by Brian Brady
Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL
Greg Swann and I are working together, later this week. We’re meeting in Phoenix to do some video work (mostly Q & A stuff), discuss the what we want BloodhoundBlog Unchained to look like, and host a discussion about SMM at the Phoenix Association of REALTORs (with Kerry Melcher).
We KNOW social media marketing works because we’re both busy but we really want to start measuring the efficacy of each effort. BloodhoundBlog Unchained is a labor of love. Our profits have been miniscule but we learn so much from the process of hosting the conference. Hobby or not, we’re still committed to producing the premier three-day workshop, about online real estate and mortgage marketing, in the industry.
One of the reasons Greg and I have such a great partnership is that we approach the same issue from completely opposite camps. Many of you have seen us “do our bit” about filling the funnel vs. pure pull marketing. I’m gonna let y’all in on a secret; we both practice what the other preaches.
I watched the forced registration issue with great interest. I’m spending thousands of dollars to have a similar IDX for mortgage rates developed. Naturally, I want to recoup the thousands as quickly as possible without threatening the customer to the point of having her click away.
I’ve watched people preach expertise about SMM who have never dealt with a bad Yelp rating, never engaged a stranger about their profession on Facebook, and haven’t monitored their blog comments in a year. We’re all trying to find the highest and best use of our time while providing good content for the stranger who graces our websites with a question.
I want those people to become prospects, then customers, then clients, then sneezing fans but I don’t want to spend all day wired to the laptop or answering questions via e-mail.
Our critical mission is to find out what works and what doesn’t. Most of the ideas we develop come from questions in these little workshops we do. People ask us questions and Greg and I try to find the answers. Those answers usually come from you; we observe what you try, swipe it, and try to improve upon it.
I’d appreciate it if you could answer some questions for me. If you have any questions, ask ’em and Greg and I will stick them on our list:
1- How are you engaging with anonymous strangers on the internet? How are you moving them from the wary question to think of you as a trusted advisor?
2-Which online medium is converting best for you? …connecting with old friends and customers on Facebook?…meeting local folks on Twitter? …your IDX system?… e-mail marketing?… blogging?
3- Which offline techniques are converting the online relationship? Why? When? How does it work? More importantly, how does it fail?
4- What social media suck? Seriously, I found Gather.com and AARP to be a waste of time. LinkedIn Answers works for me if I jump on the telephone but it is mostly ineffective. Where did you waste most of your time?
I appreciate your thoughts, insights, and questions. As always, we’re intrigued with how to make this engine run more efficiently, want to figure it out before everyone else, and share it with the finest group of people on the net; the BHB community.
Many thanks in advance for your contributions.
Benjamin Ficker says:
This may be a very Genuine Chris answer, but social media is there to give me names and numbers to call. It’s 2.0 methods with 1.0 follow up that gets deals.
September 8, 2009 — 9:14 pm
Charles McDonald says:
I see a lot of Real Estate Agents conversing with other Real Estate Agents on twitter and facebook. This might be good at some level but typically another Real Estate Agent will not become a client.
Personally I have only had one agent buy a home from me and it was because they were not licensed in Virginia…
(I will be interested to read others comments on this subject)
September 9, 2009 — 7:01 am
Scott Schang says:
Benjamin boiled it down very nicely I think.
For me, SMM is an effective way to engage in more “promotion” as opposed to “advertising”.
I use email marketing to generate interest – no sales pitches ever….more like, “Have you heard about this?”. Interested prospects are directed to a blog that engages the viewer with education, research, calls to action, live interaction – a number of various “opportunities” to connect.
This SMP (social media promotion) vehicle has given me an opportunity to promote myself as an expert in my field. Primarily as an educator with a specific expertise and not a sales person.
The measurable result of this strategy is an opt in data base that I “touch” weekly of almost 10,000 in about a year.
I use Facebook and have a Twitter and LinkedIn account and maybe 2 dozen other sites that are fed through Ping.fm – but i’m not sure I can actually trace any of these as the initiating source that resulted in a closed deal.
All press is good press right? That’s kind of how I see it. You have to be a marketer and promoter first, then an expert in your field second, and finally – you have to be sincere and genuine. If you don’t understand all of these aspects, I would imagine you would find it difficult to realize measurable results from your SMM.
I can tell you this, my marketing strategy is far more complicated and has way more moving parts now that social media is involved.
Brian and Greg, you guys are absolute revolutionaries when it comes to this stuff. I don’t think there is AN answer. I think the answer is that you need to keep asking questions.
It is amazing to me that you are able to attract so many brilliant people in one place so that us sideliners can learn and grow from this Scenius. Good topic
September 9, 2009 — 10:13 am
Ian Greenleigh says:
Here is my answer, written before you asked:
On activerain: http://activerain.com/blogsview/1224723/it-all-began-with-a-tweet-the-social-media-snowball-that-changed-my-life
For everyone else: http://blog.drivebuytech.com/2009/09/it-all-began-with-tweet-social-media.html
September 9, 2009 — 11:22 am
Bruce Swedal says:
I wonder about this question every day. Social media marketing can consume some time and as of now I am not seeing much benefit with it. Probably need to try some new spins with it.
September 9, 2009 — 2:58 pm
Brian Brady says:
Benjamin, you and Chris practice this:
https://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/?p=2467
Scott,
In many ways you are the perfect combination of Greg Swann and those of us in the Brady/GenuineChris/Benjamin camp.
Ian,
Watching you in action was remarkable. Keep doing it; I’m watching (and learning)
September 9, 2009 — 10:03 pm
David Orsini says:
As for prospecting I would say that Twitter has been the best use of time for us. And the beuty is that we don’t really have to do anything. People just find us there, which has been great. I think a lot of times people hear about us elsewhere through our efforts on various forums and blogs then look us up on Twitter for some reason.
But we don’t do a whole lot of prospecting via SSM per say, it is more relationship deepening. And I personally have found LinkedIn and FaceBook to be great tools for that. As soon as you get a new client/prospect look them up on these 2 networks and connect with them. It is just another way to contact them; and find out what they are up to prior to calling them.
I have found FaceBook fan pages to be all but a waste of time thus far… but we are relatively new to that game and haven’t given much effort.
I think our web2.0 time is most well spent on our blog, other blogs (like BHB), and forums.
September 10, 2009 — 6:11 am
Barry Cunningham says:
Bottom line to me is there a defined ROI? It also depends what you are looking for in such ROI? Is it to build a good list, is it to get the word out about business…or is it to chat with friends and associates.
I think that really determines if SMM is worth it or not.
Long since trying to bring the horse to water. If they don’t get it…they don’t get it…why discuss or have an issue with what the competition doesn’t understand?
September 11, 2009 — 10:19 pm