More and more, people are turning to social media to try and build connections and even business. But does it work and does it raise your level of SEO on the web?

By using social media, you're able to push out your links and information through the wider World Wide Web as it is syndicated to a larger audience, in turn, increasing your online traffic. Branding yourself with something like a Facebook page offers transparency and growth based on your fans and communications. By connecting with people geniunely, your links and content is more likely to be shared, which builds actual link relevance that Google and other search engines need to actually increase your SEO level.

Building link relevance comes down to building reputation among the social channels you have and who is following you.

But does it really increase your SEO? Houseblogger's Real Estate Marketing SEO Blog says that, at best, it gives you a link. You can read more here.

Posted in Internet Marketing, Real Estate Industry, Technology And YOU, Web 2.0 Marketing

HomeGain has released the results of their survey regarding the marketing preferences and plans for real estate professionals, the complete results of which are listed below.

The leading effective marketing strategy, referrals, is also the one in which most are devoting their time and plans for 2010. While social media is becoming more popular and used, traditional mailers and email campaigns are holding more weight.

The results are based on two surveys, conducted in December 2009 and February 2010, with responses from about 1,300 real estate agents and brokers. Respondents also indicated that they will be less likely to invest their marketing dollars and time on Twitter (3.4), outdoor advertising (2.7), banner ads (2.5), pay-per-click advertising (2.5) and MySpace (2.5).

Top 10 Effective Marketing Strategies for Realtors
(Cumulative Average Scores, 1 = Least Effective / 10 = Most Effective)

• Referrals (8.7)
• Featured Listings (4.8)
• Email Campaigns (4.7)
• Postcards/Mailers (4.6)
• Blogging (4.1)
• Online Lead Generation Services (4.0)
• Facebook (4.0) * LinkedIn (3.6)
• Outdoor Ads (3.6)
• Print Ads (3.6)

Top 10 Marketing Objectives for Realtors in 2010
(Cumulative Average Scores, 1 = Least Likely to Use / 10 = Most Likely to Use)

• Referrals (8.9)
• Email Campaigns (5.7)
• Postcards/Mailers (5.4)
• Featured Listings (5.2)
• Facebook (4.9)
• Print Ads (4.3)
• Blogging (4.2)
• LinkedIn (4.1)
• Online Lead Generation Services (4.0)
• YouTube (3.5)

Read more on the HomeGain Blog and Inman News.

Posted in Internet Marketing, Traditional Marketing, Blogging, Real Estate Industry, Real Estate Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Web 2.0 Marketing, National News

Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services has launched a collaborative, virtual research and development laboratory dubbed PRECIPT, the Prudential Real Estate Collaborative Innovation Partnership.

The non-traditional lab is a combination of three facets: innovation, research and development, and collaboration between IT experts and real estate professionals. This virtual lab will focus on four areas: video gaming and sensory spaces, social networking and media sharing, mobile computing, and the application of semantic Web search engines research.

Prudential is partnering with virtual world developer Immersive Design Studio to create one of its top priorities, an immersive virtual tour.

"This is actually 'Avatar' meets real estate. We demonstrated ... how (two people) could both be in different rooms at opposite ends of the country and be holographically next to each other. Buyers can start to experience homes and what they would do with (a home) even before they actually see it," chairman and CEO Jim Mallozzi said.

In addition, the Prudential Real Estate Network is unveiling other tools and resources: a media center to help real estate professionals create listings presentations quickly and easily from one spot, a rent-to-own calculator for consumers, upgrades to the company's proprietary Online Seller Advantage(SM) customer-contact platform, including direct interface with more than 200 social media sites, and their mobile solution, PruRE.com.

Read more from Inman News or in the press release.

Posted in Internet Marketing, Real Estate Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Technology And YOU, Web 2.0 Marketing, National News

Google has been developing new technology to crawl and index websites faster, a new publishing/subscribing protocol they've called PubSubHubbub.

Pub stands for the publishers, Sub the subscribers, and the Hubbub is the communication hub through which both communicate online. Right now when publishers put up new content, a ping, or signal, goes out to the Web crawlers to show there is new content. The PubSubHubbub technology would eliminate the need for a ping, thus shortening the time, most likely in an attempt to keep up with the pace of social media tools.

While the PubSubHubbub system won't increase your rankings in search engine results per se, it will see your content is found faster by the indexing service. Having good content is key to increasing your rankings.

Read more from Gahlord Dewald on Inman News.

Posted in Internet Marketing, Technology And YOU

Real estate technology company Roost has launched a free beta version of its new Facebook application, Social Real Estate℠.

With the app, real estate agents and brokers can now place a "Real Estate" tab on their Facebook page that displays city-specific housing from Altos Research, school information from Education.com and walkability data from Walk Score™.

In coming months, the full version of the app will be released and will include MLS, plus lead generation and drip marketing tools for agents and brokers.

"Facebook has passed 400 million users and is arguably second only to Google in mass consumer engagement, but most real estate brokers and agents struggle to use the platform effectively. Our application solves that problem by delivering content consumers want and engagement tools real estate agents need within Facebook itself," said Alex Chang, CEO of Roost.

Read more in the press release from Roost.com.

photo credit: CoreyHarris

Posted in Internet Marketing, MLS, Real Estate Industry, Lead Generation, Technology And YOU, Web 2.0 Marketing