Public Relations & Social Media

Tell me a fact and I’ll learn.

Tell me a truth and I’ll believe. Tell me a story and it will live with me forever.

~

Native American Proverb

Storytelling is one of the most effective marketing strategies

And, it’s the cornerstone of public relations

Public Relations defined: – The flow of information between an organization and its audience

Differentiation

Public Relations drives sales by building credibility, increasing brand awareness, positioning you as a thought leader and differentiating you from your competition.

Would you rather…

Read a front page article or front page ad?

Which would you trust more?

Only 14% of buyers trust ads.

78% trust the opinion of others.

Public Relations vs. Advertising

Think of it as Earned Media vs. Paid Media • Through public relations you can communicate to your audience through an objective third party.

• Let’s use the auto industry as an example.

• Integrated marketing (using both) is best approach.

Take the Spotlight

Be a Storyteller Be an Expert

• Interesting listings/auctions – research history • Interesting stories about buyers, sales team • Tell your story • Real estate market news • Share interesting statistics • Provide tips on local news • Share tips – top 10 lists

No News? Make News.

• Surveys/research/stats • Offer seminars/webinars • Charitable events • Get involved in the community • Giveaways/contests • Speaking engagements • Bi-lined articles • Radio call in shows • Online forums • Letter to the Editor • Share national UC news with your local market

United Country Public Relations

National Public Relations

• Goal – Raise consumer awareness about United Country and position the company and affiliates as experts, resulting in increased buyer leads and listing opportunities for all offices and attraction of new offices to strengthen our network • Focus – National, regional, industry and trade media • Contact – Kyla Barcus

Affiliate Public Relations

• Goal – Generate awareness of you, your office and position you as the experts among your local audiences by sharing information with news media in your marketing area to increase your listing inventory, sales and attract the best talent to your team.

• Focus – local media in the markets you serve • Contact – Mary Carver

2009 National Public Relations Successes

2009 Affiliate Public Relations Successes

2009 Public Relations Awards

• Unitedland Magazine • Writing • Media Kit • United Country Training & Awards Convention

Public Relations Tools

• Public Relations Resource Center – Intranet • New UC Web Sites – post press releases • Press Release Distribution Sites – SEO • PR Department – Just a phone call away

The PR landscape is changing….

quickly

•

Print circulation is down 7 million over last 25 years

•

Unique readers of online newspapers are up 30 million in last 5 years

•

ABC, CBS and NBC collectively get 10 million visitors per month

•

MySpace, YouTube and Facebook collectively get 250 million visitors per month

Social Media Revolution

Public Relations 1.0

(Traditional Media) - Journalists are the middlemen

Public Relations 2.0

(Social Media) - Eliminates the middleman

Social Media

has turned monologues into dialogues.

Public Relations and Social Media are related.

But

…keep in mind that they’re more like cousins than brothers.

Social Media for Business

• Public relations • Targeted leads • Customer service • Loyalty building • Collaboration • Networking • Referrals • Market research • Brand marketing • Consumer education • And…customer acquisition

The New Marketplace

Think back to the original marketplaces:

• They were places people went to not only get what they needed, but to have conversations with the vendors and other customers. • Somewhere along the line, marketing removed the direct link between customers and businesses. • Social media is reversing that…

So, what is

Social Media

Social Media is a conversation supported by online tools like these:

• It’s a conversation.

• It’s relationship-based.

• It’s trust marketing.

Social networks are calling…are you answering?

75% of Americans use social media.

50% of homebuyers are on social networking sites.

79% homebuyers aged 18-24 are on social networking sites.

90% of homebuyers use internet as their main information source.

Time spent on social networks is growing at 3x the overall internet growth rate.

Customers are talking about your brand whether you’re listening or not.

Think of social media as one giant referral network.

It’s word of mouth on steroids.

It’s like an online “milk route.” Use it to expand your sphere of influence.

Think of it like this…

Facebook & Blogs Twitter LinkedIn & ActiveRain

Backyard BBQ Cocktail Party Business Lunch

• 400 million users • 50% of active users log on daily • Personal page vs. Fan page • 25 fans = URL upgrade • Useful business tool – birthday reminders • Use variety in postings • Opportunity to be the promoter of your market • 5-15 minutes per day

• Instead of: “Need to sell your property? Call me.” • Instead of: “Little Rock is the best place to live.” • Try this: “Thinking about selling? Here are 10 tips for getting your property ready for the market.” • Try this: “Recent article lists Little Rock as Top 10 city for….. Read the full article here.”

• 75 million users • 50 million tweets per day • Updates of 140 characters or less (micro-blogging) • Following/Followers & Tweet/Retweet • Use automation – EasyTweets or TwitterFeed • Customize • Keep the audience in mind • Content, content, content • Network locally – do local searches

• Instead of: “Just ate lunch…I’m stuffed.” • Instead of: “Just signed a new listing.” • Try this: “Just had the best cherry cobbler of my life at Mary’s Café in Little Rock.” • Try this: “Just listed an amazing acreage. That brings the total for the week to 4 new listings and 2 contracts.”

YouTube • 13 hours of video are uploaded every minute • Virtual tours, auctions footage or educate about your expertise area Virtual tour - take a walking tour of town or neighborhood • It’s easy to do – Inexpensive camera options – Simple video posting

YouTube

• 50 million users • Great tool for recruiting • Also useful for business to business networking and information sharing • Illustrate your expertise • Get recommendations

• There are currently more than 200,000,000 blogs • Consider starting your own blog – ActiveRain or Blogger. • 34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands • Participate in other blogs add value to the conversation by sharing your knowledge.

Getting Started • 1 – Listen (Google Alerts, RSS Feeds, TweetDeck, Social Mentions) • 2 – Engage (Namechk) Secure user & domain names Consider SEO terms/branding • 3 – Evaluate Keep realistic expectations Be patient – Don’t expect results overnight

Research has shown that people want more than slick images, buzz words and promotion.

They want companies to open the door so they can really see them.

Considerations

Ask yourself:

Who is my audience?

Where can I reach them?

What do they want to learn from me?

Realize:

Priority 1 – What they are passionate about Priority 2 – What they need to know to do their job/live better Priority 3 – Anything so creative that it captures their attention Priority 4 – Everything else

This means that the

key

is CONTENT!

Here’s what readers want from social media: • • • • • Entertain Me Educate Me Inspire Me Intrigue Me Inform Me

Social Media Messages • • • • • • • • • • • Have a story to tell Be authentic Show your personality Share – don’t just sell Add value to conversations Learn from interactions Be personal & professional Take a minute to proofread Respect copyrights Keep your business goals in mind ALWAYS consider your audience

If I Were a Realtor – Chris Brogan If I were a Realtor looking to use social media for my business: •I’d write a blog about the location where I was selling. •I’d take tons of pictures and post them on the blog. •I’d shoot walking tour videos all the time with a flip camera and post them. •I’d shoot interview videos with people from my community. •I’d host meetups and tweetups for local residents, inviting people who are house hunting. •I’d find various niche communities (developers, stonemasons, parents) and start community platforms for them on Ning. •I’d empower as many local businesses onto the net as I could, and help them get successful. •I’d encourage as many people in my community to join Twitter as possible, and I’d bundle them into a list. •I’d consider setting up hyperlocal news and events sites, or at least empower/support their construction. •I probably wouldn’t put pictures of me in a tie (or a dress) and write about the rates. I probably wouldn’t pitch you dozens of times in a row. I probably wouldn’t just rehash links to listings. But that’s just me. You?

ChrisBrogan.com – December 23, 2009

What’s the

Home Office’s Strategy

Introducing Social Media

• Research (April 2008 – present) – Definitions – Competition – Best practices • Planning (May 2009 – November 2009) – Set goals – Determine measurements

Home Office Social Media Goals

• Main goal – Increase the number of positive interactions with consumers, which will in turn increase the number of consumer advocates we have speaking on our behalf (word of mouth marketing) • Secondary goals – Grow our brand awareness as a leader in the real estate industry – Maintain our brand awareness as a progressive company involved in cutting-edge technology – Communicate with our affiliates and associates

Social Networking

• • • • •

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/unitedcountry

Twitter:

http://twitter.com/ucrealestate

YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/ucrealestate

Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ucrealestate

LinkedIn:

http://www.linkedin.com (search groups)

United Country Blog

Social Media Tools

• Public Relations Resource Center - Intranet • New UC Web Sites – share listings through social networking sites • Branded Blog Templates – 2010 • Upcoming Webinars

Questions