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The Social Media is Not Only For You “Marketers” | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

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The Social Media is Not Only For You “Marketers”

Social-media-marketingWith most companies nowadays running social media marketing campaigns, it’s safe to say that the majority of them aren’t running them up to their full potential. That’s because in many companies and offices, the only people actually using social media for anything at all is the marketing team. This is because of a common misconception that has to do with the speed with which social media marketing came upon the world and its unfortunate name. While it is indeed marketing, leaving it to the sole use of the marketing team is a huge waste of potential resources.

So who should be using it? Everyone.Involving and integrating the whole company into a multi-faceted social media blitz will not only increase profits, but it will open new doors to thinking outside of the box that could give your company the edge when it comes to competitiveness in your industry. So, instead of leaving it to the marketing team to come to you with a plan for integration across the boards, take the initiative and push cross-functional social media marketing upon your company.

Why Does Everyone Have To Be Involved?

Since social media has dug in firmly and is here to stay, every department in the company should be looking at how they can use it to make the whole entity run better. Ideally, this will involve representatives from each department meeting up for social media brainstorming sessions, but here are a few suggestions to help get the ball rolling.

The Sales Team sales-team

Perhaps the biggest untapped resource of social media marketing is the sales leads which are out there. You have at your disposal a targeted marketing list: either people who already like your service or product or people who like your competition’s. Go after them! In your monitoring tool, implement a smart keyword search and get new leads.

Customer Service

customer-serviceEvery B2C has a customer service department that is typically only using traditional methods to make themselves available to customers. In the future, social media outlets will be used, so start to plan ahead (or even implement them now) and you’re sure to stay at the forefront of the competition. Be certain you have a strategy, good management tools for social media and a clear plan and then see how social media can help build trust amongst your fans and followers.

Marketing and Communication Departments Marketing-Communications-Team

Because traditional media is actually quickly becoming outdated media, it’s important that the marketing and communications departments stay on top of the latest trends, but also not forget what works. Campaigns shouldn’t always solely be aimed at social media; at times there should be some integration with standard media methods. Regardless, finding the mix of the perfect combination is what it’s all about.

Social media has one huge advantage in that you can instantly get feedback on the campaigns from the target audiences (i.e. likes, shares, comments, edge rankings, etc.). Applying this to your current and future campaigns helps you build a more responsive and non-plastic approach to monitoring and adjusting your sales and reputation. Be sure you’re using keyword searches and monitoring tools to do so.

Public Relations

PR-TeamThe PR team should be closely monitoring this same feedback as well, but taking it a step further, scouring blogs, newsletters and other forms of lesser known social media to stay on top of public opinion. Having an extra set of ears to the ground will help the marketing team and vice versa, as both teams work hand in hand to create the exact public image and branding your company needs to succeed.

Purchasing Departments

If you’re in one of the larger companies that have purchasing departments, they can use research tools available online to monitor and assess the companies they will be making acquisitions from. Tracking their sales and other stats through social media is simple, fast and efficient.

Essentially, the possibilities are endless with each department and how they can use social media to boost their productivity. Consider getting the best and brightest together for some brain storming and expand upon some of the things we’ve touched on here

via blog.socialmaximizer.com

The Time-Honored Art of Splitting Wood | Chappaqua NY Realtor

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Chopping stovewood to size by hand may, at first glance, appear to be a ponderous, imprecise activity that requires little more than pure brute force. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. There is, instead, a distinct art to splitting wood. The skilled woodsman or -woman who works with — rather than against — the rounds he or she is handling can split up a lot more fuel in a given time than can some muscle-bound ox who tries to club the wood pile to smithereens. In fact, a great many experienced splitters (both chore-laden homesteaders and briefcase-laden urbanites) have honed their skills to such a point that they look upon billet-busting as one of life’s more enjoyable tasks.

Make removing ice from a windshield easier with an onion, keep a candle in the car for emergencAnd even if you’ve never split a stick, you can become an accomplished woodcracker yourself. To do so, you’ll need a few commonly available tools, the how-to basics I’ll share in this article, some rounds of ripe-for-the-opening wood — and practice.

The Tools

The instruments most often used for working up wood by hand are the single-blade splitting axe, a pair of three- to five-pound steel wedges, a middle-sized sledgehammer, and an eight-pound splitting maul. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Several manufacturers have devised variations on the standard hand tools — we’ve sized up a number of woodcracking aids in The Great Wood-Splitting Contest II]

However, it isn’t necessary to have all of these tools to begin work. I recommend starting out with a pair of wedges and that workhorse of the log-busting trade, the splitting maul (or “go-devil”). The blade of the latter implement can crack open many a billet, while the tool’s back end can be used for driving wedges. (By the way, never use the butt of an axe for pounding — its thin head may crack!)

The Technique

Probably the single most important wood-splitting rule is this: Always place your to-be-broken rounds on a short chopping block. Such a base will provide solid resistance to the blows, increasing your stroke’s penetration and guaranteeing that when your maul breaks through the billet, the tool’s blade will land in wood instead of slamming into dulling earth or stones.

Once you’ve set your piece of tree up on its chopping block, stand back with your arms extended and feet planted squarely apart. (And, for safety’s sake, be sure to wear boots and sturdy long pants!) Then line up the go-devil over its intended target, wind ‘er up and swing!

Now some folks go for pinpoint accuracy by lifting their mauls straight up overhead, while others feel they gain more power by swinging the implements back around their shoulders. And one person will let his or her top gripping hand slide up toward the splitter’s head on the upswing, but another will keep both hands clenched together in a grip similar to that used by a golfer. You’ll have to experiment until you decide just which technique is best for you.

via motherearthnews.com

Tory Burch’s Hamptons Mansion Sells at Deep Discount | Chappaqua Real Estate

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Source: Wikicommons

Eleven million may sound like a lot of money, but for a South Hampton waterfront mansion, it’s spare change.

Tory Burch’s home has finally sold after a series of price cuts, and it represents a steep loss: The apparel, shoe and handbag designer bought the home in the wake of her divorce for $22.5 million.

The deeply discounted selling price not only hurts Burch, but according to the NY Post, it hasn’t made some of her neighbors too happy either. The waterfront estate is located at 2080 Meadow Ln, Southhampton, NY 11968, a prestigious area that is home to big names like David Koch, Calvin Klein, Janna Bullock and Rachael Ray.

A source told the New York Post:

Everyone in the neighborhood is staggered that she sold it at such a low price. It has sparked a lot of worry if this will affect the market and their own homes, but also a lot of speculation as to why she sold it off so cheaply.”

The home did have water damage from burst pipes, and Curbed called the home a “tear-down,” but $11 million for the property, in an area where homes sell for $30 to $50 million, still has the neighbors concerned.

via zillow.com

Fitch Raises Housing Forecasts for 2012 and 2013 | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

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Year-over-year gains for single-family starts and new home sales have been sustaining the momentum of earlier this year and new homes and existing home sales have also been advancing. Year-to-date U.S. housing metrics are well above 2011 levels, according to Fitch Ratings.

Fitch has again raised its housing forecasts for 2012, but the ratings service still assumes a moderate rise off a very low bottom. Fitch projects single-family housing starts to improve about 19 percent, new home sales to rise approximately 19.5 percent and existing home sales to grow 8.5 percent in 2012.

Sales growth will be somewhat less robust next year, according to the rating service. 2013 single family-starts should expand 14 percent while new home sales grow 13 percent. Existing home sales should increase 4.5 percent.

“The major public builders generally realized much stronger results y-o-y in the first half and gained market share. On average net new orders were up 30.2 perce t. The unit backlog typically improved 41.3% (48.2 percent on a dollar basis). The implied price in backlog grew 5.4 percent (more from mix than overt price increases)” Fitch said in its Chalk Line report.

“The housing recovery had been long delayed, and has so far been somewhat irregular and below historic patterns… With the U.S. economy moving from recession to expansion in the third quarter of 2009, plus very attractive housing affordability and government incentives, housing was jump-started. However, faltering consumer confidence, among other issues, had largely restrained the recovery. New home sales and single-family starts retested the bottom during the summer of 2010 and in February 2011,” Fitch said.

“Challenges remain, including continued relatively high levels of delinquencies, potential of acceleration in foreclosures, and consequent meaningful distressed sales and restrictive credit qualification standards,” Fitch noted.

Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are more optimistic in their forecasts.  Fannie sees new home sales increasing 20.2 percent this year and another 17.9 percent next year, and existing homes rising to 7.8 percent by the end of this year and 3.9 percent next year.

Freddie’s economists see total home sales up 8.9 percent this year and 8.1 percent next year, with starts up 22.9 percent in 2012 and another 21.3 percent next year.

via realestateeconomywatch.com

Chappaqua NY Real Estate | Top 3 Ways To Kill Your Online Reputation

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Life is great when everything is going as planned and moving along seamlessly. But what do you do when things aren’t so bright and cheery and roadblocks appear along your path?

The way in which you respond to situations creates the same reputation of who you are online (i.e., liked and trusted or blacklisted and banned) just as it does offline. So, with this in mind, here are three ways to kill your online reputation at lightening speed!

1. Freak out. If you’re not actively checking to see what is being said about you online, then you may be in for a surprise. Hopefully, that is not the case for the majority of you; however, wouldn’t you prefer to know than just hope for the best?

Setting up a Google Alert with your name (and/or business name) will prove to be the best way of being aware of any review, whether negative or positive.

What should you do if you come across a negative review?

You can:

a) freak out and punch your fist through your monitor;
b) freak out and, without any thought, respond in an unprofessional manner; or
c) take a professional approach — thank them for their opinion and ask how you can improve your wrongdoings and how you can turn that negative review into a positive one.

Of course, the latter of the three options is the ONLY thing you should do, no matter how upset you are!

By responding in a professional way, and encouraging communication with the reviewer, you are not only portraying an aware and caring persona to them but to anyone else who may read the review stream. Seeing your willingness to rectify the situation would be better than just seeing the reviewer’s bashing.

(NOTE:  If the negative review truly is unjustified, it is possible to request the review to be removed from most of these sites.) In the meantime, work on getting more positive reviews by always asking both current and previous clients for one.

2. Stalk ‘em.

Online stalking – image courtesy of Author

Someone has just requested to be your friend or has liked your page on Facebook. The first thing you need to do is add their email to your “HOT BUYER” campaign. Then, add numerous updates on their Facebook wall about YOU, YOU and YOU. Don’t forget to also include links to your listings over and over again.

STOP!!! Of course, I am joking, but you’d be surprised at how many people truly get social networking completely wrong! When you’re using the multiple social media platforms available to you, please, don’t be a stalker about it. As Chris Smith mentioned in his latest webinar, 12 Secrets to Converting Leads from Facebook, “the No. 1 best practice on Facebook is don’t be creepy”!

So what should you do when you get a new friend or new like? Continue on as usual. They probably began following you because they liked what you were saying without any pressure from you to begin with! Be social. Be you!

3. Permanent markers

Permanent markers – image courtesy of Author

What you post, what you link to, what you upload … all are like writing with a permanent marker, not a pencil. It is there for all to see, and it is there for good. Your mother seeing something less than respectable online is the least of your worries … what if you were looking into becoming a professional real estate speaker? Or what about if you were attempting to move up the corporate ladder in any way, shape or form?

Seventy-seven percent of employers search Google for their prospective employees; what do you want to have visible to the public’s eye?

If your past updates or uploads to any social media platform are questionable, I would recommend changing your privacy settings so that future posts are more protected. Here’s a direct link to Facebook’s privacy settings:  https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy. On Twitter, you have the ability to protect your tweets through the settings page of your account, and LinkedIn has similar privacy features within your profile settings.

The moral of this story is think before you do. This is a golden rule for life in general, but when it comes to your online reputation, this is definitely a doozy.

These are my top three ways to kill your online reputations, but what other ways can you protect it from being demolished?

via next.inman.com

Foreclosures Split America | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

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September’s foreclosure data showed America has become bipolar over foreclosures, with dramatic decreases in most states but increases nearly as great in judicial states where lenders are speeding up processing of defaults.

Foreclosure activity nationwide fell to the lowest level in five years in but increased in 14 judicial states, including Florida, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey and New York as lenders begin to move on backlogged defaults after processing standards fully implementing the Attorneys General agreement take effect.

The national decrease in September marked the ninth consecutive quarter with an annual decrease in foreclosure activity and helped drop the third quarter foreclosure numbers to the lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2007. Foreclosure filings for the quarter decreased 7 percent from August and 16 percent from September 2011. Third quarter filings were down 5 percent from the second quarter and 13 percent from the third quarter of 2011, according to RealtyTrac.

In the West, declines were even more dramatic. In California, notices of defaults were down 20.7 percent from the prior month, and down 48.1 percent compared to last year. In Arizona, new foreclosures were down 37.1 percent, in Nevada down 40.1 percent, down 40.0 percent in Oregon and Washington saw new foreclosures fall 31.2 percent from August. Sales are also down with Arizona down 24.3 percent, Nevada down 19.5 percent, Oregon down 0.3 percent, and Washington down 33.5 percent from the prior month, ForeclosureRadar reported today.

Third quarter foreclosure activity increased on a year-over-year basis in New Jersey (130 percent increase), New York (53 percent increase), Indiana (36 percent increase), Pennsylvania (35 percent increase), Connecticut (34 percent increase), Illinois (31 percent increase), Maryland (28 percent increase), South Carolina (16 percent increase), North Carolina (14 percent increase), and Florida (14 percent increase). Among judicial states foreclosure activity in the third quarter decreased on annual basis in Massachusetts (16 percent decrease) and Wisconsin (12 percent decrease).

However, more foreclosures may be in store. “It was recently reported that the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers have implemented all of the 320 servicing standards required under the national mortgage settlement. The continued decline in Foreclosure Starts clearly shows that even though servicers are now apparently in compliance and clear to move forward with foreclosures, they are still in no rush to foreclose on the majority of delinquent borrowers,” said Sean O’Toole, founder & CEO of ForeclosureRadar.

However, processing time actually increased durinmg the quarter to a national average of 382 days to complete the foreclosure process, up from 378 days in the previous quarter and up from 336 days in the third quarter of 2011. It was the highest average number of days to foreclose since the first quarter of 2007.

The average time to complete a foreclosure increased substantially from a year ago in several states where recent legislation and court rulings have extended the foreclosure process. These states included Oregon (up 62 percent to 193 days), Hawaii (up 62 percent to 662 days), Washington (up 62 percent to 248 days) and Nevada (up 42 percent to 520 days).

The average time to foreclose decreased from a year ago in 15 states, including Arkansas (down 49 percent to 199 days), Michigan (down 15 percent to 226 days), Maryland (down 9 percent to 541 days), California (down 8 percent to 335 days), and New Jersey (down 4 percent to 931 days).

New Jersey documented the second longest state foreclosure timeline in the third quarter behind New York, where the average time to complete a foreclosure was 1,072 days for properties foreclosed during the quarter. Florida registered the third highest state foreclosure timeline, 858 days – down slightly from 861 days in the previous quarter – and Illinois registered the fourth highest state foreclosure timeline, 673 days.

via realestateeconomywatch.com

Foreclosures Split America | Chappaqua NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

September’s foreclosure data showed America has become bipolar over foreclosures, with dramatic decreases in most states but increases nearly as great in judicial states where lenders are speeding up processing of defaults.

Foreclosure activity nationwide fell to the lowest level in five years in but increased in 14 judicial states, including Florida, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey and New York as lenders begin to move on backlogged defaults after processing standards fully implementing the Attorneys General agreement take effect.

The national decrease in September marked the ninth consecutive quarter with an annual decrease in foreclosure activity and helped drop the third quarter foreclosure numbers to the lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2007. Foreclosure filings for the quarter decreased 7 percent from August and 16 percent from September 2011.  Third quarter filings were down 5 percent from the second quarter and 13 percent from the third quarter of 2011, according to RealtyTrac.

In the West, declines were even more dramatic.  In California, notices of defaults were down 20.7 percent from the prior month, and down 48.1 percent compared to last year. In Arizona, new foreclosures were down 37.1 percent, in Nevada down 40.1 percent, down 40.0 percent in Oregon and Washington saw new foreclosures fall 31.2 percent from August.  Sales are also down with Arizona down 24.3 percent, Nevada down 19.5 percent, Oregon down 0.3 percent, and Washington down 33.5 percent from the prior month, ForeclosureRadar reported today.

Third quarter foreclosure activity increased on a year-over-year basis in New Jersey (130 percent increase), New York (53 percent increase), Indiana (36 percent increase), Pennsylvania (35 percent increase), Connecticut (34 percent increase), Illinois (31 percent increase), Maryland (28 percent increase), South Carolina (16 percent increase), North Carolina (14 percent increase), and Florida (14 percent increase).  Among judicial states foreclosure activity in the third quarter decreased on annual basis in Massachusetts (16 percent decrease) and Wisconsin (12 percent decrease).

However, more foreclosures may be in store.  “It was recently reported that the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers have implemented all of the 320 servicing standards required under the national mortgage settlement.  The continued decline in Foreclosure Starts clearly shows that even though servicers are now apparently in compliance and clear to move forward with foreclosures, they are still in no rush to foreclose on the majority of delinquent borrowers,” said Sean O’Toole, founder & CEO of ForeclosureRadar.

However, processing time actually increased durinmg the quarter to a national average of 382 days to complete the foreclosure process, up from 378 days in the previous quarter and up from 336 days in the third quarter of 2011. It was the highest average number of days to foreclose since  the first quarter of 2007.

The average time to complete a foreclosure increased substantially from a year ago in several states where recent legislation and court rulings have extended the foreclosure process. These states included Oregon (up 62 percent to 193 days), Hawaii (up 62 percent to 662 days), Washington (up 62 percent to 248 days) and Nevada (up 42 percent to 520 days).

The average time to foreclose decreased from a year ago in 15 states, including Arkansas (down 49 percent to 199 days), Michigan (down 15 percent to 226 days), Maryland (down 9 percent to 541 days), California (down 8 percent to 335 days), and New Jersey (down 4 percent to 931 days).

New Jersey documented the second longest state foreclosure timeline in the third quarter behind New York, where the average time to complete a foreclosure was 1,072 days for properties foreclosed during the quarter. Florida registered the third highest state foreclosure timeline, 858 days – down slightly from 861 days in the previous quarter – and Illinois registered the fourth highest state foreclosure timeline, 673 days.

via realestateeconomywatch.com