Back from Real Estate Connect

Photo courtesy Ines from Miami real estate blog, Miamism.

Back from Blogger Connect and Inman Connect (aka #ICNY). Too much stuff to download in just one post but suffice it to say that Ted, Andy and I had a great time.

One of the consistent themes that I heard throughout the conference was an increased focus on visitor engagement. Right from Jeff Turner’s opening on Wednesday through to the end.

Basically, we often tend to focus on metrics like the number of unique visitors and so on when what we should look at, more often, are measures of engagement. Are people using/liking/spreading our content? Are they coming back for it? Are there some tools that are particularly effective at promoting visitor engagement (answer: yep and most of them fall into the social media category).

I’ll get a post up soon that has my presentation slide deck and narrative, for those who were unable to attend. Meanwhile, check out the social media dashboard for the Twitter feed, blog post recaps and flickr/video streams of Inman Connect New York.

Real Estate Connect Social Media Dashboard

I’m back from vacation and I’ve built a social media dashboard for all of you going to Real Estate Connect in New York City this week. You can find it here:

Real Estate Connect Social Media Dashboard

It’s set up to gather images, video, twitter posts, blog posts and all sorts of stuff that are tagged with ICNY09 or #ICNY09. So if you’re at the event, tag some of your thoughts, or where the good parties are.

Also if you’re at the event, come ask me questions at the Blogger Connect event (I’ll be presenting the listening to your audience section) or at the Down and Dirty Analytics panel on Thursday. Or even just grab me in the hall and see if I can help you out with your web marketing strategy, site analytics or whatever.

Conference Dashboard: Vermont 3.0 Creative/Tech Jam

[Update: link to the dashboard itself is fixed. Click here to just go look at the dashboard.]

As mentioned earlier, I’ll be on a panel at the Vermont 3.0 Creative/Tech Jam on Oct 25th at Champlain College here in Burlington, VT. I’m really psyched to be up there with David Gibson from Propeller Media Works and Frank Canovatchel (who, it turns out, was an advisor to USM developer Scott Nellé). Our topic is about building websites and I’m sure between the three of us we’ll be able to handle most any question that comes up. Read a little more about the conference and my fancy conference dashboard after the jump. Read more

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.

Meet Ted and Jonny at Northeast Real Estate Conference and Expo

It’s conference season!

Union Street Media will be at the Northeast Real Estate Conference and Expo this week. It will be a good chance for existing clients to hear from Ted and Jonny about our new initiatives in real estate internet marketing, improvements to our software and just to chat. And if you aren’t a client of ours yet, maybe we can help answer any questions you might have.

Here are the details: Sheraton Hotel & Conference Center in Burlington, Vermont on September 10-12, 2008 and a little more information is available via a PDF at the Vermont Association of Real Estate website.

Stop by booth 24.

Getting the most out of attending trade shows and conferences

Everyone gets to an industry event sooner or later. We spend time and money getting there, being there and listening. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out how we could get more bang for all that time and cash. Enter: metrics. Huh?

First up, I want to note off the bat that I’m wholesale adapting this article about getting extreme value from trade shows. Leave it to the metric-heads at e-metrics to come up with this sort of thing. So go read the source if you want more. Alright, down to business.

Before you get to the conference

You need to be absolutely certain you know why you are going to the conference or trade show. Just going to hang out or because you think you’ll hear something good. The more vague you are about your objectives, the more vague will be your results. Maybe you’re going to the show in order to learn something critical to your business success, maybe you’re going to pitch prospective clients, maybe you’re going to raise your profile in the industry. All of those would require some planning ahead. Let’s do some simple planning ahead:

1. Identify 3 outcomes you want from the conference. These outcomes should be clear, specific and measurable. The more detail the better (who, what, when, where). Bonus points if you use S.M.A.R.T. goals.
2. Write down your goals. You should write them in the past tense, as if they have already happened. You write them down this way so that you will know when you’ve achieved your outcome: when the statement is true, you have accomplished your goal.
3. Determine a method to measure progress. This is a nice place to put numbers, but it’s also a good place to break down your larger goal into specific phases.
4. Put copies of your 3 outcomes in the pockets of all the clothing you will wear at the event.

At the trade show or conference

Alright, you’re there listening to awesome speakers, excellent panelists and hanging out in the hallways. Your three outcomes are burning a hole in your pocket. Time for some action:

• Identify which speakers and sessions are most likely to attract people who can help your achieve your goals. Let that help you determine which sessions you attend.
• Early in any conversation, ask the other person what they’re most hoping to get out of the conference. If you can help them achieve what they’re after then do so.
• Chances are good they’ll ask you what you’re hoping to get out of the conference or what you’re enjoying most. This is a good time to let them know about some of your goals. Maybe they can help you out.

Bonus Round: Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell, does a great Q&A with herself about how to network. This includes some great tactics on when/how to approach speakers after a presentation. Chris Brogan provides a list of links to articles about making your conference experience great (scroll down).

After the show

Remember all that measurability you put in your outcomes? Start using it. Did you meet enough people? Initiate enough sales conversations? Help enough people? Did you let enough people help you?

I hope this is helpful and not too basic. How do you get the most out of a conference?

Want a Free Ticket to Inman Connect ‘08?

Daniel Rothamel, newly-minted Community Manager for Inman News, is giving away a free ticket to Inman Connect ‘08.

It involves using Twitter. But luckily you can find all the great Twitter resources you can handle over in the sideabar.

Branding through customer service

During the Connect keynote Inman stood in front of a room  packed with  real estate professionals and advised them to call all of their past clients and ask if they need help with foreclosures. I thought that advice was bold, honest and probably difficult to do. But completely worth it from a branding perspective.

If you’re a realtor and are interested in building a strong brand through excellent customer service read John Keith’s Boston Real Estate Blog: “Survey: Most consumers don’t understand foreclosure”.

Another Great Connect

The Union Street Media crew returned home from Inman Real Estate Connect in New York this weekend. We had a great experience there, as we did last summer in San Francisco. A group of five of us attended and focused on social networking, blogging, internet marketing, MLS issues, and much more. The panels were great, including an appearance by the ever-popular Craig Newmark of Craigslist.

One resulting inspiration was the Real Estate Internet Marketing Map that I sketched at the conference, and then gussied up once home.
After all was said and done, among the trends this year were video, of course, as well as “instant” response to customer inquiries. We added a plugoo chat widget on our site last night – if you come by, say hello. I do think we will see many more agents and offices implementing some kind of basic IM/live chat into their sites, and it’s something that we are beginning to recommend to our clients as something to strongly consider.

Also, we were intrigued by the inexpensive Flip video camera and will probably pick a couple up to start playing with.

It will be interesting to see how realtors and others use the social networking space in the coming year. Like blogging, this can be a good passive channel for attracting customers. However, we are seeing more and more active types of marketing on Facebook, like groups, fan pages, and of course, ads. At the San Francisco Connect in August you couldn’t go through a whole panel without someone saying ActiveRain at least once. By contrast you didn’t hear this as much at the NY Connect. Nevertheless, the ActiveRain community is still a great place to spend some time online.

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