Introducing The Social Broadcasting System

Executive summary

In the executive summary, we'll explain how the social media, which includes blogging, has become a powerful medium for real estate marketing and lead generation. We use slideshows for explaining the concepts behind the social media and their application to the real estate professional. Then we’ll detail how your company can take advantage of this window of opportunity to create a revolutionary online presence with our Social Broadcasting System.

Why the Social Media makes static Websites obsolete as lead generation engines

Agent websites have already been proven ineffective for lead generation and traffic. The problem is that websites look practically identical, are neither engaging nor interactive, and don’t provide agents the opportunity to showcase their expertise and project their personality. The “Social Media” – a term that includes blogging, participation in social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook and other Web 2.0 applications that enhance the communication between agent and client, are now critical for developing the agent's online presence.

Why the Social Media Works in Real Estate Marketing

After technology, the real estate industry is uniquely suited to leveraging the Social Media. No other professional vertical has a well developed "blogosphere" and applications like Active Rain, Trulia, Zillow, and HomeGain advancing social media participation on a daily basis to its constituency. Why? Real estate agents leverage blogging and the social media for marketing, business development and lead generation; there is a purpose for their participation. Real estate agents, admittedly a low-barrier-to-entry profession, need to differentiate themselves and the social media has become a proven method for demonstrating their expertise, experience, personality, etc. Real estate agents need to network on a massive local neighborhood level, and social networking applications do this well.

Social Broadcasting System Architecture – How it Works

The Social Broadcasting System is built on a social network platform, with features that are common to social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Active Rain. Within this platform, agents are able to form and participate in groups, set up blogs and news feeds, and dialogue/comment with others in the network. Agents have their own "home pages", essentially blogs, where they can display their personal and contact information.

The unique feature of the social network is the Social Broadcasting System. The System facilitates the delivery of real time news and information through an application (or "widget") embedded on the broker's and agents' websites. What makes the System compelling is the news is delivered like a ticker tape from content generated by the brokerages' agents.

Agents are trained to use popular "micro-blogging" applications like Twitter and Friendfeed, and social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, to broadcast relevant news and information to their local network of prospects. In aggregate, a corps of agents “micro-blogging” about real estate is analogous to a corps of field reporters delivering updated, real time news to consumers interested in their real estate markets.

For example, one agent may Twitter “this San Diego 3BR condo in a sketchy part of LaJolla just went for $100k over asking… in this market? Click here - tinyurllink.com“. Readers click out of curiousity and are directed to the agent’s website/blogsite. Readers subscribe to the news feeds offered by that agent because it keeps them up to date on the markets they are interested in. This consumer psychology of "staying on top of the market" makes the brokerage and agents' sites sticky destinations in the same way users follow CNN or Facebook to keep up with news and their social worlds, respectively.

Over time, the Twittering agent develops a following and builds a lead network that will benefit from his/her insights into the market. The agent website by default can look like a typical agent website with contact information and real estate services and tools, but it also at the agents option, can be a full featured blog site.

The news feeds can customize for any audience. Each office or region can also have a “news wire” composed of content generated by its agents.

Why the Social Broadcasting System is Revolutionary

The Social Broadcasting System is an effective solution to one of real estate blogging's biggest barriers - no agents want to write a blog. With micro-blogging applications, agents can now broadcast one sentence “reports” via Twitter or bookmark news and informational articles they find in online newspapers and blogs, and share them with their followers.

Benefits

Agents build an online following by broadcasting news consistently enough to be recognized as a major contributor to brokerage's news feed. They leverage the brokerage's existing traffic and generate lead opportunities much more quickly than doing it themselves with their own blog.
Brokerage gains visibility as a leader in promoting real estate technology marketing.
The Social Broadcasting System will create value both as a lead generation and marketing service to your agents, and can be leveraged as a value proposition for agent recruitment.
The Social Broadcasting System may become a major online real estate destination for qualitative real estate information. The property could potentially draw income from advertising revenues and have tangible asset value in the future.
The Social Broadcasting System will be developed by corps of agents who will work as a team and be trained by Domus on the fine art and technical skills of the social media. Quality will breed credibility and enhance the stickiness to keep consumers onsite and subscribing.
Content quality control. The difference between Social Broadcasting System and broad population social networks like Active Rain is the limitation of participants on the Social Network. Open networks like Active Rain that allow anybody to start a blog tend to dilute the quality of content and the overall marketing message that brokerages want to maintain. The Social Broadcasting System is a closed network and has full rights to the management of its blogger corps.
Agents can leverage their content, both from blogs and micro-blogs, to create new lead generation opportunities by participating in other social networks and mainstream media. For example, an agent may potentially participate in and accrue leads from new Web 2.0-based media distribution sources. This is the next big thing in lead generation, and it costs bloggers nothing to become recognized by mainstream media.

Product Development

Domus advises the Client on the strategies, development and implementation of the Social Broadcasting System:

Does Client need the Social Network platform?
1. If no, does Client need the Social Broadcasting System integrated into existing website?
2. Does Client require all features activated?
Define Social Broadcasting System product features
1. Activate Market Match features
2. Activate third party vendor applications and feeds like IDX
3. Activate third party Network member applications including widgets
Integration issues with Client applications
Style and design
Build

Go to Market Strategy

The key to the success of the Social Broadcasting System is in the execution. Blogging, micro-blogging and the social media are completely new online concepts for the real estate community and the complexity of developing effective online presence requires experienced in-depth knowledge of the Social Media and how to coach real estate professionals.

Domus Consulting Group has coached bloggers for over 18 months, and have become the leading coaches of real estate blogging. During this time, we have developed the methodology to get Realtors up and running on a blog and support training with 100+ practical tutorials. Domus first demonstrate the reasons why an online presence is essential for a successful real estate career today.

Sample 8-week Curriculum for Getting Agents Up and Running on the Social Broadcasting System

Week 1
    Defining your Online Presence Strategy - Benchmarking
Week 2
    First Practical Steps - Five Steps to Setting up your Social Network
Week 3
    Understanding the Strict Protocols of Social Media and the Content You Deliver - Don't Blow it!
Week 4
    Defining the Social Media Space - What is Necessary and What is Fluff
Week 5
    Setting up the Tools to Monitor the Social Media - FeedReaders, Social Bookmarking, Social News, Twitter
Week 6
    First Steps in Participating in the Social Media - Your Network is Set Up and it's Time to Leverage It
Week 7
    Twitter, Friendfeed and del.icio.us Strategies
Week 8
    Putting it All Together - Integrating Your Offline Real Estate Practice with your Online Presence