09:57:07 | 2012-07-02
(New York, NY) MARKETING — Recently my friends at Google released a video that caught my attention and here is why.
Working in the real estate industry as a marketer taught me the importance of providing tips and valuable information to real estate brokers on how to maximize the use of their personal real estate profiles on their respective brokerages’ websites.
So since this area has become much more crucial to success, let me guide you with some proven tips and strategies. Every week, I will be teaching you, along with some of my friends at Google, Facebook and Twitter, how to maximize the use of social media tools with some simple methods and tips to kick start your social media reputation.
There is no doubt that each and every day, we spend 75% of our time using these application and social media platforms. This opens the door for immense opportunities for the social media savvy real estate broker to vamp up their deal flow. With all of the clutter and fluff information that has become custom nowadays, I will help you cut through the chaos and get to the root of the information that is most important for your business.
Let’s start this week with Alexi, Head of Search Quality at Google. Alexi will give you some key points for creating great content that actually works in improving your search rankings. After, I’ll guide you through those points and explain how you can apply them to your personal profiles, so let’s take a look folks.
“Think about what your site is really about”, says Alexis. Too many brokers are writing their profiles based on what the colleague sitting next to you or someone you follow have written on theirs or you’re just writing your broker told you to include on it. So let’s follow Alexis’ checklist and see how it applies to our business model.
Original Content: Let’s start with your bio; maximize the potential of it, make it unique and never, ever look at the one for your colleague sitting next to you or someone else in the same field. We all know it is hard to come up with an original statement. If you need examples, look at industries that are similar to yours, like finance, and see what elements you can apply to the real estate industry. In this way, you will stand out from the clutter and come across as unique.
Provide a personal touch, link yourself to the real estate area, and make sure to include information about where you live or have lived.
Also, the content overall should be short enough to appear almost anywhere. Too dense, your readers will lose interest.
Use your bio as an SEO advantage– a great bio should have links. If I love a post or a piece of content, or I am inspired by a line I read about someone, I should have the opportunity to learn more ABOUT IT. That’s why those links exist.
Co-citation is important here. For example, if I use the words “NY Real Estate” and “New York Real Estate” together, there is a much better chance that over time, I’ll get Google/Bing to recognize that the two are related.
Be Different: With thousands of listings on the New York market, it’s difficult for someone to stand out from the crowd. But here is what you can do to break through the clutter. In many cases, listings are so similar that sometimes Google can interpret it as duplicate content. The problem is that it is difficult for search engines to decide which version is more relevant– if there’s one broker at Prudential with a listing in the same building as the one at Corcoran for instance. Most techniques to help you address this issue rely on your digital marketing department (webmaster), but implementing the following can help you without the assistance of your marketing department. First, linking internally throughout your listings could help a lot. For example, you could have a listing at XxX Park Avenue linked to another listing in your profile such as xXx Central Park West. Second, you should minimize similar content in all of your listings. Third, video and audio are important. In today’s world, copy is not enough. Google is learning how to index video and audio, and thereby giving you a wider net to cast for possible search terms. What you have to do is learn when to use each of these tools.
For videos, I’m a fan of creating relatively short videos (1-5 minutes). Audio works great for any tutorial you would like to offer as a real estate broker, but I’ve found that the best podcasts are those that feature two people talking, which make it far more interesting. So get your partner involved, develop a podcast, and embed it on your profile.
Uniqueness: “What you can bring to the table that nobody else can or already has”, says Alexis. In my opinion, it’s not what you sell, it’s what you believe. Try to list or go after listings you believe in because that belief and passion will be reflected in how you market the property on your profile. It strengthens your confidence, giving your prospective buyers, sellers and renters a sense that you are confident in your product and that you have a sense of ownership over your product (this creates loyalty). A great way to projects this on your listings is by disclosing your opinions and directions around your listings.
Who are you: “So, do I have a strategy to keep going?” Are you thinking, “I am already successful with my current internet marketing”? Prove it. Ask yourself, “does my current online profile deliver the highest possible results?” By asking yourself things like this, you can determine whether you are on the right path. Think about it, and I certainly assure you that you will find areas that you might fall short in and can make changes to in order to increase your results.
Why you? Think of yourself as an influential broker, and project that in your profile, meaning your bio, and every listing listed on it. An influential broker projects certainly characteristics in their online profile. These individuals develop relationships with influential people and colleagues—which establishes credibility for your brand and reputation as a professional. Here’s how you can make a big impact on your profile as an influencer: ask someone in the industry to write a blog post / article about you and link it to your profile. Remember to include that link in all of your listings. Keep your published articles connected to your social accounts, and social accounts connected to your company profile. Actively help others with advice not just on your listings, but on real estate in general. Let them know that you are an expert in your niche. And lastly, research and discover great about each of your listings and share it. This makes your product interesting.
Alert your viewers: Whenever you have a new listing or have new information or updates about the industry, alert potential clients, as well as your colleagues in the industry. They’ll be impressed by how up to date you are with the latest on the market– making you go from zero to hero. Create a reason for your colleagues, prospective clients, past closings and others to go to your personal profile everyday. Things you can do: run a promotion and post it in your bio, offer a daily motivational quote, and most importantly, be consistent with posting new content all of the time.
Keep a blog: Do you have what it takes to write a blog? While almost anybody can set up a real estate blog, not everyone can take that real estate blog and turn it into a quality content machine that ultimately ends up creating results for your profile and translating into new deals.
Here are some tips for your real estate blogging and sparking creativity:
-Change your environment– work from a café or restaurant for a change of speed to spark creativity
-Stick to an idea and make sure that your article stays focused on the subject at hand
-Post fresh content every day
-Read other industry blogs for ideas to improve yours
-Determine real estate needs to write about and ultimately tie in your listings, qualities and assets that make you a good broker, and interesting information about your listings such as their history.
Keep it clean: Remember to refresh content periodically. Google’s Freshness Update, places greater emphasis on ranking fresher web content for search keywords. Here’s what you can do for your listings:
-Refresh your listings on a monthly basis
-Making changes on “important” areas of your listings will signal freshness to Google more effectively than changes made in less important content.
-Remember as content becomes outdated, folks spend less time on your profile.
Conclusion
The goal of a search engine is to return the most relevant results to users on content that is valuable. On your part, this requires an honest assessment of your own content. What part of your site would benefit most from relevant content?
Old content that exists simply to generate page views, but accomplishes little else does more harm than good for the web. On the other hand, great content that continually answers a user’s questions may remain fresh forever.
Be fresh. Be relevant. Most importantly, be useful. See you next week.
—Email davidr@citinsider.com
