Using the Web and social media to sell real estate

This is not a commentary about affiliate marketing and some techniques on how to convince just anybody to buy just about anything. It is rather a candid observation of how today everybody is focusing on promotion and sales and so much noise is raised about all kinds of products that it is actually difficult to tell what is really good unless you actually try it yourself or you take the time to do some research.

But who has the time to do a whole lot of research, particularly when purchases are often based on emotion? I see it all the time in my real estate business: people look for the first impact, they need to fall in love with the house or with the location or with the idea that they can own a piece of America, if they are buying from abroad. They seldom get into any detail at the beginning, they leave the fine analysis to their financial advisor or they just want the summary of it afterwards.

What they want is to feel they have made a good deal, that they are safe, that they have been smarter than somebody else, that this is much better that some frustrating deal they had done before. Whatever makes them feel good about it.

So you can’t really sell based on price only and you can’t definitely sell on the quality of the product only (although the quality has to be there). What people buy is the emotion you put in what you do and the passion that drives you in the first place.

Are you selling your passion? Your emotion? The very soul of your personality? Then you should be able to stand out from the crowd. In this regard, P.T. Barnum dictates: “Advertise your Business” as rule 15 of his book “The Art of Money Getting”. He also tells: “Those who deal with the public must be careful that their goods are valuable; that they are genuine, and will give satisfaction… Advertising is like learning—a little is a dangerous thing.” In 2009 were spent $ 12.5 billion in online advertising. A banner on a leading portal like MSN or Yahoo costs $ 500,000 a day, about the same a 30 second TV spot.

But then how can you advertise yourself on the Web effectively? Well, first you should ask to yourself, are there people on the Web that look for what I have to offer? Is your product or blog or service of interest to your intended audience? How big is the audience? Are there competitors and what are they doing? If you are really going to put your “soul” into something, then you’d better find someone who wants to buy it. And Google Keyword Tool can be your best friend in doing it.

Roberto Mazzoni

Yesterday I have started a new mastermind group that is an evolution of the mastermind activity already conducted by The Wealth Building Annex in Tampa. What is a mastermind first of all? Well, it is a place where you go and meet people who are trying to achieve something different in their working life and share their experiences and necessities with others so to obtain and give help under a facilitator that makes sure that no time is wasted and that every meeting has a productive outcome.

Well maybe some of you already belong to one so “what is the big deal” here? The deal here is to create a whole new model of high end mastermind that will then be used elsewhere. Having this purpose alone will make it so much more powerful.

The official objective anyway is to iron out business strategies and to enable a faster growth leveraging to experince of Mark Katz, the facilitator who has a substantial background in business development in the US. Joining this smaller elite mastermind inside TWBA has also changed my status in the organization, bringing me to “governor” level which means I will now be able to have a deeper insight into the evolution strategy of what I consider the most advanced mastermind organization in the whole nation.
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Recently I was at a dinner with a group of visiting European businessmen and my wife commented about the gaming habits of some friends she had connected with on Facebook. After she mentioned a particular name, one of the guests, who sitting right in front of us, because green in the face and realized that one of his key employees was actually spending substantial production time playing on his computer.

People like to reveal to all the world what they are doing.

The name of the “suspect” was so unique that there was no mistake about him and then we because absolute certain of his identity when my wife mentioned some additional information about this guy. The funny thing about it is that this very person, who lives and works in Europe, had been complaining with his boss about how much he had to do and how he was not being able to keep the pace with all the requirements that his boss was sending from the US.

A very funny situation and we had a very good laugh, but our guest had suddenly come to see another aspect of social media power. He had not been familiar with Facebook until few months ago and he had never thought of connecting his own staff to himself: in the end he knew them already and had other communication channels already with them. But now he was going to connect with just everybody in his office and was going to keep an eye on everybody’s activity.

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The only people who make money are those working at a mint, all the rest of us earn money by producing something that has an exchange value. If you have nothing that has value for your potential customer, then you are out of luck.

How do you find what is valuable for them? The only way is to ask or to make a survey of what people are looking for. Remember, people never buy what they need, they always buy only what they want. How many things do we have bought in our life just for the sake of it and never used? And when we need to decide about a purchase, do we choose the product or services that best entices us or do we rather examine carefully all the pros and cons?

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Internet marketers use Google and its analytical engine to find what people most search for, other talk with friends and associates and figure out what they need. Sometimes it can happen that your main source of revenue is quite different from what you expected and most of the time the most profitable activities are those that deal with something that is shun by others.
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My friends and fellow investor have left for Italy and it is time to start putting into action the new plans for 2010. The emphasis is going to be on marketing and marketing, with also some attention to marketing. I realize this is the single element that can keep me winning and progressing.

The professional photo taken by a real estate specialized photographer of the new kitchen of a house that we have just finished and that is on the market in Clearwater.

It will take hard work, because you can’t really outsource much of it. Unfortunately, when it comes to relaying communication messages, people tend to get it wrong and eventually they make a mess if you don’t guide the process very carefully.

The virtual tour I got from a professional photographer showing a house I have just finished rehabbing – what a major differece from just regular shots.

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