Social Networking for Estate Agents

There was an article in the Times on Friday 21st January entitled "OMG, it's perfect...I'll tweet you a link."

In this article, the effect that social media is having on the property profession is explored, and some of the findings are not new.

Susan Emmett, the article's author, talks about "research" as opposed to "search" and highlights FindaProperty as a website that features articles on the housing market as well as consumer guides.

Having been an estate agent in a former life, and advised many on the best ways to market their businesses via the internet, this idea of providing information is not a revelation. An estate agent's website is not just about featuring properties for sale and to let. The fundamental purpose is to gain the best property instructions in an area, and to be perceived as the best agent in the locality. By providing insightful information, you will be seen as being an expert, having a thorough knowledge of the specific factors affecting property prices and popularity. This, in turn, instils confidence and trust and any discerning vendor needs to have faith in you as a property professional.

Providing information on schools, shopping and leisure facilities, transport links and the like is the first step towards engaging with potential vendors and property purchasers. As a personal view, it projects the personality of your business and becomes an invaluable resource, enhancing your website and your corporate identity on many levels. Your insights are what makes you unique - a vital ingredient when it comes to standing out from the competition.

So, where does Social Networking fit into this picture?

As Susan Emmett identifies in her article, "Social networking sites allow portals to speak to "friends" directly, but also to advertise effectively and free of charge. Through Twitter, we know that Chantelle Gilbert "requested a house price evaluation on zoopla@6am, 5 estate calls by 10am!".

Emmett goes on to say: "By embracing the latest technology, property sites have permanently altered the rules of engagement between buyers and sellers, estate agents and customers."

This latest technology is the "new" way to extend marketing reach, and extending marketing reach is vital to the successful estate agent. Tepilo.com, Sarah Beeny's online property selling portal, sends out a Tweet as soon as a new property is added. When I was selling my own property, it was heartening to see that one of the first viewers came brandishing particulars printed off the Tepilo website.

Starting, and then maintaining the conversation with your potential clients is now becoming increasingly important, particularly if you want to be seen as the agent that offers something unique.

Argent Ram Media designs and develops website solutions for estate agents that help them explore the potential offered by Social Networking. For details, please call 0845 009 5396 or email lorraine@argentrammedia.com

What does a Small Business need from their website?

"Business Link has seen a dramatic rise of enquiries and support offered to individuals considering starting a business. 29%* more 'pre-start' individuals have had help from the Service in the South East in the last six months compared with the same time period last year. Over 14,800 individuals have been supported with information and advice since April 2009."

SEEDA

Typically, as individuals face the realities of redundancy brought about by a recession, many turn their thoughts towards setting up their own business.

Many of these new businesses start off in the smallest possible way - a one-man-band offering services, products or expertise in their particular field.

However small your business, there are key considerations that need to be addressed to ensure the success of the business, and these considerations need to include the way in which you market yourself to your future customers.

This article is aimed at giving the new business, no matter how small, some idea of the best ways of marketing themselves on the internet.

WHAT DOES A SMALL BUSINESS NEED FROM THEIR WEBSITE?

Any business looking to increase their customer base and market themselves effectively needs a website. This is not a luxury any more; it is a necessity. Even if you are a one-man-band, you don't need to market yourself as such. Customers have faith in businesses that appear to have credentials, a successful trading history, happy customers and a proven track record. If you look as though you set up your business yesterday with a budget of £5, there is not escaping the fact that you will be perceived as a "here-today, gone-tomorrow" business, no matter how well qualified you are as a supplier.

There is no doubting that some individuals can just about get away with presenting a business card that has clearly been generated by a slot machine, but if you are serious about your business, do you simply want to "get away" with the cheapest possible forms of advertising?

Your website could be the best investment you make, and it really need not cost the earth. However, it is essential that you think carefully about what it is that you want to achieve through your website.

1. What is your business?

2. Who is your target market?

3. What is unique about you, your products or services and therefore..

4. Why would a customer come to you as opposed to one of your competitors?

5. How do you want to be perceived?

6. What do you want your website to do for you? Generate enquiries? Sell something?

Your business plan will provide most of these answers, but if you don't have a business plan, then you really need to make sure you know the answers to the above questions so that you understand fully what it is that you are trying to achieve through your business in the first place.

Having clear objectives, you then need to think about the key ingredients necessary to make a successful website.

The following are our suggestions:

1. Aesthetics.

Please don't go for the cheapest website solution you can find. A poorly designed site can have a seriously detrimental effect on your business. This is your shop front and the first impression that a potential customer could have of you and your company. As it is, on average, 98% of all website visitors will leave your site without bothering to contact you. Don't increase your statistic to 100%! The way in which you want your business to be perceived will have an impact on the way your site should be designed. A professionally designed site will make your job so much easier.

2. Work.

Make your website do some work. At the very least, visitors should be encouraged to contact you, so you can start to collect some data for future marketing. Offer website visitors something in exchange for their email address and name. Have an area on your homepage where you can feature a special offer or a new product - something that will ignite the interest of your customers.

3. Engage.

These days, your website is not enough. Social Media has exploded in recent months, and one of the new key words in internet marketing is "engagement". You need to engage with your customers in every way possible, and social media (sites like Twitter and Facebook) now allows you to do this in ways not previously possible. A blog also allows you to communicate with your customers in a direct, personal and informative way that keeps you uppermost in their minds. You website, then, should encourage potential customers to follow you in the world of social media, so that you can spread your message and engage.

4. Find.

A professional will ensure that your website is built to comply with latest standards. Having a well constructed site is part of the process of ensuring that your website can be found in the major search engines. But that is one part. There are many facets in successful search engine promotion - key words, relevant content, back-links, using social media, accessibility....a potential mine field for the new business. In the near future, both video and audio are going to play in increasingly important role in your successful on-line marketing, so yet another consideration!

5. AIDA

Keep it simple. Stick to the principles of successful marketing and make them work on your website:

A - Attention. Make sure your website grabs the attentions of your customer within 8 seconds.

I - Interest. Focus the landing page (usually your homepage) content so that it creates real interest.

D - Desire. Make the site visitor want to contact you.

A - Action. Always make the Call to Action easy to find. If you want customers to call you, ensure your phone number is very visible. If you want them to email you, have the simplest of forms on every page.

A lot to take in, but it can be achieved.

We, at Argent Ram Media, have developed SESOME - Search Engine and Social Media-ready websites that are ideal for small and start-up businesses. With a limited budget, you need to know that you will have a website that will work for you in the most effective way possible.

Have a look at our Sesome website - http://www.sesome-websites.co.uk/ for details.

If you would like more information on Sesome Websites, please call us - 0845 009 5396. Alternatively, email Ian Rutter ian@argentrammedia.com

Argent Ram Media is a company that specialises in providing a range of marketing solutions for all businesses, from the small one-man-band up to the largest of multi-national companies.

Website Design and Development
Design for Print
Email Design and Campaign Management
Micro-Site Marketing
E-Commerce
Internet Start-Ups
Marketing Consultancy
Search Engine Marketing
PR
Digital Advertising
Digital Screen Marketing

The Social Media Revolution

Just seen a really compelling presentation for Social Media.  Concise, dynamic, factual and full of mind-boggling statistics.

If this doesn't persuade businesses to start getting involved in Social Media right now, then nothing will!

http://bit.ly/qteSQ

Kent Businesses are missing the party

Just been doing a bit of research for an article on Twitter, and it is becoming clear that an increasing number of Kent businesses are being invited to join the party, but seem to be declining the invitation!

In the space of 5 minutes, I managed to find that the following businesses or enterprises had all been talked about on Twitter:

Leeds Castle
Hever Castle
Shepherd Neame
Dover Castle
Biddenden Cider
Chapel Down Wine
Romney, Hythe & Dimchurch Light Railway
Bell Hotel, Sandwich
Theatre Royal, Margate
Apicius Restaurant, Cranbrook
White Lion Hotel, Tenterden
Hotel Contintal, Whitstable
Whitstable Oyster Company

Unfortunately, these are all one-sided conversations.

People are talking about you! What an opportunity this presents for you, as businesses across Kent, to start to engage with these people who are freely discussing you, your county, town or village.

It will not be long before being seen to converse with your customers on Twitter becomes just as important as having a good ranking in Google.

Don't miss the party!

Don't be a wallflower - join the Twitter party

You can debate the whys and wherefores of Twitter, Facebook et al until the cows come home. I am sure there are lots of businesses out there who fail to see any of the benefits of what they consider to be yet another internet "here-today-gone-tomorrow" fad.

Who knows, the same thoughts may have prevailed when Alexander Graham Bell first patented the telephone. And I know I wasn't the only sceptic when the World Wide Web first hit the public consciousness.

As with all new things, there can be a huge amount of over-analysis, and what works for one person doesn't always work for another. Let's just step back a bit and have a look at what Social Media can do for any business - it provides EVERYONE with an opportunity to engage with other people. It is the great big party where you can chat round the room finding people you hit it off with immediately, or who bore you instantly. It allows you to huddle in the kitchen with those people with whom you feel most at ease and share every bit of gossip you need to impart since the last time you met.

But this is not the party with just the people from your immediate vicinity. This a party of potential customers, clients, friends, influencers, celebrities, wannabes etc from all around the world. Some will bore you (no offence!), some will entertain you, some will provide you with information that educates you, some will give feedback to suggestions or ideas you might make. A melting pot with no bottom...

OK, so what?

Yesterday, I just did a quick snapshot of the way in which two companies are engaging with people on Twitter. How many of you have ever bothered to write to the likes of the large multi-nationals just to say that you weren't that keen on a new product? Would you really bother? And if you did, what would you get in return?

Below, I have picked out a couple of sets of Tweets between company and customer:

ASOS

ASOS: How's everyone's afternoon going? Loving the sunshine? x

CUSTOMER: @ASOS the sunshine is lovely, but the fact you wont respond to any of my tweets or my email- not so.

ASOS: @Julzy_Ramone Sorry to hear that! Where do you live? x

CUSTOMER: @ASOS Israel.lately the delivery is over 10gbp for *all* parcels.really expensive+my friend @Shelly_peleg was promised it will be fixed.

ASOS: Would you like us to do FREE Returns? Vote now, by commenting ‘YES’ on this post! http://bit.ly/freereturns xxx

INNOCENT DRINKS

CUSTOMER: @innocentdrinks Innocent smoothies have got worse. Why is this?

INNOCENT DRINKS: @Tim_Haig How have they got worse?

CUSTOMER: @innocentdrinks Well they don't taste as nice anymore and they are more watery with more bits which is the worst of all worlds.

INNOCENT DRINKS: @Tim_Haig Nothing's change in terms of the way we make them. Which recipe isn't working? Let us know and we'll get to the bottom of it

-----------

CUSTOMER: @innocentdrinks Oh. YES. Would you do anything with pears? Or have you already done that?

INNOCENT DRINKS: @cosmicgirlie We're a bit weak in the pear department. Don't really know why. The secret thing that I tasted it didn't have pears in.

CUSTOMER: @innocentdrinks Thank you thank you THANK YOU for the banana free smoothie. Please tell me another is on the way...

INNOCENT DRINKS: @cosmicgirlie Another banana-free smoothie might be on the way - tested one the other day...

To me, this is extremely powerful stuff. A large company, talking about the weather, and sparking off a chat about one customer's dissatisfaction over the cost of delivery. Would this grumble ever have reached ASOS without Twitter?

Gauging the trends, ASOS then asks for its customers to vote on free returns - instant results and feedback that costs nothing and comes direct from their buying customers.

Would Twitterer Tim_Haig really have taken the time to write to Innocent Drinks to complain about the taste of his drink? Maybe, but probably not. He would have been more likely to have thrown the drink away and tried another brand, because that is easier.

How many customers really have the chance to chat to the decision makers in big companies to push for new flavours/styles/designs or air their individual grievances?

Despite Twitter being a technological creation, it is giving a human face to a business. A chatty, approachable human face with ears, as the above snippets demonstrate. These conversations show real engagement.

That is what Twitter is all about, as has been said time and time again. It is about ENGAGEMENT. As a business, you have this fantastic opportunity to engage with potential customers in a way that has never been available before. What you do with it is ultimately down to you. You can either stand in the corner on your own at the party, drink in hand, waiting for someone to take pity on you, or you can circulate the room, turn on the charm and win over a whole new group of friends.

Is Twitter worthwhile for Business?

Everywhere I turn these days, there are debates as to the validity of Twitter as a business marketing tool. These debates sit alongside critiques of Facebook and LinkedIn as effective networking environments in which to conduct commerce.

So, the question remains: can Twitter help your business?

Firstly, I would advise any company against believing that joining Twitter and posting a few Tweets to gain a couple of followers will make the difference between the success and failure of your business. It won't. For those of you who do not yet know what Twitter is, let's turn to Wikipedia:

"Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers."

So, how can 140 characters of text help a business?

1. You can easily drive people to your website or a page of your website. Driving people to your website and changing website content will, in turn, help improve your general search engine ranking. Adding fresh content, making the site content relevant and interesting to your prospective customers will help increase your overall internet presence;

2. You can air your views on subjects that are relevant to your business, and, more importantly, relevant to potential customers. Regular "expert" Tweets can establish you as an authority on a subject and garner an increase in the number of followers you attract;

3. There is an argument that "Followers" of your Tweets are very unlikely to become customers of yours overnight, if at all. That is not the point, and if you think Twitter will bring these types of results, then don't bother with it. We all know that there is no magic wand in the world of marketing. But the more followers you have, the greater the audience you have to address;

4. Twitter allows you to engage with other users. "Engagement" is one of the buzz words in marketing at the moment. Being limited to 140 characters is also a great lesson in the practice of being concise. Learn to get across a marketing message in a short, punchy and interesting way that will attract people to notice you, and leave them wanting to know more...;

5. From a business perspective, Twitter makes you think about the other forms of on-line and Social marketing available, and how you can use them to your advantage, bearing in mind that many of these forms of marketing are absolutely FREE.

For instance, use Tweets to point users to a blog you have written, and in which you can expound on the subject you introduced on Twitter. Blogs are widely accepted as being an invaluable part of any on-line marketing strategy, with cross-references to relevant content on your website, for example.

Links to your Twitter page can be inserted in Blogs, your website, articles and other Social Media sites, creating a tight network of information that you are creating. Having views on subjects relevant to your business demonstrates that you can be taken seriously, and will enhance the overall image of your business.

If you write articles or produce documents on products and services you provide, Tweet about them and link through to them. Get people reading about what you do.

I am not going to use examples of the successes or otherwise of large corporations; I am addressing this at the small and medium sized business looking to find their way into the rapidly growing world of Social Networking.

From personal experience, I don't expect to generate a massive influx of income-generating leads simply by tweeting a couple of times a day (although that would be nice!).

I tweet to drive people to my website. I use URL shortening tools, and can see the instant results as click-throughs are logged in real-time; a lot like Google Adwords but without the cost!

I tweet to point people to articles that I have written on subjects relevant to my business, and that I think might be of interest to prospective customers.

I tweet to offer affiliate deals, or highlight other articles that have been written by other people.

I read other tweets posted by experts and learn a great deal from their articles about emerging trends in marketing and consumer behaviour, and on a day to day basis.

I receive tweets from a wide variety of publication on specific topics that are of particular interest to me, cutting to the chase and saving valuable time.

My advice? Use Twitter and see for yourself. It is a great arena in which to experiment with marketing messages; see what attracts attention. Be patient; don't expect to make £millions, but start to use it as a part of your internet marketing strategy, and employ it with other complementary methods. If the only thing you achieve is increased organic search engine placement for your website, then that can't be a bad result.

It has worked for me, and can certainly work for you.

If you would like to discuss including Social Networking within your on-line marketing strategy, please contact us at design@argentrammedia.com. http://www.argentrammedia.com/

Social Media: Mind-Blowing Statistics

If YouTube were a country, it would be the third most-populated place in the world.

20 hours-worth of video is uploaded to YouTube every single minute.

According to their own statictics, Facebook has more than 250m active users globally.

Over the past twelve months, Twitter’s year-on-year growth rate has broken the 1000% barrier.

Since April this year, Twitter has been receiving around 20 million unique visitors to the site each month, according to some analytical sources.

As a business, you would be mad not to try to tap into this massive free marketplace.

If you would like to discuss the ways in which Social Media can benefit your business, please contact us at design@argentrammedia.com. www.argentrammedia.com

These statistics, and more, were provided by EConsultancy http://bit.ly/PMcTz

Never Underestimate the Power of PR

I read a guide to Social Media the other day, and it was interesting to note that a lot of journalists and article writers scour Twitter for anything newsworthy. They utilise the medium to discover changes in consumer behaviour, shifting business trends and topics of human interest. This information then provides the inspiration or theme for a story for their publication.

I have been in marketing for many years, covering industry sectors as diverse as retail, software development, the internet and travel, and one of my seminar subjects has long been the marketing circle. I urge my clients to think of their marketing strategy as a circle made up of the marketing methods they adopt, and the importance of filling in the gaps within that circle. Once they manage to get a potential customer or client on that circle, it is important that every effort is made to ensure they don't drop off.

Some of the elements that might make up this marketing circle include the following marketing methods:

Telemarketing;
Direct Mail;
Email Marketing;
Internet Marketing;
Advertising;
Direct Sales;
Strategic Alliances;
Referrals;
Cross-selling and Up-selling;
Social Media;
PR

Ideally, your circle should consist of at least 10 different forms of marketing, and each should refer, feed off and relate to each other. For example, your telephone out-of-hours messaging service should direct customers to your website when your offices are not open. Your website should then take up the role of sales person or advisor, and make it easy for a potential client to engage with you, leave you their details or buy something. If they leave you their contact details, it is only courtesy to follow this up with an email, and then keep the potential client up to date with relevant emails.

These emails may link in to relevant landing pages on your website, or even micro-sites that have been set up specifically to achieve an end result. The responses will result in further emails coming through to you, or telephone calls from interested clients.

As you build up the relationship with each client, emails can become more personalised. These can be backed up by direct mail communications with special offers or promotions, perhaps as part of a major marketing campaign that includes advertisements both locally or nationally.

And so you can start to see how the circle comes together, and by looking at the strategy as a whole, you will identify the gaps where potential customers may drop off.

However, it is also important that whatever steps you take to complete your circle, you remain focused on the success and ROI of your marketing.

All this, coupled with the snippet about journalists scouring Twitter for useful information, brings me to the subject of PR.

No matter how small your business, never underestimate the power of PR. In essence, much of the success of Twitter and Facebook, as a medium for conducting business, is all about PR. The success of Social Media hangs on the building of relationships and engaging with other users. It is about providing information that might be interesting and useful, getting other users to notice it and then start to engage with you.

When I give seminars to businesses, I always tell them to use the press. Look at the local and national newspapers and magazines, and identify the types of story that they feature in their business sections. Remember, these business writers have got to find interesting stories every day, every week, and every month in order to fill their pages. They need a constant supply of information on which they can build their articles. Have a look at trends within the business press: what is happening financially, what business sectors are currently successful or struggling. Then look at your own business. Do you buck any particular trend, are you more successful than your competitors, and if so, why? At a time of rising unemployment, particularly in the 18 - 25 years age-group, are you employing more than usual to meet growing demand for your product or service?

Whatever is happening within your business, talk about it! Be proud of your achievements and broadcast them. Identify a strong feature of your business regularly, a recent success, a story about a member of staff, a charity event that your are sponsoring....anything that you think would be of interest to anyone reading the publication.

Start to send through these stories to the journalists who write for the various publications, and in doing so, cultivate a relationship with them. I do find it interesting that this is exactly the same principle behind using Twitter for business. You post interesting Tweets and people will follow you, and then you build on those relationships. It is strange, though, that so many businesses never consider the press. They will happily spend £100's on advertising in the newspaper, but wouldn't consider sending through a story that might provide completely free publicity.

If you are not using PR as a form of marketing, you want to start now!

To discuss adding PR to your marketing circle, please contact Ian Rutter at Argent Ram Media - ian@argentrammedia.com. A tailored campaign can be put together to meet any budget and any requirement. www.argentrammedia.com

Social Networking for Business Growth

33% of all internet users share opinions on-line every week.

It wasn't that long ago that the internet was a display cabinet for static websites that did very little apart from look pretty (and many failed at that!).

Now, there are millions of consumers talking about topics that affect them, products they like and dislike and service (good or bad) that they have experienced. The internet is an open forum, a no-holds-barred soap box where views can be aired with approbation.

"Social Media is everywhere. Quite literally...Covering a vast swathe of online activity from blogs to social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace, to the micro-blogging activity on Twitter, social media is growing at an astonishing rate." Morag Cuddeford-Jones, Marketing Week.

So, how can businesses dip their toes into this maelstrom of consumer chat?

Large brands have discovered the power of social media as a way of identifying consumer trends and changes in behaviour. Many of you will have heard the story of Cadbury Wispa. It disappeared from store shelves in 2003, but Cadbury subsequently learnt that there was a growing campaign on Facebook calling for the bar's return. By 2007, there were 93 "Bring Back Wispa" groups with around 14,000 members, all fans of the confection, and the bar was reinstated.

Cadbury responded: "We had noticed the web interest for some time. It reveals a consumer passion which swayed our opinion about relaunching Wispa." Tony Bilsborough, Cadbury Spokesman.

There are some key words in the above statement - "web interest", "consumer passion" and "swayed our opinion".

Cadbury built a relationship with those people discussing Wispa on Facebook; they listened to the consumer and reacted.

This is exactly how every business can benefit from Social Media. Use it to build relationships. Start by simply tapping into these vast networks, and sharing your opinions and ideas, providing useful information or helpful tips and build a fan base; above all, listen to what consumers are discussing.

I will conclude with some advice from Dan Cobley, Google Marketing Director:

"History tells us that economic slowdowns are when winners get ahead. The performance gap between the most successful companies and their competitors becomes greater than during a growth period. The winners continue investing in growth and focus on profitable products and customers, while carefully managing costs.

The slowdown is likely to fuel further adoption of digital technologies and greater use of the web. By understanding today's consumer, companies can take advantage of digital technology and media to be more flexible, effective and targeted in growing their business during the slowdown."

Marketing Week

We have written a paper entitled "Social Media - An Introduction to Facebook and Twitter for Business" and this can be found at http://www.argentrammedia.com/downloads.html, along with several other articles on Internet Marketing and Website Design. If you find these articles useful, please feel free to post a comment on this blog page; we'd be delighted to hear from you.