How not to be irrelevant in real time real estate: relevant results

Eggs in one basket…

…seems to be the latest lesson learned in the real estate industry when it comes to using any type of online media to promote yourself and your business, thanks to technical issues that rendered a major blogging platform useless. The outage left thousands of Realtors in the dark for what seemed an eternity, wondering if their investment of countless hours of effort and invaluable content had been lost forever. In the end, it wasn’t, and for the most part, the users of that platform have gone back to work building their network and content.

U·biq·ui·ty
n.
Existence or apparent existence everywhere at the same time; omnipresence: “the repetitiveness, the selfsameness, and the ubiquity of modern mass culture” (Theodor Adorno).

It’s always been this way

Maybe the new thing was Brian Buffini and mass mailed postcards, to bandit signs for zero down home loans, to everybody get on Facebook- the real estate industry has always had a new and shiny bandwagon to ride, and the internet has provided a plethora of opportunities over the past several years to continue the ride. Realtors love to ride the bandwagon in search of the magic silver bullet so much so, that they tend to not see the forest through the trees.

Whether their time is invested in only ActiveRain, or Facebook, or Twitter, or just in their own website, Realtors will continue to experience problems bigger than a network outage, or the loss of a single website because they fail to understand the bigger picture of what it is they’re actually doing and…

…what ubiquity is not:

1. Being all things to all people
2. Actually being everywhere all the time
3. Irrelevant when you are

It’s inevitable

Too much energy focused in one location or effort can burn you out, or worse, burn out the consumer of the energy and effort. Think of it this way- tickle someone long enough in the same spot and inevitably that tickle becomes painful, but if you spread it out, the person is more likely to remain ticklish.

I relate the analogy to the use of the internet in general. Ubiquity is not something you obtain overnight, it’s a business mindset that results in the consistent stimulation of the top of mind, the diversified tickle that draws in the consumer.

The online diet

Well-rounding your online efforts with a blog of your own, commenting on blogs and forums related to your own keywords or service offering, as well as participation within social networks is a balanced diet that serves the consumer demand for real time relevant results, as it is the culmination of these efforts that create ubiquity in the eyes of a consumer. The ROI of this diet is only as high as the level of relevancy in the eye of the consumer.

People say engage the conversation but fail to tell you that your consumer determines the conversation. Your very own local market has a demand, and understanding the pulse of that demand should be your ultimate guide to being a relevant result. Being human is not just about being personal, it’s about approachability regarding subjects that truly matter to your consumer as a result. A failure to understand this simple fact leads many to the fork in the road of quitting or committing- I often wonder why if all is lost that many continue to repeat the failure of not responding relevantly to the consumer. Content, SEO, and social media are not separate, they are inseparable as they define real time and what you say in real time is KING.

Evolving in real time

The shine is wearing off of social media as real business minded individuals focus more on the practical uses and less about the hysteria of jumping on a bandwagon (California is not Phoenix, is not Kansas, is not Florida). Those that understand the big picture as it relates to locality will succeed in the long run race to ubiquity. If you’re at a point of staring up at the trees’ canopy, maybe it’s time you take a more aerial view of your online approach and what elements you may be missing- it may be time you begin to focus more on relevance than entertainment. It is the consistent result of relevancy that builds credibility at the ultimate point of sale.