Union Street MediaReal Estate and Ecommerce Web Design

[Please note, as this conversation has the tendency to get emotional and very technical at the same time, I would like to state up front that I do not take any specific or direct side in the discussion.

The other is more of a thinking and strategic issue surrounding online marketing, interlocking ecosystems of information and reputation management. This is where a lot of the heated discussions take place. While you read them here, however, please try to look beyond the specific companies and personalities and consider the systems (personal, technological and economic) involved and how they rely on each other.]

As I recently let loose in Twitter, there’s an entire education to be had in the comment thread on Galen Ward’s post about Trulia and their linking policy over at the Bloodhound Blog. This post was created to back up that statement. Consider this a pivot-table applied to qualitative data.

I’ve prepared a syllabus for you. Please note that not all of the answers to the exam questions will be found directly in the comment threads, but enough clues for you to determine the majority of the answers are present. Some questions (particularly in the second semester) will require creative thinking and problem solving extending beyond the comment thread on the Ward’s post. Outside resources are encouraged in all semesters.

• The first semester is a practical one, with hands-on worthwhile info on which you may be able to act. There are a few though-pieces in there, but it is primarily a “lab” class.
• The second semester is more of a seminar where you examine a controversial issue not for it’s controversy but for its structure.
• A laid back summer session has been assigned as well.

Enjoy. And if you post your answers to the exams publicly, let me know so I can send you a certificate of some sort.

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I didn’t get a chance to give a weekly overview of activity on the RE.web last week so I’ll do a quick rundown. Lots of deep thoughts were floating out there last week, the ripples are still spreading on some of them.

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As I was driving home from biathlon practice last night I heard a good piece about Zillow on PRI’s “Marketplace” program. The program focuses on how the site is faring in the real estate downturn (very well, apparently). The link will take you to audio and text versions of the story. While you’re in media-mode why not get some historical perspective from this interview with Zillow’s Rich Barton from 2006?

If you’re new to Zillow or haven’t started using it yet, check out Maggie’s intro to Zillow post.

Union Street Media has a fan page on Facebook. If you are on Facebook, we would love to connect with you there. Pehaps this is something you might want to try for your business?

During one of the final panels at Real Estate Connect in NYC I was sketching in my notebook the process of how users get to websites, and what we ultimately want them to do when they get there.

I took a few minutes to draw it up when I got home, and this is what I came up with. It’s far from complete, but seems useful in explaining how firms like ours use “web 2.0″ technologies to get traffic to our client’s sites. I thought it might be useful in providing a visual framework to illustrate the process. Personally, I needed something to organize the constant flow of information, ideas, sites, tools, etc., that constantly cross my desk/inbox/RSS feed.

Do you think this is a useful and/or accurate way to represent this?

I attended a presentation by Realtor.com which spoke about the age groups that were currently buying real estate and those most likely to become the next loyal customers. Their information showed Generations X and Y to have the majority of buyers in the market today.With these age groups driving the market different opportunities for the real estate professional to market themselves are popping up daily. Many with a Web 2.0 focus, which especially appeals to Generation Y who spend much of their life online; for them the process of buying a home naturally, starts online.

Zillow.com is one site that takes advantage of this generation’s internet savvy by bringing real estate to them in a way they are accustom to. It offers services for buyers, sellers, owners and real estate professionals, all parties reaping their own benefits from the site.

For our clients at Union Street Media we highly recommend creating a profile on Zillow.com. It allows you to create a profile, post your listings, become a neighborhood expert and communicate directly with the consumer, all for FREE.

Setting up a Zillow.com account is easy. Follow this link to set up your profile: Create a Zillow Profile

From there you can add your bio, listings, answer questions on Home Q&A, and join discussion groups to become a neighborhood expert, even create EZ Ads.

Adding your bio to the “About Me” section of your profile is as easy as copying and pasting your existing bio into the space provided. We do, however, recommend that if you copy out of Word paste the text into Notepad first to remove all the formatting that can live on a Word file. Then when you past from Notepad into Zillow you won’t run into problems.

The “My Listings” section allows you to quickly upload photos and enter important listing information. After you enter the listing address you be prompted to choose a Microsoft Map view of the property. You can zoom in or out and set the map to this view. Every listing is accompanied by a Microsoft Map. It’s a pretty handy tool. Once you listed you property you can also consider highlighting it with an “EZ Ad” for an additional fee.

“Home Q&A” gives Zillow users the opportunity to quickly post questions directly to you about your listings. The question will appear on the listing itself, as will your answer for future customers to learn from.

The “Discussion” section allows you to reach out to sellers, buyers and other real estate professionals. You can also become an expert on a particular neighborhood by participating on the Neighborhood pages. Every time you comment in a Neighborhood Discussion page your profile is linked to that discussion; the more you participate the more free publicity you get.

Overall sites like Zillow are fairly straightforward and pretty user-friendly. By getting on these Web 2.0 focused sites and becoming involved in the online culture of their communities, you will more than likely generate leads you may have missed otherwise.

In a recent post I included a link to a pdf of Web 2.0 companies compiled by Jamie Glenn of Trulia. Tonight I came across a similar list at the vFlyer blog.

We’re spending a lot of time at Union Street Media thinking about how to help our clients in the real estate industry leverage the new opportunities that are available online. This article at vFlyer does a great job of providing an overview of what’s out there and I highly recommend it as an introduction to all of this.

One of the resources mentioned is a real estate social networking site called ActiveRain. Realtors can set up a free profile there, connect with other real estate professionals, create a blog, and join discussions. You can visit my profile at activerain.com/andyvota and Union Street Media founder Ted Adler’s at activerain.com/tedadler.

There is a good overview of the site at activerain.com/action/default/welcome. One other bonus of being on ActiveRain is that the search engine pickup of the site is quite good — things posted there seem to show up on Google and other search engines very quickly.

Another post of interest is at Inman.

Participation in all of this new social media (blogs, social networks, wikis etc.) is difficult to gauge but several recent attempts have been made to try and measure audience participation. The latest is Forrester’s new Social Technographics report - which came up with this fascinating segmentation.

I just returned from San Francisco from the Real Estate Connect conference. It was an excellent experience and I was really impressed with Brad Inman’s ability to get at the core issues in a really thoughtful and provocative way.

Some of the great content can be found in the videos on InmanTV.

Real Estate Video by - Real Estate Blogger

Presentation material from several of the keynotes are available online. Jamie Glenn of Trulia gave a really interesting survey of 50 online marketing tools for real estate - from blogs and social networking to search. Check it out yourself at http://post.inman.com/t/72308/3721853/6051/0/.

Also check out the NY Connect in January of 2008.