Are You Wagging Your Tail? Begin Now. Here’s How.

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:

Best Definitions:

• “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.

1. 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.]
2. On-Line publishing [blogs, websites, video, audio, etc.] and conversation [social media, comments, etc.] are filling an infinity-deep, information ocean.
3. Our on-line participation, contribution and engagement will be included, indexed and found, easily and forever.
4. 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.

1. On-line contribution and participation is growing your Long Tail.
2. Engaging frequently is wagging your Long Tail.

These are the 6 most significant opportunities.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.

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