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Real Estate and Numbers

The more things change, the more they stay the same

When I entered the real estate industry in 1984 I was told real estate was a numbers game. I never forgot that. The more people I reached and made a connection with the better chance I had they would turn into buyers and sellers.

I was young, and eager to succeed so I called a minimum of 50 people every day from the yellow pages, ran as many newspaper ads as my pocket book would allow, sent out flyers, sent out postcards, had a booth at our state Home and Garden show, and did TV commercials. I continuously tried to reach as many people as I could. In 1998 I switched careers and become a mortgage broker. I could no longer afford the newspaper and other traditional means to reach my new customers and the internet was gaining speed so I made a decision to seek alternative avenues for marketing.

People started coming to me by the hundreds then by the thousands.

It hit me… numbers still work, but instead of me reaching out to people, they were reaching out to me. I was able to reach millions of people through the internet!
Let’s look at some numbers provided by Quantcast:

  1. google.com 142M+ U.S. monthly people. The site attracts a more affluent, more educated audience.
  2. yahoo.com 123M+ U.S. monthly people. The site appeals to a more educated crowd.
  3. facebook.com 95M+ U.S. monthly people. The site appeals to a more affluent, young adult, very slightly female biased following.
  4. youtube.com 82M+ U.S. monthly people. The site appeals to a more youthful following.
  5. msn.com 80M+ U.S. monthly people. The site caters to a adult, more educated audience.

Between Google and Yahoo alone there are over 275,000,000 monthly visitors in the U.S. alone?

In the last two months more video was uploaded to You Tube than the combined content of network TV stations since they started airing in 1948.

Twitter gets approximately 4,419,413,000 tweets per hour.

NAR states that over 84% of home buyers and sellers begin their search online. Unfortunately, as an industry, we are forgetting what I learned in 1984. According to NAR only 33% of real estate agents are participating in social networking. What am I missing? Why is this the case?

As I reflect back on my last nine real estate home purchases (both investment and primary) I used the internet for research. When I was ready to see homes, I sought out the agent or real estate company that provided me with the local real estate information I was seeking. It was that simple. I did not need to talk to someone until I was ready.  The internet proved to be a valuable resource.  I was able to identify local trends, school information, community info and everything I needed to make an educated decision.

The internet, whether it is your website, a blog or social media campaign is about numbers and conversations.   Real estate is about numbers.  Social media and search engine numbers should be enough to grab the attention of all Realtors but we need to do more to create an integrated internet marketing strategy.

This article reprinted with permission from PCMS Consulting. The original can be found here.