Daily Archives: May 26, 2013

How to Market your Personal Online Brand on 10 Social Media Networks | Armonk Realtor

Leave a reply

How would you feel if your Facebook page was shut down? What if your blog, where you create, post your ideas and thoughts was turned off?How to Market your Personal Online Brand on 10 Social Media Networks

What would your reaction be if your Twitter account went blank?

These are questions that we often don’t want to contemplate.

For me, the reaction would be one of loss. My persona is now woven and embedded in and on the web. It is where I express myself, share and learn.

Our online world is becoming an extension of who we are. This virtual world is becoming real. If you work in a knowledge industry or the creative arts then it is becoming essential to define and market yourself online.

Influence , knowledge and power is being digitised. There is no turning back. If you want to continue to be effective and relevant, then there is no choice.

Jobs, careers and businesses are being driven by the social web.

Avatars come to life

The platforms and social media channels we are creating are taking on a life of their own. Our avatars are breathing. They are digital signatures with a pulse.

It is not just where you create, express and think. It is also where you meet. This meeting of minds is where you change others in real time and you change them.

No longer do we need to catch up face to face to start a conversation, pose an idea or network.

Social networking is a duopoly

Networking was the province of the cocktail party, the conference or a breakfast meetup.

They still are.

Jobs are found, business opportunities are discovered and friendships made. Sometimes though the pushing of the business card under someone’s nose smells of desperation.

Now it’s a bit more like “here is my card you can check me out later online”

Blogs, social media networks now accelerate the networking process. They allow us to create weak ties online from New York, to London and Rio de Janeiro. Online platforms facilitate and accelerate the discovery. They are efficient.

The strong ties happen when we break bread, catch up for a coffee or share a wine together.

We need both.

How to use social networks to grow your personal brand

Sometimes the question is asked, “which social network should I use?”

The answer will vary according to your industry, your target market and your goals.  Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are no brainers. Then it comes down to time, resources and often some experimentation.

Here are some tips and tactics to use 10 social networks to enhance and market your personal and online brand.

How to Market your Personal Online Brand on 10 Social Media Networks

Source: Launchyourself.com

What about you?

How important has your online brand become to you?  Could you live without it? Is it part of who you are?

How do you market your personal online brand? Facebook, blog or LinkedIn?

How many social networks are you on?

Look forward to hearing your successes, challenges and thoughts in the comments below.


Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/05/27/how-to-market-your-personal-online-brand-on-10-social-media-networks/#WlFYYhP2UlSFY8BT.99 

 

How to Market your Personal Online Brand on 10 Social Media Networks | Jeffbullas’s Blog.

Madison Square Garden offers the Street exclusive real estate investment | Cross River Real Estate

Leave a reply

Real estate is one of the hottest investment stories on the Street. That’s because fro the first time in six years, home prices logged an annual gain in 2012, and that momentum has carried into 2013.

But while there is consensus that real estate is rebounding, how to profit is a different story.

The Madison Square Garden Co.  ($59.44 0.02%) is an integrated sports media and entertainment company that provides investors with exposure to a one-of-a-kind real-estate asset: New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

The company is maximizing value and expanding margins with a $1 billion renovation project wrapping up this fall that will enhance fans and performers’ experiences. That includes upgraded seating, more bathrooms, retail space and a wider selection of food. The facility will also receive upgraded lighting, sound and video systems.

 

Madison Square Garden offers the Street exclusive real estate investment | HousingWire.

Homes going as quickly as they did during boom | Katonah Real Estate

Leave a reply

One Montgomery County Realtor, Jane Fairweather, said homes in her market are selling in an average of 23 days because inventories are way down and demand is strong. The number of listings in Montgomery County were down 41% in April from 2011. In April of 2011, one third of the listings went under contract. In April of this year, 67% went under contract, according to CNBC.

 

Homes going as quickly as they did during boom | HousingWire.

Tornado damage not easy to quantify | Bedford Hillls Real Estate

Leave a reply

Early estimates suggest the tragic tornado outbreak in Oklahoma this week resulted in $2 to $5 billion in insured property losses, according to weather risk-monitoring firmEQECAT. 

But calculating accurate property damage estimates in the wake of a tornado remains a challenge for analysts, insurers and the mortgage industry.

CoreLogic Spatial Solutions is currently working on a new modeling system that aims to expedite and more accurately assess tornado property damage in the days following a storm.

But tornadoes remain a challenge for scientists on the property damage front.

When compared to hurricanes and earthquakes, tornadoes are less predictable — and the damage is not equitable, making it hard to simply declare losses in an entire neighborhood without sending out ground troops to separate total losses from homes that were only partially damaged.

There is no rhyme or reason to how a tornado hits; it hits one house and leaves another, creating an inconsistent trail of destruction that is difficult to study by simply analyzing property values within a given parameter, says Tom Jeffery, senior hazard scientist at CoreLogic Spatial Solutions.

EQECAT made its initial estimate after the National Weather Service confirmed 16 tornado touchdowns on May 18, another 29 on May 19 and 31 tornadoes on May 20.

“Advance tornado forecasts and warnings were not sufficient to reduce the loss of life from these events,” EQECAT said in its report.

Jeffery says his group “was originally created to provide mortgage and insurance industries with an idea of where the risk is and where the potential for the highest amount of damage is going to be.”

The company has a large database of parcel boundaries and can use that information to easily estimate the number of properties damaged within an impacted area by combining that data with property valuation research.

But the inconsistent nature of tornadoes makes it much more difficult to get the best property damage estimate early on, Jeffery told HousingWire.

In a tornado, there will always be total losses sitting next to homes that are not damaged or only 10% damaged, he said.
“This is where the feet on the ground is valuable,” Jeffery explained.

While hurricanes and floods generally have definitive boundaries where every property is mostly impacted in some way, tornadoes create an inconsistent path for researchers.

“When those events occur, we can usually put out an estimate fairly quickly,” Jeffery said. “They leave a definitive boundary. Unfortunately, tornado activity does not provide us with a nice clear boundary. There are going to be homes that are less damaged next door to those that were completely destroyed, so we are trying to work our way through an algorithm that will allow us to do that.”

Jeffery said the goal is to be as accurate as the firm can be in the wake of a tornado incident.

 

Tornado damage not easy to quantify | HousingWire.

Housing recovery falls back to 54% back to normal | Bedford Real Estate

Leave a reply

The housing recovery is now 54% back to normal in April, down from 56% in March due to the sharp drop in new home starts. Trulia‘s Jed Kolko writes that construction starts dropp to 853,000, down 16% from March. Existing home saled inched up slightly month-over-month, while non-distressed sales increased 25% year-over-year. The delinquency rates + foreclosure rates dropped sharply to the lowest level since September 2008.

To read the full report from Trulia ($29.47 0.2%), click here.

 

Housing recovery falls back to 54% back to normal | HousingWire.

Home builders buck market trend on Wall Street | Pound Ridge Real Estate

Leave a reply

According to MarketWatch:
Hovnanian Enterprises ($6.04 -0.06%) shares rose 2.7% after the Commerce Department said that sales of new homes rose 2.3% to 454,000 in April, the second highest post-recession level, on pent-up demand and low interest rates.
Toll Brothers ($36.75 -0.85%) closed up 1.4%, Lennar Corp. ($42.79 -0.61%) gained 2.6%, KB Home ($23.11 -0.29%) added 1.6% and Ryland Group ($48.46 0.36%) advanced 1.1%.
To see the full analysis by MarketWatch, click here.

 

 

Home builders buck market trend on Wall Street | HousingWire.

Markets remain shaken after Bernanke talk | Bedford Corners Real Estate

Leave a reply

Financial markets experienced a few tumultuous days of trading after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before Congress this week, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Triple-digit gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average turned negative at one point.

Bernanke must be thinking: “Was it something I said?”

In the midst of heightened concern over the hazards of overreaching government agencies, this may be a propitious moment to review the Fed’s outsize role in determining the price and availability of capital.

 

Markets remain shaken after Bernanke talk | HousingWire.

How to set PPC Marketing Goals | Chappaqua Realor

Leave a reply

What are your PPC marketing goals?

Whether managing PPC marketing yourself or hiring an agency, before you start spending money advertising on search engines, carefully consider what you are trying to achieve.

Of course everyone wants sales but unless you are running an e-commerce site where visitors can buy from you right then and there, you should ask yourself what you expect in return for your PPC marketing investment. Look at how you advertise today, consider what works and what doesn’t and then think about how can you carry a successful sales model into a place where you get to advertise directly to prospects who are already interested in what you are selling.

Let’s review a few basics of Search Engine Pay per Click marketing.

  1. PPC provides any company the opportunity to place ads in front of businesses and individual consumers based upon specific search queries.
  2. It is a pay-to-play bidding platform that rewards companies who are willing to pay more and/or dedicate more time with better ad placement and performance.
  3. Ads positioned at the top of the search results page perform better than ads appearing elsewhere.
  4. When an ad is displayed on the screen for a person who uses a search engine to type a search query, it is called an impression. Impressions are free but in order to get them you must be willing to pay  more than your competitor.
  5. Pay per click… you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
  6. What you pay is determined by a number of factors including what your competitors are willing to pay, how well your ad is written, how relevant your ad is, how well your landing page performs and how successful your ad is.
  7. As with all web based marketing, you need a good website. The more informative, relevant, compelling and encouraging your website is for your target audience the better your PPC marketing will perform.

What should my PPC marketing goal be?

This question is important because without a goal, you cannot measure whether your PPC marketing investment is working for you. Over the years, I have created thousands of campaigns for customers and although the goals may be similar, they are never exactly the same for each campaign. Every business need is unique. Every marketing goal should be unique your business needs.

Is your goal to increase sales, get more leads or expand your brand?

If you answered yes (don’t worry, everyone does) you are partly right, but you need more specificity. Lofty goals are great, but in the real world success more often comes from setting goals that are realistic, achievable and measurable. Are you capable of running a four minute mile? What about a marathon? Although most people could never run a four minute mile (the unrealistic goal), most people could finish a marathon if they were willing to make the investment in time, resources, dedication and perseverance. The same holds true for PPC marketing. Just like dedicating yourself to running a marathon, dedicate yourself to investing the time it takes to set goals, learn what works for your unique business and adjust your goals as you move ahead.

What are some examples?

What is your goal when advertising? Is it to put your ad in front of people who are in your market and are in need of your services to pick up the phone and call you? What about setting a goal for the number of people you want calling or when you want them to call? Do you put a value on each call? Do you break it down by the type of service they are interested in?

Each business will have their own unique set of PPC goals. Some example search engine PPC goals are:

  1. Track when someone clicks on an ad and completes a lead form.
  2. Keep the cost per conversion from PPC less than $25 each.
  3. PPC should drive 15 new leads per month from my website’s contact form.
  4. PPC should get us 50 call leads per month.
  5. With a small budget, the average cost per click (CPC) cannot exceed $5
  6. My website is not doing well in some organic search results and I want to be sure my business is listed on the first page of Google for those search terms.
  7. Average PPC visitor time on the website is more than the time spent by organic site visitors.
  8. Maintain visibility in search engines along with my key competitors.
  9. Be easily discovered in search engines for a variety of relevant keywords.
  10. Target mobile users only.

 

How to set PPC Marketing Goals | Find and Convert.

Buyers Cry Uncle | Armonk Real Estate

Leave a reply

With prices rising every week, lenders as strict as ever, interest rates rising, inventories at decade-low levels and competition for homes breaking their hearts, more and more buyers are reaching their frustration limits.

Two things most every buyer participating in the latest Redfin Real-Time Home-Buyer report agreed upon were prices are going to keep on rising and low inventories are a real pain. Forty-eight percent of buyers listed rising prices as a major concern, up from 40 percent last quarter. Sixty-five percent cited low inventory as a major concern in the first quarter, down slightly from 66 percent last quarter.

Twenty-three percent of buyers expect home prices in their area to “rise a lot” over the next twelve months, up from 22% last quarter; 57% expect prices to “rise a little,” the same as last quarter. Thirteen percent expect prices to “stay the same,” 5 percent expect prices to “drop a little,” and less than 1 percent expects prices to “drop a lot.”

When asked about “major concerns with buying a home this year,” the most common response was still “not enough good homes for sale,” at 65 percent in the second quarter. “General economic concerns” fell yet again, dropping from 19 percent last quarter to just 16 percent this quarter, while “prices are increasing in my area,” shot up from 40 percent last quarter to 48 percent in the second quarter.

Thus it’s no surprise that twice as many buyers believe now is a good time to sell as opposed to a good time to buy. The share of respondents who believe now is a good time to sell shot up again in the second quarter, rising to 67 percent from just 48 percent in the first quarter. Meanwhile, the share of respondents who believe now is a good time to buy fell yet again, decreasing from 40 percent in the first quarter to just 31 percent in the second quarter.

So are these hacked off buyers ready to throw in the towel and negotiate a long term lease with their favorite landlord? Not quite yet.

Looks like more would rather go deeper into debt. Recognizing prices are going to keep going up, 41 percent of buyers said they were “ready to pay more”-if they can get the financing. That’s actually an increase of 34 percent from last quarter. The percentage of buyers who are “taking a break” dropped again this quarter to 30 percent, down 2 percentage points from last quarter. Meanwhile the percentage of buyers who are expanding their search to new areas fell to 44 percent, down from 51 percent in the first quarter.

 

 

Buyers Cry Uncle | RealEstateEconomyWatch.com.