by Dan Lenehan
For this week’s Roundup, we’re focusing on real estate, with articles about a new iPad “non-app,” the complicated dynamic between a broker’s brand and its agents’ individual brands, and using Pinterest as a link building tool. And we had to throw in one article related to the defeat last week of the SOPA and PIPA bills. Of course, “defeat” might be too strong a word — the bills were simply tabled — but that they were tabled because of massive grassroots pressure gives us at vFlyer a great “power to the people” feeling.
M Squared Introduces App-less iPad Open House Management
Washington, D.C., real estate brokerage M Squared announced last week its introduction of a new iPad-based software for collecting buyer information at open houses. The proprietary software lets open house visitors leave their email addresses and then get automatic email updates about the property they visited as well as nearby comparables and upcoming open houses. I would guess that the “cool factor” of its being an iPad app (well, not really an app, but who’s counting?) and its simplicity will increase the likelihood of buyers leaving their information on it, thus increasing the likelihood of a conversion from an open house. I suspect that other brokerages and real estate technology companies will follow M Squared’s lead.
Brand IS Important, So Who’s Brand Should YOU Be Building?
What a thoughtful, enlightening piece from InmanNext contributor Teri Conrad on the gap between broker brand and agent brand. She raises some really interesting questions and I also love the way she incorporates Twitter and video right into the post.
Real Estate Link Building with Pinterest
At vFlyer, we’re paying more attention these days to social sharing site Pinterest, which allows users to post content (pictures, mainly) to a “pinboard” and share it with everyone else. Sound familiar? It takes the fundamental concept of every social networking site — sharing — but it presents it with a new interface and tone: softer, prettier, more visual. It’s no surprise that women comprise a majority of the site’s users so far. In any case, this is a good piece from the Real Estate Marketing Blog about how real estate agents can use Pinterest to build up links to their website. It’s tough to gauge the SEO juice in a Pinterest link, but this article does make a good case for the value of it.
#BlackoutSOPA: How 87,000 People Taught Us About The Future of Online Activism
A fascinating account on Techcrunch from the founder of #BlackoutSOPA of how in less than two weeks, an organization that did just one very simple thing — replace people’s Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ profile photos with a “Stop SOPA” image — gained 87,000 users and national attention. A reminder that it’s often the simplest ideas that, when executed well, have the widest appeal.
