PCBC 2010 is under way!

Keep up on what your fellow PCBC attendees are tweeting about  at the seminars, exhibits, etc by following the event hashtag (#PCBC2010). You can also follow PCBC on Twitter @PCBC_TheShow.

For those of you looking to learn a little more about some of the speakers at this years Pacific Coast Builders Conference, here is a list of where you can find the Executive Conference Speakers on Twitter:

PCBC 2010 Executive Conference Speakers

Alex Steffen, Founder, Worldchanging  @AlexSteffen

J. Walker Smith, President, Yankelovich, Inc. @jwalkersmith

Paul Saffo, Forecaster @psaffo

Jay Baer, President, Convince & Convert @jaybaer

Jonathan Bailey, CEO, Bailey Gardiner Inc. @jonjonbailey

Tara Hunt, Author, blogger & speaker @missrogue

Happy Tweeting!

Social Media is a new and ever-changing tool and homebuilders are scrambling to learn the million and one different rules and strategies. No one company does it perfectly (although some may claim they do) and everyone learns at different rates. Because of this, I find myself pretty tolerant of blunders and of people who accidentally break one of the unwritten rules.

That being said, there are a few social media “dont’s” that I find especially irritating, and I would like to take this opportunity to put them out there. Let me know what you think I’ve missed.

Social Media Don’t #1 – Automatic direct messages on Twitter – You follow me, so I follow you back. Then a few hours later I receive a direct message from you saying, “Hi. thanks for the follow. Buy my house.” What this message really says is, “Hi, I couldn’t care less about you. I am only on Twitter to rack up followers and to get more people to buy my houses. I have very little interest in interacting with you.”

Yea, no thanks. If the whole point of Twitter is two way communication, why, oh  why, would you choose to have your first interaction with me be from a Twitter robot? That does not bode well for our future Twitter relationship. I would much, MUCH prefer no response to my follow, than an automated one. And if you do want me to buy your  house, then take the one minute it takes to write me a personal DM. That will go far to help build a relationship and gain my trust. Then, maybe, one day, I’ll consider checking out your homes.

Social Media Don’t #2 - Streaming your tweets into Facebook – I’m all about efficiency, and I understand the desire to want to simplify the process of updating all of your people about your newest properties or sales. However, I think this is a misguided shortcut. Facebook and Twitter are two extremely different mediums, and in order to be respected on either, it’s best to treat them that way. For most, your Facebook friends are the people you actually know - people you’ve grown up with, or went to college with, or work with now, or dated in high school, etc… Because of this, the majority  of status updates are about what users are up to, what they are thinking, or just something random and irrelevant. This can still be advantageous to selling homes because Facebook allows you to strengthen ties with people you already know. This will make them much more likely to come to you when they are looking to buy a house because they consider you a friend.

Your Twitter followers on the other hand (again, generally speaking) don’t know you  and most likely could care less about what you are doing. They are following you to  talk with you, to learn from you, and to share ideas with you. They want suggestions, news about your communities, great articles, insights and conversation about homes, real estate, etc. It is therefore extremely challenging to write a single status update or tweet that speaks to both of these different audiences at once.

There is also the difference in expected frequency of the two sites. On Twitter, if you update 6 times a day, that is completely normal. On Facebook, if you update 6 times a day, you are “that guy.” Don’t be “that guy.”

Plus all those RT, #, @ etc look really silly when they come through a Facebook stream.

Social Media Don’t # 3 – Start a Twitter account and immediately begin following 500 people – This is an especially big no-no for companies. Most people will not follow you if you don’t have a picture, a history of tweets, a bio and a proportionate amount of followers to following. I’d recommend building out your profile and slowly beginning to tweet. When you are ready to start adding people, go for just a few a day and practice interacting with your new followers. It’s a slow process to grow followers at first and there are no legitimate shortcuts. Sure, if you follow a couple thousand people you may get 300 spam bots to follow you back, but I have to wonder how that’s going to help you sell houses moving forward.

Social Media Don’t # 4 – Ask to be my friend on Facebook if I’ve never met you. There are some people who use their Facebook for meeting people, but the vast majority don’t. In fact, I recently conducted a Twitter poll to see who of my Twitter followers accepts random friend requests on Facebook: 100 percent of them said no. And Facebook itself claims its number one focus is connecting people online who already know each other offline. There are so many other places to connect with people you don’t know (Twitter/Linkedin/email). There’s no need to try and bunch Facebook into that group.

Social Media Don’t # 5 – Un-follow and re-follow people on Twitter. So many companies follow hundreds of people at a time trying to boost their followers. Then, when 90 percent of those people don’t follow them back, they un-follow people to try and make their numbers look more proportional. Two days later I’ll get an email that X company is following me – again. There is nothing more annoying then when the same Twitter user keeps un-following and re-following you. If someone didn’t follow you back the first time, annoying and pestering them is not the way to go. If it is a case where you really think it’s someone who should be following you, (say an active real estate agent or a person looking to buy a home) send them an @reply and begin a conversation. You could also try re-assessing  your content. Are you only streaming links to your website over and over again? Perhaps that is why people aren’t returning your follow. In short, there are all kind of options that don’t include pestering people.

In the end, we all use social media differently, but I think  it’s important to know the ground rules. So, what do you  think? Do these things bother you? Do any of you have  any other social media pet peeves?

SOCIAL MEDIA-AN UNTAPPED RESOURCE FOR HOMEBUILDERS

How to reach new customers by developing your online community

Jonathan Bailey is CEO of Bailey Gardiner, an integrated marketing agency that specializes in digital solutions for homebuilders and others.

Did you know nearly nine out of 10 homebuyers begin their quest for a home online? Yet few homebuilders are engaging the space to reach customers. Banner ads and pay-per-click are no longer enough. Your online presence must be interactive, open, and build a two-way relationship with audiences. At a time when the housing industry is slowly climbing out of an economic abyss, it’s imperative developers commit to building this online community because, well, your customer is already there.

What scares me lately is the widespread belief among companies (and their agencies) that social media can be bought or constructed as a bolted-on initiative. Like an aftermarket roof rack or super funky license plate frame, it attaches to the car — but it looks ungainly and unnatural. You can’t fake authenticity, social media or otherwise.

So what can you do as a homebuilder to create your own social media program? Here are five steps to help you get started:

#1  Listen

Before embarking on any social media program, it’s crucial you know what’s being said about your brand — the good, the bad and the ugly. Then, you can strategize how to jump into the conversation.  If there’s negative chatter, the last thing you want to do is begin a social media program oblivious to this fact or you’ll get slammed. In an ugly way. If the homes and communities you build are wearing halos right now, good to know too. Take advantage of the love.

Watch and listen how Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other tools behave and how your competitors (or other brands you admire) are using different platforms. You’ll learn a great deal about using these tools.

#2  Develop A Strategy

The biggest mistake I see companies make in social media is they dive into using tools before developing a strategy — and it shows. If you take one thing from this article, please let it be this: YOU MUST HAVE A STRATEGY. Like any other marketing program, social media requires strategic planning and direction to be successful. Define why you’re using social media.  Is it for brand awareness and sales? Reputation management? Customer service? Thought leadership? Issues advocacy? Extension of PR?  All of the above?  You would never embark on these programs without a carefully crafted plan.

#3  Define Your Brand Voice

Now, who’s gonna drive this boat?  Marketing?  Sales? Happy customers?  No wrong answers here, just more questions.

Since social media is all about authenticity, you need to create an honest bond between your marketing efforts and your customers.  If customers are asking for things you currently don’t offer, then you know Product Development is best equipped to be that information source.  Is your audience asking for information about locations, financing and prices? That’s a Cue sales and marketing.

#4  Build a Community

Once all this is figured out, THEN you can start building your communications platforms. Here are a few to consider:

* Blog – Easiest way to engage with existing and potential customers through regular updates and interesting news.

* Facebook – Great way to build an online fan base of engaged and excited participants.

* Twitter – Talk with people who are interested in your brand online and point them to your blog/website.

* YouTube – Powerful way to show your products in action through the second most popular search engine on the Web (behind Google).

* Flickr – Photo sharing can help you further engage with homebuyers.

* LinkedIn – May be helpful if you’re trying to build a business and sales network.

Different platforms engage with users in different ways. Your strategy should focus on how to repurpose your content for each platform.

#5  Interact With Fans

Remember, it’s a conversation, not a monologue. You must devise a strategy to interact with fans. Talk about your company, your mutual love of finding the right home, other shared interests, and even random stuff with no relationship to anything other than you think it’s cool and wanted to share it.  This is what forms a relationship, and these are things your social media program should employ to build your fan base — and keep them coming back for more.

Guest commentary by Caron Golden

Caron Golden is a freelance writer with clients in the homebuilding industry. She is passionate about social media training and helping businesses implement social media strategies. She can be reached at caron@goldenwriting.com, as well as on Facebook and Linkedin. You can follow her on Twitter @carondg.

Clearly you already know it’s a good idea to be reading up on what’s happening in social media. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading Builder Social Blog. And, yes, this is a great source for information specific to homebuilders. But, we’re not the sole source, nor should we be. Each of us who contributes no doubt subscribes to useful email newsletters or blogs or visit websites that offer the latest information about technology and techniques, trends and tips. And, we tend to share these tidbits via Twitter and Facebook.

Here are my must reads. And, I have to admit, they have no direct link to homebuilding. But, so many industries have done such a good job integrating social media into their business that it’s worth the investment of time to learn about what they’re doing and then apply it to our world. Sign up for their newsletters or feeds so you don’t have to go chasing around the web to keep up with them.

1. Mashable: The Social Media Guide. This website is filled with riches. You can learn about new iPhone apps and Facebook security measures, how to create a successful social media contest, and the latest and coolest tips for tweeting. And, you can get all this info delivered to your email box, thanks to their daily newsletter.
2. Ad Age Daily News. Most of the pieces fed by this newsletter into my mailbox are irrelevant to what I do, but I subscribe anyway because at least once a week there’s a gem that deserves my attention. In a recent issue, it was a piece called “The Official Social Media and Mobile Glossary of 2010.” You just never know what will click and it’s worth my time to skim the newsletter to see if that gem has surfaced.
3. SmartBrief on Social Media. SmartBrief.com covers a number of industries and topics. Social Media is one of them. The editors scour the web to find stories that reflect the best practices of an industry, in this case social media. In a recent issue, there was a piece on how Starbucks brews social-media success, how Web consumers become offline brand advocates, and getting started with your social strategy. These digests come daily and are sourced from publications like Inc. socialmediaexaminer.com, eMarketer, and TheNextWeb.com.
4. Convince and Convert Blog. (Full disclosure: Jay Baer is co-developer, and a frequent contributor to this blog, but that shouldn’t stop his wealth of content and insight from being recognized, right?) Jay Baer’s brilliant blog is smart, often funny, and always relevant. Baer is a social media consultant, coach, and speaker. Sometimes his blog posts hit on a salient topic, like how humble companies who make mistakes end up being lauded for their honesty, or he’ll post a transcript of a Twitter interview with a prominent social media practitioner, like Trey Pennington. Whatever he does, you’ll end up learning something.
5. ProBlogger Blog Tips. Does your company have a blog or want to launch one? While blogger Darren Rowse tends to focus on individuals looking to monetize a blog, his tips, strategies, and insights are powerful and worth absorbing. He addresses both the broad and the mundane—how to develop compelling topics that will draw in readers and literally how to find the time to write consistently and frequently.  Dig in.
6. The eMarketer Daily. eMarketer pulls together articles and blog posts that give you a perspective on the latest trends around social media, marketing, online sales, and related issues. You get metrics and forecasts about social spending growth, what age segment is fueling Facebook, smart device use. Learn the trends so you can get to know what might work as you reach out to your homebuyers.
7. Social Media Today. This is a very interesting site that functions as a community of social media bloggers. You can register and participate or you can just read the flow of blog posts that have come in and been approved by the moderators. You’ll learn about CRM, the hierarchy of tweets, the evolution of mobile marketing. You name it, someone here is writing about it.
8. WebWorkerDaily. As they like to say, WebWorkerDaily offers practical tips and advice for people who use the Internet for work. Currently, they’re featuring pieces on ways to use Facebook for business, how to make the most of your social media time (you know you’re worried about that one),  how to deal with comment trolls on your blog, and branding opportunities.
9. Social Media Examiner. It’s a jungle out there and this site brags that it’s our guide through it, helping businesses discover how best to use social media tools to find leads, increase sales, and generate more brand awareness. There are video interviews with the likes of Steve Rubel of Edelman Digital, social media maven Chris Brogan, and Ford’s Scott Money; case studies featuring Souplantation, Avaya, and Domino’s Pizza, plus all sorts of “how-tos.”
10. Chris Brogan. Social media consultant Chris Brogan is one of the biggest names in social media. He is president of New Marketing Labs and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Trust Agents. I get his newsletter and, of course, follow him on Twitter. But I like to check in regularly with his blog. I’ve learned about using outposts in social media, geopocketing, and Google Wave (Don’t know what the heck I’m talking about? Well, you’ll have to go to his site to find out.). Great insights and ideas—and they’re all practical and applicable.

Guest commentary by Jason Amunwa

Cellphones today are a far cry from the chunky brick-like handsets we used to lug around back in the 90’s. Somewhat ironically, the smaller they get, the greater their feature sets seem to grow. Many of these features are somewhat inane (remember Sprint’s completely un-annoying Push-to-Talk phones?), however it seems we’ve reached the tipping point at which things are getting very interesting. I talk specifically about mobile video.

UStream and Qik are putting mobile video in the hands of consumers

UStream.tv and Qik (pronounced “quick”) have both caught my attention as heralds of a new age of video-on-the-go. Both are free services that allow you to capture video via your smartphone camera, and broadcast it live to the internet for the consumption of the masses.

Not only can you capture and share your every waking moment with a single button press, but you can invite your viewers to comment on what they see via real-time text chat, that shows up right on your phone’s screen, as you’re broadcasting. And to think that Justin, (of Justin.tv fame), required all kinds of headgear for the same effect, just 2 years ago…

The possibilities of these services are, to me, endless, and homebuilders especially should take notice: time to forget all the excuses you’ve been making about not being able to provide video walkthroughs of your homes – you can now do it for free, using nothing more than the phone in your sales agent’s pocket. This is absolutely perfect for those of you who work with out-of-state clients, that can’t make it to a tour in person, yet need to get a sense of the home from the inside, before becoming a serious prospect, or for when an agent’s and customer’s schedules can’t quite line up.

The only thing I think is missing is the ability to have these videos broadcast to viewers’ smartphones – at which point, we’re truly at the beginning of the golden age of mobile video, and the whole idea of Citizen Journalism will just have gone to the next level.

Does social media make you more comfortable, or less comfortable? For me, it’s both.

As my friend Amber Naslund said when I interviewed her on Twitter, social media enables her to have friends that are not dictated by geography or circumstance. And to me, the ability to find people with whom you have a kinship, regardless of where they live is an extraordinary opportunity.

They say it takes a village to raise a child (or an adult), and the relationships I’ve developed via the social Web are incalculably helpful to me personally and in business. Some of those relationships transcend the Web, as I’ve been fortunate enough to put names to avatars with many of the people I’ve come to know and respect online.

My online community cares about me, supports me, and laughs at my jokes. And that’s a comfort. (and I’m thankful for you every day)

But none of that works until or unless you’re ready to get out of your comfort zone online.

You vs. The Real You

The question I’m most often asked when working with corporations and business owners on social media strategy is “how do I balance my personal and professional life online?”

“Surely, no one wants to know what I’m doing on the weekend.”

Actually, they do. They really do. You’ve probably heard the saying that people don’t hire companies, they hire people. It’s why “chemistry” with the client is so critical in professional services firms. Why would you not want to pre-establish chemistry and commonality with your prospective friends and clients online?

The fact is, your personal and professional lives are colliding and blending like a 99 cent frozen margarita on Cinco de Mayo – and that trend will march onward, not backward.

Social media is rooted culturally in showing your real, whole self. Pondering whether someone wants to read a tweet about your Sunday camping trip is no different than wondering why someone cares what you think about a hotel in Akron, via your TripAdvisor review. But somehow (especially on Twitter) incredibly smart businesspeople clam up like Mob bosses pledging fealty to Omerta.

The fundamental truth is that your personal life is almost undoubtedly more interesting than your business life. Period. And, associating some sort of noteworthy character trait to your personal brand makes you more memorable in social media. The fact that you run a PR firm? Meh. The fact that run a PR firm, but also grow prize-winning roses? I’ll remember that.

Show Me Something

Now, there’s of course a difference between personal and banal. The stock criticism of Twitter being filled with updates on what you had for lunch is overblown, but the underlying principle is not. When tweeting or blogging or status updating about your personal life, it should be something that actually reveals a dimension of your life, or character, or belief system.

“I ate at Subway today” is not valid. “Went to Subway today. Had the veggie sub. On day 23 of vegetarian conversion” is valid.

In a socially connected world, where countless opinions and options are just a finger swipe on a mobile device away, differentiation is harder than ever. You have to build some hooks for yourself than transcend the office. That’s why I make it a point to emphasize that I live in a forest. And review restaurants. And have a bottle opener as a business card.

Your personal life? Your professional life? One and the same. I know that’s often uncomfortable. But it’s the truth.

What’s interesting about you outside the office?

(photo by popofatticus)

Some experts in real estate marketing are really starting to take advantage of mobile networks, and particularly iPhone applications.  Think about it – this makes perfect sense in the real estate industry since we already know 89% of potential homebuyers seek digital information as their first resource.  And what method of information delivery do we keep with us pretty much 24/7?  Yep, our phones – except they really aren’t just mobile telephones anymore, they are smartphones capable of providing an array of information instantaneously.

No wonder smart marketers are discovering the benefits of mobile marketing, and specifically iPhone apps.   With more than 2 BILLION applications offered through Apple’s AppStore, you can download an app for anything these days – even real estate listings.  Plus the barrier for entry is becoming much lower.  App programmers are proliferating, and the cost for building an app has decreased substantially.  Because information has become ubiquitous, it is now possible to partner with other information providers (like Google Maps for example), and link content from those resources into your application.

The results are impressive – there are some very robust and useful offerings out there now.  Let’s look at a few examples:

The Corcoran Real Estate Group’s app is very easy to use and gets high marks for visual design, and it matches up with their website graphics and functionality very nicely.

The Homes.com app is pretty simplistic, and like the website, allows limited access to real time information and visuals of the homes themselves.  They do promote it nicely on the homepage of their website though.

The Shea Homes Southern California app is one of the few homebuilder applications I thought was doing it well. Much like their website, Shea is allowing buyers to find them easily, supplying information quickly like prices, locations and directions.  Design is just so-so.

And my personal favorite:

Better Homes & Gardens Realty does it right. They give a buyer all the details he needs to make a purchase decision, including listing statistics, neighborhood information, great photos and even design and decorating suggestions with color palettes and more.  Really nicely done and a lesson for homebuilders in what is possible.

Does anyone have any great homebuilder examples to share?  We’d all appreciate learning from best practices out there.

Is it ok to comment on a competitor’s blog or content? You can be forgiven if even passing mention of such a crazy idea makes your skin crawl. For many marketers, the concept is akin to being forced to sit in the middle of Fenway Park during a tied-up World Series, wearing a Yankees jersey. But seriously, is it ok? We talk a lot about the world of social media being fueled by transparency and dialog, but should that conversation extend beyond the exclusive company-to-customer relationships that we’re all so feverishly trying to build?

To be clear, direct references to the competition in marketing are nothing new. Verizon’s “iDon’t” campaign is just the latest in a long line of high-profile rivalries. But when it comes to marketers engaging with their competitors (or competitors’ customers) via social media, public or fully-disclosed examples can be hard to come by – although there are doubtless tons of anonymous postings and comments out there.

Don't be one of these guys

I would venture that whether or not you should submit that comment/forum post/Twitter DM/whatever all depends on what you’re saying. Making anonymous, disparaging comments about competitors (possibly in an effort to drive their share prices down, prior to buying them, for extra negative karma points)? Bad. Nobody likes a troll, and acting like one while representing your company just damages your brand in the eyes of the customers you were trying to woo away from your rival (or at least attracts weirdos who enjoy that sort of thing). Contributing valid and valuable information to a discussion hosted or started by a competitor? Good, so long as the customers viewing it get something out of it. Even if they possess a deep-seated loyalty to your competitor, you’ve just popped up on their radar as a credible alternative source of information – and that’s where it all starts, right?

Remember that commenting goes both ways - expect a response from your competitors, and engage them in a positive dialog.

I think this line of questioning is especially valid for a space such as home building, where the entire industry is collectively dipping its toe in the social media waters. When done correctly, cross-competitor engagement helps create a more informed consumer, which benefits the overall industry. Remember, though, that it goes both ways: you’ll need to resist the urge to shoo your competitors off your front lawn, if you see them contributing valid comments. Instead, engage them! Show your customers that you’re not afraid to debate your merits openly and in a constructive way.

What do you think? Is commenting on competitors’ blogs or content stepping over the line, or is it a valid way of engaging with customers? Let us know in the comments!

Big Builder Online began hosting its Big Builder Virtual Conference for homebuilders today, and I had the honor of presenting a session on social media and online homebuilder marketing.

Through an innovative new delivery channel, Big Builder has taken what was formerly a traditional conference that required attendance in person and changed it into an online conference that attendees can access at any time.  This is a great example of new media marketing at its finest, and what better place for me to talk about online marketing than at an online conference?

In case you missed it, here it is for your viewing and listening pleasure: