Are you familiar with Chris Anderson’s theory?
If you’re unfamiliar, or need to re-up, here’s my take:
The Long Tail Theory centers around the impact of Google style indexing, searching and filtering all things on-line and humankind’s ability to find today’s hottest and urgent, as well as yesterday’s and yesteryear’s relevant and important.
Here’s a few plain-english definitions from Chris Anderson’s blog:
- “The Long Tail is the realization that the sum of many small markets is worth as much, if not more, than a few large markets.” –Jason Foster
- “The Long Tail is the 80% of stuff that didn’t used to be worth selling.”–Greg
- “The Long Tail is the story of how products that were once considered fringe, underground or independent now collectively make up a market that rivals the bestsellers and blockbusters.” –Bob Baker
The question is…
Is The Long Tail Theory Relevant To Real Estate Agents?
When the book was written in 1995, “blogging” was a baby, “Twitter” was a hatchling, “Facebook” was a pimply punk kid and smart phones were dumb. Our on-line opportunities were small and our tails, if we had one, were minnow sized too. Today, these 4 factors make the Long Tail Theory worth revisiting.
- Google, Bing, Yahoo and others are indexing more information everything. Recently social media streams, Twitter and Facebook, have been added. [For Extra Credit > Check out this Web 2.0 Mind Map.]
- On-Line publishing [blogs, websites, video, audio, etc.] and conversation [social media, comments, etc.] are filling an infinity-deep, information ocean.
- Our on-line participation, contribution and engagement will be included, indexed and found, easily and forever.
- The more we share, the more we receive, in unexpected ways [This almost sounds like an affirmation?].
People we want to do business with use Internet search to find, research, compare, evaluate, discover and select, it’s critical that we show up and shine on-line. If we can’t be found, we’re invisible and irrelevant. If we’re invisible and irrelevant, we’ll starve.
Why Is Our Long Tail Important?
Daily. We focus on our To Do’s. We prioritize, organize and scramble. What if our daily efforts didn’t vanish at the end of the day? What if our daily efforts were indexed, catalogued and added to the searchable blue ocean of human on-line publishing and conversation? By taking our knowledge, conversation, observation, commentary and expertise on-line, overtime, we add to the collective on-line ocean of information.
Why does this matter? When people search for real estate expertise in your market, you’ll be found.
More. While sharing and engagement is helping to fill a blue ocean of on-line information, we are also filling our own personal lakes. [ Curation is the next big trend and The Future of Sales Is Social] When people find you and are comparing and evaluating who to choose, the depth and breadth of your personal information lake will help influence the wisest choice. If you have a lake and she has a puddle, you WIN.
Are You Wagging Your Long Tail?
Let’s talk about how to grow and wag your Long Tail.
- On-line contribution and participation is growing your Long Tail.
- Engaging frequently is wagging your Long Tail.
These are the 6 most significant opportunities.
- Facebook: This is the MOST important conversation, connection, trust building, broadcast tool on planet earth. There are new developments every week. Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc., they’ve all been given permission to index public profiles, updates and more (unless you’re security settings nix it. I wouldn’t nix it). This is huge and oxygen like. If you haven’t started breathing deeply, get started, pronto! If you have, engage, engage, engage (30 minutes a day). It’s FREE and SMART.
- Blog: A blog is the best way to fill your personal lake with relevant, hyper-local real estate information and showcasing your expertise . Good news. Getting started is easier than ever. You have choices. Go Posterous or WordPress. Don’t obsess over which to choose. Pick one and get crack’n. Tips. More.
- SlideShare: All those presentations, marketing materials, flyers, brochures, things printed, can be stored digitally and shared on-line at SlideShare.net. Using Slideshare makes sharing your stuff easy, interactive, discoverable and shareable. Get rid of those dented file cabinets and mountains of paper, and go Long Tail. Here’s an example, use can do 100X better. Your Slideshares can automatically appear on your Facebook and LinkedIn pages as well.
- Twitter: Tweets are now indexed by Google and Bing, plus, geotagging has just been added. Used strategically, Twitter is now worthwhile. Here’s a few tips from Chris Brogan. Here’s a Simple Guide To Twitter.
- Video: People love to watch. Think about the consequences and repercussions of THIS – Google uses speech recognition for video indexing and cataloging. If you haven’t, create your own Youtube.com channel. Here’s what a bare bones channel looks like – Bare Bones Youtube Channel. More.
- Smart Phone: Your smart phone now empowers your on-line sharing and conversation. If you can think of it, there’s an app for that. While you’re out and about, working and playing, loving, and living, send photos, post updates, share observations and broadcast announcements to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Slideshare and your blog. It’s easier than ever to share, contribute and engage. Train yourself to do it daily.
Remember an Avalanche begins with a single snow flake.
Good Luck. Wag Your Tail and swim like a Mermaid or Merman.
Thanks for reading. Cheers.
Erin Golding
November 30, 2009 at 8:17 am
Seriously great stuff here Ken! Usually I just read these and lurk around. After reading Crush It by @garyvee and now your blog post I’m commenting on everything I read to leave my foot print and wag my tail. I’m hanging onto this post so I can read all the other blog links you’ve added. I’ll have to comment on those too ; ) Engage, engage!
Kathleen Buckley
November 30, 2009 at 8:34 am
Ken-
I really enjoy your posts because they are challenging in a way that motivates rather than intimidates. My goal this week: get all over SlideShare.
Ken Brand
November 30, 2009 at 9:34 am
Erin G – Amen, that’s exactly correct, footprints, fingerprints, social DNA, YES, you’re living out-loud and that’s cool. Get Crack’n, go get’m. Cheers.
Kathleen B. – Thanks for the compliment, Slideshare rocks on many levels, just like you! Cheers.
Bill Risser
November 30, 2009 at 9:48 am
Ken – Simply put, a post I will be sharing with every agent I come in contact with! Great job of laying out a roadmap for the beginner in new media, as well as confirming the path some have already begun traveling…
Thank you very much!
Ken Brand
November 30, 2009 at 10:07 am
Bill – Thanks. Yes, things are changing and evolving at break neck speed, it’s a journey not a destination, so every little step matters. Cheers and thanks for reading.
Benjamin Bach
November 30, 2009 at 10:38 am
Great article Ken, but I’d like to discuss two of your points:
“Facebook: This is the MOST important”
I disagree – I think facebook is a really usefull way to ping lots of people and distributre your content, but I think it’s best used when you’re using it to supplement and push people to your site. Facebook shouldn’t be your main place, because you don’t own you facebook presence. If Mark Z decides to sell the company and it changes, and it was the basis for your online presence, you need to start from scratch. Plus, the ‘cool’ sites change every few years (icq, msn messenger, myspace, linkdin, facebook, twitter, etc). If you own your own blog and use facebook to introduce people to your site, you’d still be ok. Your own blog/space is the most important fo your long tail.
2) “Twitter is now worthwhile.”
Twitter has been valuable, long before it was indexed for SEO. The best use for Twitter is listening and responding to your market. Use the search function to see every tweet that mentions “Austin” or “Galt Ontario” and see what people are talking about. Listen to what they say about your brand.
This will let you meet your prospective clients. I think if you look at twitter as a tool to get indexed with, you will miss out on a lot of it’s true worth.
Ken Brand
November 30, 2009 at 11:00 am
Sharp points Benjamin. I believe that Facebook is the most important social tool. Why, because it powers the 3 things that create Top Of Mind Awareness – It’s “Relevant” because it’s personal, it provides “Repetition” because you can interact daily and it’s “Remarkable” because it’s personal and so many aren’t. There is the danger that Mark could do something radically wrong, odds are, the tools and benefits and connections and conversations and sharing opportunities will only grow. I’m definitely down with a blog, you’re spot on there. But a blog won’t create Top Of Mind Awareness or conversation, or interaction or the ability to share yourself on a personal and professional level…doing so builds trust and familiarity…which leads to being chosen/hired or referred.
As for Twitter, I’ve been on twitter for a couple of years and have always thought it was valuable or would become so. I believe the new indexing, geotagging, lists and who knows what’s down the road, finally make it a Must Do. As soon as people/companies/business figure out how to make geotagging totally relevant, Twitter will zoom. There’s some talk that Facebook will launch their own geotagging feature, this will, IMHO, smack Twitter and Fouresquare in the mouth and make Facebook even more omnipresent.
Love the feedback and sharing. Thanks. Cheers.
Joe Loomer
November 30, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Gotta echo what Kathleen said – I started reading your post an hour and a half ago – then got caught up in the great content on Slideshare. Now I need two more hours in this day to read all the other links you have in here! Thank God I’ve already read most of the posts you linked to!
Navy Chief, Navy Pride
Ken Brand
November 30, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Thanks Joe – Yeah, there’s a lot of material there. I’m torn, I know that short powerful posts are best, but this subject requires additional backup, how to, etc. I always appreciate your feedback. Cheers.
Bob
November 30, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Long tail is greatly over generalized in the real estate business.
The danger here is to over-simplify this to the point where you are telling people that is all there is to it, so go out and waste your time with all this. The odds are your tweets and facebook entries are not going to out rank those who have a a designed strategy to capture targeted long tail traffic. Long tail is where the money is in search and you wont get it with a willy-nilly strategy.
Doug Francis
November 30, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Wow, I was hoping to watch Monday Night Football, but now will spend most of the evening working through all your links! There is a lot to take in here, folks.
I often think about how many comments that I have left in the last 12 months, and not just for a “long-tail” Google strategy but because I wanted to chime in. For years my friends were shocked to see my letter-to-the-editors of Businessweek, This Old House, Newsweek, Windsurfer (in the 1980’s) and many more. It’s a habit that I picked up from my father.
When I decided to write my own real estate newsletter back in 1994, it evolved because I knew that I was my own PR department with tons of material that comes from our day to day interactions. Now I blog and it is better, long term better.
Okay, now time to get comfy on the couch in front of the TV with my laptop and do this homework.
Ken Brand
November 30, 2009 at 8:27 pm
I’m with you, it appears over simplified because it’s a blog post and not a sit down consultation or a step by step How-To. I’m not advocating “wasting time”, and I agree with you whole heartedly, a “Willy Nilly” strategy won’t work with Facebook, blogging ,twitter, FSBOs, REOs, Short Sales, Expired Listings, Direct Mail, Open House, Chamber of Commerce style networking, etc. Willy Nilly is….well, it’s Willy Nilly.
Also, I agree that if you’re embracing these Social Media tools in hopes of being discovered and having strangers call, it won’t work. I believe using the Tools I’ve shared (wisely) will generate Top Of Mind Awareness within your personal sphere – this will lead to more referrals and opportunities to be chosen. Another benefit, you grow the size of your sphere by interacting and engaging with your friends and their friends – just like IRL socializing.
Also, I believe that buyers and sellers do on-line “Search”, “Investigate” and “Research” the agents they may be considering to represent them. If one agent has a considerable on line presence (Twitter, Facebook, SlideShare, YouTube, Blog, etc.), and one does not, opportunities are the does-not are lost, and the worst part is, they might never know why, the phone simply doesn’t ring and nobody shares their name with their friends.
I believe that targeted efforts to generate inbound leads is the futile approach for the average agent. Even the most savvy companies have horrible conversion rates for the leads they generate. Survey and survey and personal experience show that the majority of buerys and sellers choose an agent they know or an agent who was referral recommend by a trusted friend. If anything, all the wasted time, money and energy dumped into chasing strangers would be better used cultivating relationships with people who already know and trust you.
What I am advocating is an individual, personal approach to positioning oneself as the first or second person someone thinks about when they have a need – Social Media works well for helping this happen (Top Of Mind Awareness). This is the very reason that old school, well connected and trusted real estate agents still thrive – even if they can’t spell Facebook or Search or SEO or Google.
I may be wrong, but I don’t doubt, eventually, these Social Media tools will be as common place and embraces as email and cell phones. Might as well start growing and wagging your tail today – that’s what I say.
And lastly, your advice is perfect, Willy-Nilly won’t work. You need a strategy. Then again, anything worth doing is worth doing badly in the beginning. The main this is to get crack’n.
Cheers Bob, thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts.
Ken Brand
November 30, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Doug – What ever you do, don’t miss tonights game, it’s a brawl. I’m like you, watching and clickty-clacking my way across cyber space. Multi-tasking rule. Thanks for reading and I hope my yammering helps you grow you business. Cheers.
stephanie crawford
November 30, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Wow. There’s almost TOO MUCH information here. I’m loving the Slide Share.
Ken Brand
December 1, 2009 at 6:44 am
Yeah Stephanie, it’s kinda dense and I sorta got carried away. The subject matter lends itself to linkage, thanks for reading and commenting. Hope I didn’t give you a headache. And, lastly, yes, Slideshare is super cool. Cheers.
rosstherrien
February 22, 2010 at 11:34 am
Great tips, Thanks.
Norman Frenk
March 15, 2010 at 1:09 pm
smart. sooooo smart….
Maxwell McDaniel
May 15, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Ken,
Thanks so much for the awesome post. Just when you think you have it all figured out, something like this post comes along and makes me realize just how little I really know. Thanks. Seriously.
I agree with your comment that Facebook is the most important piece of the social media puzzle. At least at the moment. One of the things I’m experimenting with is having my Facebook posts feed my Twitter, which is picked up on my website. It certainly helps distribute the content efficiently.
I’m also experimenting with FB PPC advertising, both to drive people to my FB page and also my neighborhood specific listings on my website. My click through rates are about .15% which seems really low. I have about a dozen different campaigns running for different landing pages on my site. Costs are 40 cents to 90 cents per click.
Curious if anyone else would like to share their results of any FB PPC campaigns.
Ken Brand
May 17, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Thanks Maxwell, I’m not sure we’ll ever have it figured out. It’s sorta like trying to figure out a river or what make fire, fire. You’re approach is the one I try to take, keep moving forward, keep an open mind, experiment, learn, share, grow.
I haven’t used any of the PPC campaigns, but it’s an inexpensive way to test things. If I had any advice, I’d say, we all need to remember that people choose people they trust. in-person and on-purpose contact and conversation is the fastest and best way to build trust, discover needs and share solutions and other relevant stuff…which all leads to getting chosen (hired) or referred.
Thanks for the comment. Cheers.