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Writing a Professional Realtor Bio

A Realtor needs to maintain an online bio in several places, here are five tips to help you execute one that works for you, not against you.

1. Its an old journalism saying: Show, don’t Tell.

Explaining what you have done is better than telling them what your title is. You will see a lot of ninjas, enthusiasts, philosophers, and worst of all gurus on people’s social media profiles. Wouldn’t it be better if they told you how they grew sales, orchestrated their teams to produce more ideas, and led change in their organizations?

The “show, don’t tell” rule results in focusing on what things you actually make happen, not who you say you are. Phrasing this way means using words like these:

Screen Shot 2014-02-05 at 2.46.39 PM

These are doing words, action verbs that give a sense of what you get done. That is key, this is the value you bring to those that hire you. Remember that.

 2. Make sure you use keywords that speak to the people you are targeting.

What are you an expert at? Specifically. That should be in your bio using the keywords that describe the skills and expertise that you hold. They will be searched for and increase the likelihood that your bio will help you get found. So how do you come up with these keywords? Think about what the client you are targeting would be looking for, and then how they would type that into Google. Those are your keywords.

3. Don’t get lazy and decide to use the current buzzwords:

Like we mentioned above, there are words we see over and over. I for one do not want to hire a social media guru any more than I want to hire a marketing ninja. Those words say nothing other than the fact that you think you are either smarter or cooler (or both0 than the reader. Trust me this is not a good approach.

Linkedin which is pretty much the greatest authority on professional web profiles presented this slideshow on the most overused words of 2013. If these are in your bio it is time to change it up.

4. Always include what is in it for your prospective client or employer.

Ahhh the Value proposition, you must include this. Accomplishments demonstrate ability but they are the past, your bio is speaking to people who want to know what they get from working with you; in the future. This is essential to answer: what can these readers expect from you? What value do you add to the equation?

Screen Shot 2014-02-05 at 3.41.17 PM

5. Revisit often (More than Every Ten Years)

Stale bios are the old headshots of the digital age, now not only do we get to see your old headshot when bangs were big, but we get to read about where you were in your career in 2001. Let’s go, ge tit up to date. Make a note in your calendar of choice (Google is mine) to remind you to read and edit your bio every three months. That way you can tout your recent developments and expunge things that no longer apply.

Why Facebook Complaints Miss the Point

By now you have heard of the Facebook changes coming, and seen the already implemented ones. If you have logged into Facebook today you have seen the complaints starting, and believe me they are just starting. Here is why complaining is pointless, and you either need to decide to ride the changes and find the benefit of the new service to you or simply disappear.

Facebook Complaints are Rampant Today

Facebook Complaints

Now these are my friends and they are each connected to hundreds if not thousands of people on Facebook, which is the reason they are speaking out. If it was not for those connections most of them would likely leave, cancel their accounts, or greatly curtail their Facebook activity. That is not the case however.

Most people see themselves as Facebook’s Customer.

The user is not Facebook’s Customer. Facebook provides access to their network without charging the users. Facebook is collecting Data, documenting your life, your connections, your marital status, your location, your dining preferences, the companies you like, where you travel, which brand of soap you use etc etc etc. They are doing this to sell that information to companies that wish to sell to you.

Remember this: The time that you invest in your facebook profile, the updates, and every other way you share, is the work that Facebook sells.

So what is the next move? You can make a choice as to how much of that information is OK to share, and adjust your usage. You and your significant other can decide that having Facebook aware of your relationship is not worth the marketing, or you can decide that it is.

You don’t have to use Facebook.

Shocking? Well it shouldn’t be.

Two examples of groups addicted to Facebook:

I understand the appeal of Facebook for adolescents. They are looking for their place in the pecking order and with the opposite sex, so it seems normal that they would be addicted to perfecting their profile picture and posting things that make them look ahead of the crowd and cool. Facebook provides that platform like no other.

Once you are an Adult is Facebook’s level of self centered-ness a healthy way to portray yourself? With the epidemic of divorce, those who are soul mate searching have a natural pre-disposition to use Facebook as a way to browse prospects and showcase themselves in the best light possible. It is a normal and powerful human urge that Facebook understands, and they profit off of the amount of information the 800 million users provide. Is that wrong? No the info is willingly provided.

To these groups it would be hard to stop using Facebook, which is exactly what they want. So they know they can continue to tweak their design, functionality, and data collection techniques to continue to make more and more money.

Mark Zuckerberg is worth 17.5 Billion Dollars, and they haven’t gone public yet.

Do you think it is ironic that most of the complaints about Facebook are conveyed with Facebook? Do you think that people making this much money doing what they are doing are going to change what they are doing as long as the people who complain about it are using Facebook to complain? There is only one way to go if you don’t like it…

The best complaint you can make is to leave.

If you do want to leave, and you have had enough of the childish games, and the amount of information about your personal life that they have collected and continue to find new ways to highlight, you can. There are several new services, the most promising of which is Google+, that take privacy very seriously. I love it there, and like everyone else, I just wish more of my friends were using it.

You can find me on facebook Here, on twitter Here, and on google+ Here.

Have a great day.

Social Media Monitoring for Marketing

Where are you when your potential customers are talking?

Social media provides a chance to hear things you would never hear before, find customers you would never find before, and make connections that lead to sales you would never make before. The key is to be there to capitalize on the thought, comment, mention that your customer makes, when they make it. You have to have the system in place to make it possible, your finger has to be on the shutter to capture the moment.

Are companies really doing that? Yes.

Here is an example from today that will illuminate the way companies are using social media monitoring to build brand awareness and make connections with proven customers. Earlier I stopped by Whole Foods to pick up some Burrata Mozzarella, a creamy fresh mozzarella that is one of a kind. While there I checked in with Foursquare and tweeted my checkin as shown here:

What Followed that Tweet was a Retweet by the brand that I bought. Notice I never mentioned a brand name, just the variety of the mozzarella. So how did the company know it was theirs? I uploaded a photo of the package with my checkin. That means the company was monitoring twitter for mentions of Burrata (they didn’t follow me prior to this) and were aware of my tweet and the fact that it was their product, they then re-tweeted my post. That all happened in 40 minutes. Not bad.

As you can see a subsequent conversation took place about their product and who knows how many people noticed and didn’t comment.

Social Monitoring used in marketing

 So how do you do this cost effectively?

You need to use tools that monitor the mentions for you. You can’t spend all day watching, and you can’t pay someone either, unless you are GM or Verizon etc. I use Spoke Social which I am involved in developing. Here is an example of the monitoring screen that Spoke has for setting up the keywords and other parameters:

Spoke Monitoring Set-Up Page

As you can see I set it up to monitor for mentions of Brunch or Sunday Brunch, within 25 miles of my restaurant Evenfall, as I am going to be starting brunch there in October. So now each time someone mentions that term within 25 miles of Evenfall I will be notified and able to message them an invitation. Will they all come? No. Will they have an interest in brunch? Likely. Will it cost me much time, money, or anguish to do it. Definitely not.

This is the type of Marketing Use that monitoring tools can have.  They are most often used as a customer service tool to make sure that any disgruntled customer taking to social media and venting about your brand can be contacted and the situation rectified.

If ideas and examples like this interest you, you can subscribe for free here: (It would make me happy too.)

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What do you think? Is monitoring interesting? It is not expensive, in fact it is one of 40 features that spoke has for $15 a month. I am here to answer questions for you, @spirocks on twitter or in comments below. 

Business Communications with Google Plus

Google Plus for Company Communications

I thought I would share an example of the way that I am using Google Plus to strive for better communication with the employees of one of my restaurants. I created a circle in Google Plus and added all of the employee emails that I knew (I am hunting the rest as we speak), and set out to use that circle as a way to connect with everyone. When something new is added to the menu, when we run into and issue during service that needs to be addressed, when I decide to open or close for a holiday, and any other time that I want to contact the staff this will be the method. Of course I will still be managing verbally while I am present at the restaurant, but this is not a business where everyone is there from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday.

Some Employees work two shifts a week, and it has been up to me and a few managers to convey all the changes to each member of the staff when they came in. Until now.

Google Plus employee communications

This is the first message I sent to the staff to introduce them to the fact that I am going to be using this tool to communicate with them. It is my hope that I will be able to create learning moments from any snag we hit during service by bringing it to everyone’s attention as it happens with the hope that I can prevent the rest from stumbling over the same issue before it is resolved.

With access to this circle via my mobile and desktop I will be able to communicate with the entire staff when the need or solution arises, and that convenience is something that I believe will allow me to be better at what I do. With two restaurants and a growing marketing company my time is in demand and having the ability to communicate like this is a godsend.

Why Google Plus?

Well the greatest reason is that I can create the circle with just their email addresses and whether or not they are using Google Plus already I can contact them. It simply emails the contents of my messages to them if they are not G+ users already. You can’t do that with the friend request format of Facebook, and though I love Twitter it’s short messages and lack of a true group messaging function eliminates that as well. So Google Plus races to the forefront. The ease of setting up a circle is very key as well.

In the future I anticipate the ability to incorporate other Google properties such as: (Google Calendar – Scheduling and Google Documents – Training Materials) With Photos and Youtube there really is little limitation to where you can go with this.

Waiting for an Invite? Here You Go

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Social Proof helps Launch a Restaurant

Social Proof (noun) – The impact that an individual’s friends and acquaintances have on their likely hood to buy a product or service from a brand, derived from the commentary and activity the friends and acquaintances have with the brand on social networks and in social settings.

Ok so like I said in the video, Andolini’s has been open to the public for less than two full nights as I write this and I wanted to give examples of many kinds of social proof that have happened already. Its a motivator to be out there and get involved, and to ask for help if need be. This results in sales as you will see right now.

Open Announcement and Reactions Social Proof

Spirocks.com - Social Proof Example

Here you can see a post on my personal facebook page where I announced that Andolini’s was open. You can see that in the hours since it was posted 10 people have liked it and three more have commented. What this means is a few things:

  1. A high level of engagement will likely push this post into the ‘Top News’ feed, which will result in just about all of my friends and all of these people’s friends seeing the post and comments.
  2. By commenting on this, each of these people have brought it to the attention of all their friends via their Wall, where facebook places a notification that Dental Bright ‘likes’ the post.

Interaction and Testimonial Social Proof

As you can see here we have posted several photos of the food that we are serving at Andolini’s which a customer who had been waiting for us to open saw. The restaurant being responsive and answering him in a timely fashion is key here, and I think it is clear that he will be in soon. Down at the bottom Mr. Newman had been in the night before and posted a comment that serves as a quick review and endorsement. This post is a great example of social proof for a couple of reasons:
  1. Interaction via the posts comments led to Mat letting us know he was coming soon, any of his friends who see his post will take that as an endorsement and be more inclined to try the restaurant.
  2. A customer that has already come in raves and encourages people to try it. You don’t need me to explain why that is social proof I hope!

Third Party Generated Social Proof

This example differs from the previous two because in this case neither I nor the restaurant initiated any of the posting, it was purely the result of these people being inspired by something they saw or heard about Andolini’s. This is the best kind of social proof, because their friends will see that they were inspired to post and the friends will have a natural curiosity as to why.

The Social Proof of a Champion

Social Proof of a Champion

Champion (noun) – An individual who is devoted to your brand and is passionate about promoting it for you.
As I have been writing what you have been reading, the above dialogue has been going on on facebook. The social proof of a Champion is a nice thing to nurture and enjoy. In this case the role of Champion is played well by Meah, who starts by praising the restaurant after her first visit tonight. When a friend of her refers to another Italian restaurant in a neighboring town she quickly re-iterates her preference and strong endorsement for our new place. You can see from the rest of the comments that having a champion is a great source of social proof.

Social to Sales – Social Proof

This is actually a husband and wife, and as you can see a post leads to them coming in for dinner immediately. Which is nice as that is the end goal, that in itself is not the social proof. Though it is proof that social media leads to sales. 🙂 Anyway the proof is in the fact that these messages were broadcast to all their followers on twitter, who may very well be influenced just by that, and or ask them how it was today. Anytime a customer shares the fact that she/he is spending money at your place with all their social contacts, repeat after me: THAT IS SOCIAL PROOF.
I have ton more screenshots to share, but I think you get the point by now. If you want to see more just check out the gallery at the bottom of this post.

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If you are interested in what me and my team at GuestFeed can do for you at your business or in your professional practice, you can contact me here, on twitter @spirocks, at spiro@guestfeed.com, or at 617-379-3015.

Google Plus Customer Management

So I am embarking on a new project with my clients, to utilize the tools google has given us in Google plus to organize and market to their customers, prospective customers, and the world in general. First we are using gmail to maintain customer database, and then we are organizing these customers into circles by things they have in common. For instance a realtor is grouping buyers into price range circles, and town circles. In this way she will be able to share only that which is relevant to each group and never be intrusive.

Here is a video explaining a bit more about circles:

Even if the customer is not using Google Plus she will receive an email notifying her of what the realtor is sharing, the versatility of Google Plus will allow my client to share the stunning photos, videos, and written work we do with her in a variety of ways. Gmail will allow her to record all pertinent contact details both at her computer and via her smartphone. Here is the variety of information that Gmail will manage for each customer:

Gmail Contact Information Capabilities
Gmail Contact Information Capabilities

As you can see for a small business or professional the contact data is clearly sufficient with multiple notes sections that can be added for further customization. Couple that with the amazing google plus sharing technology, including video chat, and you have a dynamic FREE CMR and Marketing solution for the mobile entrepreneur and professional.

I will explain further in this video:

Let me know what you think in the comments, or hit me up on twitter: @spirocks

Features Google+ beats Facebook At (part 3)

This is part 3 to a series of posts on features that Google plus does better than Facebook. Part 1 (photos) and Part 2 (open development) can be found at these links and I hope you enjoy this series. I really wanted to write about Google “Hangouts” today, the video group chat feature that has the potential to deal a serious blow to Skype. But I am devoted to writing about what is truly the most important feature first, so maybe hangouts next… now it is time for:

Google+ is better at Privacy than Facebook

You already knew that right? I know. But here are ways and reasons that may not have crossed your mind yet. I call them the granularization of privacy (my word) in Google+. Everyone is talking circles, and rightly so, the ability to define groups of individuals to share certain items with is a simple yet novel approach to the online sharing quandary. What I see is that Google+ has a chance to be THE SOCIAL NETWORK, not a niche site. I think LinkedIn should be worried, as should Facebook.

Google+ could replace both LinkedIn and Facebook for Most Users

Lets be honest, the things you share and the info you put forth on Facebook is significantly different than what you do on LinkedIn. So basically you have two separate networks for two separate purposes. That means maintaining and updating information in each of them whenever something changes, it means checking messages from both regularly, etc. In short you are maintaining two different CIRCLES of contacts with two different services. Sometimes sharing completely different information, sometimes the same information. With Google+_ you are able to do just that, all within the walls of one network.

Each thing you share is a grain of information, and with google+ you are able to precisely and easily manage whose eyes see it. Facebook fails to do the same, as they push to have everything more and more public, they redesign security settings and leave them open by default so you are required to consistently monitor changes.

By Design Google+ has privacy that you can rely on.

This is not a setting, this is you telling the network exactly which individual you want to share this piece of information with. It is not up for debate and the settings can not be changed in a way that changes that fact. That is privacy that you can rely on.

In the span of 1 minute you can post a picture of yourself accepting an award from the State house for running a few family businesses, and share that with the your customers, friends, family, employees. And then post a video from your liquored up karaoke party where you sang AC/DC and share that with your friends only. Done, no worries, no security setting menus to navigate through. Basically no bull shit.

Facebook is likely to have to change to keep up, consider this quote from the Fortune story on the privacy differences between the two:

…it’s much easier to manage Google’s privacy options than Facebook’s. Reviews of Google+ mention its superior ability to manage personal data, better transparency on how that data is shared and the option to delete all your data… If better privacy is in fact a big factor for many people, then Google+ could easily become so popular enough that Facebook will be forced to improve its own privacy policies.

Implications for businesses are huge.

Privacy is a strong word, it stirs up emotions, but on a level that relates to marketing it can be less strict and more of a tool. Think for a moment of a company Google+ page with various different customer Circles, they could be leveraged to:

  • Deliver offers to select groups of customers, by geography or other factors.
  • Test out different marketing pitches and campaigns.
  • Send customer groups to different landing pages and monitor effectiveness.
In this way the ease of Google+’s circles becomes paramount to encouraging there use. Check out this video for an idea of how easy they are to use:

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Features Google+ beats Facebook at (part 2)

This is the second installment of a series of posts I am writing on the features that Google+ does better than Facebook. While I have heard from some listing things that Facebook does better, I would simply say, I am not writing about that. Google+ is a start up network that has the clear advantage of being created by some of the worlds best programmers, a vast financial resource, and the second mover advantage. The second mover is by nature behind, but also has the ability to dissect what the first mover has done and find ways to incorporate design and strategic elements to improve on the existing first mover example.

Google+ beats Facebook at Openness in Development

Google+ is impressive in its feature set already, as I noted in Part 1 with their superior handling of photos, but Google has stressed in their statements that this is a ‘field trial’ not an alpha release, not a beta release, but a field trial. They have made tweaks and changes, and when they have stumbled, they have acknowledged it and fixed it. One of the most impressive features is the easy to use feedback tab on the lower right corner of every google+ page. When you click on it, you can easily report a problem as you encounter it with this pop up form:

Google Plus
This easy to use form helps them get better fast.

As you can see you actually highlight the problem on your screen, and describe it to them. I have used it and seen the issue resolved within 24 hours. That bodes well for the future of google+. The fact that they make it so easy to report the issue means more will be reported, which means less people will encounter them, and things will work better.

Google+ has its big guns out there talking to Users

You might not know Vic Gundotra but he is a senior vice president at google, a software engineer, who is in charge of much of what google+ is. He is out there every day using the very very cool video chat tool in google+ to “hangout” with users and get feedback about features they want or want to work better. When a team has their superstar that invested good things happen. Think Tom Brady showing up first to practice, and locking the door on his way out.

Vic Gundotra
This is Openness in Development, with Users coming first

Google is going to Integrate Google+ with other Products, Carefully.

Gmail, Youtube, Google Search, Google Docs, Picasa, Blogger, Google Talk, Android, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Translate… heard of those? Yeah well Google has a stable of horses already running at the front of their races. They will integrate them into Google+ and they have shown that they have learned from the issues they faced with the failed Google Buzz launch.

Take for instance the openness and true desire to hear from users as to how the integration of Gmail should go, shown by Mark Striebeck the Engineer in charge of Gmail’s front end:

gmail frontend engineer
This is Organization wide commitment to Success.

 Google+, the Path to Success

While I feel like I amy hav elost some readers with this topic, having used the service consistently for a week and a half since launch, this needs to be written now. I have read articles from people who are trying to decide if Google+ is going to succeed or not. To me they are morons just looking to get something written. Google threw the gauntlet down to their employees last year, social was priority #1, and it shows in the out and out dedication I have shown you a glimpse of above. Remember a few things:

  1. Google has many of the most talented people in software today.
  2. Google has most of the industry leading online services under their roof.
  3. Google has the financial strength to do what it wants (not pre-ipo, not a garage start-up)
  4. Google has motivated the best programmers in the game to get social by tie-ing all bonuses to the success in social.
  5. Google has the bases covered: Android to Search to Youtube to Gmail – you already are heavily involved in Google+ whether you know it or not.
Id your business in a position to guess that google+ will fail, or do you want to be among the first to establish a presence there and avoid playing catch up next year? If you want help making that happen, let me know, that is what I do.
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