Remember the days when postcards and flyers were all the rage? I know what you are thinking, no this is not a typical rant against direct mail, this one is about Twitter. So do you? Remember when? Hello, my name is Stephen Garner, a former title rep for a national title insurance company in Phoenix, Arizona. I spent 10 years in the title industry helping real estate agents and loan officers grow their business.
Back in the days, real estate agents used flyers and postcards in the spray and pray model. Send a bunch of marketing collateral [flyers, postcards, magnets, fly swatters, apricot jelly etc.] to a bunch of people and hope they have a need for your services when it arrives. Does it work? Sure, anything [good or bad] works of you keep it up, problem is, it’s so damn expensive. Paper, ink, designer, postage or kid on a bike. . .it all costs money. All the “stuff” worked rather well [if you kept up with it] until consumer behavior began to shift – online. You have heard the stat, over 90% of consumers start their home search online. For those agents that like the spray and pray model, you can still do it – online! And it’s a lot cheaper than paper, ink, designer, postage or a kid on a bike. You can now use tools like facebook, twitter, wordpress, linkedin, youtube to syndicate your content. Simply create a value based message and launch it into cyberspace – you never know who is going to find it or even better – carry it further than you could have done by yourself. That is one of the benefits of social media – to extend reach. If I create content on , oh, let’s say Twitter and it is re-tweeted by someone else, it extends my reach. That person has now introduced me, my message and hopefully my value to their network.
Case in point, I was watching the Today show this morning. I’m not much of a news buff but I was paying attention today due in part to the wildfires here in northern Arizona and the devastation it is causing here – it’s a shame, I feel for the thousands, even hundreds of thousands effected by the fires. While I was watching, the Today Show had a short video welcoming Ann Curry to her new position as co – host with Matt Lauer. The video was really cool, it showed all the places Ann has been with the Today Show and her early days as a reporter – before Today. I thought it was great, not that I am crazy about reporters but I like Ann Curry, she appears to be very down to earth – someone I could probably have a cup of coffee with and not feel intimidated. Anyway, so while I was watching the video, I did what any digital citizen would do these days. I tweeted a Kudos to Ann and the Today Show:
Just watchedAnn Curry’s rise to co host of @today, wow, that lady has been everywhere! Congratulations, you have certainly earned it!
— Stephen Garner (@mytitleguy) June 9, 2011
I did my thing and went on about my day. I headed to Goodyear, Arizona to meet with a real estate team that needs PRO-Found in their business. I spent about an hour discussing their website, keywords and the user experience of their website and then headed back to Chandler to meet with another real estate agent.
Bing!. Echofone [twitter app for iPhone] alerts me that I was mentioned in a tweet. So I check it out.
@mytitleguy You’re quoted in a Storify story by @nbcnews about @anncurry starting @todayshow, check it out: http://sfy.co/BAo
— Storify (@Storify) June 9, 2011
Sweet. Well that’s cool I thought. Then I really started to think about it. I wonder how many people are going to see that article? That tweet? I wonder how many people will look at my other tweets or my profile? What if a real estate agent or business sees it that is in need of help with their inbound marketing? My message could be there at the right time. About 5 minutes later, I hear it again, [Bing!.] an alert that someone just started following @MyTitleGuy, then again, and again, and again, and again, and well 40 Bing!’s later they are still coming in.
Every follower gives me the opportunity to engage with them, not just them – but their followers. Sure, you could say it’s the spray and pray model but it was absolutely FREE. Marketing is all about the numbers. The more people I get my message in front of the more likely it will land in front of someone that will have a need for my [our] products and/or services. Instead of using direct mail [again, all things work if you keep up with it] get a website that works, like WordPress, fill it with unique, engaging, dynamic, valuable content and syndicate it to your social networks. You never know who is going to “find” it.
Marketing. It’s all about the numbers.
