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Socializing for real estate success Premium Content

By Gahlord Dewald, Tuesday, February 7, 2012.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-78491p1.html" target=blank>Social media keyboard image</a> via Shutterstock.com.

In columns over the last two weeks I covered ideas around how real estate consumers use search to find out about neighborhoods and how they can use locative media to learn more about what's in those neighborhoods. This week, let's look at social media and social networking.

Usually everyone glosses over the difference between social media and social networking. Some of this is because the websites where these things exist overlap a bit. But for understanding what's happening in the online world it's very important to note the difference.  more...

Neighborhood search for strangers in a strange land Premium Content

By Gahlord Dewald, Tuesday, January 31, 2012.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-302155p1.html">Map image</a> via Shutterstock.com.

Online tools people can use to figure out what a neighborhood is really like.

If you're relocating and don't have a clue about the town you're moving to, where do you start? My regular readers probably hope the answer is "Call a real estate professional!" But we all know that probably isn't what's going to happen. Not at first anyway.  more...

Real estate search: the consumer perspective Premium Content

By Gahlord Dewald, Wednesday, January 25, 2012.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-63539p1.html" target=blank>Online property search image</a> via Shutterstock.com.

I usually write columns for an audience of real estate professionals and the vendors and service organizations that work with them. But for the next couple of columns I'm going to switch perspectives a bit to the part of the real estate industry that matters the most: the people looking for houses or wanting to sell them: consumers.

In my work I consult with a pretty broad spectrum of the real estate industry around issues of reaching and helping consumers, and hopefully this discussion of the consumer's search experience will be beneficial to industry practitioners as well.  more...

Put your real estate content where it matters most Premium Content

By Gahlord Dewald, Tuesday, January 17, 2012.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-429058p1.html" target=blank>Target audience image</a> via Shutterstock.com.

Get a handful of Web marketing people together and it's only a short time until they start talking about "content." They'll say things like, "Of course we need more content," or "We provide the best content for our audience," or "I'm trying to figure out how to make my content more engaging and relevant," or "Finding solid content creators is getting challenging."

But what do they mean? Content is such a vague and nondescriptive term that it can be frustrating getting from talking about content to actually doing whatever it is people do with content. Is content a blog post? An article? A video? Is it an idea? What?  more...

Don't leave real estate website data in the wrong hands Premium Content

By Gahlord Dewald, Tuesday, January 10, 2012.
Image via <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-461077p1.html">Sergej Khakimullin </a>/<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com">Shutterstock</a>

The other day I got one of those automatically generated emails that Web services send out. This one was from Google Analytics, and it was related to a profile attached to one of my new clients. The account had just been deleted by one of the other administrators.

After a short bit of research I discovered that the administrator who deleted the account did not work for the client -- the administrator was the client's Web developer.  more...

7 tips for a better real estate conference game plan

By Gahlord Dewald, Wednesday, January 4, 2012.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-95p1.html" target=blank>Businesspeople image</a> via Shutterstock.com.

Right before any of the real estate industry conferences there tend to be a bevy of blog posts and articles on how agents and brokers can get the most out of conferences. These are great for helping conference attendees focus in on what they want to accomplish in person at an event that gathers industry leaders, innovators and emerging voices.

But someone is forgotten in all those articles: vendors -- you know, the people who are in those booths on the trade show floor or wandering the hallways scheduling a meeting or a party.  more...

You can't predict the future, but you can plan for it Premium Content

By Gahlord Dewald, Tuesday, December 27, 2011.
Image by <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-623506p1.html">konmesa</a>/<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com">Shutterstock</a>

A couple weeks ago a friend of mine lured me into a thread on Facebook that was initiated with a question like, "Do you think real estate professionals will be replaced by computers?"

There were, as you might imagine, a lot of responses, and I couldn't resist trying my hand at it as well.  more...

Most of the responses to this question focused on how computers can't accomplish the tasks of a real estate professional as we envision the job today.

5 real estate tech stressors you can do without in 2012 Premium Content

By Gahlord Dewald, Wednesday, December 14, 2011.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-211771p1.html">Real estate stress image</a> via Shutterstock.com.

It's that time of year. Over the next few weeks all of your favorite online publications will start trying to outlist each other with all the best things of last year or super-important things for next year. It's going to be "10 best" this and "eight worst" that, and so on.

Call it "Listember" -- the season of lists. This column will be no different.  more...

Klout Score: another 'vanity metric'

By Gahlord Dewald, Tuesday, November 29, 2011.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-80276p1.html?cr=00&pl=edit-00">gary718</a>/<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/?cr=00&pl=edit-00">Shutterstock.com</a>

One of the many things that inspires people is status. I don't mean status as in "status update," or "What are you doing right now?" I mean status in terms of how we fit in and rank among other people. We do all sorts of things to either gain or display our position and standing within our society.

The search for status isn't evil or bad or wrong. Sure, some of the actions taken can be pretty regrettable. But the search for status itself is simply a very human search for meaning in relation to others.  more...

Marketing in a post-IDX world Premium Content

By Gahlord Dewald, Tuesday, November 22, 2011.
Image <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-84025p1.html">Mopic</a>/<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/">Shutterstock.com </a>

What if you woke up one morning to discover that real estate brokerages had all decided they would no longer publicize other brokers' listings on their own websites, and that they weren't going to allow their own listings to appear on their competitors' websites, either?

Internet data exchange (IDX) -- the cooperative system that allows the general public to see information about all of the listings contributed by cooperating brokers in a given market -- has been showing signs of strain in recent years.  more...

What's lost in a world of ubiquitous data? Premium Content

By Gahlord Dewald, Tuesday, November 15, 2011.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-273049p1.html" target=blank>Angela Waye</a>/<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com" target=blank>Shutterstock</a>

Data is being generated, created, tracked and measured at an ever-increasing rate. Our online behavior is being tracked and measured. Our mobile devices are sending back packets of information to a variety of services.

We're entering an era of ubiquitous data. We are able to get instant updates regarding the people, places and things we care about. And the people, places and things we care about are getting instant updates about us.  more...

New formula for Google search: fresher content is better Premium Content

By Gahlord Dewald, Tuesday, November 8, 2011.
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-335395p1.html" target=blank>Ivelin Radkov</a>/<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com" target=blank>Shutterstock</a>

Last week Google rolled out an algorithm update that the company expects will have an impact on 35 percent of search results. This new update is the latest result of leveraging technology that Google built in its "Caffeine" update.

The purpose of this latest algorithm update is to focus on freshness. Some search queries infer that the searcher is looking for the latest information on a topic. Breaking news, product reviews and sports scores might be good examples of this.  more...

The end of the Google Maps free ride Premium Content

By Gahlord Dewald, Tuesday, November 1, 2011.
<a href-"http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-94501p1.html" target=blank>Filip Fuxa</a>/<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com" target=blank>Shutterstock</a>

Real estate is one of those industries where maps are really useful. My clients and friends who practice real estate often tell me that many home searchers start by thinking about what neighborhood they want to live in. Maps are useful there.

Google Maps, for the past several years, has been powering that capability on websites. Maps to show neighborhoods and transportation routes. Maps to show economic value. Maps to show specific properties for sale or recently sold.  more...

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