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Is This the Top Content Marketing Company in the World? | Waccabuc Realtor
The rise of blogging , Facebook and Twitter has made us all publishers.
Add mobile HD cameras mounted to helmets streaming death defying leaps, extreme bike moves and dives and you have an explosion of multi-media creators and publishers. Mobile and modern camera technology coupled with global social networks are providing platforms and networks with the media fodder that are supercharging content distribution and sharing.
Content and media is no longer gathering dust in the bottom draw or the filing cabinet but is published online. Often it is streaming and unedited. It’s real and raw.
Content now comes in a wide variety of formats and media. It can start with a 140 character micro blog (tweet), a video. image or a long form content piece of 2,000 words on your blog. It can even be a 6 second “Vine” video or a filtered snapshot on Instagram taken on a smartphone.
These fast changing opportunities and mediums are presenting the traditional marketer with some thought provoking and uncomfortable choices. You can almost hear the squirming.
Why content marketing upsets traditional marketers
The old school marketing habits and paradigms don’t cut it anymore because content marketing requires a different way of thinking. It flips the marketing model in many ways.
- Pull rather than push. Its about attracting the customer to you rather than pushing advertisements. That’s different.
- Entertain and educate first and sell second. Traditional marketing never heard of the term educate.
- You don’t talk about your product. Mentioning your product in content marketing is inappropriate. The old school thinking struggles with that.
- You must think and act like a publisher not an advertiser. That is not in the comfort zone.
- You operate in real time. This means you have to be thinking about “continuous marketing” as well as being campaign focused. That’s demanding.
- Need different resources. This includes staff and software. The status quo is being challenged.
- Needs a different culture. Publishing culture is different to an advertising mindset. Newsrooms, reporting and editing are a world apart from corporate marketing and advertising.
These mind warps are presenting some challenges and potential disruption to the marketing department and the CEO. What are the obstacles in moving from traditional mass media habits to a publisher paradigm?
The challenges to becoming a media company
The challenges come from many angles. Some are larger than others. It means adopting a flexible mindset that is open to change. That in itself is a challenge.
Here are a few to keep in mind as you move to a content marketing culture that embraces the new.
- Re-allocation of resources. It is hard to discard old habits but it requires a hard look at what isn’t working or appropriate and try something new.
- Re-educating the team. It will mean sometimes forgetting what was taught at university or college because most of the changes in media are mostly less than a decade old. YouTube is not yet 10 years old (founded in 2005), tablets have only been around for 4 years and Facebook was launched in February 2004.
- Changing the culture. Maybe change management is needed.
- Adapting to a mobile content world. Smartphones only exploded into popular culture when the first iPhone was launched in 2007. Websites need upgrading to be “mobile responsive” and content optimisation now has to consider viewing on smartphones.
- Understanding re-purposing of content. With the broad range of multi-media formats (30 plus at last count) and social networks, brands need to understand that we have different preferences for the media we read and watch and the social networks we use to consume them on. Same message but different media.
- Developing an integrated mindset. This means weaving content marketing into other marketing channels. This includes embedding content marketing in and across all media channels including social, search, email and traditional mass media.
- Creating “conversations around the brand” not about the brand. (Thanks Altimeter for that insightful phrase). This means creating content that has heart and soul of the brand embedded but not mentioned.
So what does this adaptation look like?
The content marketing stages
Content marketing is still embryonic for most companies. Here is how Altimeter sees the stages of content marketing maturity.
Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/11/08/is-this-the-top-content-marketing-company-in-the-world/#5eVc09uyx9ypi8ic.99
Supporting a Wide-Span Floor With Structural Steel | Waccabuc Real Estate
When my client described how he wanted to convert his home’s existing two-car garage into a spacious new living room, I knew it would be a great project for my design/build firm. Measuring 34 feet deep by 28 feet wide, the garage space was a blank slate — little more than an unheated box with a concrete slab for a floor. The garage had a full-height attic that he was planning to convert into a master suite, and the first floor had plenty of space for a nice living room and his many collectibles. The only problem was that the wide-open floor plan he wanted wouldn’t be possible until we figured out a way to support the second floor’s main girder, which was propped up by a steel I-beam running down the center of the garage (see Figure 1).
To transform this garage (top) into living space with an open floor plan, the author replaced the existing steel I-beam and supporting column with a framework of custom-fabricated decorative steel (bottom).
When we started the design process — specifically, figuring out how to create a unique space and support the second floor without posts or columns — I immediately thought of local steel fabricator and sculptor John Rubino, whose decorative steel beams are on display in various residential and commercial structures in northern Vermont. Although these structural elements function much like ordinary structural red iron, the stylized beams look anything but ordinary.
With the client’s go-ahead, John and I worked out a plan: We would support the top half of the building without intermediate posts and simultaneously create a living space using exposed steel framing that would become an integral part of the overall design. While John spent about a month fabricating the steel in his Morrisville, Vt., shop (see “Fabricating a Custom steel Beam“), my crew and I readied the building for its new structural elements.
The steel design was relatively simple — two upside-down U-shaped frames connected to another beam running perpendicular to them at the center. Designed with a graceful sweeping curve, the connecting beam would replace the garage’s existing center I- beam and eliminate the need for supporting columns; it would also add a sculptural element to the space.
Getting to Work
Before delivery of the steel, we built a pair of 2×4 walls that would temporarily support the second floor while we removed the existing steel I-beam and posts. Even though we had to frame new openings for a 6-foot patio door and several windows, we purposely left the existing garage-door openings in place to make it easier to bring the steel inside.
About a month after finalizing the plan, John backed his delivery truck into the garage and we lifted the beams off with a chain hoist (Figure 2). John had welded on lifting points near the center span of each beam, to help keep the components nice and level as they went up. This was good thinking, because this steel was meant to be exposed and had been spray-painted and finished with a water-based clear finish called Safecoat Acrylacq (AFM, 619/239-0321, www.afmsafecoat.com). This coating is pretty tough, but we still had to handle the steel with care so as not to scratch it. The lifting points made the process a lot easier and safer.
http://www.jlconline.com/framing/supporting-a-wide-span-floor-with-structural-steel.aspx
Mortgage rates drop for second straight week | Waccabuc Real Estate
Amid data that has lowered expectations for the performance of the housing market in the fourth quarter of this year, mortgage rates dropped for the second straight week.
Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.1 percent with an average point of 0.7 percent for the week ending Oct. 31, down from 4.13 percent last week but up from 3.39 percent a year ago, according to Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages and five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) loans also decreased, while rates on one-year Treasury-indexed ARMs increased.
“Fixed mortgage rates eased further leading up to the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) Oct. 30th monetary policy announcement,” said Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist at Freddie Mac. “The Fed saw improvement in economic activity and labor market conditions since it began its asset purchase program, but noted the recovery in the housing market slowed somewhat in recent months and unemployment remains elevated.”
“As a result, there was no policy change which should help sustain low mortgage rates in the near future.”
– See more at: http://www.inman.com/wire/mortgage-rates-drop-for-2nd-straight-week/#sthash.Yi9iOhYW.dpuf
Mortgage originations expected to fall 32% in 2014 | Waccabuc Real Estate
Mortgage originations are estimated to reach a total value of $1.2 trillion in 2014, a 32% drop from 2013 levels, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Tuesday.
The trade group elaborated on some of the trends expected next year:
“We expect mortgage rates will increase above 5 percent in 2014 and then increase further to 5.3% by the end of 2015. As a result, mortgage refinancing will continue to drop, and borrowers seeking to tap the equity in their homes will be more likely to rely on home equity seconds rather than cash-out refinances.”
“We will potentially see a small increase in refinances toward the end of 2015 as the Home Affordable Refinance Program 2.0 (HARP) expires but HARP activity during 2014 will still be low.”
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/27690-mba-mortgage-originations-to-drop-32-in-2014
8 Facebook Apps to Enhance Your Facebook Page | Waccabuc Realtor
Do you want to add more function and flair to your Facebook page?
Would you like to add storefront, generate leads or promote something special on a Facebook tab within your page?
In this article I’ll reveal Facebook applications that can help you easily add functionality to your Facebook page.
How Do Facebook Apps Work?
Before we get started, let’s review how Facebook apps (also known as custom tabs on Facebook) pages work.
Custom tabs are installed manually on your Facebook page and show up underneath the cover photo. If you’re visiting a page that has more than four tabs, you can click the down arrow on the right side of the tab cover photos to reveal them all.
Custom tabs appear under your cover photo.
There are four standard Facebook apps that come with every page—Photos, Events, Videos and Likes—and any other apps you add are created by a third-party developer (not Facebook).
Many of the apps are designed on the app website after you sign up, and then installed later onto your Facebook page when you’re ready.
Things You Should Know
There are a few important details about Facebook apps that will help with your design. The app width is 810 pixels. If you’re going to create graphics that go all the way across the tab, you’ll need to keep the graphic to that width to prevent scroll bars on your tab.
The graphic can be as long as you want it to be, but keep in mind that it should be shorter than around 500 pixels to appear “above the fold” on most computer screens.
You’ll probably also want to design a custom tab cover photo to draw attention to the tab. The dimensions of the tab cover photo are 111 pixels wide by 74 pixels tall.
Also note that some tabs will not appear on mobile devices. Some are “mobile-ready”; meaning they have a separate URL that they direct people on mobile devices to so they can see the content on that custom tab.
If you’ve been out there searching in the blogosphere, you may have come across Welcome Pages, where the content of your Facebook page could be “hidden” until the user clicks the Like button. That function no longer exists, but you can still hide the content of a Tab until someone clicks the Like button.
Hiding part of the content of your custom Tab is called “like-gating” or “fan-gating“, meaning that someone has to like your page (be your fan) before they can see the good content. This can work especially well for contests or sweepstakes on Facebook. By doing this, you can ensure that the person is a Fan before getting access to the contest entry form.
There are a lot of other apps available that provide a variety of features, like easily bringing in your Pinterest boards, running a contest or adding your blog posts.
These apps are more like a blank canvas, where you can do anything you can do on a website by either using custom templates to get you started or custom-designing something from scratch.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the top 8 apps (in alphabetical order) with some notes about each one.
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-apps-for-custom-tabs/
Luxury housing market lifts Hamptons | Waccabuc Real Estate
Hamptons home prices ticked up in the third quarter over last year, according to two reports released Thursday, paced by a robust rise in the price of luxury homes.
However, the median sale price in the luxury market—defined in the Hamptons as anything above $2.8 million—hit $4.45 million this quarter, a 14% jump from a median of $3.9 million a year earlier, according to brokerage firm Douglas Elliman. That compares to a miniscule rise of less than 0.5% for the overall market, according to Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, the firm that prepared the report.
But even as prices rose at the top end, so did shoppers’ urge to jump into the market, which drove the number of sales up to 52 in the quarter, a jump of 27%. In turn, the potent combination of rising sales as well as prices, prompted more sellers to put their homes on the market, driving inventory up 123% over the same quarter last year. Miller said that supply had been extremely low over the past few years, and the jump signified more of a return to normal.
But looking forward, the larger number of properties on the market should begin to temper the same rise in prices that kicked off the growth in the first place.
“The market is sort of self-correcting,” Mr. Miller noted. “The supply, in response to the rise in price, is keeping prices from rising too quickly and that is a good sign for market stability.”
The hottest neighborhood for Douglas Elliman was Wainscott. There two homes sold for an average of about $12 million, followed by East Hampton, where the brokerage closed deals on eight properties for an average of $10.5 million, according to the report.
In the broader market median prices were depressed in the quarter by the large number of homes that were sold on the lower end of the cost spectrum, contributing to the highest quarterly sales numbers in eight years.
Mr. Miller partially attributes the rush on the more affordable homes to a spike in interest rates in May, and fears they will climb even higher.”You had a surge of people come who were on the fence and entered the market to finally buy,” he said.
The Corcoran Group reported similar gains in its 3Q report. In the luxury market, the firm charted a 29% increase in average median sales prices, and broker Ernie Cervi said few factors lead him to believe the area will cool off any time soon. At the end of the third quarter last year, the median price tag was about $4.5 million, while this quarter it hit $5.8 million.
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20131024/REAL_ESTATE/131029946
Price Hikes Help High-End Flippers | Waccabuc Real Estate
Recovering prices helped short-term flippers earn an average gross profit of $54,927 on single family home flips in the third quarter, up 12 percent from a year ago.
RealtyTractoday reported that in the third quarter there were 32,993 single family home flips – where a home is purchased and subsequently sold again within six months – in the third quarter of 2013, down 35 percent from the second quarter and down 13 percent from the third quarter of 2012.
The higher gross profit was driven in part by an increase in high-end flips on homes that were sold by flippers for $750,000 or more. A total of 968 high-end homes nationwide were flipped in the third quarter, down 13 percent from the previous quarter but up 34 percent from a year ago. More than three-fourths of all high-end flips were in five markets: the New York metro area and four coastal California markets – Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose and San Diego. Flips on homes priced between $1 million and $2 million increased 42 percent year over year, while flips on homes priced between $2 million and $5 million increased 350 percent year over year.
“Increasing home prices over the past 18 months combined with decreasing foreclosures have created a market less favorable to the high quantity of middle- to low-end bread-and-butter flips that we saw late last year and early this year,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “But the sharp rise in high-end flipping indicates there is still good money to be made for flippers willing and able to take on the additional risk of buying and rehabbing more expensive homes. With that higher risk also comes the potential for higher reward. The average gross profit on each high-end flip equals more than four times the average gross profit on each flipped home in the lower price ranges.
http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/10/price-hikes-help-high-end-flippers/
Drop $4.35M on This Modernist Glass House in Switzerland | Waccabuc Real Estate
20 images
Hot off the tipline is this modernist glass villa asking $4.35M in Brusino Arsizio, Switzerland. Designed by Milan-based architect Jacopo Mascheroni, the Lake Lugano House glows atop a hillside near the Italian border. In all, the house, including that kind of gorgeous U-shaped glass pavilion, measures 6,456 square feet and boasts two bedrooms, a rainwater irrigation system, a studio, a “big hobby room,” and—hark!—garden access from every room. The photos, below.
· Lake Lugano House in Brusino Arsizio, Switzerland [Wetag Consulting] · Lake Lugano House by Jacopo Mascheroni [official site]
Fastest Markets are in Low Gear | Waccabuc Real Estate
Home-selling speeds fell for the fourth month in a row. In August, 27.9 percent of homes went under contract in less than two weeks, down from 29 percent in July and 33.7 percent in April, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
The competitive landscape in the housing market has changed drastically since spring, due to elevated home prices and mortgage rates. Many buyers have slowes or paused their buying plans over the past four months according to Redfin’s latest Bidding War Report/
San Jose remains the fastest-moving market in August, with 43.6% of listings under contract within two weeks despite slowing slightly from 46.1% in July. Across 23 markets, San Jose has been the fastest every single month since December 2011.
The slowest-moving market was again Philadelphia, which saw 7.0% of homes under contract within two weeks, down from 7.3% in July.
San Diego slowed the most from July to August. In San Diego, the rate of homes going under contract within two weeks slowed from 36.1% to 31.6%.
Las Vegas sped up the most from July to August. In Las Vegas, 24.7% of homes went under contract within two weeks in August compared with 18.3% in July.
Compared to a year earlier, Atlanta sped up the most. The rate of homes going under contract in 14 days moved from 1.2% to 22.7% between August 2012 and August 2013.
Sacramento slowed the most in the year, dropping from 40% to 34.1%.
Despite the slowing trend throughout summer, market speed could see a slight increase in September as some buyers react to reduced mortgage rates. After surpassing 4.7 percent in mid-August, 30-year fixed mortgage rates eased to about 4.3 percent in September in reaction to the Federal Reserve’s decision on September 18 to keep its stimulus program unchanged for now. Although the rates have dropped only slightly, Redfin agents in Seattle, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles in recent days have reported a boost in urgency among buyers to find a home.
http://www.realestateeconomywatch.com/2013/09/fastest-markets-are-in-low-gear/