I am always on the hunt for marketing that is fun, unique and viral. I came across this awesome video from NP Dodge Real Estate this week that incorporates all of those themes.

They posted it on the Inman News Facebook page and I knew immediately I had to feature this on FOREM!

I interviewed Jodee Drake-Soto, Vice President of Marketing for NP Dodge Real Estate this week to get the “skinny” on this video. Jodee led with project with the support of the NP Dodge marketing team and Amoura Productions. NP Dodge currently has 15 offices and 500 agents and is the oldest real estate company in the United States – 2010 marked NP Dodge’s 155th year in business.

Jodee says,

“As the oldest real estate company in the United States, we can sometimes be regarded as old and conservative.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Our culture is hard to describe on paper but you feel it when you walk into any of our offices—from the warm greeting you receive to the feeling like you’re part of the family when you meet with our professionals.

The pride of the company and support for one another is contagious.  We are a family growing every day.

Click here to view the video

Q: When was this video announced? What has the reaction been?

A: This video was introduced at our annual awards celebration event held on Friday, February 11, 2011. With the support of our division’s president, Mike Riedmann, we combined our awards celebration and holiday party into one event celebrating 2010.

The response has been outstanding!  We believed our agents and employees would enjoy it but didn’t realize how strongly they would embrace it.  The anticipation and excitement leading up to the video debut was wonderful.  Cheers, laughter and smiles filled the room and set the tone throughout the entire evening.  As the video has been shared with others, the excitement continues to grow each day with many from our local community embracing it as well.

The positive feedback ranging from emails to even being approached as you walk by has shown how much people are enjoying it and loving NP Dodge.

Q:  Who came up with the idea?

A: I enjoy pop culture and finding innovative ways to brand your organization.  I thought a lip dub would not only be fun to direct, but also an opportunity to showcase our talent—our agents and employees—and help others gain some insight into our amazing culture.

Q: How in the heck did you get so many Realtors on board with it?!

A: In November, I called N.P. (Nate) Dodge V and asked if he and his father, N.P. (Sandy) Dodge IV would participate in our special video to kick off our annual awards celebration.  He was on board and said they would do whatever was needed to make it a success.  (Please note:  Nate and Sandy are the two gentlemen that high five each other in the beginning of the video.)

On December 21st, I met with our management team and introduced the video project for our awards event.  Each manager received information about their section of the song along with some scene ideas.

Since this was a completely new endeavor for us, I asked the managers to embrace this project, use their creativity, and have fun with their agents.  It was an opportunity for each office to shine and show off their unique personalities and help show the energy in their offices.

Dress code, props, dance moves, scene ideas etc. could all be decided by their team members.  I told them it’s a new era for NP Dodge celebrations – let us see and feel the energy in your offices.

Q: How long did it take to create?

A: The filming took four full days in early January.  In June 2010 I announced to the NP Dodge marketing team we would be doing a lip dub to “I’ve Gotta Feeling”.

We worked on concepts periodically throughout the next few months.  I met with possible video production companies in October and selected Amoura Productions in November.  Late December I introduced the idea to our management team and two weeks later we were filming.

Q: Where was it filmed?

A: We shot footage at ten sales offices, two corporate offices and the convention center where the event was held.  The locations included Omaha, Papillion, La Vista, Fremont, and Blair, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Q: How did you select the song?

A: I selected the Black Eyed Peas song “I’ve Gotta Feeling” to introduce our new format for our first combined celebration.  As the lyrics go…“I’ve gotta feeling that tonight’s gonna to be a good night, that tonight’s gonna be a good night, that tonight’s gonna be a good, good night” really captured the spirit of the evening.  The last segment of the video shows our management team walking in the doors of the convention center and proceeding to the ballroom with our president, Mike Riedmann, opening the door of the ballroom.

Thanks Jodee for your time and for your creativity to put this together. I can only imagine the time and organization it took to pull this off. Hats off to NP Dodge for thinking outside the box and doing something new and fun!

You can find NP Dodge on Facebook and Twitter.

What do you think? I’d love your feedback on this – leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Senior Marketing Manager, Inman News @katielance

Share on Facebook

Hey FOREM fans – please join us for an incredible FREE Webinar!

Branding 101 – Strategies for Brokerages | Help Your Agents Brand Themselves and Your Brokerage Effectively

REGISTER TODAY!

Sponsored by: Market Leader

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. (PDT)

What does it take to build a memorable and valuable brand that will help you attract more business? How does technology play a role in branding? What can you do today to jump-start your brand?

In this webinar, you’ll learn branding strategies that will help your brokerage establish a top-of-mind position with prospective clients, newer and seasoned agents as well as potential recruits.

You’ll also learn 5 simple keys to help your agents build personal brands that will enable them to work as brand ambassadors for your brokerage, so that you can grow together.

This webinar is ideal for brokers, owners, managers and team leaders!

Join us today for this FREE webinar!

Register today >>

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

Share on Facebook

Monitoring who is talking about you via social media is one of the most important things you can do to monitor your brand. I know about Google Alerts – which I monitor daily. I know about checking my @ messages in Twitter to see who has referenced my name. What I didn’t know (until now) was how to monitor when someone shares information from my brand on Facebook.

Over the last two weeks I have started using Social Mention.

According to their website:

“Social Media Alerts – Like Google Alerts but for social media.Receive free daily email alerts of your brand, company, CEO, marketing campaign, or on a developing news story, a competitor, or the latest on a celebrity.”

This is a fantastic tool.  You put in your search words and every time that search comes up in Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and Google – you get an email! For me, the most useful information is the Facebook info. It was not until I signed up for Social Mention that I could see who was posting content from the Inman News Facebook page or from the Future of Real Estate Marketing Facebook page to THEIR Facebook page.

I chose to sign up for the ‘daily digest’ – so once a day I get an email and I can quickly scroll through and see who posted content to their Facebook pages. I can then choose to comment or interact – therefore generating more of a connection with our fans AND generating new fans!

I wanted to pass on this tip because it’s been so helpful to me in monitoring who is re-posting my content on Facebook as well as growing our fan base organically.

Have you used Social Mention? Would love your comments – leave me feedback below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

Share on Facebook

Nobody likes someone who is an ego-maniac. However, a lot of real estate agents get a bad rap, because some agents think that to build a great personal brand, they need to talk about how great they are.  This is very off-putting for many people – especially your Gen X and Gen Y clients who are slow to trust and quick to judge anyone who calls themselves an ‘expert.’

Personal branding – the art of packaging and presenting yourself has become so vital to both career and business development – especially as a real estate agent.

Here are five simple strategies that real estate agents can use to instantly set themselves apart from the pack:

1. Craft a Compelling Pitch. You need to be able to clearly define yourself, and sum up precisely what it is you do, in 30 seconds or less. When in doubt, make a simple bullet point list of the skills you excel at. Ask yourself: How do I see myself? Your pitch needs to be brief, to the point.

2. Take Control of Your Your Name. Input your name or your business’s name in Google, and see what comes up. It’s vital that the majority of results that appear – especially the first ones, all speak to the same clear message. You should not only own a website with your personal name as the domain (a given, right?!) – you should also have profiles on all major social networking services (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) under the same name. Even if you plan to do nothing else on social media – as a minimum – set up your profile.

3. Create Strong Branding Platforms. Personal branding is about establishing yourself as someone that brings unique, indispensable real estate services and skills to the table. You need to create platforms (blogs, Facebook pages, online video channels, etc.) that can help broadcast your skills and experience to as many people as possible. All of these platforms should also be stamped with your signature name, logo and imagery. Once built, it pays to pump out content through them that illustrates your expertise.

4. Be Generous with Your Time. Acts of kindness and generosity serve to generate goodwill and help build invaluable relationships and contacts that can pay off immeasurably. Charitable work presents great opportunities to establish trust, grow your personal/professional network and make a positive impact – you never know when it might lead to a vital mention or referral. Go above and beyond the call of duty. It doesn’t just speak to personal values and work ethic. It also presents a prime opportunity to demonstrate your expertise.

5. Accessibility is the Name of the Game. Whether using blog posts, tweets or your professional Facebook page, accessibility is the name of the game. Not only do people need to know you’re out there – they also need to know where and how to reach you, that you’re available to connect as needed and will respond to requests for outreach in a timely fashion. This doesn’t mean having to broadcast your personal information to the world or staying up until 3 a.m. responding to 200 e-mails . But it does necessitate that you not build too many layers of insulation between yourself and incoming queries, and be respectful of acknowledging people’s questions and feedback (even if it’s just through a series of blog posts).

The bottom line: If you want to be a go-to real estate agent, you’ve got to earn people’s trust. That means being genuine, listening and responding quickly!

Bonus tip #1: At some point you will want to work with a professional designer to help create your brand for you – i.e. your look, logo, imagery, etc. Don’t take a short-cut! Hiring a designer will help save you time and money in the long-haul!

Bonus tip #2: Be respectful of your brokerage’s brand and image. Although you are independent, pay attention to style guides and/or branding standards your brokerage has published. There are so many ways to differentiate and brand yourself but still stay within your brokerage branding guidelines.

Would love your comments and feedback – please leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

Share on Facebook

By popular demand, here is my list of ‘Stellar Stories’ for the week – articles that caught my eye via Twitter, Facebook, RSS, email, and more!

There was a lot of great content coming down the pipeline in the last couple weeks – here are some of my favorites – enjoy!

Social Media

• Why Social Media Really Is Worth Your Time
• 5 Easy Tips: Creating Networking Events Utilizing Social Media
• New York Times forgets that Gen X has any women in it
• 10 Social Media FAQs For Business
• 5 Warning Signs of a Weak Social Media Strategy
• Generation Y – It’s Time to Start Speaking their Language

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

• How to use LinkedIn with business savvy
• Guy Kawasaki on making the most of Twitter
• How To Optimize A Facebook Fan Page Post

Blogging

• Here’s what a blog adds to your business
• The 8 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers
• How to attract more content to your blog
• How to Create Awesome Content
• 19 Blogs You Should Bookmark Right Now

Branding

• Top 10 Personal Branding Articles of April 2010
• A Personal Branding Checklist for Twitter

Would love your feedback – leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

Share on Facebook

Let’s be honest – when is the last time you updated your web site? For most real estate agents it’s a couple times a year.

In 2010, it’s no longer ok to have a web site that is static – one just sits there and never gets updated.

If you are thinking of updating your site – it is easier now more than ever. More and more agents are moving to a Wordpress platform. It’s easy to use and edit, there are tons of great templates, and it’s SEO friendly (a.k.a – the search engines love Wordpress!) Plus, there are more and more IDX plug-ins available practically every day on Wordpress.

If you are like most agents – you have a site you either got for free with your brokerage, or you paid some one to design it 5-10 years ago and really haven’t done much since.

Here are 5 things to look at when re-evaluating your site:

1. Am I getting leads? If so, how many? If you are not consistently getting new leads from your web site you are missing the boat. I know, you will probably say: “But Katie, most of my business is from past clients and referrals!” That is GREAT! But imagine if on top of that business you were getting 5 solid new leads a month? 5 leads a month x 12 months = 60 solid leads (by solid I mean people who are truly interested in buying or selling within 3-6 months).

2. Do you know what your web traffic is like? If not, sign up for Google Analytics – it’s free and super easy to install. Many people consider analytics like accounting, but for your web site. It’s a crucial part of monitoring your success!

Pay attention to your site’s “bounce rate”–the percentage of visitors who leave your site without clicking even one page deeper into it. A high or rising bounce rate is a sure sign that your homepage is boring or off-putting.

3. Is my content fresh? Think about the last time you went to a web site only to realize the content is old. The fastest way to have people leave your site is to have stale info. By using a platform like Wordpress you can easily add new content like: 1st time home buyer tax credit info, a link to your e-newsletter, events in your area, market stats, and your blog (if applicable.) You also need to schedule time in your monthly calendar at least twice a month where you will update your site – perhaps the 1st and the 15th.

4. What is the 1st thing people see on my web site? Take a hard look at your home page. Every link, every image, every word should have a purpose. I am a big believer in simple and easy-to-navigate web sites. One of my favorite sites is Nest Realty – I only wish more info was ‘above the fold’ – but overall I think Nest does a fantastic job of having the right balance of information on it’s home page. Also, make sure when you are looking at your home page you have easy-to-find social media links – links to your Facebook page or profile, LinkedIn profile and Twitter profile.

5. Make sure your website is easy to figure out and loads fast, says Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist. The biggest way you can lose people is having a complicated site that doesn’t make sense to the user.

The best way to test your site is to have someone try it who has never looked at it. At a recent Real Estate Connect conference, the marketing team at Redfin talked about the power of having someone struggle with your site right in front of you. Have a few people sit down in front of you, on a computer, and just watch them click around on your site. What do they click on? Where do you see them hesitate and struggle. You will be DYING to instruct them – but resist! Just watch and you will learn so much.

The bottom line is this – no one will care as much about your web sit as you do. It is up to you to take back your web site and make sure it is doing everything you need it to do!

Would love your comments and feedback. Please leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

Share on Facebook

A guest perspective from Ashfaq Munshi, co-founder and CEO of Terabitz.

In an earlier incarnation, soon after I graduated, I was a young and eager executive at Oracle viewing life through a much different lens than I do now. While I did not know it at the time, that lens was cloudy, fogged up by youthful exuberance born out of pure textbook education and the rush of applying it inside fast lane of corporate America.

As far as rat races go, Silicon Valley is the Indy 500. And there I was, one was of many, trying to lead the pack inside a huge company where every other over achieving, drafting, Ivy League hot shot could, at any given moment, swing out from behind and out do me. All they had to do was work one hour longer, take one less break, and devote one more weekend to a project.

I didn’t think about it then, but few of those folks would ever really make it to the end of the race a winner.  The reason, as I would soon come to learn, is that most never really had the proper set of directions. Or discipline. They had an idea where they wanted to end up – rich and famous for some technological innovation – but few every really understood how to navigate the inside course to reach it.

I might not have either had the man I reported didn’t pass on a few words of wisdom that I remember to this day. In short, he suggested that if I truly wanted to define my life and achieve everything I was capable of, I needed to answer one simple question: What do I stand for. Once I determined that, he said, all I needed was to make sure everything that followed paid homage to it.

Right now this might be a great time for anyone reading this to ask that same question of themselves and their business.  

The essence of a brand

You do not have to be a dog lover to appreciate Cesar Milan or the success he has created for himself and others around him. What is important to understand however, is how he was able come to this country minus most of the tools we are lucky to inherit as citizens and within ten years achieve the very things most of my colleagues at Oracle spent a lifetime aspiring towards but never reaching.

Cesar stood for something. That something guided each and every decision he made. From who he married, to where he lived and to whom he allowed into his life.

The world is filled with examples of people who find within them a core belief that define their being. Some of them go on to build businesses that evoke and stir that same emotion within their clientele.

Madison Avenue distills that core essence down to one word – principles. It is from those core principles that brands are born, live and thrive.

I went back to my office after speaking with my boss and thought about what I stand for. I came up with two simple tenets that have defined my life. One was personal and one was career oriented. Personally, I stood for family first. And I meant it. I never waivered.  Career wise, I stood for creating solutions that better organized and simplified the life and business of my clients. I meant that too. And never waivered.

As a result of my dedication to these principles, the people I served achieved the goals they stood for as well.

The essence of real estate

Deep down, stripped away from all the goop that is our business, the commissions, the leads, the politics of search, and housed under the mire of fierce competition and the down market, are solid gold entities – brokerages and agencies that face far less adversity than any immigrant from south of the border who if pressed, probably couldn’t read a yard sign back then to save his life. Or for that matter the son of an Indian immigrant, fresh out of Stanford, trying to find his way in life.

Every broker I know stands for something. But until you compose it on paper, flush it out and fully examine if what you’ve built is aligned with your principles, then your brand will never shine bright. It will spin inside a centrifuge, caught in the rat race that is real estate and pit you against every other high achiever. On any given day, any broker can work a little harder, recruit the other brokers agents or throw a few more dollars at their marketing and out do the other.

But that’s not going to build a brand.

Align yourself and your company with your principles – the very core of what you stand for – remain steadfast and the essence of your brands will begin to glow. And you could become untouchable.

I’ve been fortunate to watch this happen in other industries. I know it can happen here.

Interested in contributing a perspective to FOREM? Please send your submissions to futureofrealestate [at] gmail.com.

photo by Stuck in Customs

Share on Facebook