Author Archive
This guest post written by Lake Travis waterfront homes specialist, Sam Chapman.
Need Photos?
Many real estate agents building web pages or writing blog posts use photos. Some “borrow” photos from other websites either not understanding copyright laws or just completely blowing off intellectual property rights. This is not only wrong, it is theft. So where does a real estate agent go for photos if they don’t have any of their own that will work for a web page or blog post?
One excellent resource is Wikimedia Commons . Wikimedia Commons is a site that applies Creative Commons rules that allow people to use various media files in legal ways. Creative Commons defines various licensing options ranging from full copyright to public domain. The creator of a file, whether it is an graphic image, photo, video, or a sound clip, can post the file at Wikimedia Commons and tell potential users how the file can legally be used.
Many images are from various sources like some government agencies that may not be subject to copyright laws and that may place the images in the public domain. A photographer can release all claim to a photo by declaring that it in the public domain. Aside from public domain, there are various levels of licensing and each image or file at Wikimedia Commons will have a description telling people how a file may be used.
So if you need a photo and want to make sure you are using it legally, go to Wikimedia Commons and enter a term in the search box. Click on a photo that is returned that you like and read the conditions under which it may be used. You will find a database of almost 7 million files there.
Keeping Social Media Fresh
If you’re using social media like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, you need to provide information that your fans or followers find useful and that may generate discussion.
What’s the secret to finding fresh content for your real estate social media? Let someone else do it for you!
Get to Know Alltop
I attended the 2010 Social Media Success Summit. It was a fantastic conference. One of the speakers was Guy Kawasaki. Guy’s bio is much too extensive to repeat here. Suffice it to say that he’s an outstanding social media guru, among other things.
Guy is the co-founder of a website called Alltop. Alltop is a news and information aggregator. After the Summit, I was developing our new Social Media Control services, and spent time determining how real estate professionals could make use of Alltop.
One thing I noticed was that there was no category on Alltop that focused on the residential consumer. I contacted Guy and he kindly agreed to create a new category on Alltop.
Check it out. You’ll find that the Homebuying category at Alltop contains feeds about home buying, mortgages and home inspections.
Build your own Alltop page with selections from the Homebuying category, insurance, home improvement and any other topics your target market would be interested in. Maybe even things from the Holy Kaw category for some light-hearted information that will break up real estate content with things that will make your contacts smile and show more of your personality.
Once you have your own Alltop page put together, you’ve taken the first step toward Social Media Control! If you don’t think you have the control you need yet, learn more about Social Media Control, or give me a call at 888-716-2418.
This guest post was written by Chicago Lofts specialist, Mert Sahinoglu.
Real Estate professionals spend many hours on many different wireless connections. Here are three branding opportunities for both private and public internet connections.
Wireless Home/Office Internet Connections
For your office create two connections:
-
Secure password protected for office use only.
-
Wireless hotspot public access.
Add a signal reinforcement device to make sure that the signal can be received well outside your office. Name both channels with your website domain name(s) (especially the public one). Branding your wireless hotspot is a great goodwill gesture that will remind them of your brand every time they turn on their computer.
Bluetooth Phones
Agents who use Bluetooth phones should name their Bluetooth profiles as their domain names. Especially in crowded public locations; people who have similar Bluetooth connections scan for other Bluetooth profiles frequently.
Public Computer Connections
If you ever visit an Internet café, a university or a library public computer; turn the default home page of all browsers on the computer to your website. There is nothing like free advertising for your real estate site in a public Internet access area.
This guest post was written by Chicago Condos specialist, Mert Sahinoglu.
Here are some offline website branding techniques that every real estate professional can apply. Some are very untraditional.
Home/Office Roof
Your Real Estate Office/Home-Office Roof should have your domain name on it. It is great branding for airborne traffic as well as Google/Bing Map Satellite view.
Car
Many real estate professionals already place their website on the side of their cars through stickers. There is one place they miss: the License Plate Frame. No better advertisement in the city or highway traffic jams.
Voicemail/Phone Listing Ads
Make sure that all office/cell phone voicemail messages and real estate listing presentations have your domain name in the message.
Phone Number
Get your phone number to have your domain name (800-real-estate-domain-com). Anything up to a 7 letter domain name should avoid confusion.
If your domain name is quite long (such as buildrealestateresults.com), you can consider getting a short URL. For example, buildrealestateresults.com could be brer.fm. You could advertise it as 1-800-1-BRER.FM. The short domain version of your site can also be used for Twitter links & other social media branding.
Real Estate Office Supplies
All your real estate office supplies should have domain name branded on it. Especially pens and notepads that get “relocated” by your guests.
Donate Domain-Branded T-shirts to Clothing Drives
Donate T-shirts/Caps to clothing drives that aim at the local poor in your area. It is a tax write off and a free advertising. Oh, by the way, you should sometimes wear your own domain branded clothes too.
Brand Your Dog or Larger Pet
All Clothing worn by your dog should have your domain name branding.
What other offline real estate website branding techniques can you think of?
Note from Kathleen:
Mert, the telephone example is really unique. I did a search at GetRealEstateDomains.com (a Godaddy registration site we sponsor), for BRER.com.
While that one is taken, of course, the search always shows alternatives, and there were quite a few. BRER.biz for example, (although it’s not available any more) BRER.tv, BRER.us, etc.
On the screen with the alternatives, there are some tabs under “We also recommend”. Clicking on the International tab brought me to even more alternatives. So, if your desired short name isn’t available, look for alternatives you wouldn’t ordinarily use.
Naturally, you’d always want to keep a clear, .COM name as your default for SEO and to ensure that folks who can’t remember the abbreviation can find your site on a .COM domain.
Now, my only problem is that the acronym for BuildRealEstateWebsites.com is BREW. And, looks like all the beer drinkers of the world have already snapped up all variations of that one!
Whimsical Wednesday: Newspaper Corrections
· Comments
Newspapers are supposed to be well-researched, well-written and well proofed. So, it really makes me smile when I see the corrections the papers are forced to publish. Here are a few that might make you chuckle.
Apology: I originally wrote, “Woodrow Wilson’s wife grazed sheep on the front lawn of the White House.” I’m sorry that typesetting inadvertently left out the word “sheep.” [So, you're calling Woodrow Wilson's wife a cow, huh?]
We apologize to our readers who received, through an unfortunate computer error, the chest measurements of members of the Female Wrestlers Association instead of the figures on the sales of soybeans to foreign countries. [OK, give me a break. This one is way past a computer error! Even computers aren't that dumb!]
Just to keep the record straight, it was the famous Whistler’s Mother, not Hitler’s, that was exhibited. There is nothing to be gained in trying to explain how this error occurred. [Evidently, someone on the paper has a problem pronouncing Ws. Probably the opposite of the problem experienced by Elmer Fudd]
In one edition of today’s Food Section, an inaccurate number of jalapeno peppers was given for Jeanette Crowley’s Southwestern chicken salad recipe. The recipe should call for two, not 21, jalapeno peppers. [Unfortunately, there are still a lot of folks in town whose mouths are permanently scarred.]
The marriage of Miss Freda vanAmburg and Willie Branton, which was announced in this paper a few weeks ago, was a mistake which we wish to correct. [Do you think it was Freda and Willie who put in that correction?]
Our newspaper carried the notice last week that Mr. Oscar Hoffnagle is a defective on the police force. This was a typographical error. Mr. Hoffnagle is, of course, a detective on the police farce. [Isn't it written somewhere that two wrongs don't make a right?]
From a California bar association’s newsletter: Correction — the following typo appeared in our last bulletin: “Lunch will be gin at 12:15 p.m.” Please orrect to read “12 noon.” [Some days, a correction just isn't worth the effort, evidently. Maybe more gin would help.]
Corrections & Clarifications: A recipe for Italian Breaded Chicken Parmesan on Page 2G of Wednesday’s Food section suggested beating the chicken with a small mallard. That, of course, is incorrect. A mallet would be a better choice. [I agree. It's never a good idea to use one bird to flatten another.]
Have a great day!
