To understand which mediums are actually working for us or at least moving in the right direction, we need to set a baseline metric for each to start from.  I found a website that can help!  Check out the video to learn more.

I don’t even think the term “light speed” correctly assesses the velocity in which things change with technology.  In a blink of an eye something beyond your control can affect the way you reach your target audience…. when you are playing by someone else’s rules.  Case in point – Facebook.

Facebook basically just dropped a bombshell and instantly changed the way we communicate online with their new newsfeed, timelines, subscriptions and a myriad of other enhancements and updates.  BTW, if you need help or want an overview of these changes Chris Smith and Jimmy Mackin did a wonderful job of detailing them in this post Facebook Changes Everything Are You Ready?. 

For the most part, I love the new features! However, if you have a fan page, you might have noticed a drop off in the amount of interaction you are getting on it.  Facebook said they want to make it easier for people to connect on the web.  Great, what about businesses?  If you are a consistent reader of Tech Savvy Agent chances are you may have missed our last couples posts due to “pages” not appearing in the news feed with the same consistency.  I am not getting the same amount of impressions right now and have to work a little harder to figure out the new lay of the land.  Here are a few posts that talk about the same topic with the last post being an interesting read due to their optimism (I share the same optimism in the end).

1. Recent Facebook Updates Cripple Pages

2. Why Is Facebook Punishing Highly Engaging Brands?

3. What Brands and Marketers Should Pay Attention To on the New Facebook

If your Facebook page was your pseudo website and the main way you communicated with your clients because you haven’t diversified enough, these changes could really hurt your business.  Email, Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, Google, SEM, SEO, phone calls, QR codes, texting and print (yes I said it) all need to be used in conjunction with one another to drive people to your home base, which is your self-hosted blog.  That is the only thing that you control!  If Twitter goes away tomorrow and you use other mediums to communicate with your audience, you will still be fine.  If email communication stops working because people are sick and tired of being “dripped on” you’ll be ok.  You cannot afford to put all of your eggs in one basket.  I know there are some really cool Facebook page creation programs out there that do some amazing things, but if your website doesn’t look and perform up to snuff, you need to start there first!  Mark Z. can make any change he wants at anytime and this could negatively impact your business if you are running it off of your fanpage.

Your main objective in your marketing has to be to drive people to your site and give supply them with a ton of quality content that will make them want to come back.  Real estate is no longer a short term transactional game, but a long term relationship building process that relies on your web presence more than ever.  Your self hosted blog is the only thing that you can have almost 100% control over.  That is where your time needs to be spent first.

I don’t doubt everything is going to be ok for Facebook pages and Mark Zuckerberg will come out with a cool timeline feature for pages too, but it just goes to show you how little control you have in this platform or any other one for that matter.  Long live your self hosted blog!

There is a swell brewing which will turn into a massive wave of “hypersocial” marketing for real estate agents.

What’s the definition of hypersocial you ask?  There isn’t a real definition for the term yet, at least not in Google’s eyes as I ran several searches to no avail, so I will give you my version.  This term came to my attention while spending time with Ernie Graham, founder of Social Bios, at Inman’s Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco.  We were discussing his service, as well as Trulia’s new offering and were comparing the two, citing differences in execution.  We started exploring the term hypersocial and this is what came out of the conversation.

Hypersocial - Content that is pertinent and specifically directed/tailored to a subset (aka social circles) of a person’s social graph.  The most hypersocial of content is directed at just one friend or connection.  This content reflects the commonality of the relationship (friends, interests, events, blog posts, news, checkins, etc) and may have direct influence upon ones actions.

Ernie has a firm grasp of this theory because he may have built the most hypersocial service available today.  Ever since our conversation I haven’t stopped thinking about the topic and how agents could leverage this concept in their day to day marketing.

Making yourself hypersocial may be just as important as being hyperlocal.  Over the last few years we have been bombarded with plans on implementing hyper local marketing – “Go after niches, neighborhoods, and subdivisions in your online marketing using tools like blogs, websites, and domain names!”  Why? Because it’s basically impossible to get on the first page of Google for anything else.  An agent has an easier task trying to be number one on Google for these highly localized terms, as the large companies like Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia and all the major brokerages have the generic real estate terms locked up. However, marketing is evolving faster than ever and “social” has taken over and kicked down doors to new ways of promoting oneself.

According to Meteor Solutions “influencers –- those who share your campaigns across their social graph –- can directly influence 40 to 60 percent of all visits to an advertising campaign page.” This is a powerful statistic and one that may prove that a hypersocial mindset will begin to play a part in your marketing plan.

I don’t enjoy talking about theory, most likely because I am not usually capable of clearly conveying my thoughts, so let me provide you with a way to execute a hypersocial strategy right now, without spending a dime. I stumbled upon an insanely simple way (as of the day I wrote this post) to appear on the first page of Google for search terms like – real estate, homes for sale, home values etc. Don’t believe me? Watch the video…. it’s all about your sphere of influence, your social reach, and the faith we have in friends, family, and acquaintances.

About Stephen Pacinelli

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