• On 1000 Watt blog, Brian Boero offers some suggestions about writing blog posts based on content that agents already have. They’re sitting on a goldmine, he contends, and it’s time to step up to the plate and start delivering.

Right now you’re like a New York City department store with no windows, a Sushi place without the little plastic food in the window.

Hiding your goods from the marketplace. Failing to use their power to engage.

If you’re a brokerage of any size, you have tons of content to play with. You have access to an IDX feed. And, I would imagine, a camera.

There’s no excuse. No, not even MLS rules.

Come on agents, it’s time to get busy!

• Max Kalehoff provides a short explanation of content delivery networks (CDN’s). They’re used to deliver web content faster. And with Google including page load speed as part of their ranking algorithm it makes sense to look at using one, especially for high traffic sites. According to Max:

A good Web hosting provider with dedicated servers and clean coding are critical to website speed. But so is a content delivery network, especially if your site is subject to visitor spikes and geographically dispersed traffic, and contains large multimedia files (like video). The largest online publishers have already made CDNs part of their online infrastructures.

It’s probably not something I need to look at for this site but I wonder what the portals, franchises and marketing groups are doing.

• Jay Baer is right; we’ve seen this social media movie before. Where? Email marketing. Opt-in, subscribers, open rate, impressions, CTR: they all mean the same thing only just in a different setting. He concludes:

For more than a decade, the world of email has hoped to send messages of such vigor and verisimilitude that recipients would be compelled to click a “forward to a friend” button to send the message onward to their compatriots, who would surely benefit from its contents. That F2F rate has historically been tracked by email marketers, although it’s accuracy is poor since it’s easier to just click “forward” in your email software, than to click the button within the email itself.

In social media of course, this sharing behavior is the coin of the realm. Retweets, Facebook shares, Diggs, Stumbles, and now Linkedin shares are badges of honor, displayed proudly atop each blog post like family crests of feudal lords.

That’s a lot of similarities. Does anyone else feel like we’ve seen this movie before?

In short it’s time to stop thinking of social media as a special case. It’s not. It’s just a different horse in the same race.

• On the Geek Estate blog Drew Meyers recommends blogging about local free wi-fi hotspots. It’s a cool idea. He suggests doing more than just grabbing information off the web but actually going to the place (café, library, restaurant) and interviewing the owner or manager. Then he poses the real kicker:

To really maximize your time and effort, don’t just write about wifi options based on what you find on the web — go there, talk to the staff, and write from first hand experience — and send the owners of those establishments the link to your blog post once you’ve written about them. Better yet, use that email as a conversation starter and convince the owners to blog for you on your local blog (that’s the holly grail)!

Great idea, huh? Bet there’s no-one doing that in your patch. Know what that means? You could be the go-to person and carve out a niche for yourself. Much of this post was written at Rifo’s in East Victoria Park. They have excellent free wi-fi and even better coffee. So what are you waiting for?

• Finally, Kristin Rawski from Excite Media provides an analysis of the Oreo’s Facebook page. She explains that they could be more responsive about the content they share but praises their World’s Fan of the Week contest. That contest encourages fans to upload a photo of themselves in exchange for the chance to be featured on the page avatar. I wonder if they got Facebook’s permission to run that contest.[tweetmeme]

I have a confession. I only heard of Flowtown today. And it’s got me excited in a kind of “I know there’s something here but I’m not sure what” way.

Here’s a video that explains what it is and does. I think there’s some exciting ways agents will use it to craft highly targeted, relevant emails to their prospects and clients. I’m going to experiment with it and will let you know what I discover.

Done well email marketing is an efficient and effective marketing tool. It can help build a brand and generate sales. But there are guidelines. If followed they will make an email campaign far more effective.

According to Max Kalehoff email remains “the default social network”. As a result he recommends following these four principles. They’ll help increase email readership and campaign effectiveness.

1. Treat email addresses like people. Why? Because there are people on the other end. Respect their privacy and preferences the same way you would if you were sitting in the same room with them.
2. Ask for permission first. An email address, alone, is not permission to market to someone. An email address is a channel with which to market to someone — only after you’ve secured permission.
3. Make opt-out easy, extremely easy. If you do market to people with email, it’s necessary to make opt-out easy. That means your opt-out links within emails and corresponding Web sites should be prominent, one-click and instant. It’s not o.k. to hide your opt-out links with gray text on white background, or require tedious click-throughs and confusing forms in order to opt out of an email marketing program. In fact, opt out should be easier than opt in.
4. Honor opt-outs…When recipients opt out, don’t keep their email activated in your marketing program. Deactivate requests for opt-out immediately. Don’t disturb means just that.

I know many agents who harvest email inquiries and promptly send out a weekly email of their latest listings. I suspect it’s not what the customer intended and that it’s doing more harm than good. What say you?

Email is a great way to build relationships. It’s cost effective and, done well, can result in lots of sales inquiry.

Here, then, are 25 ways to build a database of people keen to hear what you have to say.

1. Add an invitation to subscribe to your e-newsletter on your business cards.
2. And your open home brochures.
3. And your other personal promotion handouts.
4. Invite home open visitors to leave their email address…read the full story.