Drew Burks
By Drew Burks
Are You Distracted?
In today’s world most of us are overwhelmed with information, new products, and services, most of which provide little more than distraction to the average person.
As a REALTOR®, it is definitely easy to get caught up in the hype of the latest technologies; after all, most of them are very appealing with the promises of making our lives easier and more profitable. Last week I attended the CAR Tech Tuesday event in Anaheim, Calif. and while there I had many great conversations with REALTORS®, but one really stood out in my mind …
“How does one cut through all of the noise that we are bombarded with to get to the dollar-producing activities?”
CAR added a fun twist to the event this year, they had a “meet the speakers” during a “speed networking” session. This was by far the best part of the day for me. Those of us who spoke at the event got the chance to do 4-minute sessions with approx 25-30 groups of approximately 30 people. The common questions asked by the REALTOR® attendees in these different groups were things like: Continue reading »
Drew Burks
By Drew Burks
Video Marketing Attracts More Clients!
With more than 2 billion videos viewed on YouTube each day, it’s obvious that video is HOT! So why aren’t more real estate pros using video marketing to attract quality home buyers & sellers to their business?
Most REALTORS® tell me that they don’t know where to start or how to create content, so I decided to write a short post to help those who are struggling to move past this obstacle.
- Client Testimonials – think about it! How cool to have past clients on video telling the world what a great REALTOR® you are and how much they enjoyed working with you. I can already hear the objections … “my clients aren’t comfortable doing this or being on camera“. I understand, not everyone will be … BUT a few will be happy to do so.
- Home Buying Tips – record a series of short videos to educate home buyers to important / helpful tips when buying a home. A brainstorm ideas to get you going: explain why they need to be pre-approved.
- Home Selling Tips – record a series of short videos to educate home sellers to the important / helpful tips when selling a home. A few brainstorm ideas to get you going: importance of staging a home, packing up clutter/personal items and removing from the house before putting on the market, establishing the best price, etc… Continue reading »
Jeremy Williams
By Jeremy Williams
Are you looking for a new way to drive traffic and generate leads? Are you working with a marketing budget that has been scaled back? What if I told you that you could do this for free with the exception of owning a computer, simple video building software and a YouTube account? While reading this blog post, feel free to reference my YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/williams4yourhome as an example.
For my business, I use Microsoft Movie Maker software to build my videos. With this software you can import both video and still photos. Microsoft Movie Maker also gives you the ability to add slides, including both title and credits. For the most part I used still pictures in my video and essentially create a slideshow. Using Microsoft Movie Maker, you also have the ability to add music to the video and transitions. Once the video/slideshow is built, the newest version of Microsoft Movie Maker has a button to submit the video to your YouTube site. Of course you will need to have your account established with YouTube prior to this step.
Once your file has been submitted to YouTube, you will want to edit the video by adding keywords to the title, a description including the keywords you used for the title, and tags that reflect both the keywords used in the title and the description. Using this keyword method will help your video be found in the search engines by potential customers. Continue reading »
Drew Burks
By Drew Burks
It’s 11:30 p.m. as I’m writing this, my baby boy is finally sleeping, and all is quiet… and I just remember that I promised to submit a this blog post for YPN tomorrow.
I must admit, I am feeling a bit panicked… you know that feeling of being behind, with time running out quickly. I have one concern as time ticks by quicker and quicker, what am I going to possibly write about that can add value to our readers at the last minute?
So I figured I would surf the internet to see what I could find. I rarely surf the internet, but I just spent the last 15-20 minutes doing so and I found some pretty cool stuff that I found interesting and some even helpful. So allow me to share:
Three YouTube Tricks
1. Cut to the chase & link directly to the relevant part of a video.
Have you ever found a video on YouTube that has something cool or funny you would like to share, but hate that you have to watch the first 4:10 minutes before you get to the part? With this simple trick you can link people to the specific point in the video so they don’t get bored during the first few minutes. You can send them a link and have the video start at 04:10? All you have to do is add #t=04m10s (#t=XXmYYs for XX mins and YY seconds) to the end of the URL.
2. Autoplay an embedded video.
Normally, when you embed a YouTube video, the player is loaded and sits there waiting for the play button to be pressed. You can make the video play automatically by adding ‘&autoplay=1′ to the url part of the embed code. Continue reading »
Drew Burks
By Drew Burks
So what’s all the Buzz?
It is safe to say that I am a believer in social media and blogging! To my surprise, many are not and I know this because I hear from countless people daily…
… “I have a website with a blog, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a LinkedIn account and as of this week I now have Google Buzz but I am not getting any business from them!”
“What am I doing wrong?” they ask.
Before I answer that, let me clear something up for all you non-believers: Social Media is just another tool that you have available AND if you don’t know how to use it effectively you will get very poor results.
Now that we have that out of the way, let me share with you the 5 secrets to attracting motivated clients through social media! They are simpler than you might think. Continue reading »
Brian Copeland
By Brian Copeland
With December 25 only a few days away, it’s a great time to not only think about giving to others but also to consider touching your clients and sphere of influence in an impactful way. While it may be a bit late in the season to pull some of the bigger things off on this list, who says you can’t plan for holiday season 2010?
1. Have a holiday dessert or Christmas tree pick-up event: I hosted a pie pick-up day for Thanksgiving, and it was a huge hit. You should budget $7-$15 a client and try to get them to give you a heads up on whether they are stopping by or not. *FYI, about 50 percent of my clients showed up.
2. Write personal notes using only your MLS production report: Whew! Now, this one was an amazing exercise for me. Sure I have everything in my client management system; but I thought it would be a good test to see how well I remembered all of them and their homes. While I failed miserably in several cases, I still garnered enough brain waves to get the vast majority. Seeing the homes, investigating the information and visualizing it all made me feel extra close to my clients this year.
3. Have a social media day: Find every client you have or have had, add them as a friend on Facebook then spend a few hours writing nice, non-real-estate-related greetings on their wall. A simple, “Hey Chad and Melody. Just wanted to say hey, and I hope you have a great 2010 and beyond.”
(From left) Space Cadet Rob Reuter, Ballerina Shannon Williams King, Nutcracker John Morley and Teddy Brian Copeland.
4. Make a goofy video: JibJab.com always has fun holiday video greetings where you can include other people’s faces on dancing elf bodies. Identify those two or three really fun clients and make a video for them dancing with you.
5. Introduce them to Elfster.com: We all have a ton of parties, gift exchanges and events in December. Elfster is a great way to organize and gift exchange in a social, fun way.
6. Volunteer alongside: Few things bring people together more than volunteering for a charity for a few hours. You can find great opportunities through the Hands On Network at handsonnetwork.org. If you have a local affiliate, you can find it here.
7. Organize a carol-sing-a-long: All of us have that one Broadway diva client who loves to host. Align yourself with him or her for a night of singing and laughter.
8. Upload a holiday greeting on YouTube: Film a 15- to 30-second greeting to everyone. Don’t be afraid to show your personality.
9. Showcase your clients’ holiday décor: Have your clients photograph their decorated tree, homes, mantels, light displays, etc., send them to you and create a special page on your website showcasing them!
10. Hire some carolers: Go to your local church, school or any place where singers may be and hire a few to join you on the main corner of your prime market to spread some holiday cheer. Place a few of your signs nearby lined in garland so they’ll know you’re responsible for the love.
11. Show the pets some attention: Identify your animal-loving clients and drop some gourmet dog biscuits and catnip wrapped with a bow in the mail for Fido and Fluffy’s stockings.
12. Host an end of the year shredding event: With the new year starting, it’s time for everyone to get rid of the year’s built-up clutter. Hire a shredding service and invite your clients over to use the service for a day or so.
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Brian Copeland is a REALTOR® in Nashville, Tennessee. You can check out his websites at nashvilleandbeyond.com and brian-copeland.com.
Stefanie Hahn
By Stefanie Hahn
When you work with new agents (or any agents for that matter) one of the constants seems to be that they are looking for ways to get the best of everything, and are trying to get it for free. If I shared with you some of the MacGyver strategies I have seen over the years you would … but you already know.
So when I sit with these agents there are a few constants – the first of which is to get on board with Google. Not the search engine Google (we can discuss the joys of that later) but the super-cool-productivity-tool-creating Google. That’s right; the team at Google is creating all sorts of wonderful stuff to make your business more productive; and best of all they’re giving it all away for free!
Here is a rundown of some of my must-haves from the Google toolkit. There are so many more, but this is a good starter package for you to consider before stepping into the big time:
1. Google Profile – http://www.google.com/profiles
I know I said I wasn’t talking about search, but who honestly doesn’t want to come up on that first page when their name is Googled? We all do – and setting up a Google Profile should be the key to getting you on that coveted first page of results. How? Your name, a small thumbnail photo and a link to your Google Profile will appear at the bottom of the first page of results. As a bonus, you can tie in all of your other sites, social and otherwise, as well as your photos. If you don’t have a Google Profile yet, stop reading this and go set it up … then come back (please)! Continue reading »
By Drew Burks
Drew Burks
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Blogging …
I get asked this question all the time: “Can I really close more business using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and a blog?”
The answer is YES!
I know that many are skeptical, so I interviewed quite a few REALTORS® to find out what their experience has been over the past year. The evidence is in…
But before we get to the results, I want to answer another question that I frequently get from REALTORS®: “Do I need to be active on all of these sites and how do they integrate with one another?”
The answer is YES!
We are experiencing a fundamental shift in the way we communicate and you need to be capable of communicating with the consumer via their preferred method if you want to survive in today’s business environment.
Your blog is the foundation of your online presence — the destination — and social network sites are like the roads and freeways leading back to your destination.
On to the results:
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