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Awarded Most Innovative Media 2009
About Transparent
Pat Kitano authors Transparent Real Estate. I'm currently co-Founder, Managing Principal of Domus Consulting Group, a management consulting firm working with real estate brokerages, media/publishing companies, and Web 2.0 companies to develop social media strategies, and with venture investors on new business models.
Since graduating from Cal Berkeley (Geophysics) and Columbia University (MBA), I've been involved in four competitive industries - films, investment banking, internet technology and real estate.
I'm a regular speaker and commentator on real estate industry and technology issues and am always on the lookout for a "transparency" angle.
I welcome contributors... or just send interesting items to pat (at) TransparentRE.com
TRANSPARENT REAL ESTATE
Twitter accounts being suspended for no reason
It's unfathomable why a number of Twitter accounts were suddenly suspended by Twitter this evening, even the LA Times Top of the Ticket account @LATimesTOT. First, Twitter has credibility to uphold. Second, if Twitter management didn't authorize some or all the suspensions, then they have a hacker problem.
From Mashable:Twitter gets a black eye from this episode, and it's a wakeup call for the masses to understand the fragility of the social media system. Hope Twitter can clear this up soon. Anybody in the real estate Twittersphere get suspended?
What if you’ve been suspended? The best thing to do is to inform Twitter through either their Twitter Spam account or by sending a request through their Customer support system.
How a Real Estate Brokerage can connect with their community through Breaking News
We're developing a new broadcast product for real estate brokerages based on our Breaking News concept that will position them as the hub of their communities / city. The prototype is at Breaking SF Housing News.com.
How it works:
Cities are subdivided into neighborhoods or suburbs. Agents within a brokerage learn to use Twitter to broadcast updated housing information in their focus neighborhoods.
The brokerage's agents' Twitter feeds are
automatically loaded into the neighborhoods and added to the "Realtor Directory". Other local merchants can
participate by neighborhood; for example, restaurants can tweet out
their lunch and dinner menus (see today's Boston Globe article about Restaurants on Twitter), and make the Breaking News site a compelling community presence.
We're already in development in several cities. Although it only takes a few hours to set up the Breaking News site, it requires educating agents on how to Twitter and use the site effectively. If you're an owner of brokerage interested in creating a community service that highlights your agents' Twitter broadcasts on the housing markets, contact us @pkitano or via the Retaggr contact button on the right sidebar.
How it works:
Cities are subdivided into neighborhoods or suburbs. Agents within a brokerage learn to use Twitter to broadcast updated housing information in their focus neighborhoods.
We're already in development in several cities. Although it only takes a few hours to set up the Breaking News site, it requires educating agents on how to Twitter and use the site effectively. If you're an owner of brokerage interested in creating a community service that highlights your agents' Twitter broadcasts on the housing markets, contact us @pkitano or via the Retaggr contact button on the right sidebar.
Marketing is Content - a Case Study at NCI
Dan McCarthy at Viral Housing Fix examines how online marketing has evolved into a content strategy. Simply put, social media has changed the definition of what the mass media used to control - content. Now that content has become an aggregation of voices, it is everywhere and uncontrollable. Marketing strategy that used to be focused on controlling the brand image is now focused on "herding" the voices.
Dan's thesis on how to develop a social media marketing strategy is revealing... traditionally, the costs associated with brand management - marketing collateral and their production are high, but content production was minimal. Social media forces management to realign marketing resources to content management. Planning once devoted to brochures is now moved into building Facebook pages for brands as content conduits.
Companies that embrace this new way of marketing are still rare because it's hard for both management and staff to do three things: 1) give up control of the brand message by allowing other voices to create the message, 2) create content themselves about who they are and what they do (it's a big challenge to expose your intellect out there), and 3) get everybody on board with the social media program. I expect those companies like Zappos and NCI that break this mold will be equipped to set strategies and execute much faster than their counterparts.
Dan's thesis on how to develop a social media marketing strategy is revealing... traditionally, the costs associated with brand management - marketing collateral and their production are high, but content production was minimal. Social media forces management to realign marketing resources to content management. Planning once devoted to brochures is now moved into building Facebook pages for brands as content conduits.
Companies that embrace this new way of marketing are still rare because it's hard for both management and staff to do three things: 1) give up control of the brand message by allowing other voices to create the message, 2) create content themselves about who they are and what they do (it's a big challenge to expose your intellect out there), and 3) get everybody on board with the social media program. I expect those companies like Zappos and NCI that break this mold will be equipped to set strategies and execute much faster than their counterparts.
Join us at Inman Connect 2009 in San Francisco
The Breaking News Network has secured a discounted group registration rate for Real Estate Connect San Francisco 2009! Deadline to register at this discounted price is June 19, 2009. See full conference program here »
Save $490 when you register through this page* Use the code "BreakingNews” when you register to receive discounted price plus Inman premium members receive an additional $100 off the rates below.
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|
After June 19th |
Discounted Price |
Savings |
|
Register
for Full Conference » |
$939 |
52% |
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$859 |
54% |
Can't-miss events at Real Estate Connect:
- Connect Create: Witness a 48-hour hackathon in progress, with teams of computer programmers competing to develop a new "killer app" for real estate.
- In
"From the Ashes: The Housing Market in a Post-Crash World," a
panel of experts will highlight and forecast opportunities emerging in the
wake of the housing crash.
- Connect Launch Pad: CEOs from new companies will give you a sneak peek at new online real estate applications.
- Technology and Media: Media convergence is here. Learn about innovations in new media, the rise of the Amazon Kindle digital multimedia reader, and trends in the "widgetized" Web and local mobile tech.
- Start-Up Alley: From their garage to you ... View demos and talk to the innovators behind the latest start-ups in the real estate space.
- Workshops:
Bloggers Connect, a must for social media enthusiasts and gurus alike;
Connect Tech (new), a geek-centric session for technology officers,
developers, entrepreneurs and product managers to talk tech; and the
Internet Marketing Summit, which delivers marketing strategies for real
estate agents and brokers, are offered as three separate programs to kick
off the conference.
- Plus, we’re a 2009 Innovator Awards Finalist!
Click here to view the full program
Making Training Programs more Efficient
We have always believed online training and webinars are the most efficient way educate companies and organizations online and social media marketing. It's natural to demonstrate online marketing concepts on a webinar.
After experiences with massive education of companies and organizations, we now understand that live webinars are best used to deliver "breaking news" concepts and ideas. We noticed our "basic training" courses- step by step tasks like how to use Twitter or Facebook - were more likely being viewed by participants on replay, not live. And this is natural; rote training is most efficiently delivered to participants in a "taped" format.
After experiences with massive education of companies and organizations, we now understand that live webinars are best used to deliver "breaking news" concepts and ideas. We noticed our "basic training" courses- step by step tasks like how to use Twitter or Facebook - were more likely being viewed by participants on replay, not live. And this is natural; rote training is most efficiently delivered to participants in a "taped" format.
|
|
Educational media |
Challenges |
Benefit / Efficiency gain |
|
up to 2007 |
Face-to-face |
- Requires physical presence - Limited to local participation - Schedule conflict problems - High cost structure --- Venue expenses --- Trainer travel |
- Most personalized, participants engage F2F |
|
2007-present |
Live Webinars |
- Schedule conflict problems, but participants can view "recorded session" at their convenience |
- Can participate anywhere - National participation - Very little costs - Personalized, participants engage using webinar chat or Twitter (#domus) |
|
Today |
Live Webinars + Canned content |
-
Teaching the same basic tutorials over and over in a live webinar is
not efficient. Recording the basics makes training and studying more
efficient for both coach and student. |
-
Same benefits as above, but it's more efficient to hold live webinars
to broadcast breaking news and new ideas and to store basics in canned
content for 24-by-7 viewing |
6 things I do to limit my time on Twitter to 20 minutes daily
Despite following 17,000+ Twitterers, I have systemized my time on Twitter to make it an efficient networking tool. (Disclaimer: I do spend much more than 20 minutes on Twitter during the days I use Twitter for our #domus webinar workshops).
- Broadcast great content and links - Whenever you see a great article or tweet, share the link to that article in a tweet. 8 articles retweeted per day = 5 minutes
- Ignore your general timeline of tweets - Use Seesmic or PeopleBrowsr to separate the people you want to follow. There's only ~100 on my watch list. Of course, don't totally ignore the timeline, sometimes interesting tweets will catch your eye. Paying no attention = 0 minutes
- Follow up on DMs and @replies - Twitterers that start conversations with you welcome a response, even a short acknowledgement. Many who find you have shared business interests that can be leveraged into intimate business conversation quickly. 15 replies per day = 7 minutes
- Thank or acknowledge Twitterers who retweet or #followfriday you - See #2 in the first list. Many Retweeters want to get to know you. Show them some love by either retweeting their tweets back, starting a Twitter conversation with them, or just a simple "thanks for retweeting!". I guarantee they will love the acknowledgement. 10 retweets per day = 5 minutes (I'm not consistent with this).
- Be reticent - This is really based on personality. I'm not prone to chat, so I don't get into those long threaded chats you see on Twitter or blogs. If I were naturally garrulous, I may be spending hours on Twitter. In any case, most Twitterers who get to know me realize this is my personality and accept the fact that I'm not going to get into bar talk or what I had for lunch. 10 conversational tweets per day = 3 minutes
- Use Twitter like IM - Twitter is great for passing quick ideas back and forth or for chat box purposes like "are you free for a phone call now?". The bigger ideas and discussions happen in multiple sentences, so don't hesitate to pick up the phone or email. Not on Twitter = 0 minutes
Become a Real Estate Examiner for Examiner.com
On Media Transparent today, I discuss Examiner.com, a hyperlocal blog network that is recruiting blog writers for a variety of topics within a city. If you're a real estate professional writing a blog, I would recommend applying for a spot as the Real Estate Examiner or Mortgage Examiner in your city. In San Francisco, Alex Clark of The Front Steps has grabbed the Real Estate Examiner spot, and republishes his blog articles on the Examiner. This is one example of the "write once, distribute/syndicate everywhere" concept.
Examiner.com is another sign that the mass media (the Examiner was once San Francisco's prominent second newspaper, but now is just a freebie print in this market) is engaging the social media to act as their journalist sources. BTW, I've joined as their Social Media Examiner.
If you'd like, please apply at http://www.examiner.com/refer, and use me as your referral source, just find me by name or ID # 13126 (there is a Referral Program for Examiners that runs through June). Thanks! Find the Real Estate Examiner spot under the category "Neighborhoods & Culture"). If the Real Estate Examiner spot is taken in your city, you may want to become one of the neighborhood examiners.
Cyberhomes Market Forecast - More for agent marketing than consumer curiousity
Cyberhomes Market Forecast is positioned as a consumer service to evaluate the state of the market in their neighborhood.
But it's really a marketing tool for real estate agents going on listings appointments. Altos Research provides customized market reports by zipcode that agents could pdf and bring to appointments. Now, Cyberhomes has leveraged its Fidelity title plant to "personalize" the report down to the address.
I ordered a report on a property in a Central Valley town. The results were so explicit, I realized I couldn't display the report on the blog. The depth and breadth of the data is impressive and a focus of conversation on a listings appointment. Here are some excerpts:
Forecasts on foreclosure rates by zip code are valuable:
The reports seem appropriately priced at $10 each.
REBarCamps vs. 140 Twitter Conference
After attending numerous REBarCamps (REBarCamp Philly starts tomorrow) and now a part of the new 140 Twitter conference, I can make these observations:
What is surprising is how well attended and vibrant REBarCamps are, and how the level of social media savvy of many real estate agents exceeds the social media experts who haven't applied theory to practice. I know many real estate social media folks get pretty bored at traditional Web 2.0 conferences.
| REBarCamps | 140 Twitter | |
| Focus | Business practical | Developer and marketing focus roughly equal |
| Weakness | Wide variation of social media expertise from newbies to leading-edgers | All things Twitter is a narrow topic. Already knew of most interesting applications |
| Sociability | Everybody knows each other, one big family | Social media more fragmented into cliques |
| Networking | Easy because everybody knows each other | Easy because Twitter introductions are welcome |
| Utility | Everybody on same wavelength - common business interests facilitate opportunities | Twitter and conference participant "tags" make it easy to find people with common business interests |
| Average age | 50 | 30 |
| Participants | No Twitter developers at REBarCamps and no real estate agents at 140 Twitter | |
What is surprising is how well attended and vibrant REBarCamps are, and how the level of social media savvy of many real estate agents exceeds the social media experts who haven't applied theory to practice. I know many real estate social media folks get pretty bored at traditional Web 2.0 conferences.
Facebook Virus Alert
I notice there is a virus attack in Facebook that started at 8:14am PDT. It will send a status email like this:
Update on FB phishing scam via Mashable: http://mashable.com/2009/05/21/arepsat/
Patrick sent you a message.Don't click on the link, and change your password. My account was not hijacked, and I could change the password.
Subject: Hello
"Check areps.at"
To reply to this message, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/etcetcetc
Update on FB phishing scam via Mashable: http://mashable.com/2009/05/21/arepsat/