May 14

Do You Need to Take a Course to Learn about Websites and Social Media?

By Jay Brennan Real Estate No Comments »
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Do you need to take a course to learn how to use websites and social media for real estate?

via: creative commons

 

Maybe you should take a course, or maybe not. It depends on what your goals are.

Yes, you should take a course, if:

1.You have a real estate marketing plan.

2. You have a real estate marketing plan that includes people who use computers.

3. You have a real estate marketing plan that includes people who use computers and you might like to talk to (yes, even seniors use computers to look up important stuff).

4. You have a real estate marketing plan that includes people who use computers, you might like to talk to, and your preference is to make a professional impression on them.

5. You have a real estate marketing plan that includes people who use computers, you might like to talk to, your preference is to make a professional impression on them, and you want to translate your social skills into online interactions.

6. You have a real estate marketing plan that includes people who use computers, you might like to talk to, your preference is to make a professional impression on them, you want to translate your social skills into online interactions, and you can type.

No, don’t bother taking a course, if:

1. You prefer to take a do-it-yourself approach to all aspects of your real estate practice.

2. You have social and family connections with knowledgeable people who will give honest input and feedback on your websites and social media for real estate.

3. You do not plan on going beyond casual or occasional use of the Internet.

4. You do not think that there is anything to learn from professionals who work with websites and social media pages.

5.   You are reaching the end of your real estate career and do not need to reach out beyond your current referral base.

6. You only have a short-term or part-time interest in real estate sales.

If you have more questions about whether you should take a course about websites and social media, please let us know how we can help. info@thetouchmarketing.com.

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May 07

Thoughts on REBarCamp and Realtor Quest 2012

By Jay Brennan Networking, Real Estate 2 Comments »
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This has been a busy week here in Toronto, Canada for real estate people and the vendors who love them. REBarCamp was on Tuesday May 1 and Realtor Quest on Wednesday and Thursday, May 2 and 3.

Again this year, it was good to see that event organizers were striving to maintain a balance between the technology enthusiasts and the other important topics that real estate people want to discuss. Even for those of us who are most interested in technology, it was good to hear other ideas.

For example, there were important discussions of trends in real estate such as the seniors market (Cindy Pinkus, Barry Lebow) , cultural diversity (David O’Gorman), and various legal topics.

Here at Touch Marketing, our main interest is with technology. We were rewarded in that there were many vendors and real estate people techies eager to talk about technology.  Alex and Warren of Barcoderealty.com made a great impression at REbar, while of course, following the REbar rules that prevent speakers from selling during their presentations.

The updates to the Toronto Real Estate Board’s MLS system (STRATUS) were an important subject of discussion. Although not quite cutting-edge, the new and improved 2012 version of Stratus provides information in some new ways and allows for cross-browser operation including an app for Ipads and Iphones.

We did see what might be the beginning of the transformation of how real estate people are viewing the newer social media and mobile technologies. The movement is away from the the strange mixture of shock and horror, awe and love. What we are now starting to see is a more routine integration of these technologies into everyday real estate practice.

Communication tools like Facebook and IPads have gone from being new and magical to being tools for real estate salespeople to initiate and maintain real-world relationships.

… And as we always say after conferences, be sure to keep in touch! info@thetouchmarketing.com.

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Apr 25

Ever had anyone complain about you on the Internet?

By Jay Brennan Real Estate, Reputation No Comments »
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Yes, you have.

What is taking place these days between the Competition Bureau and the mainstream Canadian real estate industry (particular TREB) can be understood as a form of online complaint. A key challenge is how real estate listing information will be available over the Internet. It is tough when the government starts to mess with what you are up to on the Internet.

Read anything recently about real estate and real estate agents in online media (e.g. The Globe and Mail and The New York Times)? You might find that the article has been decorated with hundreds of comments about how real estate people are the epitome of greed, evil, and all that is wrong with the world.

Don’t ignore this stuff. Every business has its complainers and needs to pay attention to what they are saying.

 

 

Attacks on individuals are rare and more easily countered with a defense (offer to resolve the issue, let it fade into online obscurity, use SEO to defeat the attack, legal means, and other techniques). We have not yet seen in real estate what happens in other industries (restauranteurs, builders, and retailers that serve large numbers of the general public are susceptible to direct complaints, bullying, or being mobbed with complaints)

It is a good idea to monitor your online reputation in your community (the easiest place to start is to google search your name and real estate office) – and also the online reputation of real estate agents, in general, in your community.

What is taking place with real estate listings information and commission rates beyond your immediate circle of real estate friends?

Are people complaining about being contacted by too many agents, not receiving good customer service, or a lack of ethics or real estate expertise?

Obviously, monitoring online complaints is not the thing to do when you are having a down day. You also want to keep in mind that people are more likely to say something when they are unhappy than when they are happy.

If you need help with your online reputation and managing online complaining, bullying, or mobbing, we can help: info@thetouchmarketing.com.

For more tips on dealing with negative comments, take a look at  Rebecca Mountain’s article ‘The Silver Lining of Negative Comments‘ for Real Estate Magazine (REM). Rebecca talks about some strategies for bringing the positive out of negative comments that people make online about you or your company.

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Apr 20

Spring Cleaning for the Tech-Savvy Real Estate Agent, Part 3

By Jay Brennan Real Estate, Tech Tools & Tips No Comments »
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Your smartphone and laptop serve you day in and day out, and what thanks do they get?

What about your tablets, USB sticks, back up devices, e-readers, music and video players, hook ups for televisions, bluetooth devices, and whatever new and amazing gadget that Apple will be coming out with next.

It is absolutely incredible how well hardware devices hold up under intense use by real estate agents, but you still need to clean and maintain your devices and software.

We are still surprised at how often we hear about devices subjected to coffee spills, extreme heat or cold (the car trunk?), bumped and dropped, employed in dusty and dirty work environments, or exposed to magnetic fields. With horror, we see online and television ads with laptops and devices being used on seaside docks, soft blankets, or perched precariously on someone’s pretty knee.

 

Image via Creative Commons

We recommend the following:

Create and maintain three copies of all your significant data (including photos and video). One on your working device. Another on another hard disk, preferably in a separate location. The final copy in online storage such as Dropbox. Test your back up copies to make sure your data is really backed up.

Do a gentle cleaning with soft microfibre cloth on all your devices. Never spray on cleaning fluids. At most, dampen your cloth a little with  water.

Check for physical damage and wear. Cords, screens, USB connectors, batteries, keyboards, etc can let you down at the worse times.

Install and update anti-virus software on all computers (including Apple).

Update software on all your active devices (not just computers) or remove unused and obsolete software. If your manufacturer has installed some  diagnostic software for your device, learn to use it. Working on software can be tricky. Have it done professionally if you are not sure how.

Let us know if we can help: info@thetouchmarketing.com.

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Apr 10

Spring Cleaning for the Tech-Savvy Real Estate Agent, Part 2

By Jay Brennan Real Estate, Social Media No Comments »
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It is such a sad thing. To visit a real estate blog that last received a new post in 2009. Look at a real estate agent’s Facebook page that has grown dusty with disuse and no new friends. Or to send a real estate broker a Tweet and receive no response. There are LinkedIn accounts with only one connection and Google+ accounts set up and then immediately forgotten.

Does your presence on the Internet look like a rusty, abandoned ghost ship meandering along with the waves…

via cbc.ca

 

 

 

 

 

 

or a sleek yacht sailing with the wind?

via boatinternational.com

 It is time to sink your social media ghost ships and move up to a yacht.

A blog is a great idea. An active and relevant blog can have a powerful impact on your search engine results, public reputation, and business relationships. An out-of-date blog makes you look inactive in the business. Make a decision either to take down the blog or to post at least once a week. If you decide to give it another try, mark 30 days on your calendar and if you have not posted consistently in this time, take down the blog or pay someone like us to do your blogging for you.

So… over the years, you have tried Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Youtube, maybe even Myspace and other social media websites. Of course, you still have the usernames and passwords because you stored these away in safe places (right?!?). You just have not used some of them in a long, long time. Maybe you only opened an account, lost interest, and forgot about it.

Do an inventory of your various accounts and evaluate them for activity and usefulness in your marketing plan. You might choose to refresh and use them, close them down, or at the very least, post a highly visible note telling people to contact you at a social media site, blog, or website where you are active.

At this time of year, our boating friends are beginning to prepare their watercraft for the season. This Spring, choose to have your online public image looking like a sleek, polished yacht rather than a rusty, abandoned barge.

If you need help deleting, updating, maintaining or opening your social media accounts, send us a note: info@thetouchmarketing.com.

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Apr 05

Spring Cleaning for the Tech-Savvy Real Estate Agent, Part 1

By Jay Brennan Real Estate, Websites No Comments »
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Too busy to do spring cleaning for your technology? Don’t have time for it?

Recently, I spoke to someone (who is not tech-savvy or a real estate agent!) who had kept six years of work on their USB stick.

 

 

Guess what? It stopped working. No replacement. No back ups. No maintenance. It is amazing that the USB stick held up so long without being damaged or lost.

Maybe they will recover their information and maybe they won’t.

Your computers, devices, software, websites, and social media pages need regular updates, maintenance, and cleaning.

Today, let’s begin with your websites.

Imagine that a family has been talking about selling or buying a home. It is Sunday afternoon. They know your name and are interested in certain neigbhourhoods.

Search for your name in Google and Bing. Search for your targeted neighbourhoods. Your name and brokerage should come up in both searches. If not, you have no online ‘storefront’ and need to get one.

Going back to our family talking about buying or selling a home. They arrive at one of your websites:

Does it look like hundreds of other outdated real estate websites?
Are your photo and biographical information out-of-date?
Do you have old awards listed? (An old award just reminds people that you haven’t won anything lately)
Is the website cluttered? (because some SEO guru told you it needs to be)
Are your property listings and market information easy to find and fresh for the Spring market?
Is it easy for prospects to contact you by phone, email, social media, and website chat?
Does everything work on the website? Click on every button and link and make sure that they go where you want them to go.

What you want to aim for in the Spring Clean Up of your websites is a fresh clean look with plenty of up-to-date content.

New listings.
Current market information for buyers and sellers.
If you can manage to prepare an interesting and relevant photo and text post at least once a week, a blog.
Current contact information for you.
Interesting and fun information about your targeted neighbourhoods for the Spring Season.

For help with updating your websites (but not with finding or repairing USB sticks), contact us at: info@thetouchmarketing.com

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Mar 29

Have you been ‘borrowing’ stuff you find on the Internet for your Real Estate Website?

By Jay Brennan Social Media, Websites 2 Comments »
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I love real estate websites and social media pages with barrels full of good-quality video, photos, and text.

The reason we do not see much of this? It is a monumental challenge to come up with fresh, interesting, original, local content on a regular basis. So what is a busy real estate person to do?

What about going on the Internet and finding stuff?

Using stuff that you find on the Internet is becoming a big problem. The problem has once again come into focus with the hot new photo sharing site, Pinterest.

With Pinterest, what you do is pin photos on virtual boards that you create. You share the photos with other Pinterest users. The problem is that people are taking photos from here, there, and everywhere on the Internet… and you want to know something? A lot of that stuff belongs to someone! It is not legally ok to use someone else’s material without their permission. If you ‘borrow’ identifiable material from other real estate people, you are asking for trouble. To protect themselves, Pinterest recently changed their terms of service and emailed to users.

This is not the place to go into the ins and outs of intellectual property law, so let’s keep it simple: If a person, place, or thing has a unique identity it probably belongs to someone.

For example, a photo of a tree in the forest, a stop sign, a Labrador Retriever, or the Eiffel Tower will probably be alright. A photo or story that includes someone’s child, real estate listing, or original artwork and design, probably needs written permission.

You can write reviews and commentary about public figures, products, and services (e.g. The Hunger Games, Olive Garden, Obama, or Apple products), so long as you do not go down the paths of slander, libel, or plagiarism.

As in times past, your best options are to make your own stuff or to buy what you need. Don’t take shortcuts.

Note: You cannot follow what you see on the Internet on what to do or not to do. As a professional real estate person, it is more prudent to adopt a higher standard.

If you need photos and text for your blogs, websites, and social media pages, let us know. You can reach us at info@thetouchmarketing.com

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Mar 23

Shopping for Real Estate Brokerage Software, Part 3

By Jay Brennan Real Estate, real estate software No Comments »
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In this final installment on real estate brokerage software, I would like to review two important software building blocks for financial management and contact management.

 

Accounting software is an important purchase, whether you purchase the ubiquitous Quickbooks, Netsuite,  or other general accounting software or an industry-specific offering from a vendor such as Lone Wolf.

Accounting software is a mature product extending back to the origins of business-oriented software, so I do not know of any of the major accounting packages that do not do a good job.

The challenge is that once your company enters all of its data into an accounting software system, it is enormously difficult to move to other onsite software or one of the newer accounting offerings  that you can find in the ‘cloud’.

If your accounting software is aging badly or undergoing price hikes, you are faced with a difficult and costly move.  Unsurprisingly, accounting software companies do not make it easy to move elsewhere. In spite of this, it is a worthwhile exercise to evaluate whether your current accounting software platform will be satisfactory over the next five years. There may be a point where the benefits of ‘getting a new car outweigh the benefits of keeping the old one’.

As for contact management,  we are often surprised at how many brokerages do a weak job of managing contacts. A busy and successful brokerage touches thousands of people each year. Yet, there may be minimal efforts to gather and organize contact information that will enable the brokerage to serve more effectively and profitably.

Some experienced real estate sales representatives may have less than a hundred names on paper or in Microsoft Outlook. The old idea that an agent is as good as their Rolodex seems to have disappeared with the paper Rolodex.

CRM systems for managing brokerage contacts have long been notoriously expensive and cumbersome to set up and maintain. Although for years, we have used onsite CRM systems like ACT!, Maximizer, and Top Producer, we are  excited about the new possibilities and cost savings in cloud solutions such as Salesforce (and customized Salesforce solutions such as PropertyBase), Capsule, and others. These systems are available with email and drip marketing, integration with websites and social media, staff intranets, user roles, and  communication systems and available in ways that are inexpensive and easy to use.

What about integrated vendor solutions vs. separate products for accounting, information management,  CRM, websites etc?

Frequently, software vendors will urge their customers to adopt their integrated software solutions. However, we have not seen that  vendors provide top-tier solutions in all areas. Although they tout the benefits of integrated information flows, this presents security concerns and the challenges of putting all your eggs in one basket with one vendor.

As well, the newer cloud solutions from various vendors tend to play nicely together. The challenge with the newbies is the need to watch the pricing and corporate stability of the vendor. Practically, access requires an Internet connection.

I would love to hear your thoughts about real estate management software, in the comments or privately by email: info@thetouchmarketing.com.

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Mar 16

Five Tips For Managing The Internet During The Busy Spring Real Estate Market

By Jay Brennan Real Estate, Social Media, Websites No Comments »
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In many real estate markets, a fabulous ‘Spring Market’ is already warming up.

 

Through a quiet winter, many agents and brokers have worked on their websites, blogs and social media pages. Now, that activity is picking up, you want to get out there and meet some people and make deals.

So…. just when a heavier number of consumers begin cruising the Internet for open houses and listings and a good person to represent them, many agents will disappear from view on the Internet. Responses to email, completed website forms, and social media messages will slow down. Blog posts will become sporadic and out of date.  Contact management software will go without updates and follow ups. Prospecting activity will decline.

It is as if the shop keeper is so busy with outside sales, that the store inventory gets dusty and visitors to the shop are made to wait.

Of course, there are only so many hours in a day. You have obligations to your clients and to make money for your family. Sometimes, spending time in front of the home computer, plunking out Facebook messages is not going to cut it.

An alternative to letting your ‘online store’ gather dust, is to create a maintenance plan that covers the bases for you:

1. Admit that you have a problem (sorry, couldn’t resist that one).

2. Use a mobile device to manage your websites and social media conversations.

3. Sign up for a aggregator such as Hootsuite that can help you manage multiple Internet venues from one sign-on page.

4. Have an assistant or associate assist you with website and social media management.

5. Hire a service like ours to assist with managing your websites and social media.

Bonus: At this time of year, your competitors might be a little slower to return calls, a little less organized with their calendars, and more likely to be inaccessible. This is a great time for you to step in with current online information, accurate and timely appointment-setting, and crisp, professional online conversations.

For more information on how we can help, contact us at info@thetouchmarketing.com.

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Mar 09

Shopping for Real Estate Brokerage Software, Part 2

By Jay Brennan Real Estate, real estate software No Comments »
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With software shopping, there is never an end in sight. There are no perfect solutions, there are so many options that it is easy to miss something good, and there is always something better coming up just around the corner.

Of  the options that I reviewed, I liked Propertybase the best. (You will notice that I am sidestepping the question of the products that I didn’t like so much).

Propertybase Real Estate Software for Brokers & Developers reviewed by The Touch Marketing Inc.

Propertybase is built on the Salesforce  platform.  “Salesforce has become one of the world’s largest software companies. All of its functionality is offered as an online service, paying through subscription instead of upfront license or purchase charges. User-friendliness and short implementation cycles (usually in weeks) are reported as main advantages.”  From: Software Top 100 – CRM Short List.

Although they have low-cost entry products, for the most part, Salesforce is as slick and expensive as a new BMW Z-4. Salesforce is widely-acknowledged to be of high quality and can come with all the bells and whistles.

Salesforce offers an outstanding suite of online services.  The drawbacks have been a lack of real estate customization and the cost.

What Propertybase has done is put a Real Estate face on Salesforce and packaged it up at a reasonable subscription price.

Propertybase Real Estate Software for Brokers reviewed by The Touch Marketing Inc.

The home screen opens up very fast and a clean and colourful design appears with big buttons for important real estate activities. The main menu offers calendaring activities, contacts, real estate activities such as requests (for indicating that you have clients interested in a particular type of property), offers, closings and listings (with an inbuilt IDX feed), documents, and dashboards.

In the top right hand corner, there is the blue button above which says ‘Propertybase Manager’.  This is a drop down which leads to other useful functions such as ‘email and direct mail campaigns’, content, and Salesforce Chatter.

Salesforce Chatter is a useful intranet chat and communication service that you will find more useful and secure than the miscellaneous instant message services many brokerages are using on an ad hoc basis.

The email and direct mail campaigns are integrated from Vertical Response (VR) and include statistics. These marketing campaigns are available at extra cost.

Propertybase Real Estate Software provides marketing options for your listings

Overall, Propertybase is very impressive. A few provisos: like all business done in the cloud, you need to have an Internet connection to access. There is always concern that the provider may arbitrarily raise rates or that service may unexpectedly deteriorate.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of shopping for Real Estate Brokerage Software.

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