Week 17 - Wrapping it up!

Over the last semester my use of social media has increased dramatically.  Not only have I learned how to used multiple different platforms, I realize how using them can benefit my business and create brand awareness.  Before this class I was only using Facebook, but not really using it to promote our business very well.  I’ve learned a lot about what type of posts Facebook likes and allows viewers to see, and what type of posts generate our viewer’s engagement. In addition, I have learned the value of expanding into other platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and blogging. 

This semester I created a Twitter and Instagram page that I’ve been regularly posting to. I’ve also realized that all of these platforms take time and attention to really server the customer.  It’s important to check regularly for customer engagement and be sure to respond to any inquiries they may have in a timely manner. 

At the beginning of this course our Facebook page had about 50 followers. I actually didn’t want it to grow because I was having issues with changing our Page name and I had read that if a business page has over 100 followers it was very difficult to get a name change.  Thankfully, I was successful in getting the name change and that was when I really put some effort into gaining new followers, plus all of my classmates helped with that as well, thank you!  

I have known that social media is the place to be if you are looking to promote your business.  Even though I knew this, I never wanted to spend the time to sit down and try to figure it out for myself because whenever I did I just ended up frustrated and unsuccessful.  It seemed I always had other pressing work that needed to be done and I would lose my patience in trying to learn social media. The instruction from this class was helpful and I really got a lot of great information from the text, likable social media.  I now have a better understanding of how to use social media and develop a business presence online.  I will continue to learn as I go and make changes as the we are in the ever-changing technology age.  

In participating in this course, I am actually keeping an eye on some of our photographers/videographers and interested in possibly using their services for my business.  If nothing else it would be nice to network with those who we have met in this course and possibly send referrals.  I think it’s a great thing to be able to connect people who can help each other out in some way.   I wish everyone all the success in their social media business marketing!

Week 16 - Post 2

This week I commented on the following blogs:

Tracy Walz  https://csit155sp19traceyw.blogspot.com

Austin Poynter https://csit155-sp19apoynter.blogspot.com/2019/05/wk-16-planning-strategy.html

Lisa Haas https://csit155-sp19-lisah.blogspot.com/2019/05/week-16.html

Arianna Feliz https://mcc-csit155feliza.blogspot.com/2019/05/week-16-post-1.html?showComment=1558407325451#c8538986823730647489

Week 16 - Post 1

In January, when this journey began, I had minimal knowledge of social media and even less about social media marketing.  I knew it was extremely important to get in front of people online, because that’s where they are.  I believe the skills I learned in this class have already begun helping me gain brand awareness for our business.

Starting off, I only had a Facebook page for my business.  It was under the name of our corporation which is not our business brand. Thankfully I was able to get that changed after submitting our DBA to Facebook.  Also on Facebook, I learned how to schedule posts for the future. I found this very helpful when I went on a 7-day cruise in April.  This is also helpful when I know of a listing coming soon I can schedule a “Just Listed” post for the day it goes on the market. The other thing I did in Facebook was update my cover picture.  I still want to further update my cover picture, and link my blog to our Facebook Page.

Beginning the class blog was new for me. I had only ever read maybe two blog posts that I know of, prior to this course.  I wasn’t really sure how I wanted to create it, but I always like things that are simple and to the point.  I also created an Instagram Page and that’s been ok. I am still getting used to Instagram. I think it will be really great to post before and after pictures of properties being rehabbed.  

I also created a Twitter account which I like. It’s user friendly and similar to Facebook.  It’s also easy to upload my posts to these multiple platforms.  That’s nice because I don’t have a ton of time to spend on social media, although I know different posts to the different platforms would be more interesting to the viewers. 

I began using my LinkedIn account like never before.  Before it just served as an online resume.  Since this class, I’ve been posting real estate relevant information that I think is of value to the viewer.  

I still enjoy Facebook the most of all these platforms. Mainly because I am familiar with it. I also started joining other Facebook groups where I have been able to post ads and I think that’s helpful. I’m sure I will continue to grow in my Instagram knowledge and feel comfortable posting on there, as well as Twitter and LinkedIn every now and then.

I noticed GIF’s are a great way to get people’s attention when advertising a property on Facebook.  I would like to find a good and inexpensive app I can use to create more of those. I also think short videos of my husband highlighting a property or highlighting community hotspots is engaging, especially since all of our followers are people we’ve done business with in the past or their friends or family.   

Some of the tools I want to implement include creating and using an Editorial Calendar. This will help me get organized and to plan in advance dates for all future posts, blogs, and emails. It will also help me keep in mind to be thinking about what specific topics on our monthly blog posts and email blasts I want to focus on. These topics would likely include seasonal and holiday community events that would interest our clients, as well and real estate tips and trends. 

We will be implementing more videos which include myself and my husband out in the field doing some of the “dirty” work. I think this will bring the personal and human aspect of what we do. It can be a tough job and we are ready and happy to be able to do it!

An Important point Kerpen made in likeable social media, is on page 173, “In order to optimize the results from your social media use, you have to integrate understanding and practice …Listening, transparency, responsiveness, and engagement.”  Born & Raised Realty is working hard to integrate these practices online just as we continue to diligently prioritize the client’s real estate wants and needs in every transaction. Since client relationships are extremely important to us, we work extra hard providing the best customer service possible addressing all questions and concerns. Ultimately, we think of every client and prospective client as a potential advertising partner, so it’s our goal to keep them happy and satisfied with our services, as much as we possibly can.

Once I am familiar with the different social media platforms I think I will spend anywhere from 5-10 hours per week on our business marketing.  This depends on how much time and how many videos I decide to film and edit.  Below are some post ideas I am going to aim for in June:

Tuesday, 6/4, 12:00pm or 5:00pm– Monthly Email/blog and social media post–Summer R.E. trends   (maybe include calendar of summer community events) 

Friday, 6/7, 8:00 or 6:00pm– Social media post - New real estate listings update

Tuesday, 6/11, 12:00pm or 5:00pm– Social media post - market trends

Friday, 6/14, 8:00 or 6:00pm– Social media post - Father’s Day post

Tuesday, 6/18, 12:00pm or 5:00pm– Social media post - Household tips

Friday, 6/21, 8:00 or 6:00pm- Social media post - New real estate listings update

Tuesday, 6/25, 12:00pm or 5:00pm– Social media post - Born & Raised Video – community hotspot

Friday, 6/28, 8:00 or 6:00pm- Social media post - New real estate listings update

Week 15 - Post 2

In reviewing my business Facebook analytics from last week there are many areas I can learn about how and when my business posts are most effective. I can also see the number of page followers and likes my business page has and the time of day my audience is most likely to be online.  

Specifically, I can see this week my number of followers increased. On May 5^th, I had 97 followers and as of today, May 13^th, I have 117 followers.  That’s a big percentage increase. 

On May 5^th, 93 people liked my page and today 106 people like my page.  I am not sure what number is more important between followers and page likes.  

My page reach also increased between May 9^thand 12^th. Initially this was an organic growth, but the spike in reach was due to boosting a couple posts.

Total page views seemed to fluctuate throughout the week starting off higher at the beginning of the week, then dropping a bit mid-week, and rising again for the last couple days.

There were no page previews for the week.  I’m not sure what a page preview is. There were also no actions on page.

In the posts analytics I was able to see when our fans are online.  If I stick to only posting two times per week, it looks like posting on Tuesdays and Fridays are the best times to get in front of our fans. Specifically, Tuesdays at either 1:00pm, 5:00pm, or 9:00pm are the highest online traffic.  On Fridays it looks like either 8:00am or 6pm are the best times.

The types of posts that gained the largest reach on average are post links.  The second best seems to be photos.  This is something I will have to test out further because last week I didn’t post many videos, which I think a short video might actually have better engagement. 

I did post one 6 second GIF for a property "Coming Soon" and it was pretty popular among the viewers’ for about 2 days after posting. 

Our fans tend to be between the ages of 25 – 64. This is probably because that is who we target in ads.  There are also more women than men fans in most of the age groups. 

Over all, I found this information interesting and realize how helpful it can be in determining what kind of information we should be posting, as well as what days of the week and times of the day. 

Week 15 - Post 1

This week studying Google analytics I struggled in really grasping the full concept, mostly because it seems to be way to much information. Because I don’t have much experience with online marketing outside of this class, the Google analytics for business page was a bit much for me and I couldnt really figure out how to break it all down.  I spent quite a bit of time searching through and watched many of the instructional videos on the Google analytics page and taking the quizzes to test my knowledge and understanding.  The quizzes were quite easy, but to be completely honest, I don’t think it’s something I will be getting into much, myself.  Maybe down the road… 

I do think it offers important information that helps us understand the success of the page posts and covers engagement, growth, top posts and more. This can benefit a business and help determine what marketing techniques work best for reaching the target market.  Here is a link to the analytics help center in case I ever need to reference it again:

https://support.google.com/analytics/?utm_source=analytics-discover-page&utm_medium=referral-internal&utm_campaign=content-cross-promo&utm_content=ga-help-center-card#topic=3544906

Week 14

This week in experimenting more with developing online advertisements, I created three sample ads following the specific requirements of Facebook. In the first ad, “Would an Economic Slowdown Impact Home Values?”, I targeted all men and women ages 26 to 65+ living within 10 miles of Carlsbad, Oceanside, Vista and Fallbrook.  This ad is particularly effective in a market like we have today because so many people are curious about what’s to come in the economy, both on wall street and in real estate.

In the second ad, “2 Trends Helping Keep Housing Affordable”, I used the same target market of all men and women ages 26 to 65+ living within 10 miles of Carlsbad, Oceanside, Vista and Fallbrook.  This ad is one that sparks the interest of new home buyers and veteran home owners alike.  

The third and final ad I created a little differently. This one I created as a post scheduled for the future, and then I chose to boost it. This gave me the option of a Welcome Message which automatically starts a chat conversation with a visitor of the post. I prefer doing it the other way by creating an ad through ads manager and using the call-to-action button. Other than that, I used the same target audience as the previous two posts.

In the first two ads I included the ‘Learn More” call-to-action button. Since our objective is to increase engagement I think this is a good option. I will probable change my third add so it had the same call to action button. We don’t have the type of business where we sell items from our website and we also don’t track the analytics of traffic that our website gets or collect contact information from our website.  Our main goal is for people to engage with our posts, like our listings and the items of value we provide on our social media pages to increase brand awareness and listing exposure.  Because buying a house is one of the largest purchases most people will ever make, we want to personally engage with the visitors of the page and posts to answer any of their questions, build rapport and gain their confidence.

Week 13 - Post 2

In reading “likable social media,”this week I learned a lot about the different Facebook ad options. I also learned about the three different goals of ads including driving website traffic and leads, post like and engagement, and app installation ads.  At this time, our business’s main goal is to increase post likes and engagement. 

Today I posted an ad on Facebook for an open house for a house we are selling in a 55+ community.  I boosted the ad to the surrounding cities as well as to people over the age of 53. This gave me a target market of 100,000 people. In previous adds I’ve targeted those in a larger demographic area, about 5 cities plus 10 miles, and between the ages 25-64years.

In future Facebook ads, I am planning to try “Friends of Connections” ads on advertisements that don’t need age restrictions. Currently our business page has 108 followers and 97 people who like our page. I see how this type of targeting can benefit our advertising since “the average person on Facebook has 350 friends.” Targeting an audience this way could lead to a potential 33,950 people that see our ad. Another great thing about this is the ad will tell the prospects the name of their friend that already like our page. That’s the power of influence at work!

As a real estate business, I was trying to think of different types of call to action that would be effective for us. I found this article and wanted to share it since I plan to come back to this blog for future reference.  Here is the link:https://myrealpage.com/7-compelling-call-actions-ctas-realtors-use-online-marketing/

Here are 7 types of compelling call-to-actions that you can use in your online marketing.

1.       The Learn More

This action encourages the reader to continue browsing your site and allows interested readers to gain more in-depth knowledge on the topic. Some common call-to-actions for this include: “Watch to learn more,” “Read more” or “Find out more.” This CTA is great for differentiating between casual visitors and those who are more invested and ready to take action.

2.       The Opinion Ask

Commonly featured at the bottom of opinion pieces is an open-ended question that invites readers to participate in the discussion or share their thoughts. You can ask your readers, “Do you agree?” or “What’s your take on it?” or juxtapose two opinions and have them select their favourite one.  

3.       The Freebie

At the end of your post, you can offer a free download of a supporting presentation or a PDF one-sheet of the key points. Readers love free material and this is a good opportunity to expand your mailing list as well. (Pro tip: don’t give the resource away for free! Ask for their email address in exchange for it). Some ways you can phrase this are “Directly download this report” or “Download a printer-friendly version here.”

4.       The Contact Us

Another popular CTA is to offer a line for your readers to speak with you directly. This can come in various ways such as, “Call us today,” “Ask an expert,” “Get a free quote” or simply “Contact us.” And remember to have a clear and easy way for people to reach you. Make sure your “Contact Me” page is on point!

5.       The Immediate Start

Creating a sense of urgency is another great tactic in penning an effective call-to-action. Using words like “Sign up today” or “Reserve a spot now” or “Join now” offers an immediate solution and encourages readers to make a quick decision. 

6.       The Related Material

Another great CTA is offering the reader another piece or page that is related to the one they are reading. This can be said in a few different ways including “See it in action” or “Take the tour” or “Did you know about this as well?”

The idea is to offer a complimentary piece to encourage the visitor to stay on your site and to build credibility, as well.

7.       The Social Connection 

This is one of the most popular call-to-actions, where readers are invited to connect to your brand via a social media channel like Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook. This can be done visually, with a graphic encouraging viewers to “Connect with us,” “Follow Us” or “Like our page for more tips.” In online marketing, networks like this are great for building your community of raving fans. 

Are there any call-to-actions you’ve found to really resonate with your audience?

On Page 189 of “likable social media”, it explainsthe importance of making an ad likeable. A good design for a social media ad will have a catchy headline, a few lines of copy, and a high-quality picture to get people’s attention. “You can run an unlimited number of ads under the same budget, so you can test out dozens or more of different images, headlines and copy to see what’s most effective in driving likes.” This is something Ineed to learn to do so I can improve my postings because my ads only get about 10% of reach engagement.  By improving my ads I hope to connect users to my fan page.

We don’t have plans to us banner ads for our business. The only experience I can remember having with banner ads has been frustrating, especially the time when the ad pops up in the middle of something I am looking at and I can’t close the ad.  When creating a banner ad it’s important to place the ad out of the way of the content the user is engaged in.  Also, it’s important that the ad isn’t placed on the screen where it can’t accidently get clicked on and open up. That’s extra frustrating to me.

Although Facebook is the most effective and used media platform for advertising, now that I have created a business Instagram page and Twitter account I will likely keep those for up and running as well.  Since being in this class I’ve also been posting on LinkedIn, although I’ve had the account for years.  

The goal is to maintain a consistent presence on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.  I’d like to have approximately 2 posts per week that offer value to the viewer.  Posts should include a catchy title and interesting photo.  The posts will consist of “Just listed” ads, Market trends, Community Hotspots and activities and, Holiday greetings.  We want to maintain a professional presence with a personal touch. We don’t want to overwhelm viewers, yet we do want to be front of mind and who they call with their real estate needs.

Week 13 - Post 1

1.I found five businesses similar to mine, of various sizes. The first of these includes Keller Williams Realty which isa very large company. They are advertising on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest. They do a great job at staying at the front of mind by posting at least once daily and a typical post gets about a thousand likes.  They send postcards via USPS which are very nice with great quality photos and relevant information. They also advertise on the radio and television which I imagine is also very effective. As a competitor, it’s gets old hearing the advertisements, but they definitely stand out since we are inundated with social media marketing online.

Shea Homes Socal is a medium size real estate company.  They are advertising on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. They post 2-3 days per week and their posts usually get around 100-125 likes. I’ve also received some very nice postcard advertisements in the mail.

I found Brittany Eastwood, Inc., CEO of a smaller real estate business.She uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest. She also posts 2-3 days per week.

This is a smaller business, one that I hadn’t heard of, yet the majority of her post are getting between 500-1000 likes. I haven’t seen the traditional mailers or anything other than online marketing. She is apparently doing a great job in social marketing on all accounts. She has a huge following and seems very effective.

The Shelhamer Real Estate Group is using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Yelp and Pinterest to promote their business and real estate listings.  This company has room for improvement, as I they are not very active on any of these outlets. I think their main source of online advertisement may be there website with is very nice and up to date. They likely use other forms of traditional marketing as well, though I haven’t seen it. Consistently posting on a schedule both listings and other items of value, and adding calls to action could greatly improve the effectiveness of their online social business pages.

Charles Dunn Company is a commercial real estate company and they had a professional presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram with relevant posts of their transactions and listings, until October, 2018 just before closing the business.  I think their marketing was great, and the closure had nothing do with that.

Keyes Real Estateuses Facebook, twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Vimeo. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram postings are 2-3 times week. As with the other real estate businesses I researched, Keyes Real Estate is utilizing all the main social media outlets to promote their business and transactions. They post relevant photos and information that attracts the interest of those on these platforms. So, they will be at the top of mind when a connection needs the type of services they offer. They have many positive reviews from previous clients. They are doing a great job in marketing on all accounts, very effective.  

2.In looking at examples of advertising on social media the thing that is most likely to draw my attention are a great headline and a nice photo.  If the post has that, then I’ll read on.  In the example below the post is from a link that leads directly to the business website.  That’s what I want to learn to do.

I think the only ads that are really annoying to me are those that use a photo to catch your curiosity that actually has nothing to do with what’s being advertised. 

3.The majority of the American population today is getting their news and advertising on social media, TV and the radio.  There seems to be less and less demand for written advertisements in newspapers and magazines.  However, I do think some written advertisements that come directly in the mail are useful and I for one do take advantage of that, both as a consumer receiving information and discounts, and business owner offering information on real estate. 

Week 12 - Post 2

1.LinkedIn: My husband and I each have a LinkedIn account, and have decided not to create an account specific to our business. This works fine for us for now because we are a small real estate business and it’s important to us to build personal relationships with clients.  Although we branded our business as Born & Raised Realty, we are personally known by many for the business services we provide in our community.  

In researching groups on LinkedIn, I found there are some groups that could benefit our business if we were to join.  Groups such as Real Estate Investor, which states it’s the most interactive Real Estate Investment centric community on LinkedIn, Real Estate Professionals Referral Group, which is a Referral network group for real estate professionals around the country and world, and Pete Asmus’ Real Estate Networking Group. Each of these group's purpose is to provide a source for real estate professionals, the first is for referring out of the area clients in need of a great real estate agent. The latter two are for networking with other professionals. 

2.Yelp: Our Yelp account is under my husband’s name rather than our business.  Prior to rebranding our business, all transactions were under his name. Most of our reviews are on Realtor.com, and Zillow.com. We only have four reviews on Yelp, and in full honesty, we didn’t have the best experience.  One of the reviews we received on Yelp was terrible.  I had hoped when prospective clients read the review they will be able to tell the writer is far from rational or reasonable in his posting this review.  However, two years after his initial post he updated the review and it just seemed like a bad review, nothing too far-fetched, although not at all accurate. What is worse is this was actually someone my husband new personally and tried to help. 

We know how important it is to respond to reviews, especially negative ones. My husband did respond, and perhaps it was too long and too detailed,apologizing and explaining how he gave 100% in his service to this client.  Basically, nothing would have satisfied this client. The basic, “I’m sorry you had a bad experience, please contact us.” would not have felt authentic and probably would have triggered him to continue trying to hurt our business.  Perhaps, only keeping potential clients in mind, and not the writer of the review, he could have responded something like, “We’re normally known for our exceptional attention to detail and customer service, and we regret that we missed the mark.”  Although my husband did not keep the response “simple, short and sweet” I think it was appropriate knowing the type of person he was dealing with.

Week 12- Post 1

In addition to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, my husband and I each have our own personal LinkedIn accounts that we use for business purposes.  I believe this is an important platorm to have a professional presence where we can connect with other professionals as well as prospective clients.  I am following nearly 200 accounts of which many our industry leaders and the remainder are primarily personal and business contacts. I have begun posting to LinkedIn about once per week including one of the industry related business posts that I would also be posting on Facebook. 

We also use an email subscription tool through a real estate marketing company. This is helpful for us because we don't have to come up with the topic and information in the email because it's already done for us.  Topics include industry updates, buyer and seller tips, as well as homeownership tips and benefits of homeownership. With this service we are able to email our database once per month to keep at the front of mind to all those in our spear of influence who may not be regulars on social media.  

I began creating a google business page as well for an additional way for cleints to find our business and rate our services.   However, I feel with the above mentioned accounts I am reaching the majority of our market and I'm not sure I will continue to maintain updates onthe Google account.

Week 11- Post 1

Email newsletters are an important part of our business marketing plan.  It reaches a demographic of our target market that are less likely to be on social media. Our business sends out monthly newsletters. The information included in the newsletter would essentially be the same information that we will post in our monthly blog, including a quarterly market update, home maintenance tips and community activities for spring, summer, fall and winter.

In order to stay front of mind I think it’s a good idea to send a monthly email, and not over bombard our clients inbox tempting them to unsubscribe. We want people to remember we are in the real estate business, So, even if they aren’t in the market to purchase or sale a home, chances are they know someone who is.  We hope to serve every one of our clients, their friends and family members real estate needs!

I am on the mail list for some clients and they send very similar information.  Some of it seems helpful and some of it I probably wouldn’t send out to my clients.  I like the variety of topics I’ve chosen because the client won’t tire of the same information each month, yet we are still showing we are industry experts!

Week 10 - Post 2

As I am learning about blogs and other social media sites I can see a clear structure and organization of the site can be helpful for ease of use and finding what one is looking for.  If I had a business blog for Born & Raised Realty, I would have these categories:

Real Estate – Virtual flyers for properties, Infographics, and Real Estate industry information.

House to Home – Will include home decorating, landscaping and maintenance tips.

Community– Will include our business hosted client events and community events.

Video– Where we could keep all videos pertaining to properties and community information videos.

Reviews- potential customers looking to gain insight using others' opinions for services.

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I commented on the following classmates' blog for Week 10:

• Michelle Jordan
• Austin Poynter
• Lisa Hass