Visit Union Street Media on Facebook!

Union Street Media is pleased to have a new Facebook user name account. Visit us and become a fan so we can keep you up to date on what we are up to here at USM.

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

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!

Being an Entrepreneur in the Great Recession

There is an excellent blog post by Bill Taylor I recently read on the Harvard Business School blog that discussed the difference between entrepreneurs & MBA’s and who has the upper hand the economy we now face.  In this topsy-turvey economy, with desperation being the mother of invention, we’re seeing both an increase in graduate school applications and start up companies.

Let me start by saying that I see myself as an entrepreneur. I’ve been one since I opened my lemonade stand to finance my baseball card collection in fourth grade. A number of our clients are entrepreneurs too: REALTORS, hospitality businesses, social entrepreneurs such as Choose Responsibility & Given Limb.  The list is extensive.  There are a lot of people out there starting things and when you start something, you inevitably need a web site.  One of my favorite parts of my job is working with entrepreneurs to help them further their initiatives.

On occasion I have been asked to speak to student groups about my experience as an entrepreneur.  I’ve often said that when one is considering starting a business, they should envision the worst case scenario, which is normally something along the lines of “My business idea fails. I lose money. My lifestyle is negatively effected” etc.  I then ask them if they’re willing to accept that scenario as fact?  If the answer is yes, then I encourage them to move forward with it.

When I started Union Street Media in 1999, my worse case scenario was “the company dot-bombs, I’m 24/25/26 years old, I have a great story and I apply to business school.”  Well, the dot-bomb didn’t happen.  I’m now 32 and still haven’t managed to get to business school.  A few years ago when I was asked to speak to a panel of Tuck MBA’s their first week of class that line got the best response of all. Read more

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.

Swimming in January

In the 1930’s, my grandfather was a member of his local polar bear club.  When asked what it has been like to be in business during the last couple of weeks, I’ve thought of him jumping in the freezing cold water in January.   This economic climate isn’t comfortable, but it has a way of invigorating the senses and washing away complacency.  There will be a feeling of accomplishment when we’re all dried off.  However, we still may be a long way from the warming hut.

It’s not trite to say that those of us under 80 have never seen anything like this in our lifetime and it’s anyone’s best guess as to where it will go from here.  The peanut gallery will entertain an ongoing discussion of how much worse it will get.  This exercise is guestimation, at best.  After hearing NYU’s Nouriel Roubini discuss his prognosis on the future at last year’s Real Estate Connect, one person commented “Well, that’s why they call economics the dismal science.”  The economic tsunami will take out both good and bad companies but there are ways to improve your chances.  While it may sound self-serving, leveraging the power of the internet to grow your business is at the top of the list.

This will be the first recession of the Web 2.0 era.  The Internet today is a very different beast then it was in the days of the dot-com hangover.  More people are online then ever and they use the web for a broader number of services than in the past.  The acquisition cost per client on the web is still lower then offline media.  Campaigns can be made much more precise.  All the results of internet marketing are trackable thanks to tools like Google Analytics.  As a result, when deciding where to trim advertising budgets, business owners are more likely to do it offline.  I believe this trend attributed to Google’s revenues increasing in the third quarter.

Part of my cautious optimism is anecdotal.  Several of our clients have told us that they’re reducing their overall spending but are increasing their internet marketing investment.  We will be releasing a new internet marketing package in November at a discounted rate to help those clients who are committed to internet marketing.  Please contact me if you’re interested in learning more.

Finally, over the last couple of weeks I have been asked by a number of business owners, clients and friends how Union Street Media is weathering the financial storm.  During our staff meeting last week we outlined how we’re preparing to address some of the challenges that we’ll likely face over the next couple of months.  Thanks to our strong growth over the past five years and a prudent, old yankee financial management strategy, we feel we’re well positioned for what may come our way.  We look forward to seeing you in the warming hut!

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