You Are The MP3 – Would I Download You?
In 2007 Erik Qualman released a video called “The Social Media Revolution”.
One of the many amazing statistics that he shared was that 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations while only 14% trust advertisements. Think about that for a minute. What percentage of your current marketing is advertising you and/or your company? Considering 86% of people will not trust it anyways, maybe it is time to change the way you market yourself and your business.
While we researched our NAR presentation entitled “Your Online Reputation: What Happens on Facebook Stays on Facebook” my co founder Steve Pacinelli and I stumbled upon something that made us pause. The newest data on peer recommendations has been released and the the already staggering number of 78% has increased to 90% in just the last 2 years. So why the jump? Think about this, when did YOU sign up for Facebook? I bet it was in the last 2 years and the correlation to me is obvious. Have you seen any status updates that read as follows: “Anyone seen The Social Network? Is it good?” “Is the iPad really worth buying?” “My phone just died should I get an iPhone or a Droid?” “Just ate at the new steak house in town, stay away the service was awful and the steak wasn’t much better.” “The Killers new album is awesome I definitely recommend downloading it.”
If you do not believe that these social media “statements” do not drive business and commerce you are on the wrong side of the fence and better start climbing quickly.
So what about the opinions of strangers online? Think they may also affect consumers decisions to purchase or not? Think about Ebay and Amazon.com for a moment. These are 2 of the largest e-commerce sites on the web and what is happening at the simplest level is that people are buying things from people that they do not know based 100% on the opinions/reviews of other people that they do not know. Where it gets scary is that they are NOT BUYING things based on the opinions of people they do not know.
Consumers are being conditioned to look for reviews in just about every industry. Think about the last time you decided to download an MP3 or movie from iTunes. Even though the cost could be as low as $0.99 I bet you still looked at the reviews before buying.
Would you finish your purchase and download the song if it had a one or even two star ranking? Been to a restaurant lately for the first time without Googling it with the word review at the end? Is anyone with any sanity buying a car anytime soon without researching the reviews before going to the lot? There is a fundamental shift in consumer behavior (us by the way, we are consumers don’t forget) due to the emergence of the social web and how connected we all now are. I would agree with Qualman’s statement that it is indeed “The biggest shift since the industrial revolution.”
So why does this all matter to Realtors? After all you aren’t an MP3. You don’t own a pizza joint.
I want this in my digital footprint: “Real estate agent review sites will change the entire industry and the way you market yourself online within the next 24 months.”
The Realtor specific sites are already out there and getting massive traffic.
You are on them whether you like it or not, you just don’t know enough about the web to locate them (sounds mean I know, truth hurts). Google “Real Estate Agent Reviews”. Incredible Agents, Rate My Agent, Homethinking, Real Estate Ratingz and Agent Scoreboard to name a few will all appear on page one. Go ahead, put in your market or name on a few of these sites and find yourself. Most likely there will be a shadow figure with a very low rating as well as an incomplete profile. Remember that when we (consumers) browse the web for reviews of products and services we are not looking for a lack of negative reviews, we are looking for positive reviews.
Wonder if these sites are getting any traffic?
I looked at their analytics by using Compete.com.
Their growth rate and number of unique visitors are stunning. The other thing that jumped off the screen at me was the direct correlation to the volume of their traffic and the first time home buyer credit ending. NAR announced this weekend that the average age of the first time buyer last year was 30. An astounding 50% of buyers were first time buyers. Think they may be a bit more web savvy than you? Think they would ever hire you without Googling your name with the word review at the end? I don’t, but hey I am well out of that demographic at 31…
Scared? Good. That is usually what it takes for people to take action. So what can you do about this? I have some ideas below but my #1 piece of advise would be to give people a reason to sing your praises. Then ask them to sing them where it matters.
The worst thing you can do right now is get a hand written testimonial. Not far behind is a testimonial for your website. Why? Well at this point the hand written note is probably evident. As for your website I am pretty sure that if I spent the next 5 years of my life digging through every Realtor website in the country (potentially a worse sentence than death row btw) I would not find one that said they did not provide good service or return phone calls in a timely manner etc, yet we all know that happens in mass (thus the 14% ad belief rate). Stop thinking about “Word of Mouth” and start thinking about “World of Mouth”.
I hate to put it this way but if someone says you did a good job and no one on the web hears them then did they really say it? Make getting testimonials on 3rd party sites part of your routine right now. Email your past clients letting them know about these sites, encourage every new client you have from today forward to contribute to them as well. Set up Google Alerts for your name but also for “Real Estate Agent Reviews”. Use Compete.com to gauge the viability of the review sites that will inevitably start to pop up, we are not quite sure yet who the Realtor.com of review sites will be, but there will surely be at least one that will become well known nationally.
The flip side to all this is that it will raise the bar industry wide. There is an underground movement by the re.net to raise the bar in the industry when it comes to professionalism. To those of you involved in this movement I say thank you and be patient. Nothing will stop what is about to happen which is full transparency of every individual agent by the people that matter the most, consumers. Steve actually reached out to an agent in New Jersey that had insanely good reviews and lots of them to see if this had actually impacted her bottom line. 8 closings YTD that she can confirm came from a review site where she is ranked highly. Many agents reading this do not have 8 total closings this year much less from one resource that is FREE to be a part of.
You are the MP3 whether you like it or not. The question is would I download you? Maybe a better question to ask is would you even download yourself…
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Chris as always you have hit it out of the park. Great article!
Terry
I agree that we are in the middle of a revolution in the way we communicate. Not in the beginning of it, but IN it. However, and as cliche as this will sound, our particular market in Berks County, PA, isn’t as close to the middle of this revolution as the rest of the country.
During an informal pole of our agents it was revealed that 25% of their clients didn’t have e-mail addresses. Hard to believe, but true.
Although I think it is critical to understand and work your way into the revolution, I think that there is still something to be said for the ‘business by referral’ way of doing things. The tried and true belly-to-belly methods do work.
That being said, I am 32 years old, and teach technology to Baby-Boomers, and the X generation in my office. I understand the communication revolution and fully embrace it, but the agents in my office that don’t read the blogs, aren’t on Facebook in droves, and give the confused puppy look when I mention Twitter, these agents have managed to do an average of 19 transactions each year-to-date. 70 out of the 120 have had a better year this year than last.
So, YES, there is a revolution, and YES people need to understand it, but being a good agent, helping your clients, understanding the market…these things MUST come first.
Chris, you nailed this! Well done. Thanks for sharing your thoughts so clearly, we will be better for it!
Great post Chris!!!! In fact reading it gave me a great idea that I will share with you for a follow up post we can collaborate on. I like the “world of mouth” saying.
I love the part about ‘World Of Mouth’. We are out there for all the world to see, so we need to make sure people know how good/bad our service is.
Linked In is another great 3rd party site that ranks very high where people can find out about you easily. Reach out to your friends on there and ask for recommendations; a good testimonial could be the selling point that could turn that customer into a client.
One of your best posts Chris. Extremely inciteful ! Will look back at this post in a few years…months maybe and say “Wow, was this guy right on the mark” Like your new blog Mac Savvy Agent as well. Great work!
Chris – Did this by accident, but do a search for “real estate agent reviews” over a map search instead of a web search. If you are not scared now, you will be then. The map blows up with red dots.
as usual, I got excited without looking further. Disregard my previous statement, the dots are just agency offices. Which, in itself is staggering.
Extremely helpful and informative article! Very witty subject line too. Thanks. Jenny
Chris, Again, you’re bringing great value to your audience. Tavia’s on target, too. Nothing like “by referral”. I can’t help but feel that “by referral” + leveraging social media just takes your real estate business to another level. Thanks for adding another arrow to the quiver! Paul D.
What I did find was no accurate information for NON-disclosure states … eg, none of these sites can track transactions in Idaho (where I’m at) – the information is confidential (state law) and isn’t released (Zillow and Trulia have issues getting any sales here as well). We are on 2 sites but no reviews, no sales – as are most of the agents in are area.
Wondering how this is affecting other states that are non-disclosure?
it’s amazing how many 30 somethings i talk to that are in the market for a new home. They are so knowledgable and for the most part know what they want. When they talk to me they want to see my value to them and if they can trust me…
Great post, Chris. Up to now I have been taking a passive-proactive approach and checking some of these sites periodically to see if my name pops up for good or bad. Many of these sites, unfortunately, are geard toward negative comments (like rip off report dot com). It’s kind of the “Angie’s List syndrome” where where most people won’t bother to leave comments unless they are bad. On those sites, the “complainee” has the chance to tell their site of the story.
Nice call on the agent website testimonial. They’re on mine as well. Need to give this more thought…
Hi Chris, excellent post on a topic that’s critical to anyone who wants to be competitive in the future.
The ability to leave reviews is spreading: Google, Facebook, Bing, Yahoo and Yelp all display reviews now, plus the real estate-focused sites you mention, and others.
Clearly, real estate professionals have to get on it. But where does one begin — especially when your competency is in nurturing relationships and closing sales, not necessarily on the technical side of online marketing?
Would a review-generation/management program help? I’m involved with a new company that helps busy real estate professionals optimize their online marketing. Should review management should be part of the package? How about:
– Pre-written e-mails that solicit reviews from your happiest clients
– Directory submissions and coordination to make sure the reviews show up on the right Web sites
– Ongoing management to handle any negative reviews and turn them into positives
– Tracking so you know where the leads are actually coming from
What else would be on your wish list? Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated. Our site is at http://www.SmarterCompany.com
Thanks!
Great article, Chris. I spent 2 hours this morning looking for reviews. I didn’t find any bad ones, but our name is not out there so I put it on some of the sites that would let me.
Chris, I voted for the other option because I didn’t make it to NARdigras but I am glad this post was the winner. I have been working hard at keeping these “profile” sites up to date and I learned of a couple I had not heard of. I think one thing many agents do not know is that even if they have not ever visited these sites, their info could already be there and it could be out of date. Great post…informative and super relevant.
There was a great session revolving around this exact topic that I was lucky enough to watch some of from via online from NAR.
It was terrific just like this post dude.
Chris, Great post!!! I spent a few hours today with my marketing team putting this info into action. I was blow away by the poor comments out there about some of the agents I have worked with int he past. I bet many of them do not even know it is out there. Nothing but good comments about our team though!!!
Good stuff! I need to incorporate more testimonials on my sites and use Kudzu as well. LinkedIn is sole testimonial site right now.
I added my information to Homethinking a couple of years ago. Do you think paying for sponsored placement on these sites is worth it?
My head is probably in the sand, but I just don’t feel like consumers are there yet for real estate agents. Restaurants? Yes. Painters? Probably. But somehow, I just don’t see or hear about consumers researching real estate agents just yet.
I’m all for having a strong opinion about a brand or a service, but sometimes it scares me that a collected voice drives that much power. Wouldn’t it be more fitting if we get both peer and professional reviews, weigh it down and think for ourselves as well?
Awesome post Chris, your looking forward and guiding us where we need to be going, thanks
Chris, this may very well be your best post yet!
Thanks Robin and to everyone else for all the great feedback. I do feel like I am growing as a writer but really this post is so huge. The shift in consumer behavior already happened. We as an industry need to catch up. I can’t stand when people say but this won’t effect us. It already has you just don’t know it. Awful websites, incomplete profiles, lack of max photos, it all adds up and over the course if a year can make or break your career. This business just changed and the sooner agents figure that out the greater the likelihood they will remain agents. Hoping this gets picked up by some publications. Way more important than QR codes or Gmail tricks…
Chris, this is one of the most valuable post for any agent to focus on. Rating sites are changing consumer behavior faster than most realize. If you are able to to earn a strong positive presence these spaces will become some of your best web traffic drivers!
Chris…You hit it right on! This was discussed at NAR in NOLA but during the discussion and to me there appeared to be reluctance on the part of associations to participate in the review process for fear of the potential negative consequences…aggravating their membership. I would like to know who we should be focusing on…The membership who wants to continue doing business as usual giving minimal value to the consumer or the agent that delivers the product? The good news is that this has taken a life of its own with or without the help of associations and it is ALL good and quite long overdue. Thanks for writing a post that laid it all out in simple terms so the reader hears it loud and clear….Valasie
After reading this I feel so thankful for TSA and your care for us
Chris, You did it again. You always provide information for agents to become Tech Savvy in this Tech world.
Thanks. This is great information.
Outstanding Chris! You hit the nail on the head. The challenge for agents will be getting their profiles on the most relevant sites and keeping on top of it. Much like having to manually post listings on all the sites that don’t pick up feeds. All the time we need to spend at the keyboard cuts into our belly to belly consulting time!
Hey, this really is an opportunity to circle back to past clients whom you have not received testimonials from. Copy the review page link from something like IncredibleAgent.com and email it to folks asking for their testimonial. Not only will it now be on that site, but let them know you would like to use it there and elsewhere and you now have it on file.
Not to mention the fact that in doing so, you have an additional touch with members of your database.
It is also a dose of positive energy for you personally when you read the reviews.
Thanks Chris! Great information that opened my eyes to what is coming in the future! Thanks again…
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Great post, Chris. I didn’t realize that the number that trust advertisements would be so incredibly low. As far as the review websites, I’m actually excited about that. I think this is a great tool for consumers and will further differentiate the mediocre from the elite.
Wow, I had no idea about any of those review sites and the amount of traffic that they are getting is INSANE!
Sweet Jesus, if I was a real estate agent I would be scared of how many people are viewing and submitting reviews. Insane!
This article got me thinking about LinkedIn. I have these recommendations that aren’t doing anything for me. I decided to add them my email signature (I rotate the recommendations within my signature so that the signature doesn’t get stale) and I encourage people to have evaluate me. Recommendations and Review are marketing pieces that can be repurposed and use on print media, blogs, listing presentations, etc. Just my two cents!
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I thought this tied in directly with your recent article above:
Zillow Launches A Free Online Agent Endorsement System
http://activerain.com/blogsview/1995488/zillow-launches-a-free-online-agent-endorsement-system
Thanks for sharing Andrea. Does Zillow plan on being optimized in search for the keywords “agent reviews” Realtor reviews etc?
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This is excellent article! Thanks for sharing. Makes me think about an article posted not long ago on techsavvyagent about the tool Faceified which seems to be the exact tool to consider. You can read that article here:
http://techsavvyagent.com/text/unlock-your-reputation-on-craigslist-with-faceified/
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