It was on October 29, 1969, that Kleinrock and his team are credited for giving birth to the Internet by getting a computer at UCLA to “talk” to another one at a research institute.
One small step indeed, considering where we are today, with the proliferation of online social networking and content sharing that is now commonplace in society.
But Kleinrock is quick to note that, although 40 years have past, the Internet is merely coming of age in terms of its impact on society.
”It’s a teenager now. It’s learned some things but it has a long way to go. It’s behaving erratically, but it’s given enormous gratification to its parents and the community.”
Interestingly enough, this view is shared by Gary Vaynerchuk, who is currently leading the way for a new wave of individuals leveraging web 2.0 and the whole social networking movement via the Internet.
Check out this video of Gary’s speech, where he describes his ability to successfully “scale up” his customer service and brand building by networking with people across the Internet using web 2.0.
About a year and a half ago, we did a post on real estate agents in Canada who use video to market themselves and their property listings.
Given that video is rapidly becoming mainstream on the Internet, to the point where surfers/consumers are actually expecting it, we decided to re-visit the subject.
For this post, we searched YouTube for realtors in Canada and found a variety of video marketing techniques being used right now.
And, last but not least, Vancouver real estate agent Ian Watt of Sutton Group conducts a daily video blog, from his car of all places! This guy is often cited as one of the top video bloggers in North America.
The 2009 Swanepoel Trends Report came out last month. The Report is widely acknowledged as the most comprehensive Report covering change in the real estate business.
This is an annual report, authored by Stefan Swanepoel, which summarizes the preceding year and details the most significant trends, innovation and new business models impacting the real estate business.
Although, there is a price for this report, you can check out a great video below of Mr. Swanepoel describing the latest social networking and web 2.0 tools available for today’s real estate agent.
Living in a web 2.0 world, consumers are demanding fresher and more descriptive information about homes for sale…. single-property sites are exceptional ways to not only ‘seal the deal’ by wowing your sellers but are also a great marketing tool that allow you to center your marketing strategy around an easy to remember URL.
According to the blog post (and ensuing comments), it appears that Prudential Conneticut have taken the lead by developing their own exclusive single property website technology - Home Suite. Nice work Vincent!
While some struggle to see the bridge between what Gary preaches and the professional realtor, no one can deny the success Gary has had in using Internet technology to build his personal and professional brands.
The following video was shot from the flip phone of someone at the conference. Check it out and let us know what you think.
For those real estate agents considering a video marketing campaign, this is a must read.
Here’s an excerpt:
What percentage of your real estate customers come from out of your area? They need information about the area, attractions, natural beauty, parks, schools and more. But, they also want to SEE what all of this looks like. Photos are great, but video rocks!
We’ve discussed on this blog before about creating a niche for yourself in the real estate marketplace.
Indeed, many sales and rental agents have achieved success through marketing to a specific group or community, ranging from student rentals to luxury sales.
If your niche is geography-specific ( or any niche, really), you can easily enhance your web presence using neighbourhood content from wikipedia.com.
Wikipedia is a free, online encyclopedia project. There are roughly 10 million articles written collaboratively by volunteers around the world… this includes articles about your neighbourhood!
By searching wikipedia’s vast library for your neighbourhood, you will likely find valuable demographic, historical, and community events information, which can be re-used on your own web page.
For those who don’t know, Larry runs a blog called http://photographyforrealestate.net, which in itself is an essential for all real estate photographers out there.
With many real estate agencies stuck in the Internet dark ages, it is refreshing to see how companies like Century 21 have enhanced their web presence with consumer-friendly initiatives.
It includes a blog and an awesome new Google map search functionality, which displays the locations of their listings.
Meanwhile, Century21.com just launched its own YouTube channel. Aimed at sellers, buyers and enthusiasts, the Channel will provide the opportunity for customers and agents to create and submit user-generated content.
“The CENTURY 21 System understands that in order to serve our clients and meet the demands of today’s market, we must lead the industry with the most current home buying and selling platforms,” said Robert Schwartz , vice president of national marketing for Century 21 Real Estate LLC. “During the next year we will continue to build on this momentum with additional Web-based innovations to help our agents and our clients navigate the world of real estate in a digital era.”
At Base10, we promote the use of web 2.0 and thats why we have an integrated set of features in our UniqueHomeSites.com product, which allow Canadian real estate professionals to better serve consumers through compelling web content.
The latest issue of Realtor magazine features a cover story attempting to clear the air about how real estate professionals can market themselves on the Internet by leveraging web 2.0 technologies.
In a nutshell, web 2.0 refers to the latest trends appearing on the Internet, including blogs, social networking sites (i.e. Facebook), and other web services such as YouTube.com and Google mapping.
By embracing web 2.0 (in particular blogging), real estate professionals can establish a powerful web identity that allows them to appear more prominently in web search results, thereby attracting more potential clients to their services.
Looking for a way to increase her online visibility, Boardman turned to a tactic then still relatively unknown to real estate professionals. She started her own blog, a Web-based daily chat with her customers, potential customers, and anyone else interested in hearing about real estate in her St. Paul, Minn., market area. “At the time, I couldn’t find any examples to follow,” she recalls.
Today, her StPaulRealEstateBlog.com site pops up first on a list of Google finds when you search for “St. Paul real estate.” She’s getting between 3,000 and 5,000 visitors a week to her blog, and that’s translated into new business.
At Base 10, we have been able attract a huge number of visitors to our blog, simply by posting content that we believe is relevant to our single property website clients. Not only does this make our existing clients happy, it has also generated new business for us.
As a real estate professional, imagine you created a blog discussing local market conditions, neighbourhood news, or other items that give you credibility as an expert in your selling area.
The Internet quietly turned 40 years old last month, as Leonard Kleinrock and others at the University of California celebrated the first time they (or anyone) got computers to ’speak’ to one another.
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