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October Prices Lag in the Midwest | Armonk NY Real Estate

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Price growth was strong in every region in October, including the Northeast where prices rose more than any other region. However, Midwest prices continued to trail the nation as the recovery is still fragile in the nation’s heartland.

While current quarterly gains are all under 5 percent, October marks the fifth consecutive month of quarter-over-quarter home price growth. Nationally, prices edged up 2.1 percent over the rolling quarter, higher than over September’s rate of growth. The West came in strong again, with quarterly gains of 3.7 percent. The South posted gains of 2 percent over the rolling quarter, according to Clear Capital’s October HDI Market Report.

Previously trailing in quarterly gains, the Northeast saw the largest jump in regional performance. Up 1.7 percentage points from September, the Northeast posted 1.9 percent growth quarter-over-quarter. Price gains across the low, mid, and top tier sectors all contributed to the region’s quarterly improvement.

Meanwhile, in Midwest quarterly growth of 1.0 percent was 0.9 percentage points lower than September’s. The Midwest tends to see quicker shifts in percentage change due to relatively low price points when compared to other regions. But there are certainly states within the Midwest, like Ohio, that have made notable progress. Ohio’s recorded quarterly gains of 1.6 percent are secondary to its more substantial long term price growth of 15.0 percent since 2008.

Today the National Association of Realtors released median prices for metropolitan areas for the third quarter. Prices in Chicago are down 1.8 percent from a year ago; Madison, WI is down 4.3 percent; Bloomington, IL is down 0.5 percent; and Champaign-Urbana is down 3.6 percent.

Yearly home prices in October came in strong. National gains of 4.6 percent are the highest since August 2010, when the first-time-homebuyer tax credit was enticing buyers.

The West posted its first double digit yearly gains since 2006, at 11.4 percent. While the hard hit region showed little signs of slowing down, it has a long way to go. Current prices are still 42.9 percent below the peak. On par with quarterly trends, the Midwest saw yearly gains soften to 1.1 percent. This, in part, reflects higher prices a year ago when the region saw a short uptick.

October year-over-year home prices in the South and the Northeast made headway; each up at least 1.0 percentage point over September, to 4.2 percent and 2.0 percent, respectively. With yearly growth of 6.8 percent, Virginia outpaced its region by 2.6 points.

The highest performing metros are a diverse group. In October, strong markets like Phoenix and Seattle were bested by Atlanta. However, Atlanta is in the early stages of a recovery, highlighted by a relatively high REO saturation rate of 37.8 percent.

Atlanta’s growth of 8.0 percent over the last rolling quarter represents a significant reversal for the market. Even though REO saturation remains the highest on the list, the new found growth was supported by a 9.7 percentage point drop over the last six months.

While trends are improving, Atlanta’s price points are extremely low, with a median price-per-square-foot of just $58. That’s nearly half the national median price-per-square-foot of $107. Even slight shifts in price can have a relatively large impact on percentage change for Atlanta.

Cleveland’s quarterly and yearly gains of 7.1 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively, outpaced national, regional, and state returns

The group of lowest performing metros are a great example of how housing trends continue to differ market by market. While Ohio and Virginia are doing relatively well overall, markets like Columbus, Cincinnati, and Richmond lag behind top performers, though each has posted yearly growth.

And after coming in as one of the strongest 15 markets four times in 2012, Tampa landed on the list of lowest performing metros in October. Over the last year, the low tier segment has been a key growth driver for Tampa. But, losses of 5.3 percent over the last quarter in Tampa’s low price segment (homes selling for $62,000 and less) created a drag on the overall market’s quarterly gains of 1.5 percent. Additionally, Tampa’s REO saturation rose nearly one percentage point over the last quarter. While this market continues to see measured growth, it’s not on the same trajectory as other markets, like Atlanta.

Tampa is a great example of how seemingly small shifts in the status quo can disrupt the momentum of price gains. The housing recovery has been built upon the delicate balance between declining distressed sales and increased buyer activity. Until more of the middle class has access to credit, the recovery will be constrained.

via realestateeconomywatch.com

Treasury Bond Demand Most This Year on Fiscal-Cliff Concern | Armonk NY Homes

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Treasury 30-year bond yields fell to a two-month low as the U.S. received the highest demand this year at an auction of the debt amid concern lawmakers risk pushing the economy into recession over a budget showdown.

The difference in yields between 10- and 30-year debt narrowed to the least since August with demand for the bonds, as measured by the number of bids submitted compared with the amount of debt sold, the highest since December. Treasuries have risen since the re-election of President Barack Obama and a split Congress on concern they’ll be unable to compromise and avoid a series of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that have become known as the fiscal cliff.

Treasury Bond Demand Most This Year on Fiscal-Cliff Concern

Treasury Bond Demand Most This Year on Fiscal-Cliff Concern

Ken Cedeno/Bloomberg

Today’s auction was the final of three offerings of coupon-bearing securities by the Treasury this week totaling $72 billion.

Today’s auction was the final of three offerings of coupon-bearing securities by the Treasury this week totaling $72 billion. Photographer: Ken Cedeno/Bloomberg

Goolsbee on Tax Legislation, Obama Re-Election

Austan Goolsbee, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and a former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, talks about the re-election of President Barack Obama and the outlook for new tax and entitlement legislation. Goolsbee speaks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop.” (Source: Bloomberg)

‘The strong auction reflects strong demand,’’ said Priya Misra, head of U.S. rates strategy at Bank of America Corp. in New York, one of the Federal Reserve’s 21 primary dealers that are required to bid on the auction. “If you are worried about the fiscal cliff, the place to be is the long end of the Treasury curve, as the yield there has more room to fall.”

The yield on the current 30-year bond dropped six basis points, or 0.06 percentage point, to 2.77 percent at 2:13 p.m. New York time, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader data. The price of the 2.75 percent security maturing in August 2042 rose 1 6/32, or $11.88 per $1,000 face value, to 99 19/32.

The U.S. faces $1.2 trillion in mandated spending cuts and tax increases starting Jan. 1 if Congress can’t agree to reduce the deficit, which totaled $1.09 trillion in fiscal 2012. The Congressional Budget Office has said the world’s biggest economy would slow by as much as 0.5 percent next year if Congress fails to prevent the measures from kicking in, pushing the economy over what’s become known as the fiscal cliff.

As Obama was re-elected this week, Republicans maintained control of the House of Representatives and Democrats held on to a Senate majority.

Auction Yield

The 30-year bonds sold today drew a yield of 2.82 percent, compared with a forecast of 2.848 percent in a Bloomberg News survey of nine primary dealers. The bid-to-cover ratio, which gauges demand by comparing total bids with the amount of bonds offered, was 2.77, versus an average of 2.59 for the past 10 sales.

Indirect bidders, an investor class that includes foreign central banks, purchased 45.4 percent of the bonds sold today, compared with 26.5 percent at the October sale, which was the lowest level since August 2011, and an average for the past 10 offerings of 32.6 percent.

Direct bidders, non-primary dealer investors that place their bids directly with the Treasury, purchased 12.4 percent on the bonds, versus 14.2 percent at the last sale and an average of 14.4 percent for the past 10 auctions.

Thirty-year bonds have returned 4.3 percent this year, compared with a 2.4 percent gain in the broader U.S. Treasuries market, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes.

Final Sale

Today’s auction was the final of three offerings of coupon- bearing securities by the Treasury this week totaling $72 billion.

The U.S. sold $24 billion of 10-year debt yesterday at a yield of 1.675 percent and auctioned $32 billion of three-year notes on Nov. 6 at a yield of 0.392 percent. Both sales drew lower demand than at previous offerings. Investors bid for 2.59 times the amount of securities available yesterday, versus 3.26 times at the auction in October. For the three-year sale, the figure dropped to 3.41, from 3.96 a month earlier.

“There is definitely concern out there, given the policy and economic uncertainties, and even at these low yields investors are willing to pay up to get the long end,” said Jason Rogan, director of U.S. government trading at Guggenheim Partners LLC, a New York-based brokerage for institutional investors.

Quantitative Easing

Long-bond yields fell yesterday the most in 11 weeks as Obama’s re-election also fueled speculation the Fed will keep buying Treasuries.

The Fed purchased $2.3 trillion of Treasuries and mortgage- related bonds in two rounds of quantitative-easing stimulus from 2008 to 2011 and has begun a third effort. The central bank announced Sept. 13 it would buy $40 billion a month of mortgage- backed securities until the outlook for the labor market improves “substantially.”

Fewer Americans than forecast filed claims for unemployment insurance last week as the effects of Hurricane Sandy started to show up. Applications for jobless benefits fell by 8,000 to 355,000 in the week ended Nov. 3, the Labor Department said today in Washington. A Bloomberg News survey had forecast claims for jobless benefits increased by 2,000 to 365,000 last week.

via bloomberg.com

The Viral Video Formula Revealed: 7 Key Elements for Viral Content | Armonk NY Real Estate

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So, at about this time in our study of viral videos, we should know a few things: it’s rarely an accident.  I’m about to break down a formula from the good people at Salesforce, who were kind of enough to make a video about this early this year.  But a mere formula always has one thing missing: it’s easy enough to say you’ve got to make great content, but you have to know what that is and how to make it.  If you have the ability to make it, then this formula should work fine.  It all comes down to how much work you’re willing to do after creating and publishing a great video.  Let’s take a look.

A Formula and Equation for Viral Success

Let’s take a look at their video, provided by Jamie Grenney, VP of Social Media at Salesforce:

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The formula breaks down like this:

Frequency (Who is talking about it?) x Proximity (How many people have they shared it with?) x Potency (How potent is the message?) x Incubation (How long after someone shares the content is it ultimately viewed?)

7 Key Elements of the Viral Video Formula: A Viral Loop Checklist

The formula comes from how actual viruses are spread.  So how do you make content spread like a virus?  They’ve broken it down into a checklist:

1. Answers a question, or evokes an emotional response.

The first part of this step is why “how-to” videos do so well on YouTube.  Giving people information about things they are actively seeking.  Like, for instance, I suddenly thought of pancakes.  How do I make pancakes?  Wait…how do I make perfect pancakes?

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Making pancakes.  1 million views.  Answers a question, makes me hungry.  In fact, that video also evokes an emotional response.

Emotional responses were a huge factor for the Olympic Games this summer.  It’s what distinguished the top brands when looking for viral success:

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2. Addresses a hot topic that people are searching for or talking about.

Remember the pancakes?  Well, actually, that kind of thing is always on people’s minds, or maybe it’s just mine.  Anyway, pancakes aren’t likely to be a “hot topic” unless they’ve hit the news somehow.  And believe me, we don’t ever want to see pancakes make the news, unless scientists find a way to make them even more fluffy and delicious and it’s a slow news day.

But maybe there’s a trending topic floating around.  It’s not hard to find those if you’re roving around Facebook or Twitter or news outlets.  You can totally capitalize on this.  For instance, when the Higgs-Boson particle was discovered, it generated a lot of interest, and curiosity.  What is so darn important about the Higgs-Boson anyway?

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Not done:

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Not nearly done:

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Seriously, Minute Physics took a topic and ran with it for three videos.  That’s genius.  If you’ve got particular knowledge on a currently trending subject, or if you have a way to incorporate a trending topic into one of your videos, you can use that tent-pole event to raise interest in your video.

3. Title, description, & video thumbnail are compelling and drive clicks.

I hate it when people talk about thumbnails, because that’s something YouTube hasn’t completely ironed out yet.  And then I look like a jerk for expressing the need to make good thumbnails, when A.) some people can’t generate custom thumbnails because they’re not allowed and B.) they have to rely on the good ol’ 3 randomly generated thumbnails that YouTube provides.  They’re getting better at this, and most any channel that’s been around for awhile can do them.  But hey, not everything is YouTube.  Many services allow you to do what you like with thumbnails.  And you should have a compelling one.

When you make titles it should be something that is not only compelling, but relevant.  I think some creators kind of tiptoe a line with this, but in the end, you want a title that you yourself would click if you came across it.  So that’s why you see a lot of “BEST PANCAKES EVER!!!!” and “HOW TO MAKE KILLER PANCAKES!!!” and stuff like that.  You’ve entered a sort of huckster field here.  “Step right up, I promise you’ll see something amazing that will change your life.”  You should really talk to our founder Mark Robertson sometime about this.  That guy is always thinking of titles.

In the description, this is where you tell people what’s in the video.  Hopefully, a bit of a teaser that will get people to want to click.  Descriptions are helpful in SEO, as it describes the content of the video and helps a search engine to figure out what it is.  But the small description below the video, before someone clicks, “Show More” should be something compelling, engaging curiosity.

4. Video is short and sweet, ideally 2 minutes or less.

Wait a minute…come on, ReelSEO.  You tell us the top branded videos that get shared are 4 minutes, 11 seconds in length, then someone else turns right around and says, well, except for cars.  So how long does any video need to be, anyway?

This could show how much length is a case-by-case basis.  I think if you’re a brand, you shoot for a story to tell, something interesting and unique with your product that enriches lives, and you show how by telling someone’s story.  Those go viral for different reasons than just someone trying to make a quick video hoping for it to go viral.  So maybe you want to make a video about something not all that substantial, something funny, something light.  Something people want to share with their friends during a busy workday.  That’s where a 2-minutes-or-less video comes in.  You get those people who are looking to take a break and they see that your video is less than 2 minutes, and that’s attractive during a busy day.  Either way, grab a viewer within 15 seconds, as the YouTube Creator Playbook says.

This step is entirely dependent on what kind of video you want to make.  So I think it’s important that when you make any video, good content reigns, and if it drags, you’ll want to edit it down to where everything “pops.”  So I’m not entirely sold on the “2 minutes or less” rule described here.  It kind of depends on the situation, doesn’t it?

5. Get your video off to a strong start propelled by paid, owned, and earned media.

This takes a lot of work.  Well, not so much work that you’ll feel like a construction worker who hauls bricks all day, but you’re going to have to prepare yourself for lots of rejection, even if your content is good.

You want to submit your video to relevant media outlets, those who feel like your content helps them attract readers/viewers.  There are a ton of news aggregation sites like Reddit, Digg, FARK, StumbleUpon, and so forth.  But let’s say your content is about movies.  You now have a ton of sites to send your video, as long as it’s something you think they’ll enjoy and you follow their submission guidelines.  You’re going to be rejected, or just not get a response, most of the time.  But if your content is good, you’ll have a few bites on it.  That’s all you need.  Eventually, if it gets big enough, those sites who rejected you might start posting the video anyway.

And once people start watching the video on other sites, they start sharing it with others.  Facebook and Twitter become huge, especially if you get one of those “big fish” Twitter users who have thousands or tens of thousands of followers.

I pretty much always bring up Freddie Wong’s “I Am AWESOME at Price is Right” video when it comes to this.  He submitted this video to Price is Right fan pages, which accepted the video with open arms, and he got a lot of views from that:

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6. There are 4 reasons people share a video.  Find one reason.

Salesforce outlines these 4 reasons.  People share content:

  1. That source information and spark discussions
  2. That others might find valuable
  3. Because it aligns with their identity and how they want to be perceived
  4. That maintain and grow relationships

This sort of goes back to step 1: it answers a question or elicits an emotional response.  What you want to have in mind when pitching this video to other people is one or more of the reasons above.  One of these reasons might be your “sales pitch” to blogs and friends.

7. Eliminate things that would make people reluctant to share.

Tough source material, depressing things, perhaps too much profanity.  Things that make the video toxic to a wide audience.  Salesforce also mentions that too much branding in a video could be considered a turn-off.  But I think if you’ve successfully navigated the first step, this shouldn’t be too much of an issue.  You’re making content people want to share.  I don’t know what kind of crazy video you have where you’ve successfully navigated most of this formula and then you get stopped in your tracks once you come to this one, but maybe I want to watch that video.

Give Salesforce’s blog post on this video a look. They break these steps down into other details you might find valuable.

via reelseo.com

Fed to Target Jobs and Housing Market | Armonk NY Real Estate

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First, do no harm. That is at the top of the oath that every physician takes. But many pediatricians will prescribe antibiotics for a young child with a cold mainly to mollify the parents.

No matter that antibiotics can’t do anything for a viral infection. The parents want something, anything to be done to make their tot feel better (and let them get some sleep),so many pediatricians find themselves writing the scrip, which mainly was the path of least resistance.

Central bankers have followed the same position. The Federal Reserve Wednesday reaffirmed its plan to continue to pump liquidity in the financial system through securities purchases until the unemployment rate fell to levels considered normal. If normal is not the equivalent of 98.6 degrees farenheit, then it at least until the fever has broken.

There was a time when the Fed demurred that it could control much of anything, even money, which after all was something in its field of purview. After allegedly trying to target the growth of the money supply in the early 1980s, the Fed determined it couldn’t even define what constituted money in the then brave new world of money-market funds.

The Fed couldn’t manipulate things, as in the classic Al Hirschfeld illustration of “My Fair Lady” with George Bernard Shaw playing the puppeteer manipulating the character of Henry Higgins played by Rex Harrison, who in turn manipulated Eliza Doolittle played by Julie Andrews. So Paul Volcker, then the Fed chairman, gave up on targeting the money supply and sought to aim to keep inflation at bay.

As with pornography and the Supreme Court, the Fed may not have been able to define inflationary easy money, but it could recognize it. And a Princeton economics professor named Ben Bernanke put forth the proposition that, central banks may not know how to target so-called intermediate variables such as money supply with precision, they should get to the bottom line and target inflation. .

While inflation is everywhere and at all time a monetary phenomenon, as Milton Friedman taught, unemployment is the product of many economic forces. It is not simply the inverse of the price level, as the so-called Phillips Curve would posit. A little inflation won’t lower unemployment permanently as wages rise to meet higher prices and allow workers to catch up, leaving them on a proverbial treadmill.

Yet the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee Wednesday reaffirmed its policy to continue to purchase $40 billion a month in mortgage-backed securities from federal agencies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, continue to swap $45 billion of long-term Treasury securities for shorter-term holdings, and to keep its key short-term policy interest rate near zero through mid-2015, where it’s been since late 2008 in the depths of the financial crisis.

Somehow, three decades ago the Fed said the money supply was beyond its grasp; now it says it will target the unemployment rate. As if the decision to hire hinged on the cost or the availability of credit when businesses show little inclination to borrow. Cheap money can’t overcome the hurdles of uncertainties about taxes and regulations, which entrepreneurs readily say are their main concerns.

The Fed’s efforts are mainly evident in the housing market, not surprisingly since it is the sector the that caused the economy’s near-collapse and is the central bank’s focus as the most credit-sensitive part of the economy. Wednesday, the Commerce Department reported new-home sales rose again, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 389,000 units, some 27% higher than a year ago.

Housing will provide a positive for third-quarter gross domestic product growth, due to be reported Friday, instead of being a drain. Whether there is a durable recovery is open to question.

Housing analysts point to the backlog of foreclosures that finally is being cleared, which opens up the prospect of more home building, and with it jobs for builders and suppliers. And it can’t be denied the foreclosed properties being snapped up by investors and opportunistic home buyers invariably need fixing up, which has been a boon for the likes of Home Depot (ticker: HD) and Lowe’s (LOW.)

What’s not mentioned are the 10.2 million houses that are worth still less than the mortgages attached to them, according to Zillow.com’s reckoning at the end of the third quarter. While that’s down from over 11 million a year earlier, it still represents a lot of potential supply of homes that are likely to hit the market.

These are houses owned by Americans who did the right thing, meeting their mortgage obligations even though it economically disadvantageous. Moreover, they couldn’t sell their house without writing a check for the difference between the house’s price and the loan balance.

Higher property prices are closing that gap. While distressed sales are down, I see more homes up for sale now that market conditions have improved by owners who didn’t have to sell into a bear market. As any market technician will tell you, there can be overhead supply for sale once prices recover from a plunge. Amateur stock punters will wait until they get even to sell out; so it is with many homeowners.

For homeowners who got in near the top in the middle of the last decade, any chance to walk away will likely be taken. Remember, they had relatively little skin in the game given the tiny down payments required then.

Meanwhile, homeowners who bought years ago and are sitting on big profits and relatively limited mortgages — such as Baby Boomers looking to retire — may well see now as a propitious time, in traders’ parlance, to hit the bid (to accept the price offered by a prospective buyer.)

The Fed’s game plan appears to be to pump up the asset markets, both stocks and housing, in order to bring down unemployment. Whether that pays off remains to be seen.

via online.barrons.com

New-home sales up 27 percent from a year ago | Armonk New Homes

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Sales of new single-family homes were up 5.7 percent from August to September and 27.1 percent from a year ago, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 389,000 — the strongest pace of sales since April 2010, the Census Bureau reported today.

The picture varied widely by region, with new-home sales up 75 percent from a year ago in the Northeast, 62.1 percent in the West and 24.3 percent in the South, but falling 31.9 percent in the Midwest.

Nationwide, there were 145,000 new homes on the market at the end of September, which represented 4.5 months of supply at the current sales rate, down from a record 12.1 months in January 2009, Bill McBride noted on the blog Calculated Risk.

The median sales price of new homes sold in September 2012 was $242,400, up nearly 12 percent from a year ago.


Source: Calculated Risk blog.

New homes include “not started,” “under construction” and “completed.”

At 38,000, the number of completed new homes for sale in September was the lowest level since the Census Bureau started tracking the stat in 1973, according to McBride.

Last week, the Census Bureau reported that housing starts increased 24.5 percent from September 2011 to September 2012.

via inman.com

How to Get Started with Social Media Marketing | Armonk NY Real Estate

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Social media is changing everything. How we communicate, do business and read our news.How to Get Started with Social Media Marketing

The biggest change to business is that it is democratizing marketing. Marketing is no longer monopolized by mass media, expensive printing firms or marketing agencies that controlled access to your customers and prospective audience.

You are now free to create and publish and market your own 30 second advertisement on YouTube and the world can watch.

Your brand now has its own TV channel

You can publish your own articles and educate your customers with posts created on your blog.

You “are” the publisher.

Then you can engage, distribute and market to your customers and prospects on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

You  now “own” your marketing distribution platforms and they are called social networks.

You can gain control over your marketing. It is the end of business as usual.

The Challenges

We as humans are slow to change but technology is changing rapidly with the pace accelerating. Radio took 38 years to reach 50 million users while Facebook added 200 million users in less than 12 months.

CEO’s and management are struggling to cope with the pace of the shift. This is also a cultural challenge.

We think that we are competing with a store across the street or in the same suburb but modern logistics, online stores and the social web are creating competitors in Canada, Korea and Hong Kong and across the globe.

Getting noticed in a daily torrent of over 1.5 billion new pieces of content , more than 200 million tweets  and  1.5 million new YouTube videos is like being a grain of sand on the beach.  It is hard to stand out.

Online business and appearing high in Google search results is often touted as easy as printing your own money if you believe the spammers and scammers. The reality is much different but there are ways to move  your brand and business from invisible to visible.

The Solutions

Many businesses still have not noticed the tsunami  wave of change as we move to a digital world. From a distance it looks like a ripple on the ocean. That wave will soon reek havoc unless you have planned for its arrival.

So we need to embrace the world of an increasingly digital and social web. The solutions and answers are increasingly found online.

Accept the fact that most people will find you or your business on a Google search, an email from a colleague or a friend telling you on Facebook.

Social networks and social media are the game changers.

Why Use Social Media Marketing?

The real power of social media marketing lies in its amplification of your message as it is shared on an exponential and low friction web but there are some other reasons why you should step into the social media game.

  • It  accelerates the speed of your brand message and story. Tweets can be sent in a second while publishing a brochure takes weeks.
  • It is networking on steroids (It takes you beyond the Dunbar limitation of 150 connections on a global scale and empowers weak ties)
  • It makes self publishing easy and intuitive
  • It enlists the power of “World of Mouth”
  • It facilitates trust

Any one of these on their own are reason to throw your marketing chips on the table.

Core Social Media Marketing Principles

Social media marketing is not a one way conversation, pushing your product or corporate speak.

It is about creating content that engages and builds online tribes that crowd source your marketing and online conversations.

There are also some core principles in building a long lasting social media marketing foundation that will survive a Facebook meltdown.

  • Create “Liquid” (Content that flows and is easily shared) and “Linked” (content that is linked to your core brand values) content
  • Publish to multiple social networks with your core content residing on your website and blog.
  • Create compelling “Multi-Media Content (not everyone wants to read a 400 word article but would view that same content on YouTube or Slideshare)
  • Embrace visual communication marketing with images and videos published on Facebook, Google+. Pinterest or Instagram
  • Make it easy to share with sharing buttons for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+

This will provide the bedrock of compelling contagious content that will be shared and will bring your customers and prospects back for more. These digital assets will be indexed by Google and other search engines that will provide enduring and long lasting benefits.

The Two Step Social Media Marketing Program

Social media marketing is not a one trick pony and approaching with the singular tactic of  just publishing a Facebook Page is a risky approach and will not produce any substantial benefit.

Firstly create a social media marketing strategy that defines your audience and marketing goals

Secondly implement tactics on multiple social media channels that set out to deliver on achieving results congruent with that strategy.

You only need to look at the approach taken by the Old Spice brand which was one of  the best integrated social media marketing campaigns in recent memory to realize what power a multi-channel and multi-media social media marketing strategy can bring to the table.

Some tips and tactics for social media marketing.

  1. Blog – Create a home base for your content that you own
  2. Facebook – include visual content when publishing to your timeline and use it to build engagement with your fans
  3. Twitter – Learn the art of the headline as you only have 140 characters to tweet (including the link)
  4. YouTube – Create short videos (2 minutes was the norm but Old Spice videos moved the gateposts and 15-25 seconds is much more common
  5. LinkedIn – Embrace the power of “Groups” on LinkedIn to position you as an expert and thought leader
  6. Slideshare – Make your PowerPoints a visual marketing medium that people will download share and embed
  7. Pinterest – Create boards that suit your business product categories and have some visual sharing fun
  8. Instagram – Make it personal and humanize your brand as social media is about being human

Just one tip to finish. Keep giving away free content till it hurts!

Be Patient

Social media marketing is not a quick fix but needs to be built on the premise that a long term approach will build an online brand asset that keeps on giving long after your first tweet or YouTube video is published.

You will need to persist and continue to publish and build tribes and keep them nourished with content that educates, informs, entertains and inspires.

It is like building a home “one brick at a time”

Want to Learn How to Market Your Business and Brand on Social Networks?

My book – Blogging the Smart Way “How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.

It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.

I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 115,000.

You can download and read it now.

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via jeffbullas.com

Homebuying wish list lets buyers see the big picture | Armonk Realtor

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“I’ll know it when I see it.” “This doesn’t feel like home to me.” “Someday the right one will come along; I’ll keep looking until it does.” “It’s going to be my home; it has to feel special.”

These comments are typical of buyers who’ve looked for a while but haven’t committed to buying. The objections sound sensible. Yet, they could be excuses not to buy.

Homebuying is not for everyone. It’s a major commitment and is often the most expensive purchase most people will make in their lifetime. It’s understandable that some buyers approach the home search with reservations.

You’ll save a lot of time and energy if you can determine if homebuying is for you before you start looking. Then for the best result, approach the house hunt methodically and with the understanding that it will take time.

The first step is to make a list of all the features you need and want in a home. Think about your current home, and others that you’ve lived in. Consider what you liked and disliked about them.

The next step is to prioritize the list distinguishing what you must have and what you’d like to have. You’re unlikely to find all of the items on your list in one home.

HOUSE HUNTING: It will help to prioritize your list if you look at some homes for sale in your price range and in the areas where you’d like to live. Visiting Sunday open houses or looking at listings online can help you to familiarize yourself with the local inventory if you haven’t already selected a local real estate agent.

You may find that some of the items you’d like to have in your home don’t exist in your target area. For example, let’s say you want to live in a neighborhood of charming older homes that are close to shops and transportation. You also want a two-car attached garage. Smaller homes built in the 1920s or earlier usually don’t have two-car garages.

This is where compromise comes into play. If the older, conveniently located neighborhood is high on your wish list, you will need to be willing to settle for a one-car garage, or perhaps no garage. If the two-car garage is a must, you may need to consider homes that were built more recently, and are not as conveniently located.

As you’re looking at homes for sale, try to see beyond the seller’s décor and the staging. A well-staged home can mask floor plan defects. It can be misleading in terms of what you need in a home. For instance, a first-time buyer made the mistake of buying a home that was staged so well that she didn’t realize that there was no formal dining room and no eating area in the kitchen.

On the other hand, you may be tempted to turn down a home that’s staged to appeal to the widest audience but appears not to suit your needs. Let’s say a home has three bedrooms but no home office. If you need only two bedrooms, you could use the third bedroom as an office, even though it’s not represented that way.

The best way to see a home you’re really interested in is with your agent. Many buyers aren’t good at visualizing a home any other way than how it’s shown. An experienced agent should be able to show you how you can adapt a home to your needs.

It’s often hard to make a good assessment of a home you’re serious about at a Sunday open house. Have your agent take you back for a second or third look.

THE CLOSING: Bring your wish list and discuss the pros and cons before you make a final decision.

via inman.com