149 South Champlain St, Burlington, VT

I recently came across another powerful use that Twitter provides people with last week. It not only provided an awesome place to network, but it supported a new local business. Last month, I began to see a trend start to rise with something along the lines of this: #btvfall2009tweetup. Curiosity got the best of me, and I started researching what this was all about. Turns out, a new local bakery, August First was hosting a “tweetup”. A tweetup is a gathering of people who use the social-networking tool, Twitter. The event was organized through Twitter by using a third party app, twtvite. This application allows you to organize an event by giving details such as directions to the event and a yes/no/maybe RSVP option. This had been the second invite I had seen in about a month and I was ready to join in on the fun.

The event was organized by John Connors (@JohnCVermont) who specializes in Information Technology at Saint Michael’s College. Upon arrival, I was handed a badge with my real name and twitter user name on it so people would know if we had crossed paths on Twitter previously. Surprisingly, most of the faces in the cozy bakery were familiar. Everyone seemed very content with their coffee in-hand and talking technology. August First was a great location to have this event with their welcoming environment and their variety of tasty treats.

I will now be making an effort to attend every tweetup I can, not only for the geek-talk, but for great time all around.

If you’re on Twitter and want to see what’s going on with the team, you can find us on our Twitter List here. Also, you can follow August First here.

Cheers,

Matt Sisson

• Doing keyword research in search of the best long tail phrases where our clients have a good opportunity to compete
• Studying site traffic using GA and other metrics tools and using that analysis to help increase site visitor conversions
• Coaching our clients on content creation and blogging strategies
• Identifying ways to integrate video and social media into clients’ internet marketing campaigns. And a whole lot more…

To view the full Job Description please click here.

This statement has one notable exception, the Google local listings. You have undoubtedly run across the local listings as you have preformed searched in Google when you search for a term with a location attached. For example lets say you search for “web design 05401″ you get a search page that looks like this:

The local listings are the ones that appear next to the map. You can have direct control over these listings. By utilizing Google Local listings you will give your business great visibility for people searching locally for your services. If you click on Union Street Media’s entry you are taken to a page that we have set up for our business that looks like this:

As you can see, you can literally write your own ticket in Google. You can add pictures, enter hours of operation in addition to many other pieces of information that will give your business visibility and attract attention. A great way to get a better idea of what this feature has to offer is to look at the Google Local Business Center Introductory Video.

Setting up your Google local account takes some work. There is a phone or mail based address verification check that you will need to complete but it is totally worth the investment of time. To get started click here to go to the Google Local Business Center.

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.

David Wood writes on his blog about a Google presentation about use of mobile services. The presentation, by Sumit Agarwal who is the product manager for Mobile at Google, includes a lot of insight into Google’s approach to developing applications and is very much worth a read (especially if you’re into developing software).

But from a straight-ahead data standpoint here are some interesting revelations about the way people are using mobile devices and Google’s mobile products:

• There is latent demand of mobile users for carrying out search enquiries – a demand that i smolstly being inhibited by fear of high data charges
• Every weekend, the demand from mobile devices for map tiles reaches the same level as the demand from fixed devices.
• People seem to want to search for the same sorts of things – in the same proportion of times – regardless of whether they are using fixed devices or mobile ones.

This is the sort of thing to think about when looking to the future of human and computer interaction. Thinking about these data points leads to more questions and thoughts, of course.

People want to use data services on their mobile devices more

The primary barrier to people using data services appears to be price. This price will certainly go down in the future. Here are some questions to think about:

• How will this affect my marketing efforts?
• Will my current marketing efforts be sufficient in a world where mobile devices are used as often as large screen stationary devices?
• What will have to change and why?

On weekends, map-based services are used equally by mobile and desktop devices

When William Gibson said that the future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed I always thought he meant geographically (better cell phones in Asia, for example). But the future could be distributed by any of the dimensions, and here is an example of distributing the future based on time.

If mapping and locality are significant to your business, then you get a free glimpse at the future for two days a week. Make the most of it!

People aren’t different just because they’re sitting in a desk at work.

If people are searching for the same kinds of things from their mobile device as they are from their desktop, then perhaps some beliefs about “browsing habits” are either incorrect or changing. That and perhaps we’re carrying our work around with us all the time with our shiny iPhones and Android handsets.

For those who are afraid of change this last point is at least some solace: What you know about your site visitors now is applicable to a future mobile web world. People aren’t changing what they’re interested in, they’re just moving around while they’re interested.

Image via Wikipedia

Every now and them when I’m giving a real estate blog training to a client I’m asked how it’s possible to keep coming up with posts. I think we all face a certain amount of fatigue now and then. Luckily for real estate bloggers, local events are completely fair game and in the realm of usefulness.

So, in the spirit of my “why blog about the fourth of July” post… here are some real  estate themed Halloween blog post ideas. Try one or two of them out before, during and after Halloween. Get your real estate bloggin’ ideas after the break.

• Coolest decorated house in the neighborhood. Don’t forget photos.
• Best street to get awesome candy. Don’t forget photos.
• Where to park when you go to attend any Halloween events (like Halloween parades and so on).
• Any actual haunted houses in your locality? Do an interview with someone about it. Maybe with video or audio.
• Any fun Halloween craft events for kids in the neighborhood? Again, video and photos are awesome here.
• Neighborhoods with the most police calls/vandalism on Halloween.
• Neighborhoods with the least police calls/vandalism on Halloween.
• Any local traditions around Halloween (Cabbage Night anyone?).

So there you go. Remember that the idea is that people will find these posts via search next year too. This is why having pictures or video is great. So if you’re writing about something that is going to happen, take pictures when you’re there and update your blog post after the event. So people searching next year can see what fun it is (or isn’t).

Image by plemeljr via Flickr

By now you’ve already heard about Google Earth coming to the iPhone. And yes, it’s awesome and fun and cool. But you’re a marketer at the end of the day so you’re looking to find a way promote your real estate or other business online using this newly enhanced tool. Before coming up with some internet marketing tactics that might be appropriate for the Google Earth-enabled iPhone, let’s look at a few concepts related to this combination of mapping and mobile technologies. Video after the jump.

Local without the hyperbole

For some time, internet pundits have been talking about “local” and when no one seemed to respond then they started talking about “hyperlocal” (when driving gets dull try hyperdriving!). The concept of Local is about delivering results when knowing about location increases the relevance of the results.

The real estate industry is an obvious example where information is more valuable when it’s location-aware   than location-numb. If you know about the schools/neighborhood/employment/scene etc then you know something valuable to anyone looking to buy or sell real estate.

But real estate isn’t the only industry where local information or knowledge is valuable. Any physical-only business should be firmly woven into the internet representation of a locality. Think about restaurants, car dealerships, news outlets, museums and colleges etc etc. I could go on and on. But all of these things contribute to the quality of “local” and can benefit by being present in the digital representation of a locality.

Google is the de-facto digital representation of locality for most areas. When people want to know about a location they ask Google about it first. And Google has a variety of platforms for delivering that local information.

Good marketing is relevant

While “local” is an expression of information quality, “relevance” is perhaps more dependent on delivery. Are you getting the quality information you want when you can act on that information? If so, you’re getting relevant information.

The problem with relying on Google’s database for local information has been that local information is most relevant when we aren’t tethered to our computer.

If I want to gather more context from my immediate surroundings while I stroll down Church Street in downtown Burlington, I’m out of luck. With Google Earth for my iPod (Vermont still doesn’t have an iPhone… I know, it’s a real bother) I can pull in the WiFi, auto-set the location, and the resulting image will include Wikipedia entries and images by default. If I’m hungry I can search for a restaurant nearby and the search results will be overlayed on the map. If I’m looking for a condo… hmmm…

What about plain old Google Search or Maps? They’re already pretty much the same thing right? If I don’t care about physical space at all I’ll probably just use Google Search. Google Maps has the directions and streets for that specific sort of task. If I want a restaurant it will also show me the address. Google Earth doesn’t have the maps or direction-making capability. But it has photos and wikipedia for increasing local context. If I want to get somewhere I’m going to use Google Maps. If I want to know more about an area, I’m going to use Google Earth.

Using Google Earth, I can have local information delivered to me when I can act on it. It’s also a really fun delivery method so that helps too.

4 ways to use Google Earth in your Internet Marketing

Up to now I’ve focused on how individuals might be using Google Earth with their iPhone, concentrating on the concepts of Local and Relevance. How can you use this tool to market your business online?

Caveat: What follows are some nice untested tactics. Using these tactics shouldn’t hurt (in fact, you should be doing some of them already). But I wouldn’t replace a functional internet marketing strategy with the handful of tactics which follow.

1. Ensure that your Wikipedia entry exists and is up-to-date. Google Earth for the iPhone will show Wikipedia entries that are relevant to the section of Earth that is being displayed. A tip here: if you go in and create your Wikipedia entry with what sounds like a press release you won’t get very far. The editors are quick and thorough. Be certain to cite any and all claims you make and respect the Five Pillars.
2. Get your images of your business into Panoramio. By default, Google Earth will show little squares for images that are relevant to the section of Earth that it is displaying. Make sure your place of business is one of them.
3. Get images of your products into Panoramio. This might be easier for something like real estate, where the product might be a house or condo. But you can use this internet marketing tactic for other products as well. But keep to the spirit of Local when you do so: photographs of your product in relation to the landscape/locality. Show how your product is a part of what local means. Also, one picture isn’t enough. Lots of pictures. WIth tags and descriptions. And a Panoramio username/profile that also markets for you. This one will be hard for me as I’m a big Flickr fan.
4. Get to work on your plain old Google SEO. Google Earth for the iPhone or iPod allows users to perform a search that is limited by geography. Make sure that you are well ranked for the search terms that are relevant to your business.

These four tactics should tie into your existing profile-marketing, image-marketing, SEO and reputation management strategies. Any other ideas?

Image by alliance1911 via Flickr

[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.

So… uh… 3.0?

Yeah, so the whole Web 2.0 thing is old as dirt and probably not helpful. And I won’t claim to have any special understanding into why this conference is called Vermont 3.0 but my guess is that it is tongue-in-cheek. What I do know is that everyone had a blast last year. And it was a great time for tech/geek pros to hang out, jobseekers of all ages to see what sort of tech and creative jobs were available in the Green Mountain State and for connections to be made. If you want some serious thinking about a “web 3.0″ you’ll have to read cleverer minds than mine.

Conference Dashboard?

I got this idea from Chris Brogan who got it from Christopher Penn. Chris P. started out with a sort of mashed together dashboard in iGoogle to help him monitor social media, competitors etc for his business. Basically just take some feeds that are relevant to your business (some news, maybe some Twitter search feeds, etc) and put them on your iGoogle page. Pretty straight forward and smart.

Then Chris B. the idea to make his own personal dashboard for conferences he’s attending. He’s got maps and weather and all the things Chris P. had but with a focus on an event not a topic.

Now I’m hacking that idea to make it open and public. So we have the event feed items, plus the public discourse feeds and user generated content feeds. And then I’m just making it for the purpose of being a public, semi-curated space for gathering all content that is created around the tech jam.

As we all know, what happens in the hallways is often as or more valuable than what happens in the workshops and panels. By making it public and known to people, the intention is for participants to self-organize around the event and those who can’t make it to the Vermont 3.0 Creative/Tech Jam can find a one-stop spot for getting a feel for it.

Take a look at the Vermont 3.0 Creative/Tech Jam Dashboard.

Making the Vermont 3.0 Creative/Tech Jam Dashboard

I chose Netvibes as my platform. Not for any particular reason. I don’t have a ton of experience in any of these personal start page services so I think I just went with Netvibes because I liked the layout. While making the dashboard I encountered a significant challenge:

There are tons of widgets for adding content, but they are horribly organized. Want to find a Twitter feed search tool so you can just show Tweets that are hashtagged for your conference? Try wading through the 1000 or so Twitter widgets, 10 at a time all named more or less the same thing, half of which work. Want a map for the event location? Again, four or five which are all named about the same and not all of them work.

I have a feeling the entire “app” and “widget” space is due for a significant UI overhaul because I have the same feeling when I’m getting apps for my iPod Touch (I am, in VT after all and we’re still iPhone-less). To make things simpler for next time here are the Netvibes widgets I used:

• Twitter Search (search for “twitter” when making your page… I couldn’t find a reference to this from the Netvibes blog. I used this
• The generic Feed widget. I used this to handle the blog search (for “Vermont 3.0″) and the blog feed of the official conference site.
• The HTML “essential” widget for the logo and link to the official site.
• The Weather “essential” widget to give the weather for the conference town.
• The Maps Search (you’ll have to search again to find it) to give the location of the event. I found the Yahoo Maps to look nicer than the Google one so that’s how I defaulted it.
• Then there was the media column with Flickr and Video search. Right now the Flickr is just set for VT until I can take some photos and tag them vt3 or something so there can be more specific images.

When you’re configuring your widgets, make sure there is a “save last search” checkbox and that you check it. Otherwise you’ll spend a bunch of time configuring your widgets only to have them default back to searching for something you don’t want.

As a first attempt at this, it’s a little bit of a mess. But I think it should work out alright. Anyone else doing this? Got some tips for using these dashboards?

Let’s combine two ideas: Current Events and Local

Blogging about current events is always a good idea. It lets people know you’re listening and can add some context or value to the conversations that are occurring every day. When those events repeat on a regular basis this gives us some added incentive to write about them because there’s a predictable pattern to the number of people giving attention to the topic. Today I’m going to use the Olympics as an example.

Being “local” could mean the obvious: write about your nearby geographic zone. But it could mean your special niche or directly relevant topic. Today I’m writing mostly for my real estate readers so I’m going to be using the geographic kind of local.

And let’s also make it relevant

There are lots of ways we could try to stuff the word “Olympics” into an article. Then we’d get a lot of traffic looking for generic Olympics information and those visitors wouldn’t be happy and then they’d go away. Not much point in that. Let’s make articles that are Olympic-themed but also provide value for the people you most want to serve. In today’s example I’m using real estate buyers/sellers/watchers. But I bet you can synthesize this into your own industry.

Olympic-themed blog post ideas for Real Estate “Local”

• Any Olympic athletes grow up, live or train in your neighborhood?
• Any Olympic training facilities in or near your neighborhood?
• If someone wanted to train for the Olympics in your neighborhood, how would they get started?
• Any team leaders, coaches or trainers for the Olympics active in your neighborhood?
• How about Olympic gear and equipment manufacture or purchasing options? I can tell you from experience that getting a properly set-up biathlon rifle is not something you can do anywhere.

Notice how all of these ideas involve connecting a current event back to your area and gives some insight, context and value to someone who is truly interested in the Olympics. Also notice how it will help you position your neighborhood in relation to the Olympics and athletic competition. You might get a long tail conversion, but at the very least you will be adding good content about your neighborhood to the web. Search engines like this very much.

The strategy here, as you might guess, is to get the attention of readers both now (current event) and in the future (people who will make decisions based on how your neighborhood relates to the current event). This is an example of a content-planning strategy that makes use of the long tail marketing concept.

Examples of good Olympic blog posts:

Zillow, making use of it’s position as an aggregator of information, tells us about the state with the most Olympians in the 2008 Olympics. Talking about the state and cities brings us some local aspects, talking about the Olympians inserts their brand into the current events conversation. They even provide some additional value by linking out to the source that identifies the home of all the Olympians.

Feeding a small tidbit of news/gossip, The Real Estate Bloggers, lets us know about Olympic hero Michael Phelps’ recent condo purchase. Olympic content? Check. Local information? Check.

Perhaps taking a tip from Zillow, Lynne Pope further segments that California list down to the athletes that are in her market area.

Might be time to get ready for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

This blog post is dedicated to my colleague Scott Nellé who wanted to skip work today so he could watch the basketball game.

Image by found_drama via Flickr

Coming up with stuff to write on a blog is one of the constant challenges facing new (and even not-so-new) bloggers. Here’s one quick idea my US real estate blogging readers might be able to put to use within the next week: Fourth of July. Apologies to my non-US readers; please follow along and find the right synthesis for your country and let us know what that is in the comments.

Why should Real Estate bloggers write about the Fourth of July?

What does Independence Day have to do with real estate? How can you move property or get listings by writing about it and photographing it?

Long Tail tactics for real estate

If the web marketing strategy for your brokerage or agent site involves developing the Long Tail then blogging is a natural tactic. Keeping a blog will naturally develop useful search terms over time. But you already know this because you’re here, reading the Internet Marketing and Tech for Real Estate blog.

The Fourth of July happens every year, right? That means every year there comes a time when the Fourth of July is a popular search term. So out of the gate you know that someone is interested in your topic every year.

Local, local, local

Real estate blogging has the capability to really succeed on local information. It’s hard to get much more local than specific neighborhood information and data. Luckily, the Fourth of July, while a national event, is celebrated on the local level. There are often parades, fireworks, street fairs, sales and all sorts of local events that happen every year in the neighborhoods, towns and cities where real estate is bought and sold.

Images beyond Real Estate

The festivities surrounding the Fourth of July tend to be excellent photo opportunities: parades and fireworks are always colorful and fun. Give your readers a chance to look at something other than house interiors just this once a year.

How to make a great Independence Day blog post (or series) on your real estate blog

Ok you are going to be in business longer than just one year so you get why the Fourth of July works. Also, you’re looking forward to the chance to show off what you know about your local area. And finally, you know that good photography always helps. What next?

Plan ahead

You probably know well ahead of time where the fireworks displays are going to be, when and where the parades will be and so on. How about a post that lets everyone know where to be and when to be there in order to have the best time. Maybe you know a great spot to watch the fireworks or a good place to park the car or a great place to get treats for the kids on the way. It’s your local knowledge so put it to use. And let people know in advance. Make a blog post that answers this question: What’s the best way to enjoy the fourth of July in this area?

Shoot some pictures

Photograph any good parades or daylight festivities first. Then get ready for the tricky part: shooting fireworks. Here are three tips that I use to shoot fireworks:

1. Use a tripod. Jiggling the camera will absolutely mess up your shots.
2. Use a cable-release. See above.
3. Set the camera to manual focus. You’ll miss the first couple shots getting your camera focused on the right spot, but after that you should be alright.

Those three should get you pretty well situated, but for a full list of great tips for photographing fireworks read this link.

If you give shooting fireworks a try and it just doesn’t work out, you could always cheat and use stock photography. But you should at least shooting fireworks a try, it’s fun.

Update your pre-4th of July post with your pictures or make a post-4th of July article describing some highlights and including your fireworks pictures.

Get even more real estate focused

Helping people enjoy the celebration will be great for your pursing your Long Tail strategy but what if you want to stay more focused on real estate than the ideas above?

1. Are you selling a house with a great view of the fireworks? Maybe you could shoot the fireworks from the property so the future owners know what sort of fun view they are getting.
2. Are you selling a property within walking distance of a prime viewing spot? Let people know by updating the listing remarks a few weeks before the 4th of July (you might want to revert to your previous remarks a few weeks afterwards).
3. Do you help people buy or sell in a neighborhood with an excellent parade or fireworks display? Let your customers know about it.

Wrap up: 4th of July real estate blogging

There you go, some thoughts on how to gear up for Independence Day on your highly local, long-term, long-tail real estate blog. And the best part is, I bet you can repeat this process for more than one holiday or festival in your area.

Was this useful? Anything I should be adding?