Common Mistakes on Twitter

When it comes to Twitter, mistakes lie in the eye of the beholder, or the tweeter. But if you’re serious about blogging, you need to understand the role Twitter plays in your online presence.

First of all, it’s a communication tool. We make friends, we follow celebrities, we network. We have fun on Twitter, offer support, provide a laugh. We help spread news, both good and bad. And we come together in a crisis.

To make Twitter valuable build your following the old-fashioned way. Follow people you like and then follow the people they follow. Engage in conversation. Start it or jump right into it.

Common communication mistakes on Twitter
1. Begging or bragging about followers

“I’ll follow you if you follow me.”

“Wow, I just hit the 8000 follower mark!”

Exceptions:

If you have a new friend who has just joined Twitter, invite your followers to welcome them.
“My friend @John finally joined Twitter. Follow him so he can finally see what the fuss is all about.”

Also, if you are approaching a significant number and want to round up, it’s okay to ask for followers.
“I’m at 798 followers. I only need 2 more followers to achieve my lifetime goal.”

2. Never answering back

My mother is on Twitter. She’s actually starting to get the hang of it. Since she is following so few people, she sees it more like a direct line to me and my tweets (Note to self: be careful of what I say online).

When I recently asked for a shout out for my mom’s birthday, I wonder why she never responded to any of her tweets. She never knew about checking her “Mentions.” I know she’ll kill me for admitting this to you but she had an excuse. Most of you don’t.

If you’re using Twitter for your own little circle of chit-chat and never respond to anyone except those that you already know well, don’t expect your followers to follow you to your blog. Your blog should be a community and Twitter is a great place to welcome people into it.

Twitter can be a lot of fun. But make no mistake, it’s also a powerful marketing tool. If you haven’t figured that out, let me know and I’ll fill you on the basics. In the meantime, there are lots of mistakes being made in this arena too.

Common marketing mistakes on Twitter
1. Tweeting only links.

A good rule of thumb, if you really get down to the business of it, is nine non-business tweets for every one business tweet. For a blogger, your blog post links are your business tweets. Don’t overload people with them. Typically, tweeting them three times per day is effective. Otherwise, they’re just annoying.

2. Setting up an automated Facebook feed

Don’t worry. I’m not entirely against this practice. I use it on several of my Facebook pages. It ensures at the very least that my page updates are tweeted. It updates my followers and also can help drive my followers to my Facebook page.

However, I have seen many Twitter accounts set up simply as a feed. And that’s it! It doesn’t make much sense to push content onto Twitter which encourages engagement if you are only on Facebook and never on Twitter. I know that sounds overly logical but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this. And yet these people follow me!

3. Not monitoring your content

When I say monitoring your content, I mean monitoring YOUR content. What are you saying on Twitter? What kind of language do you use? How much are you sharing (or oversharing)? Are you drinking and tweeting (a sometimes deadly combination)?

I’m not suggesting you should become someone you’re not. Be your silly, goofy, sexy, funny, passionate, raunchy self. Just understand that your Twitter stream is a big part of your online presence. Don’t say something you don’t want a brand, business, boss, or even your mother to read. Sometimes too much is too much.
Did you catch all that? Are you doing it all correctly? There’s a lot more to learn even if you’ve been on for years. For those of your just getting started, I recommend you read one of my all-time favorite posts at the new Momcomm.com blog, Making Sense of Twitter – It’s the Never-ending Cocktail Party.

Now go tweet your heart out!

Adapted from an article by Fadra Nally on May 3, 2011 on socialdialect.com

Fidelity Phoenix Celebrates 3 Year Anniversary in The Hayden Ferry Building

Yesterday Fidelity Phoenix celebrated 3 years in one of the most recognizable buildings in Tempe on the shore of Tempe Town Lake, The Hayden Ferry building. In honor of our anniversary the Administration team hosted an employee recognition luncheon to celebrate and say "thanks" for a job well done.

The corporate offices for Fidelity Phoenix reside on the 11ths floor of The Hayden Ferry Building. Over the course of a month, the average traffic including staff and visitors is in the thousands.

REO Expo Recap

By Melisssa Shapiro, AVP Director of Sales Fidelity Phoenix

The mood was optimistic last week at the big REO conference in Dallas, REO EXPO. Experts believed that we are nearing the bottom of the housing crisis, with a long way to recover, but starting to move the needle north.

Banks and outsourcers alike believed inventory was going to increase by end of third quarter and into the fourth quarter, steadily all the way up to the holidays. Releasing toxic assets, getting them on the market and liquidating them is the only way to begin our recovery. There has been such a stop and go across the nation with releasing assets and then pulling back. Much of this has been due to the moratoriums put into place caused by the national loan modification push, the robo signings and the MERS issues. Banks want to be sure that they are crossing all t’s and dotting all i’s. The banks that are consumer backed with banking and depository relationships are especially sensitive to their image and “doing the right thing”. What everybody does realize is that our problem is not getting any better. The message between the banks is that they are committed to moving these assets any way they can, either with short sale, deed in lieu or foreclosure. There were more panelist at the REO EXPO speaking of an aggressive push toward short sale than ever before. Each of the big banks, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Chase have all placed time and resources into call centers and education on how to successfully close short sales. In many cases, a home sold as a short sale is a better price than a foreclosure and the realtor is paid higher commissions.

The problem still remains that homeowners are still not paying their mortgages and housing prices are still upside down. In Arizona 1 out of every 4 loans is seriously in default (more than 60 days late). There are still over 40 thousand properties with no running water, no electricity and not claimed by the bank. Inventory on MLS in Maricopa county is just under 22 thousand, an all time low. The positive side to this is that due to the elementary theory of supply and demand, prices are going up with multiple offers on most listings.

With the big push of releasing inventory, aggressive stands on closing short sales and home prices at an all time low, a push toward recovery is sure to be near in our future.

Jay Butler Discusses Economic and Real Estate Activity

ASU Professor of Real Estate, Jay Butler discusses economic and real estate activity.



To view the entire power point presentation visit our Facebook page

Vote Fidelity Phoenix The #1 Title Company in Arizona!

It's that time of year again, time to vote for your favorite Arizona companies for the 2012 publication of Ranking Arizona.

Ranking Arizona is the outcome of the largest business opinion poll in Arizona. Each category is selected by the staff of AZ Big Media for the general public to vote on and are based upon business and leisure activities of Arizona's business professionals.

Please support Fidelity Phoenix by casting your vote, it's simple:

Go to ranking.aznow.biz
-Choose the 'To Vote Search by name' button
- Type in Fidelity National Title
- Enter your email address

Only 40 more days to vote for the 2012 publication! Thanks for your support!

Utilizing Social Media Marketing For Your Real Estate Business

We are pleased to introduce Matthew Coates as our next contributor in our Guest Blogger Series. Matthew is an Agent with West USA Revelations, a blogger and social media guru. We asked him to provide his thoughts about utilizing social media in the real estate industry. Please enjoy his article below.

Real estate has been one of the slowest adopting industries for taking on social media as a marketing platform. Why is this? I believe that since average Realtor has been in the business for a long time, maybe 10 or more years (I see from statistics that the median age of an agents is in their 50s), they believe they have pretty much got it figured out and don't need to change their model or make adjustments that will improve their game.

That being said I tend to see the young-spirited agents (notice I didn't say young as in age) embracing social media as a way to expand their sphere of influence and capture more sales. These "early adopters" I believe are going to leave traditional agents in the dust as they wonder "what happened"?

You can no longer argue that social media is a fad. The fact that Facebook is approaching 700 million users globally should be a huge wake-up call that people want to connect in ways other than phone and in-person. Social media is a way to bridge the gap in time with those you care about during the off hours, not to mention those that live far away.

Notice I didn't say that social media REPLACES what you are doing, rather complements it in incredible ways. If you are still working expireds, knocking doors, printing flyers for your listings, using call and text capture.

First and foremost the goal of social media is to get more clients, right? So if you are using it why aren't you pointing people to your website? Why are you marketing your listings ALL the time? Big mistake - unless someone is in the market right now at this moment you are going to annoy them with constantly posting your homes for sale.

So let's talk about a few social media platforms and how they can enhance your current real estate business:

Facebook
Facebook has got to be the foundation of your social media. If you don't have a Facebook account, get one, immediately!

Facebook helps connect you with those you know and those from your past. Regardless of how you feel about people you attended high school with you need an account. You also need to be active. What does that mean? Probably posting a status update once a day would be appropriate - the level is up to you.

But equally important is jumping into your friends lives. Do you read your news feed? I don't mean everyone, but do you scan back on previous updates of those important to you and comment when they said their kid was admitted to the hospital. It goes back to the old addage

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

So you say "I'm too busy to do that, it doesn't make me any money." That may be true for the short term, but how about the long term? That person could send you 5 clients over the next 10 years. How about that expired listing that you cold call? Not likely. By the way, if you complain about using social media and that it's too much work, how's your current plan working for you? If you are doing what you think you should be doing in business, perhaps a change is in order.

LinkedIn:
In my opinion the most unless of the 3 social media platforms. I'm sorry if that offends but I can't think of one client that has come from it. It seems to be a static billboard, a way to connect with those you value in the business world, but the social interaction is extremely limited and cumbersome. Yes, people post status updates, but they are very rarely read. Of the last 10 updates I did to my LinkedIn page, I would be hard pressed to say that even 3 people said something, and I have over 1,000 connections!

That being said I believe LinkedIn to be more effective in companies that do business with other companies. In real estate we do business with individuals. So perhaps if I was a graphic designer, it would be more effective.

Although at this point I don't see alot of value in LinkedIn, I believe you should still have the page. After all, clients may check you out online and if you don't have LI page, they may doubt your professionalism. It is interesting the opinions that others form based on your online presence, or lack thereof.

Twitter:
Twitter is the most misunderstood form of social media, yet I believe the most powerful. The beauty of Twitter is you can make a one-sided connection with someone. What does that mean? You can stay in touch with them without them having to reciprocate. Unlike Facebook, where both parties much agree to be friends, on Twitter only one party must do this.

As a result you can digest valuable information straight from top global marketing figures like Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, and Chris Smith ( @chris_smth). I read several blog posts every day about marketing, the changing real estate market, building relationships, and social media. The amount of valuable information is immeasurable.

Combine that with the vast networking potential and the ability to get a message out in seconds and you have got a potential gold mine, if you use it properly. That's another topic altogether.

YouTube:
YouTube is a very interesting platform. An attention-grabbing video will be watched millions of times, where an ok one might only get 15 hits. While I use YouTube to an extent with about 50 videos up ( My YouTube channel), I haven't had much success there yet. As my wife says "Unless I see 3 or more people share a video on Facebook I probably won't watch it" Bingo.

Videos have to be extremely entertaining combined with wildly informative for them to work in real estate. I do know of a couple of local agents I believe are doing well with video, but that is the focus of their marketing campaign, whereas it is just a piece of mine.

I also believe the average person doesn't have the patience to sit through a 2-3 minute video unless it's a topic they feel strongly about. And typically real estate isn't it.

I do plan on revisiting this campaign in an attempt to create more interesting videos, and this will take more time and effort.

To sum up social media has revolutionized my business. I have clients that would never have come about without it, and I don't miss old/ traditional marketing methods, as I believe consumers are becoming less receptive to them as technology advances. Just yesterday I had a client in the car that came from one of my Facebook high school friends that I have kept in contact with the last few years since getting on Facebook.

Just remember anything worthwhile takes time and effort. Social media is no different. You are just "working" in a different way. It's not enough to have a social media presence - you have to engage with others. And don't throw in the towel if you don't land a million-dollar buyer within 3 months. It works if you work it.

With warm regards,
Matthew Coates
West USA Realty Revelation

Keep up with Chandler real estate http://livingchandler.com/
602.332.3321 cell
866.715.9284 fax
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/realtormatthew
LinkedIn profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewdcoates

"King of Lead Generation" Craig Proctor Live Training Session Sponsored By Fidelity Phoenix

On Tuesday, June 7 Fidelity Phoenix hosted a very special live training event with North America’s leading Real Estate Coach and “King of Lead Generation”, Craig Proctor. Over 300 Realtors attended the intense six hour event that was held at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort and Spa and raised over $1200 to benefit The Boys and Girls Club.

The training session conducted by Craig Proctor highlighted the least expensive and most effective strategies, ads and systems Realtors must be using right now that will guarantee at least two new escrows in the next 30 days.


A panel of top Agents were interviewed and lot of great information was provided, attendees left with a wealth of new knowledge. Below is a video of Steve de Laveaga's opening remarks and some key takeaways from the training we’d like to share.





· Realtors are in the Marketing business, not the real estate Business

· It is important to drive all traffic through a 1-800 hotline or website to capture information

· The biggest Realtor mistake is not setting themselves apart from the crowd

· It is important to know your Unique Selling Point and what makes you different

· Consider creative “guarantee” programs in which you guarantee to sell or buy the home

· Use the “triple M” formula: right Message, right Marketplace, right Medium

· Do you have a “library” website or a “lead generation” website- must have a lead generation site to capture visitor info

· It is important to have a website that tracks visitors so traffic can be measured, if your site doesn’t track visitors it’s useless

· Small twist on an old idea: Creative open houses in which multiple homes held open for 15 minute increments

· Group homes together and offer transportation

· Must haves: system for attracting prospects, for converting appointments to clients, to provide clients with superior service and to turn them into lifetime clients

· Live your life not just your business

· Show your value

· Offer your clients “ key benefits” free of charge

· Buyers really want choices and ACCESS, not an agent



For information about our other upcoming events visit http://www.facebook.com/#!/FidelityPhoenix?sk=events