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Improving communication with easy tech tools
Published October 28th, 2007 in Real Estate Industry. by Marian Bennett, Coldwell Banker Tags: technology.Keeping your seller clients up to date on where their property is being exposed is important in this changing real estate cycle. Here is one way I follow where my listings are showing up on Google. It’s easy to set up and quite handy. Google Alerts - I type in the property address and get email alerts when the address shows up on Google. Then I can tell where the search engine activity is coming from, such as californiamoves.com, my website, the property website, Realivent, Trulia, Zillow, Redfin, Movoto, craigslist, fogster, someone else’s blog, etc. etc. I have found that the Google Alert is usually, but not always, current. In one instance, both my seller and I noticed that the price was incorrect in the subheading. Upon clicking on the link to the full page, the information was updated and accurate. (Thank goodness!)
I just started using Google Docs and Google Talk. Google Docs has a useful tool for collaboration with your clients. We can jointly edit letters, update and share marketing plans, and I will soon start to use the spreadsheet function. Google Talk is an instant messenger tool that you can use with one of the new site widgets to enable your website visitors contact you with a question while you are online. There are other instant messenger tools, I just happen to use this one with the interface product Plugoo on my site.
Our industry is in transition on many levels. I think online real estate marketing is in its infancy. The more it matures along with tech-saavy future home buyers, the more mainstream these tools will become. And I don’t even own Google stock! So as I learn this cutting-edge approach to marketing myself and my clients’ properties, I will stop to share from time to time so we can all jump on this bandwagon. Tomorrow it will be expected that agents take full advantage of web resources, and those resources are being developed every day. I would love to hear about what new ideas work for you or what communication tools you use to enhance client interactions.
3 Responses to “Improving communication with easy tech tools”
- 1 Pingback on Oct 28th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Marian - There is no doubt that as a Realtor there is an incredible amount of knowledge that you must stay up to date on. Luckily I am very tech Savvy and take a real interest in it. There are so many agents that don’t have a clue. I found your google alerts tip for a property address an interesting concept. I have used google alerts but not for this purpose.
Bill,
Thanks for the comment and your welcome mat! I’d like to know how you do that. Another new tool I’m using is third level domains (or “subdomains” I think they are also called) as a “property blog”. I’ll try to write a post about that soon.