Dirk, Maybe you read this today in Inman Reports. This is twice in the same day that I feel I have really heard an honest assessment on social networking.
We get leads because our website is found by Google. Period. We work on it. It is constant work. Content is king. The blogging is good because it does keep the content fresh. I am seriously contemplating giving up the website and going with a custom blogsite. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
This is the first article I have read that I think has totally nailed this subject. Honest, straight forward and exactly my experience.
Realtor Notebook
By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, April 9, 2009.
Inman News
People need to know that social media sites don't sell real estate before they get overly excited and start setting up profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn, and open accounts on Flickr, join Twitter and start a blog.
None of those services sell real estate. It is really too bad because so many good agents are spending their time on the Internet these days. I can give examples of how all of these nifty Web 2.0 sites have failed me. Recently I had a prospective buyer -- we will call her "Mary" -- who had been lurking on my blog. She contacted me one day and told me that she really wants to buy a house.
I have been showing Mary houses for six weeks. I think I have been showing her 10 to 11 houses each week. Mary seems to have developed a severe case of analysis paralysis and at this point I am not all that sure that she is homeowner material.
I have not made a dime working with Mary but she is doing a wonderful job wearing me out and I am becoming more familiar with the housing stock in one St. Paul neighborhood.
Last year I worked with a young man who lives in Texas. We have never met in person but he found me through my blog and asked me to list his condo. I put the condo on the market but from day one there were problems. He had some renters in the unit with below-average housekeeping skills.
Getting pictures of the unit was a challenge, and then there was the issue of the very large dog that had to be removed from the unit each time there was a showing. If the renters were at work and could not go home and get the dog, they refused the showing.
The unit was on the market for two months before the seller and I both decided that it wasn't going to work out. I spent some money on marketing and did all the extra work that needs to be done when working with an out-of-town seller but I didn't have anything to show for my hard work
Some agents call on for-sale-by-owners, do open houses, call on expired listings, distribute fliers, mail out postcards and call people in their sphere. If these prospecting activities sell real estate then it would be best for me to start doing them again instead of spending so much time on the Internet and having so little to show for it in some cases.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, April 09, 2009 6:44 PM
Subject: RealTalk: Re: Market Thaw? - Are you ready? ID00DNPN
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| SEO-Lead Generation Drew Hartanov said:
"Too often, a realtor's self-education about websites is from posts, blogs and comments from other realtors who think they know something because they get a lead or two, or get found for some obscure search term."
Amen to that...I am just waiting for the backlash from the fad-du-jour in real estate, which claims that the "blog and comment your a** off" approach is good SEO/marketing".
Twelve months from now, I can guarantee that there will be a pile of agents who have stopped building this "wall of words", after it becomes too time consuming and too ineffective. Right now it is popular because it's new and there is also plenty of time on hand, and not much cash.
Start closing deals and then tell me how much time you'll have to build that wall of words.
Think about if folks...the people who most actively promote this "wall of words" mentality are the agents who actually LIKE to sit at a keyboard and pontificate on all manner of subjects. Of course they'll tell you that it is worthwhile. Because they believe it. And maybe it is, to some extent.
I've talked to several very successful agents who have ZERO interest in spending their own time in that environment. Yet they get leads from their website regularly because they address their SEO tasks in a straightforward way that does not drain their time.
This question is never asked...is the "wall of words" approach right for YOU as an agent? Do you really understand all of the subtle nuances that made some other agent successful at it? Are you willing to commit hours per day at the task of blogging and commenting across several networks? Once again, I am not discounting social networks. Using them effectively can be valuable. Do that. But posting casual "drive-by" comments for "points" on some real estate network just seems to be an absurd marketing concept, along with the general consensus in some corners that the more words that you write and post the better. Best regards, Dirk Johnson Partner - Operations DomainDrivers LLC djohnson@domaindrivers.com703-406-4698 www.domaindrivers.com | | |
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