I smell it on the on the wind and it’s not last nights fish.  It’s a change in how people search and find information.  Sure people are still using Google, Bing and Yahoo to find stuff, but that’s starting to change.  People are letting the news find them. I mentioned in a previous (How Online Video Is Discovered And Other Musings), that with online video 55% of content is found not by searching for it but referred by the social network.

Intelligence Group did a little research and during a focus group session one of the participants, and Gen Y Millennial, stated, “If the news is that important, it will find me.”, BOOOOMM!!!!!

I doubt that student had any idea how profound that statement is.  It means that his social filter, friends, family, sphere of influence, will let him know what he should know.  He does not SEARCH for it, it SEARCHES for him.

Ever wonder why Social Media is so important for you business.  There’s the answer, “If the news is important, it will find me.”  Yep, I’m dropping the knoweldge bomb.

If your listings need to find a Gen Y, which will be very soon as they are starting to enter the market, and they rely on the social web to provide relevant info, how will you reach them.  I’ve said this before, up to this point we have seen a slow change in how Realtors find clients.  But Gen Y Millennials are a new breed, very different from any consumer in the past and they are just about here.  Young Gen X’s have given us a taste of what’s to come, making social media enticing enough from a business perspective to dip our toes in.  But Gen Y’s are a legion of consumers, and they research, and consume differently.

So let me paint a picture of the change to come.  Baby boomers, retiring and (sorry Boomers) dieing.  Many have already downsized, they are slipping out of the market and will continue to do so.  Gen X’s small and sadly we’re not that relevant, this includes me.  Gen Y’s are just about in the market.  So you have old school Boomers which you can still reach old school ways, leaving quickly.  Gen Y’s new school communicators, which will need a new marketing methodology, filtering info via social connections, entering the market quickly.

That spells a quick and took you by surprise change as over a 10 year period your marketing which worked for the last 50 years, become ineffective.  With two exceptions, those of you who have built a strong referral based business, and those of you learning to build a refferal based business via social networks.

See you’re going to need to be part of the social filter, or your news will never find your possible customers.  Remember, “If the news is important, it will find me.”

Look, I’m a SEO guy, I’ve been preaching, “Get a Google Top Ten Listing, and Pay Per Click campaign, amen!” but the truth is Search will not cut it.  Early adopter sites are seeing the change now.  Twitter and Facebook are referring more traffic to tech news sites than Google.  The march is on and that Gen Y army of consumers is slowing marching across the internet, sure there not on your doorstep yet, but they are coming, and so is the change.

Photo Provided by: Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Basically, what you see in the chart below and the link to his post  is when people are on twitter or on any other social network the way to gain more followers is to talk less about yourself.  We already know this.  If you go to a party, the more you talk about yourself the less people are interested in what you have to say.

This is particularly true on twitter, the people that have more followers tend to talk less about themselves and more about events, news and relevant information that fits in context with their followers.

So keep that rule in mind when posting on your blog or any other social networks.  Talk less about yourself and more about things that are interesting to the people that might want to follow you.

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To some up, video is huge, we knew that.  But 45% of video is direct traffic or searched for.  Which means the person knew what they wanted.  BUT, 55% is found randomly, completely by accident.

That’s a huge realization, because it means that you need to create a massive net to capture views and an audience when starting out.   Even to make a successful viral video, you need to seed wide, very wide.  Your Twitter accounts needs to be huge, your FaceBook account needs to be huge, you need media buys and pay per click.   Just so you have enough people find it for it to spread.

That’s not the only insight from this report, which I linked at the top of the post.  From a small business or Realtor stand point, it highlights what needs to happen in the coming years.  As Gen Y prepares to buy their first homes, you’ll need a plan to beyond simple search engine optimization, or a FaceBook page.  You’ll miss out on 55% of the possible buyers because I think the lesson related to online video are transferable to most internet content including your products or listings.

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It comes as no surprise that more companies are shifting the budget to Search and Social Media, but it’s always fun to look at the numbers and then give my ever so observant opinion about what I think they mean.  Yes I know, you all hang out around your computers waiting for the witty and insightful words that stream from my blog posts, pleeeaasssee.

One of the most impressive points made in the report is where the money is being taken from.  I figured I would see most money shift from traditional print media.  But instead 40% were shifting 1/5th of their Direct Marketing budget over to Social Media?  I have to say, I’m not sure I understand this, an dit’s entirely possible I misunderstand it but Direct Marketing is usual a very accountable marketing medium, you only do it if it’s profitable, so why take money from it, take it from less accountable mediums.  You know the ones that tell you to advertise for a loooooonnnnggg time, because it’s the only way to see results.  They’re the same ones who have all your money before you realize the money you spent was wasted.

I digress!

Another really great point was that 57% of surveyed companies were planning on investing in engaging personalities to be their online voice that starts and continues conversations online.  I think this is a great move, if these personalities are given the freedom to truly engage.  Typically for larger companies this is pretty scary stuff, they tend to want everything to go through the PR department.  But the fact the companies are thinking beyond the box is hopeful.

The talent pool is growing as well, with layoffs in the journalism world there are great writers that can start to build careers as Engagement Creators. By the way I’m claiming that term!  I don’t want to see someone at a party attributing it to Steve Jobs, Seth Godin or Gary Vanerchuk.

For those of you that wish this whole process of social media was simple, well you’re not the only one.  In fact, 70% or respondents work with 3 or more vendors to make Social Marketing happen.

The lesson here is that Social Marketing has a cost. That cost is staff, experts and services which sub in for advertising costs you would have other wise spent. Unless you can get Meekakitty(youtube) to promote your product for free.

The report insightfully notes that Social Marketing needs to evolve, you can’t have 5 managers, controlling relationships with multiple vendors to create one on one experiences and engagements.  A sort of integration needs to occur, but the industry is to young, traditional marketing vendors don’t know how to co-ordinate the efforts for their clients efficiently yet.  All this is true, but also waiting in the wings for the best solutions leaves the door open for competitors to walk in and steal the next generation of consumers.

I don’t have the answer either, but  you can bet I’ll be thinking of one.

One such solution is the Customer Engagement Agency, they co-ordinate creative, data, media, delivery and technology as describe by Alterian. The term seems to have caught on, a quick Google search shows several agencies building offerings around the concept.

The report also mentions companies are having trouble finding good agencies to handle online and offline marketing.  Hmmm, no surprise there.  I would imagine the marketing agency are having trouble figuring it out themselves.  There’s a shift in thinking between to two methods of marketing, mass message vs micro message.  I can’t imagine a company being excellent at both.  It’s like a passenger airplane company being great at co-ordinating a taxi company.  Both are transportation but require unique skill sets to run efficiently.

I’m not going to go through the whole report.  You can read it directly from them and get it from the horses mouth.  But my key theme I want mention is social media has become a common place marketing avenue.  When Facebook holds more consumers than the United States Population you better sit up and notice.  Basically, you have a large nation of cross border users all communicating within a single medium.  That’s big, really big!

98 million people watched the last Superbowl, 1.6 million walk through Times Square daily, Facebook has 400 million users engaging daily.  Maybe this Social Media thing will catch on after all?

As Jean Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise was so fond of saying, ENGAGE!

You can download the report at: Alterian Annual Social Media Survey

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It points out why we need fun, and how to go out there and have a good time with work, family and life.

What things do you do to make sure you have fun?

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If they don’t see your opt-in form, or the link for your listings, or the free buyers guide you’re providing then you’re pretty much dead int he water when it comes to generating leads.

So do I have a tool for you! Yep, it’s free and I even made a nifty video for you to watch!

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With social media being the rage today, and a full gaggle of people preaching about how they can help you, you have to ask yourself what do I do?

Well what a great question, and I’m not going to answer it for you.  I will give you some thoughts on twitter which you may find interesting.

So the story starts with:

An interesting thing happened to me on my way to the net today! I was doing some reading on the ole Twitter, and ran across a message about Fauxlowers? What is a Fauxlower? Well let me tell you.

It’s a fake follower, someone who follows you just to have you follow back, they have no interest in what you say. Doesn’t that just get your goose! Yeah ok, anyway.

So a number was tossed around something like 62.5% of all twitter followers are Fauxlowers. Which lead into a huge discussion about engagement. Now when I mean huge discussion, it was really me talking to myself, because I work at home with my cat, who really does not care about engagement.

Anyway, if a large percentage of your followers are only following you so you follow them and no one really cares about what you are saying, then have you accomplished anything or are you actually speaking to yourself and your cat. The answer is, sort of and not really.

Take a look at this really technical graph.

What you are seeing here  is a representation of engagement.  The only thing that matters in any marketing effort, especially from social media.

As the number of followers increase the percentage of people who respond decreases.  So if you have 10 followers maybe 1 person responds, 10%, but if you have 1000 followers then maybe 10 respond, only 1%.

So are you better to have a smaller group with a higher level of engagement, Fauxlowers.com says probably, but I say NO.  You still want as many followers as you can get.  I’m going to clarify that, you want as many targeted followers as you can get.  If you’re a Realtor in Miami, you want as many people looking for and living in Miami, as an example.

For two reasons:

1. More followers means more Social Proof that you are worth following and have something interesting to say.

2. More followers still means more engagment. 1% of 1000 is more than 10% of 10.

However, you still need to make an effort to interact, and as your followers grow it becomes a lot more difficult to be personal.  Which is where Twitter Lists comes into play.

What’s the moral here, probably don’t talk to your cat as much.  But if you want more great info about this subject go to Fauxlowers.com and subscribe to the newsletter, they have some great back issues and some good info on what happening in social media.

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Most are small businesses that deal within a specific local area. So even though there are opportunities with SEO, we often also look at the other forms of marketing they use to reach and communicate to both current and prospective clients.

I call it mining. Because, not every person is looking for your service, you need to dig for your client and treat them like gold.

Most small local companies, use the newspaper, radio, maybe television. Some do Direct mail, some do newsletters, some of have a website.

But when I ask them do you have a database of your clients email addresses. I often get blank stares. They’ll spend thousands on all sorts of media, but forget to send and extremely cost effective email newsletter out to their current customers and prospects who have given their permission to receive information.

I understand the problem, there’s a technical barrier here. How to send them out? Am I spamming? What do I write about?

All really good questions, but lets review how any business grows.

1. Sell more products to more people.

2. Increase the amount you sell to the people you already do business with.

3. Increases the transaction value of each sale.

That’s pretty much it.

When you create an email newsletter, or postage newsletter, you’re looking at improving step two. Which is one of the most cost efficient methods to increasing your business. These people already do business with you, they already like you, they already trust you. They are loyal to you and the last thing you want to do is ignore them.

So here’s what you do, start asking for email addresses, in person, on your website, on the phone. Ask Everywhere and build your list.

Use something like Constant Contact or Aweber, both are easy to use, keep you CanSpam compliant and won’t cost an arm or a leg to use.

Then here’s the format I want you to use when mailing.

1. Short message from you.

2. Relevant Article.

3. Item of value, something like a coupon for a restaurant. Make a deal with a local company to include them in your newsletter.

4. Create Offer with a Call to action. Something complimentary to one of your key products or a new product release with a request to call you or go to your website for more info.

That’s it. BOOM, newsletter done. Don’t worry about fancy, worry about implementation, you can make it fancy as you go.

Now get out there and grow!

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We’ll cover those problems in this episode! So stayed tuned and grab a seat!

You can find the rest of the series here: Building a Real Estate Web Presence

Don’t forget your comment and questions.

P.S. Would you like your website reviewed for tips on improving conversion and traffic? Just send a request or comment.

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Bridget the Owner/Founder was gracious enough to let us review her site for the learning of all. Please take the time to visit and peruse it! I just wanted to say peruse.

You’ll see how she can improve some of her SEO factors and perhaps capture a few more leads from her site.

Enjoy!

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