Excerpt From Social Media 101: Tactics and Tips to Develop Your Business Online
The following excerpt is from the book “Social Media 101 : Tactics and Tips to Develop Your Business Online” (Wiley 2010) by Chris Brogan. The book gives insight on effective use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, and how to utilize them to grow your business.
Social Media Starter Moves for Real Estate
Disclaimer right up front: I’m not in the real estate biz, so I’ll write this from the perspective of what I’ve observed and what might be useful. Some real real estate pro can come and fix this on his or her own blog, and it’ll likely be better. Why would I ever let a simple thing like inexperience get in the way of sharing my opinion?
SHOW ME THE HOUSE The first and most obvious thing I think the real estate world can (and should) be doing is buying video cameras and shooting their own walk-throughs. You don’t have to be a pro. You do have to know how not to make something look horrible, but that comes with trial and error.
PICK UP A VIDEO CAMERA If you don’t yet own a video camera, here are a few thoughts: Most still cameras have a video feature, and that’s nearly good enough. The Flip camera is the easiest and often the least expensive video camera to use. Kodak’s new Zi8 (and related) models have more flexibility than the Flip, but are a bit more complicated as a trade-off. Read more
Excerpt from Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust
Filed under: Book Excerpts, Building Relationships, Sales & Marketing, Technology
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of the book “Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust” (Wiley, 2009) by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. Looking for insight on how to build a good online reputation through social networks that helps boost your brand? This book offers answers on how a business can gain positive influence (and profit) online.
How Humans Shape the Web
Although the general public’s level of mistrust is at an all-time high, there are individuals and companies who do successfully use the Internet to establish levels of trust in the communities where they operate. In the technology sector, a person such as Robert Scoble (circa Microsoft days) stands out as someone who, by the nature of how he communicated about his formerly faceless company, developed a strong level of trust among his online community. In the United Kingdom, JP Rangaswami is managing director of BT Design for BT Group. His blog, Confused of Calcutta, is often about cricket, music, food, and many things not related to a major telecommunications company; yet, because of his stories and conversational writing tone, we trust Rangaswami and have a positive opinion about BT.
Those who are most familiar with the digital space—we refer to them as ‘‘digital natives’’—have become accustomed to a new level of transparency. They operate under the assumption that everything they do will eventually be known online. Realizing they are unable to hide anything, they choose not to try. Instead, they leverage the way the Web connects us and ties our information together to help turn transparency into an asset for doing business. Read more
Excerpt from JUST LISTEN: Take It All the Way to ‘No’
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 22 of the book “JUST LISTEN: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone” (Amacom, 2009) by Mark Goulston. The book outlines the effectiveness of various communication techniques and the science behind how the brain switches from “no” to “yes.”
BUY THIS BOOK
Take It All the Way to “No”
Benefit: Move a person rapidly through every phase of the Persuasion Cycle from resistance to “doing,” by creating agreement where none exists.
Life is a series of sales situations, and the answer is “no” if you don’t ask.
—PATRICIA FRIPP, EXECUTIVE SPEECH COACH
Walter Dunn was one of the top people at Coca-Cola for four decades. Dunn was responsible for getting Coke many major accounts, including Disney and several professional sports organizations.
Walter told me how years ago he tried to get Coke into one of the main movie theater chains. After speaking with the theater representative for a while, he got this response: “Sorry, Walter, the answer is ‘No.’ We’ve decided to go with Pepsi.”
Without missing a beat, Walter replied: “What question did I fail to ask, or what problem did I fail to address, that—if I had— would have caused you to give me a different answer?” Read more
Excerpt From SuccessMapping: 8 Things That Are Blocking You From Success
The following is an excerpt from the book SuccessMapping: Achieve What You Want…Right Now! (Emerald Book Co., 2009) by Arlene Johnson. The book provides a step-by-step roadmap to achieving success and your personal goals.
Here’s a very basic and universal truth: We all have far more potential than we will ever realize. Really, you are wired to experience success in all that matters to you. It’s who you are. So, equipped with your belief in what might be possible and what you next want to accomplish, SuccessMapping will show you how!
The Eight Success Blockers
Even when we strongly believe that we are totally capable to achieve a specific goal, we can stall out and stop taking action before we accomplish what we set out to. What keeps preventing us from starting or completing our most important journeys toward life dreams and goals?
There are eight major reasons-”success blockers”-that can stop you from starting something you want to achieve or completing it once you’ve started.
The Eight Success Blockers are:
1. Neglecting your potential. Not believing that you can succeed with-or, because of multiple options, having no clarity about-what you really want to accomplish.
2. Lack of focus. When your thoughts, behaviors and actions are not “laser-focused” on what you want to achieve.
3. Choosing not to engage. Making decisions that Do Not Help you achieve what you want: When needing to change, choosing to wait and see and do nothing different. Or choosing to oppose or resist engaging in the change opportunity. Read more
Is It Really a Short Sale?
Filed under: Book Excerpts, Legal Issues, Sales & Marketing
Some properties are being advertised as a short sale when they really aren’t in an attempt to lure bargain-hunter buyers. A new book,Foreclosures, Short Sales, REOs, and Auctions: Tools for Success in Today’s Real Estate Market, published by Dearborn, provides guidelines for using the term correctly. Here’s an exclusive excerpt:
There are a number of licensees who are attempting to attract buyers by using the term short sale in marketing property. It is very similar to the furniture stores that are constantly advertising that they are going out of business to draw purchasers. The fact that a home has lost value or that the loan has increased in amount and is now more than the value of the property does not automatically make the transaction a short sale.
It’s important that a licensee conduct a thorough analysis, not only of the property value and loans but of the prospective seller’s financial condition as well. As was indicated, according to some licensees who are experts in the field, only a small percentage of short sales are approved by lenders.
What is to be gained by these licensees who advertise properties as short sales when they really aren’t? The answer is attracting more buyers, of course.
Some licensees are describing properties as preforeclosure listing or short sale and use the terms synonymously. Appropriately, a preforeclosure sale of property would involve one where the owner is in default. The property may or may not be worth less than the loan amount. Read more
Excerpt: How to Avoid the Next Financial Crisis
The following is excerpted from Financial Shock: A 360-degree Look at the Subprime Mortgage Implosion and How to Avoid the Next Financial Crisis (Pearson Education, 2009) by Mark Zandi, chief economist and cofounder of Moody’s Economy.com. Here are four policy changes Zandi recommends to prevent the next financial crisis. Read all 10 in his book.
Policy Step #1: Adopt a voluntary mortgage write-down plan
Many troubled mortgages could be salvaged if lenders would agree to modify them, typically by reducing the principal owed. The borrower would get to stay in the house, the lender would avoid a costly foreclosure, and the economy might avoid falling into a destructive self-reinforcing cycle in which house price declines beget foreclosures which beget still more price declines. Thus it seems both reasonable and urgent to encourage this wherever possible.
Excerpt: Learn About Energy Audits
The following is excerpted from Sustainable Housing and Building Green (Dearborn, 2008) by Marie S. Spodek and Ken Deshaies.
Audits in the Real Estate Transaction
Energy audits are an excellent source of additional information to help sellers, builders, and buyers make quantifiable decisions when buying new appliances or a new home. Tenants also benefit because energy audits allow them to choose energy-efficient rentals. (VIDEO: Watch an energy audit in action.)
Role of the Real Estate Licensee
Essentially, licensees should be the “source of the resource, not the source of the information.” Real estate licensees should not hold themselves out as experts, and they should not promise savings or results from an energy audit. To avoid any hint of impropriety, agents should never accept a “referral fee” from any of these companies or sell any of the products without fully disclosing any relationship to the company. Even with full disclosure, licensees should avoid “requiring” the purchase of any product or service with which they are associated. Read more
Book Excerpt: Power Real Estate Letters
QUICK SKIM
You may be throwing hundreds — or even thousands — of dollars away on direct mail pieces that go straight to your prospects’ junk pile. To make sure your letters are getting read, keep them simple and sincere. That’s just one of the tips that authors William H. Pivar and Corinne Pivar serve up in the latest edition of Power Real Estate Letters: Letters, E-mails, and More to Meet All Business Needs (Dearborn, 2007). “Because direct mail is one of the most costly advertising media in terms of each contact made, you don’t want to waste dollars on mailings that fail to maximize results,” the authors write.
Find out 10 quick ways to make your letters snazzier so they’ll grab prospects’ attention in those critical first 15 seconds. Plus, get advice on how to ensure your letters come across as personal and professional, not as cheap mass-mail pieces.
