Category: Deep Thoughts

Social Media in Real Estate

Social Media in Real Estate

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For the 4th time in my young life, I am shopping for a house. My requirements have changed from the first time I bought (access to schools with foreign language immersion vs. stumbling distance from the best margarita in Austin), but shockingly little else about the process has. Where are my awesome social media apps to make this fun? Not being able to leave well enough alone, I started to ponder why.

  • Some of the earliest examples of social media promoted the collective good – user reviews on restaurants or local businesses benefit the whole because when there is good food, we all win.
  • And then there’s altruism/karma. If I waste $20 on a bad movie or discover a great book, chances are I may write a brief review just to let you know. It doesn’t really benefit me immediately, but I benefit from the reviews of others so its a positive cycle. Like blogging, this also appeals to ego.
  • And then, of course, the fuzzy satisfaction of our ever-increasing digital interconnections. We Link, we Friend, we Match, we validate each other’s existence on the interweb by remarking on each other’s photos and vying for spots on blogrolls and in RSS feeds.

So where does the gnarly world of real estate fall in this spectrum? In most transactions, there is a winner and a loser. Can that dynamic thrive in social media? Trulia certainly doesn’t answer the call – it is little more than another online listing service with some Y!answers tacked on. And the dozens of MLS listing sites are just push marketing.

Frankly MLS

Enter FranklyMLS, claiming to be “The First Wiki MLS“. The wiki is built up by buyer’s agents – not the agents marketing the homes. In addition to the listing info, these agents add their own photos and important factual data that would be strategically missing from a seller’s MLS listing such as homes backing up to busy streets, being located under an overpass, having bizarre neighbors, etc. It is by no means an elegant UI, but the wiki contains meaty data and its sorting an searching features are tight. The FranklyMLS wiki saves the other buyer’s agents a lot of time and creates a great resource for those of us trying to wrap our arms around the concept of commuting 40 minutes to get to a house priced at $500 per square foot. In a recession.

Frank’s schtick “Don’t Buy! Ask Why!” is that listing agents can’t be trusted and you deserve to work with someone who will tell you the truth. The wiki extends the seller vs. buyer divide, but unites buyers and their representatives to share data as they search for deals that meet their needs. So while there isn’t a current solution for all parties to hug it out in social media, Frank has taken a big step for frightened buyers like me and I appreciate it. Now will someone give this great idea a cosmetic facelift?

Making Time for Social Media

Making Time for Social Media

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Brother Ian over at Flagged For Follow Up recently touched a nerve on a recurring theme in my life – those uninitiated to social media claiming they can’t get involved because they don’t have time for that stuff.

I have no problem with anyone who doesn’t want to participate in social media. I don’t want to read a print newspaper anymore and am completely happy with agreeing to disagree on that point. Due to the very definition of what social media is, it only has value if other people with whom you want to stay connected to are also participating. So if they aren’t, it might have less value for you. But saying its because you don’t have time? Not sure I buy that.

Chances are all of us make the time doing things that are important to us – stopping at Starbucks for a coffee instead of drinking what comes out of the pot at home, watching TV, talking on the phone, etc. For those with networks of friends, thought leaders, and co-workers involved in social media, updating Facebook or reading a Twitter feed sometimes even saves the time of having to get long verbal updates from many individuals separately. Additionally, your personally crafted RSS feed can highlight only the information that you find most relevant instead of having to skim a paper or a host of sites to find what you need to be well informed.

Like Ian, I make time for social media because it is important to me, it is valuable to my job, it prioritizes relevant information for me, and it allows me to keep in touch with more people from more parts of my life than at any time in the past. And if I have to watch 1 fewer TV program per week to fit it in, I find that to be a good trade.

Happy 60th, Steve Winwood

Happy 60th, Steve Winwood

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<this digression from marketing is unavoidable as we celebrate an important day today May 12, 2008>

Dear Music Editors of ABC’s Brothers & Sisters,

Thank you so much for honoring Steve Winwood’s 60th birthday and new album by making his music (both original and covered) the bed for your episode last night. There is nothing like that voice, the Hammond B-3, or the opening melody of “Can’t Find My Way Home” to start the week. I’m not sure anyone else noticed, but I did and it was awesome.
winwood.JPGAnd to you Steve Winwood, thank you for a 45 year catalog (Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith, Solo) that will never get boring and never be fully discovered. I am convinced that if my 9 month old knows any words at all, they are probably the lyrics to “Arc of a Diver”. It wasn’t until college when I first heard you perform “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” and went back and started listening to all of the Traffic recordings. And the fact that you still bring the house down and end shows with a song that you sang at age 16 in the Spencer Davis Group blows me away. What did I do at 16? Certainly nothing that has aged as well as “Gimme Some Lovin'” or “I’m a Man”. If you want to have you mind blown, check out this interactive timeline of Steve’s career here.

Listening Nuggets for non super-fans:

Spencer Davis Era: I’m a Man, Gimme Some Lovin’

Traffic: Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys, Glad, Dear Mr. Fantasy, Feelin’ Alright?

Blind Faith: Can’t Find My Way Home

Solo: Arc of A Diver, My Love’s Leavin’, Back in the High Life, Talking Back to the Night, Different Light, Chigano

New in Events? WOMM-U and nTag

New in Events? WOMM-U and nTag

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What’s new in the world of conferences, you say? 2 things particularly spring to mind.

WOMMU BadgeI just finished all of my plans to attend the upcoming WOMM-U Conference in Miami, FL. There is a great list of mainstage attractions, but what makes this event different is that the 2 days will be peppered with small group working conversations with experts from various arenas – including some focused on putting WOMM to use for good.

  • Keynotes include would-be-Blogger-Socialite Joseph Jaffe, Ogilvy’s Carla Hendra and Dell’s Andy Lark.
  • Faculty include my Ogilvy PR 360 Digital Influence colleague (& newly minted author) Rohit Bhargava as well as my former manager from Dell (& dominator of all things digital marketing) – Liana Frey.
  • “WOMM in Action” sessions will bring together attendees from various different background to create a Word of Mouth action plan for the Wilderness Society and the Overton Youth Foundation.

And now, for something completely different, I want to share a casual interview that I had the pleasure of conducting with Rahul Bhargava of nTag. (Still getting used to my FLIP cam)

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/yQrOX2ju9Wg" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]Rahul is a technologist who really does spend his days thinking about the future of events as we know them. I have been to a couple of events recently that have done away with the printed conference book – putting materials online. Good progress, but a baby step compared to the future that nTag is envisioning. Enjoy the video and let me know if you ever get to experience one of these in person – I clearly don’t get invited to enough sales conventions!!

Virgle: Branson and Page Invite you to Mars

Virgle: Branson and Page Invite you to Mars

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Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google founder Larry Page have decided that, having conquered the whole of the planet we call Earth, they need to identify more territory to conquer. What’s next for 2 such big thinkers? Why, Mars of course. Thus, they bring you “Virgle“: the open source planet that claims to be the adventure of many lifetimes.

virgle The best part is that you can test your fitness to apply to be one of the first colonists on Mars as part of the Virgle project. Why wouldn’t you you want to go? As they say on the site “Earth has issues“.

(Larry & Richard – thank you for fooling my husband into think this was real for about 30 seconds this morning. It made by day. Happy April 1!)