life, tech, web 2.0, social network, real estate, small biz, twittering and shameless rantings

Someone shot me a message via LinkedIn the other day ask about online marketing. Here is what I really think of online marketing:

No matter how much you online market, you still have to put in face time in real life.

When I first started my business, the market was doing super hot, so everyone was making money and the needs for stagers were high. Then the market slowly going downhill in beginning of 2008, the demands of stagers slowed down.

I know this because I can see the # of calls we used to get slowed down, and also through my Google Analytics. Just by comparing visitor #s to 2007, the #s were just not there.

That means traditional methods of marketing are not out completely.

Essentially real estate is a people business, and inf act, same goes true for entrepreneurs. Our business is not only what’s in our titles, our business is really about creating, keeping, maintaining and continuously maintain relationships that are meaningful and fruitful. A handshakes will never be replaced by the #s of Twitter followers you have. People still want human interactions. That’s why Tweetups or TechKaraoke become so popular.

So does that mean we shouldn’t market ourselves online???

NO, on the contrary. Online marketing can amplify your existing marketing and create new lead generation funnels.

How in the world do you think a 25-year-old with no real seed money and no wealthy friends managed to stay in business and move it into a 3,600 square feet warehouse? I did it by wowing the first client who found me online and then grew my database from there.

More importantly I realized what I was doing in 2006 and 2007 (like blogging and search engine optimization/SEO) were just  tricks for kids. Social networks is where the party is at. Social networks have become increasingly powerful largely because how viral and easy it is to spread information. Moreover, it incorporates all the juicy benefits you already get from blogging — rich in keywords, riding coat tails to sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, who already have high SEO capabilities built in.

Say I wrote a blog post, which publishes on my blog. Because I already hooked my blog to my twitter, the blog gets broadcast to my 2600+ followers on twitter. Potentially, someone can retweet my tweet which gets broadcast to their networks. Oh and not to mention my Facebook is linked to my twitter feed, so my blog gets to my 600+ contacts on Facebook as well! If 1 contact comments on my Facebook feed, the 120 contacts he has (on average, a Facebook user has 120 friends) sees my blog on their dashboards. Not to mention other services like FriendFeed, LinkedIn, MyBlogLog and many other social network services.

Just take a look of my LinkedIn’s Network Statistics, I have 507 connections on LinkedIn, that means:

Just look at your potential reach if you have 507 connections. 6,236,900+!

More importantly, to build a business for longevity, you need to adapt for the long haul.

There is no doubt that technology changes all the time, in faster and faster speed. That means your business need to catch up if not running ahead of everyone else.

• If you don’t have a website, how do you expect people to find you and hire you?
• If you have a website but is not very search engine friendly, how can people find you?
• Okay, so now I can find you on search engine, but how do I know you are credible? Do you have a Yelp profile for your business? Or can I see testimonials from LinkedIn?
• More importantly, are you leveraging your network for its full potential so you can get referral businesses?

In real estate, we say it’s a numbers game. But the way I see it, it’s about impressions. There are:

• The first impressions of your profiles/website/marketing materials
• Then the impressions from people who are associated with you
• The impressions of how many times you touch them with your message

To me, the #s of touch is most important. Because people see you once, they may or may not remember you. They see your friends, maybe you are cool by association. But to continuously appear in front of them and remind them of you, and telling them your messages and making those personal connections with them, that’s priceless. Because next time people mention “oh I need a stager/real estate agent/…” you pop into their heads immediately because you already “stay” in front of them frequently.

That’s how I think about online marketing — it’s really about developing meaning relationships, friendships, then connect in real life if possible, and that’s when collaboration happens.