out other blog posts on these topics in the social media and video sections.

I receive daily emails from ActiveRain, these cover all kinds of topics. Usually I don’t have a lot of time to read through them; so I skim over the newsletter titles and see if anything catches my eye. Well today one did: “Survey Says… REALTORS Suck”. Wow! I certainly clicked on that one.

The first thing that struck me was that this is a great example of an attention grabbing blog title. It will get your readers to click and read. It is controversial, and let’s face it, people love controversy. As a former real estate agent and the daughter and sibling of two REALTORS I couldn’t resist reading on.

I found the article interesting. I think it is a good reminder to ANY agent, new, old or otherwise, about what your consumer is looking for and what is important to them.  A professional in any field should always be keeping up on the needs of their clients.

Two of the most interesting points for me where:

1. That the most important thing to the consumer is lowest commission and knowledge is the least. My reaction to that was, “No wonder you think REALTORS suck.” In my experience the lower the commission, the less attention paid to the client.

Maybe that’s not true in all cases, but I have a feeling it doesn’t help! So how does the average REALTOR put this information to use? Should they all be slashing their commissions?  Well it turns out that 95% of consumers are still using Agents. Even though the consumer feels they can get just as much knowledge by doing their own legwork, they are still relaying on real estate professionals when all is said and done.

I don’t think this is a free pass and should be counted on, especially in this market. I think it’s important to be the best at what you do and the most knowledgeable about technology, your area, the state of the market, etc. Those are the agents that will get the business and keep it.

2. The example photos Jeff Corbett uses, got me giggling. He could not be more dead on with this point. If all you can fit in the bathroom shot is the toilet, leave it off the listing! Nobody needs to see the toilet. Okay, so the owner did a great job redoing the bathroom, but it is too small to photograph. How about taking close-up shots of some of the details? BUT, please spare us the toilet shot.

The other one that always gets me is the tiny bedroom, that just shows the bed or maybe a corner of the bed and a window. In those cases, how about a video of the property? We can help guide you through this process and you’ll be better off for it!

Just to hammer the point home, here are a few examples of photos you should skip!

Are they selling the bed or the house?

Ahh the lovely toilet… So homey!

Overall its a great article so give it a read! “Survey Says… Realtors Suck!” By Jeff Corbett, Active Rain Staff Writer. You’ll probably find one or two take aways.

Amongst the candidates that ran for office, I publicly supported a moderate independent candidate named Dan Smith.  Unfortunately, he didn’t win.  However, Dan did do some pretty cool stuff on the web much of which involved the use of video.  Using the new $229 HD Flip Mino Video camera, Dan’s staff videoed a number of local supporters, myself included, and uploaded the videos onto youtube.  They then embedded the videos in his site (which is still online, but may not be much longer).  This was pretty simple to do, easy to publish and unique with in the campaign.

So what does this have to do with selling real estate, promoting your company, product or service?  A lot.

I’m a believer that device consolidation will eventually lead to your computer (or iPhone) being the one tool you use to access all media, including television.   At this time, however, video still has a little bit of the “wow” factor still left in it online.  Imagine a new visitor coming to your site and hearing from your clients, on video, talking about how they benefited from working with you?  It would be unique, compelling and not that hard to do.  I’ve mentioned the idea to a number of our real estate clients of videoing a young couple just after they have purchased their first time home.  Hearing them describe how you helped them find, negotiate and close on their home would be compelling.  Unlike a video tour of a home, which I also recommend, a video testimonial has a long shelf life on your site.

We have a couple of clients who have been progressive with their use of video, such as Dan Cypress and Jessica Bridge at RE/MAX North Professionals.  Jessica, who also endorsed Dan Smith, is photogenic and Dan knows how to do a thing or two with iMovie.  However, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to put together a great video about the Vermont Required Consumer Information Disclosure and post it on your site.  All it takes is a little initiative and a investment in a Flip Video Camera.

Please share links with us in the comment section below if you have posted cool videos on your site.

Image by David Wulff via Flickr

There are a lot of web sites out there with a home page like a door mat with a big frilly “Welcome” sign emblazoned into it. We all know how people use door mats, right? They wipe their feet on them and then go inside the building to accomplish their task. A piece of plastic carpet with the word “welcome” printed on it is just an inexpensive way of not meeting someone at the door and welcoming them yourself.

Now let’s think about the home page of a web site. Better yet, let’s think about the home page of your web site. If you have a “welcome” message on your home page, when was the last time you changed it? If you answered anything less than one month you can pat yourself on the back, if not, please read on.

Keeping in mind how long it’s been since you last made a change to the message you’re publishing on your home page and think about the following:

• Have the needs of your site visitors changed?
• Have the fears or desires of your site visitors changed?
• Has the industry you work in changed?
• Are you doing anything in your business to help address these changes?
• Anything you’re doing to help them accomplish their task, in light of recent changes?

If you’re not sure about any of the above questions, think about phone or in-person conversations you’ve had with potential customers recently. Are your potential customers asking you different questions than  they were a month ago? A year ago? Do they express the same needs/desires/fears as last month? Last year?

The content on your home page should reflect changes in your customers, your industry and your ability to help. I’m going to step out on a limb and make a broad statement: Pitches that worked last year won’t work so well right now.

For your internet marketing, there is little reason to let bristly carpet with a generic phrase be your customers’ first impression. Meet them at the door. Be ready to talk to them about what they need. If you want a great web presence, start with being present.

So let’s bring this into focus: Twitter has been dealing with this exact issue of late.

Recently, the instant-message/text-message/headline-syndication tool Twitter has received some significant critical press relating to the internal workings of their technical architecture. When faced with some pretty direct questions from a pretty influential personality about why their service goes through periods of downtime pretty often, they took the time to respond to each question in a reasonable fashion.

There are some lessons in this, probably related to the Web 2.0 education post I wrote earlier, about transparency and reputation management. Here’s some thoughts on what they did:

• Timeliness: they responded publicly within one day of the critical post.
• Controlled Media: their response was posted on their own blog, giving them greater freedom in formatting and illustrating their points as well as making their message the primary focus for the discussion that follows in the comment thread. “Participating in the conversation” is great, but comment threads that are heated up to shouting level don’t really make good locations to grow your message.
• Grown-Up Voice: by responding with sincere answers to a series of questions which were, by most accounts, pretty snarky, the Twitter crew end up looking like class-acts. That’s huge branding points right there.
• Acknowledging the Problem: this one is almost always the hardest, but the most satisfying for everyone. Once everyone agrees that something isn’t right, then it’s easier for all to start focusing on fixing things.

[And if you don't know about Twitter check out the Twitter for Real Estate or Other Business page.]

I then realized she’s probably not alone; the user registration is, after all, geared towards the site visitor. However, it could just as easily be used to the agent’s advantage for new leads that come from other sources.

My Advice:

When you get a new lead, ask for the appropriate search criteria and an email address. That is all you need to create a new account!

Once you’ve set up buyers’ accounts, they will receive your branded new-listing-notifications right in their inboxes. It takes about 5 minutes to set up and you’re on your way to building a more meaningful relationship.

But don’t take my word for it:
“Now I get phone calls from customers asking me about the listing I sent them. It’s great!” ~ Peggy Smith, Coldwell Banker Carlson Real Estate Stowe VT

Not sure how to set up a user account and saved searches? Follow these 6 easy steps:

1. Go to your ‘User Registration’ page. You will find a link at the top of most pages or in the side-bar widget for new listing notifications. Look for the words ‘Register’ or ‘Become a Member’!
2. Enter in the buyer’s name and email address. Then create a username and password for them. (Don’t forget to make a note of these. You’ll want to send buyers their login information so they can create their own searches.)
3. Hit ‘Create Account’. You will now be logged into your site as the buyer.
4. Go to the ‘Property Search’ page and enter appropriate search criteria.
5. Submit the search to receive the search results. If it comes up with less than 100 listings* you will see a prompt to save the search at the top of the results.
6. Click this and name the search. Example: Burlington VT Condos under 100K

You are done! Your buyer will now received branded listing notifications directly from your site. If you want to set up more than one search for a buyer, simply start again at step #4. If you need help you can always call support at 802.865.3332 x2.

*Please note: We’ve capped this at 100 listings so that the buyers are not inundated with hundreds of listings a day.

The other is more of a thinking and strategic issue surrounding online marketing, interlocking ecosystems of information and reputation management. This is where a lot of the heated discussions take place. While you read them here, however, please try to look beyond the specific companies and personalities and consider the systems (personal, technological and economic) involved and how they rely on each other.]

As I recently let loose in Twitter, there’s an entire education to be had in the comment thread on Galen Ward’s post about Trulia and their linking policy over at the Bloodhound Blog. This post was created to back up that statement. Consider this a pivot-table applied to qualitative data.

I’ve prepared a syllabus for you. Please note that not all of the answers to the exam questions will be found directly in the comment threads, but enough clues for you to determine the majority of the answers are present. Some questions (particularly in the second semester) will require creative thinking and problem solving extending beyond the comment thread on the Ward’s post. Outside resources are encouraged in all semesters.

• The first semester is a practical one, with hands-on worthwhile info on which you may be able to act. There are a few though-pieces in there, but it is primarily a “lab” class.
• The second semester is more of a seminar where you examine a controversial issue not for it’s controversy but for its structure.
• A laid back summer session has been assigned as well.

Enjoy. And if you post your answers to the exams publicly, let me know so I can send you a certificate of some sort.

First Semester: Search Engine Optimization

A wide variety of excellent SEO concepts are discussed in this comment thread by people both in the trenches and expert.

Coursework:

• Matt McGee explains the importance of some key technical aspects of SEO: trusted domains, URL age and inbound links.
• Greg Swann confirm’s Zillow’s SEO tips for using Zillow.
• Link purchasing is not an effective SEO tool.
• Do like Tony Sena and avoid linking to your SERP competitors.
• Become aware of the “onclick” issue for Page Rank passing links. This is yet to be resolved and needs to take into account your site traffic analysis needs.
• Given that you are unable to have immediate effect on Trulia (or anyone else’s) code practice, this advice from Matt McGee is worth investigating. But also keep in mind Eric Bramlett’s caveat.
• Eric Bramlett’s 10 places to optimize for your name to improve SEO.
• Consider researching the topic of PR Sculpting. Yes you heard that right, Page Sculpting
• Greg Swann posts a comparative assessment of Zillow and Trulia’s linking practices and what it may reveal about underlying business theories and SEO. I had a hard time deciding which semester to put this in, so consider it a nice segue into the next course.
• In Greg’s post mentioned above Matt McGee tells us about how different search engines handle “no follow” coding practices.
• Eric Bramlett provides a link to an interview with Google’s Matt Cutts (for those new to GoogleWatching, Matt Cutts is final authority on what Google does in its search practice, defending a practice against what Matt Cutts says is like defending a legal case against a station wagon full of nuns).
• Eric Bramlett makes his own post on the BHB that goes into detail on widgets and how to prevent passing page rank to a perceived competitor.
• Halfdeck brings up branding in relation to marketing efforts and SEO, citing it as a larger reason for Trulia’s success. Later, he mentions the high number of indexed pages on Trulia as a more important factor than widgets.
• Eric Bramlett comes through with a nice SEOmoz article about widgetbait.

First Semester Exam:

1. What is the relationship between trusted domains and inbound links?
2. Outline some SEO strategies for making use of social media.
3. Is PR Sculpting an on-site or off-site marketing tactic?
4. How would you find an answer to theory of “onclick” not passing Page Rank?
5. When is it good use a widget on your site? When is it potentially harmful? How might you decide whether to install one on your site?

Second Semester: Reputation Management and Social Media

The majority of the conversations in the comment thread of Ward’s post are about one company, Trulia, and how it treats individuals with whom it interacts/effects. Wherever you read the word “Trulia” insert your own company and try see how you might react or engage the conversation if it were your brand. This semester requires broad-based thinking about specific problems of online community engagement.

Initial Lecture:

Galen’s original inspiration is a to look into why Trulia does well on street address searches. He comes up with two compelling reasons:

…the original source doesn’t even display the address on the page..

and (emphasis his):

Trulia blocks Google from following their links.

This of course gets the ball rolling very quickly. The importance of this statement is that Trulia’s coding practice prevents Google from finding the original listing’s source by way of Trulia; basically Trulia isn’t being as SEO friendly to the original source as it could perhaps be.

A possible example of the results of this are are put forth in the comments to Galen’s post by Kevin Boer. Cheryl Johnson provides another search result that may be effected by this.

The follow up from there is a discussion of why Trulia might block Google from following links on Trulia to the original source and why the original source would give the listings data to Trulia, given that disparity.

Glenn Roberts Jr. made a good assessment of the situation over at Inman News.

Here is the link to the Official Google Blog post about “no follow” coding practices. Also, SearchEngineWatch has an article about how other search engines deal with “no follow” coding practices.

Coursework

As you review the comments please note that I have presented some of them slightly out of order so that they will connect better with related comments. Also, please note that I am attempting to present these comments as a way for all of us to understand how issues unfold and change online. The vast majority of these comments were made within 24 hours of the original post.

The conversation initiated by Ward spread to a variety of sources. Currently, the best method to track these conversation is via a widget developed by Greg Swann at the Bloodhound Blog. The irony of a widget to track a conversation about the widgets of another company is not lost on anyone. Below, you can view this widget and follow the conversation further than the items in the coursework.

Comments and reasoning critical of Trulia’s “no follow” code practice

• Tim O’Keefe calls the situation “the great real estate giveaway” and suggests that Trulia is trying to hoard Page Rank (a component of Google’s ranking algorithm that determines a site’s credibility).
• An anonymous user notes that Trulia’s coding practice displays an attitude of competitiveness vs the original sources of data and also that “MLSs will never get to this level of sophistication to compete against Trulia’s 5 in-house SEO wonks.”
• Eric Blackwell does a fine job of summing up some of the frustrations of real estate professionals when he says “If we 1) Give them our listings 2) Give them link juice and 3) Give them content (TV, et al). Ummm how can we gripe when they bite us (rank well in Google)?”
• Tim O’Keefe preempts conversations about duplicate content (Google doesn’t like to see the same stuff on multiple pages and so penalizes one of the duplicators) by explaining that “if they have the most page rank on that content then they do not have to worry about dupe content.”
• Ryan Ward mentions the practice of widgets as promotional items that further enhance the SEO of the sites to which they link, while providing “woefully inaccurate” market stats.
• Laurie Manny brings up an issue she has about agreeing to blog for Trulia accusing Pete Flint of breaking his word in regards to the “no follow” coding practice.
• Teri Lussier notes that “after 21 comments and no one from Trulia has chimed in.”
• Ryan Ward claims that Trulia’s is “a 3rd party site that wants in on a very lucrative piece of pie” and then speculates about a possible strategy that they are pursuing.
• Galen responds to the practice of “no follow” being used to prevent spam (see Pete Flint below) by stating: “There is no reason to limit outbound links on listings except to push agents out of the top results… .”
• Mike Taylor, in reference to the spam rationale for “no follow” says “I give you (Trulia) my listings and you give me no follow link as a way to control spam? I don’t think so. Get bent.”
• Eric Bramlett gives a technical assessment of the strategic value of choosing to implement or not implement “no follow” code practices. He believes the reason Trulia doesn’t allow Google to follow outbound links is because “because they [Trulia] consider them [agents/brokers] SERP competitors.”
• Eric Bramlett is “offended that all the Trulia spin doctors came over here so quickly to play damage control.”
• James Boyer sums up sentiment expressed in several comments with: “What Trulia does is get in the way, and make it harder to get the word out about our listings in a way that gets consumers to contact us.”
• Galen Ward clarifies a statement by saying that the issue is one of thinking you are getting relevant inbound links from Trulia, when in fact you are not (at least for SEO purposes).

Comments defending or further refining the understanding of Trulia’s “no follow” code practice (and other aspects of their business model)

• Kevin Boer outlines two reasons why Trulia’s practice may be better for agents focusing primarily on the fact that Trulia has Search Engine Friendly URLs (SEF URLs are actually more human readable in the form of http://www.yourdomain.com/your-headline vs http://www.yourdomain.com/p=12l3jkldll)
• Rick NHS, while agreeing with the premise of the post mentions that “Trulia isn’t doing anything illegal and as far as the average agent is concerned, they aren’t doing anything unethical either.”
• Mike Taylor says that Trulia “manage[s] to dupe agents to into giving them content for their site so they can then outrank those very agents that supplied them the content to outrank them.”
• 23 hours after the original post is made, Rudy from Trulia offers the following: The page redirect is being used for tracking, they focus the use of Google links on profiles, the individuals who arrive from Trulia are of high quality even if Google isn’t following the link.
• Pete Flint from Trulia reiterates some of Rudy’s points and then responds to Laurie’s accusation of him not keeping his word by stating “I do remember our telephone conversation. I explained at the time that links that exist within your profile on Trulia Voices are for link love.” He also clarifies the way that Trulia passes Google-aware links: “We channel all the link love to your profile where you can manage the link text and url.”
• Ines gives a Trulia success story and notes that the more important issue may become a “question will become an issue of ‘exposure’ not leads” but also states that she needs more from Trulia: “If I’m giving you my listings, I better get more than just a profile.”
• Pete Flint says he’s listening and that there will be updates and changes to help with Ines’ issues in the near future.
• Rudy notes that “Wikipedia and flickr put no-follow on all external links and, as far as I can tell the same goes for Realtor.com and Yahoo Real Estate. We follow the industry standard.” He then comments right afterward and says “like it or not, we are connecting consumers and agents together everyday.“
• Rudy makes the following statement: “Let’s think about what’s in the best interest of your client. Isn’t that to sell their home? I haven’t heard anyone mention that here.” [Note, I've read all the comments to the point at which he makes this statement and he is correct.]
• Rudy notes that he is in a conundrum: “Some said I didn’t respond soon enough, now you say I respond too quickly.“
• Ryan Ward notes “Trulia has put together an excellent package that does in fact provide quality content and most people I talk about this with feel that their search capabilities are more intuitive than realtor.com.“
• Rudy outlines who is a customer for Trulia.
• The Trulia blog pings back to BHB with a response about 3 1/2 days after the initial post.
• As the conversation spills out across the web to Iman News, Vito Boscaino describes his approach to online marketing for his office and says “Trulia has outperformed every other real estate dedicated portal that handles listings. Only Craigslist drives more traffic to our sites.”
• Trulia outlines it’s value proposition on their blog. It focuses heavily on delivering customers who are presumably (given that they are arriving via a real estate search site) well along in their purchase decision-making process.

The situation in relation to other businesses

• Your’s truly notes that Googlebase is also a player in this realm and that things will likely get more interesting “as syndication gets more prevalent.”
• Eric Blackwell (comment also referenced above) drags Zillow into the conversation by noting that “adding content or listings or links to folks like Trulia, Zillow and others is ‘feeding the hand that bites us’”
• Zillow reluctantly wades in and mentions how its coding practice is different from Trulia’s, packaging it as SEO tips.
• Thomas Johnson describes reasons he prefers Zillow, but also wonders whether it is because Zillow is moving slower than Trulia in some way. His feelings appear to be based on aspects of authenticity or sincerity. He describes David G. from Zillow as “a class act” while considering Truliatown “a bit contrived.”
• Overland Park Real Estate references Prudential’s decision to push its listings to Trulia.
• The BlueRoof blog submits a trackback that compares Trulia’s practices to MLS practices.
• Ines mentions vFlyer and it’s integration with Trulia.
• Eric Blackwell thanks Zillow for not engaging in “no follow” code practices.
• Ryan Ward compares Trulia’s Alexa rank with Realtor.com.
• David from Zillow is required to state, once again: “All links from your listings on Zillow are followed by search engines.“
• David from Zillow notes that an earlier comment about Zillow link using “no follow” was correct and vows to have it fixed immediately.
• Google is mentioned as a potential competitor in the same vein as other real-estate-as-content sites.
• Kevin Warmath, responding to Zillow’s immediate fix summarizes his feelings: “Can you see why a strong listing agent would be bitter, particularly in this market? Great thread, though, i learned a lot…I think. ;->”
• Louis from Homegain.com wades in which allows Eric Blackwell to ask “Are any of the 3rd party bots being transparent (read: honest) with REALTORS?” Louis responds by describing how homegain.com works.
• Mark A. mentions that he is “done syndicating my future listings to [Trulia] (through vFlyer).
• Flickr and Wikipedia are mentioned, in particular, in relation to how they use or don’t use “no follow” coding practice by Galen Ward.
• David G. from Zillow confirms that the no-follow issue is resolved for Zillow.
• Eric Bramlett notes that Number1Agent is creating backlinks to Trulia in their template sets. Halfdeck suggests a response for Number1Agent.
• Eric Blackwell creates a post researching the impact of widgets on SERP. He reserves special attention for Number One Expert.

Recommended reading:

• Kevin Boer, inspired by the initial conversation and its ongoing spurs, presents a description of co-opetition in relation to the real estate industry, including some hypothetical examples.

The Outcome of the Situation

The immediate outcome of the situation is that Trulia developed new technologies for their site as reported over at the Future of Real Estate Marketing.

Second Semester Exam:

1. How many organizations and brands are brought into this conversation? Which brands participate willingly and why? Which ones unwillingly and why?
2. How many topics/grievances/frustrations beyond the original “no follow” coding practice are discussed?
3. Where does the “no follow” coding practice fall within the spectrum of online business development? Is there a difference between perceived value and actual value?
4. What needs are being served by the “no follow” coding practice? What damage is the practice doing, if any?
5. If you drew a map showing “customer/client” and “vendor/provider” relationships based on financial transactions what would it look like? This question was first broached in the comment thread about 2 1/2 days after the initial post.
6. If you were developing a social media marketing plan how might you balance your efforts between sites that have a “no follow” coding practice with those who don’t? Is it always clear-cut how the coding-practice will effect your marketing plan?
7. Who has the most to gain or lose by inserting themselves into this conversation (and yes, this post is my conscious effort to insert Union Street into this conversation so feel free to help me justify this post to my boss. )
8. Write a brief essay on any aspect of this online reputation management exercise that strikes your fancy and adds to the wealth of knowledge on this topic

Summer Session: Spare bits of good info.

There are a number of random bits of information scattered throughout the comment thread as well.

Coursework:

Pete Flint gives a link to the official Google blog that describes the “no follow” issue in relation to comment and wiki spam.

Continue to add content to your site, even if you participate in social media, says Rudy.

Greg Swann’s breakdown of PR, “no follow” coding practices and number of outbounds from several top real estate blogs.

Chris McKeever notes that many of the real-estate-as-content sites are built using excellent technology which “unfortunately, is increasingly hard for the individual agent to achieve.”

Greg Swann says: “the bottom line is that we make money from conversions, not from our SERPs.”

Greg Swann, James Boyer, Mary McKnight, Eric Bramlett, Kevin Boer and Teri Lussier have seen searches for street addresses, neighborhoods or MLS numbers.

The future of real estate marketing technology is the $9,000 business card.

Summer Session Exam:

1. Create a work of art that expresses your feelings/emotions/thoughts on the variety of knowledge that can be gained in reading an comment thread discussion that contains high-caliber thinking on a tricky business or technical issue.