BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Tag: twitter (page 1 of 1)

February 11, 2010

What if Twitter and Facebook go Away – Do you have an Exit Strategy?

by

Mortgage Systems Samurai

Author website

Chris Pearson is a pretty smart dood.  He’s the developer of the Thesis theme that I use on all of my blogs.  It’s a pretty cool premium theme…but I’m not here to pitch WordPress themes.

Yesterday I received and email announcing some proposed changes in the next version of Thesis and in this email it included a link to a Video interview with Chris Pearson.

For the first 3 minutes, most of the talk is about changes to the Thesis theme….and then it gets interesting.

He starts to talk about the future of Twitter and Facebook and poses some very interesting hypotheses.

Here’s the video (can’t embed the vid for some reason, so check it out and come back) – go ahead and jump to about 3:08 to get to the good stuff.  Then, let’s talk about it.

Chris Pearson Interview - The future of Twitter and Facebook

Ok, so Chris brings up some pretty interesting points right?  I mean, think about how massive of a push there is for the RE.net to jump into the almighty Facebook Fan Page and Twitter stream life rafts to float safely to the shores through turbulent real estate seas.

Do you think that Facebook and Twitter care how or why you contribute content?  No, they could care less.  These are popularity contests to see who can get the most groupies.  Once these communities gain celebrity status, they are finally in a position to execute on their end game…..find an investor.

What is an investor going to do?  Use the traffic to the community as leverage to sell advertising or sell subscriptions to generate revenue.  Do you think either of these sites will ask you first if it’s ok if they use their platform for this reason?

Remember when Facebook tried to change their terms of service to say that all of the content on the site was 100% owned by them and could be used any way they see fit?  Do you really think that just by changing the verbiage in the terms of service that it changes the way they view your content?

I know there are hundreds of Twitter and Facebook snake oil salesmen out there crafting the next great real Read more

September 22, 2009

Making the Numbers in Real Estate Marketing Add Up

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

In a recent Bloodhound post about Twitter (only Brian Brady could write the third post in just over a week on the same subject and generate so many comments!) there was a comment on marketing numbers that so intrigued me I felt compelled to respond in a post rather than a comment.  It’s been my experience that many of us do not accurately calculate the numbers when it comes to our marketing.  This should really come as no surprise – numbers and especially statistics can be beguiling and even misleading.  But if we’re not tracking and calculating our marketing efforts correctly, we’re just shooting into a dark room hoping we’ll hit the target.

The numbers quoted (or maybe it was just the idea) are credited to Larry Kendall, but they provide an interesting opportunity to work a real world example of marketing in general and Twitter specifically.  For this exercise I am pulling some examples from the actual comment, but just about every one of us has made this type of calculation before.  I follow each with a slightly different view.

I want 50 local people that I can really connect with (on Twitter).  If I have 50 people and they each know 50 people, I have a pool of 2,500 people.  Not quite.  It means you have the potential to reach 2500 people, but it’s unlikely.  For the purpose of calculating marketing numbers… you’re reaching 50.  This is akin to speaking at a seminar filled with 50 people from the neighborhood and assuming you’ve reached all 2500 people in the neighborhood – you haven’t.  If, on the other hand, you send a direct mail piece to all 2500 people in the neighborhood, then we say you’re working from a pool of 2500 potential clients.  Is it realistic to think all 2500 read that mailing?  Of course not.  But our expected conversion numbers take that into account.   The expected conversion numbers are simply based on a pool of 2500.  A pool of 50 will generate no usable statistical model from which to base a marketing campaign.

If the *normal* turnover rate in my local Read more

June 15, 2009

The Case For Twitter, Really Fast

by

Instigator, anthill kicker.

Author website

House Hunting? in Ohio?

or maybe

LandLord Problems In Pittsburgh?

What if your:

“Rate Went Up”

maybe you want to

“Look At Another House”

Whatever you do, don’t be a “Stupid Realtor”

These people are BEGGING for some help.  They are SCREAMING for it. And you can fish though and find some phrases in your area that will get you houses this week.  And you gotta fish a little bit, but seriously?   What the hell else are you doing?

Search.Twitter.com and a little elbow grease and a friggin’ phone call is the way to go.  Betcha you can get tweetdeck loaded on a computer, run about 10 searches near your area and throw 65,000 in GCI.  And I’ll betcha you can do this without having to talk to any idiots.

These are people with their hands up.  And the first person that clicks through and responds on their website or not JUST on twitter…they are the differentiators.  They are the ones that get to date the prom queen.

So…loads of people are needing a deal.  A connection.

Make that, and get real paid.

May 6, 2009

Twitter? I barely even know ‘er.

by

Database Marketing Expert

Author website

More speculation this week surrounds Twitter – word has it Apple’s dangling $700 million in front of them.  Well roll me up in saxony carpet and toss me on down the stairs – but I don’t get it.

If I’m understanding this correctly, the object of Twitter is to get as many complete strangers as possible to “follow” you.  In return, you’ll be a swell guy and follow them back.  The next step is to “Tweet” mindless nonsense so your “followers” can ignore you in 160 characters or less.

Now that’s not to say that everyone’s Tweets are nonsense and ignored.  Only about 99.5% of them.  The other .5% are gems worthy of “Re-Tweeting”.  Huh?  I guess blogging’s become oh-so-2006, which is a bummer because I’m just starting to get the hang of it.

As Twitter-mania spins out of control, we have CNN battling Ashton Kutcher in a race to 1 million followers (which got me thinking, what’s Ted Turner’s commission rate on the $700 million?).  An NBA player is reprimanded by his coach for “Tweeting” during halftime of a game.  Oh the humanity!

I have a lot of questions, and I know that the Bloodhound Nation is the right place to turn for answers:  Is Twitter the new SPAM?  What happens when each of us follows 2,500 people and 2,500 people follow us?  Do we then just hire an assistant to sort through our daily tweets?

If you’re pro-Twitter, I’d love to hear how you’re putting it to work for you.  Are you seeing tangible results?  If so, are they scalable – ie:  will they diminish w/ clutter or do you foresee future success as Twitter grows?  Where does Twitter rank in your Social Media hierarchy?

More importantly, is Twitter a fad?  Apparently Apple doesn’t think so.  Where do you guys see Twitter a couple years down the road?

September 19, 2008

… Reality Steps into View … No Longer Living Lies in Paradise

by

Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

Author website

You never know when inspiration will strike you … for me – in the strangest places.

In a comment I posted to Greg’s latest post regarding the irony of our President’s administration’s policies and actions regarding the current financial meltdown, I lamented that when I read the news, blogs and watch the news regarding this domino-effect collapse of our financial markets, I get so angry I can’t see straight.

My partner has banned me from CNN, NPR and talk radio.   This is not good for me – I am not one to sit in silence – at least not for long.

Banned from the TV and radio BUT not the PC!

Okay – to avoid driving everyone crazy, I decided to put my mad DJ skillz to work on Blip.fm – frequented by my fellow Twitterers.  Mindless entertainment – for me an opportunity not to sit in silence.   I love the fact that I can create my own playlist of favorite songs – my own virtual radio station.  Why can’t I download this list directly to my iPod?

Twitter has opened my eyes to so many new tools and sites – time vacuum is the technical classification for toys ..er tools like Blip.fm.

Anyway – in an attempt to clear my mind of the thoughts of politics and dreams lost while living under a sham, socially conservative, laissez-faire regime masked as a wholesale broker, casting a blind eye while stuffing the pockets of special interest, I decided to search for happy, uplifting songs written and sung by my favorite artists – armed with a double single malt scotch on the rocks parked next to the mouse.

My music taste is varied to say the least – open and non-judgmental – truly all inclusive really.  From good ol’ country to techno-80s – classical to jazz.  I mean – come on – how can you not like a song with words like “… I can’t get no satisfaction and my tractor don’t get no traction?”

Okay – maybe it’s just me.

** searching for happy and uplifting songs **

So – I come across a song titled “Fairy Tales” – sung by one Read more

September 8, 2008

Fragments Shored Against Our Ruin

by

CEO, Redfin.com

Author website

Clive Thompson just wrote a brilliant article for the New York Times magazine, describing the cumulative impact of following someone across Twitter, Facebook and other social media. I read it with interest because Redfin has been thinking about embedding our agents’ micro-blogs into Redfin’s site, so that clients can get updates (e.g. touring properties in Capitol Hill) and timely, local advice (e.g. seeing a lot of price reductions in Noe Valley).

But the New York Times article was interesting for personal reasons too, because it speaks to how anti-social people in social software can be.

I’ve already struggled to describe the phenomenon of feeling loved, but by no one in particular, of not-being alone when you are totally alone, of intimacy with everyone (several friends have told their inquisitive mothers to “just read my blog” and I always wonder how that makes the moms feel).

Clive’s most interesting argument is that the cumulative effect of a Twitter feed is larger than we realize. “Merely looking at a stranger’s Twitter or Facebook feed isn’t interesting,” Clive writes, “because it seems like blather. Follow it for a day, though, and it begins to feel like a short story; follow it for a month, and it’s a novel.” 

I’m not sure that I completely agree. A friend of mine once paid $9.95 a month to get a daily voice-mail from Jose Canseco when Canseco was a slugger for the A’s; every day, he mumbled something about working out and washing his hair (nothing about Madonna). It was somehow even more disappointing than we thought it could be.

But Clive’s observation does begin to answer the question people always ask about why anyone bothers to update Twitter three times a day: it’s the only way most of us can write a novel, piece by piece. And it’s the only way most people will read one either, 160 characters at a time. I think his point was that the most evanescent thing in the world, a twitter, might be the most permanent thing we have.

Sometimes it seems like the Internet is an elaborate record of our contradictions, our multitudes, which we can blast off Read more

Inventing Real Estate 2.0

Welcome to BloodhoundBlog, the national real estate industry marketing and technology weblog written by, for and about real estate professionals. Better yet, welcome to the wired world of real estate. We are busily inventing Real Estate 2.0 – technology, marketing, service and salesmanship. Like all Bloodhounds, we are smart, frisky and fiercely independent. We've built a spot on the earth – beloved over all – where each one of us can be who we are, no matter who that might be. We are committed to an idea of excellence that will flush the bums, the con-men and the crybabies out of the real estate industry. If you yearn to have your failures excused, your moral lapses absolved or your boo-boos kissed, seek elsewhere. But if you are sick to death of mediocrity – welcome home. Read all about us, subscribe to our feed and steel yourself for the hunt. We work hard, we play hard, we learn everything we can – and we bow to no one.

Media Contacts