Skip to content

The Big Bang Of Social Search

You may have noticed a change with your Google search this morning – it now includes Google+ results along with web results. It’s called ‘Search, plus Your World’ and it’s the first step towards a Social Search world. Before today, Google searches returned results ranked from public Internet data. From today on Google has changed the rankings forever by also including results ranked from social network data gleaned from Google+.

Google explains the change best with:

“Google Search has always been about finding the best results for you. Sometimes that means results from the public web, but sometimes it means your personal content or things shared with you by people you care about. These wonderful people and this rich personal content is currently missing from your search experience. Search is still limited to a universe of webpages created publicly, mostly by people you’ve never met. Today, we’re changing that by bringing your world, rich with people and information, into search.”

Read more: Official Google Blog: Search, plus Your World

While Social Network integration is still very much in it’s infancy, it is quickly becoming the future and we must all watch it unfold to stay ahead of the game. Here are some tips on what to look out for and how to build your Social Network data now:

  1. Google+ will obviously align with Google’s search while Facebook results will be pushed farther down the rankings. The vice versa will occur with Microsoft’s Facebook-aligned search engine Bing. This will make it important for people to have multiple Social Network accounts so they can achieve high rankings on each search engine – and, in turn, reach the most amount of people possible.
  2. Start posting relevant content now! It will take time for Social Search to mature and you’ll want to be on the frontlines when it does. Start thinking about how to make your Social Network postings and shares more relevant to the search results you’d like them associated with. Also, the greater amount of content on your Social Networks the better.
  3. Social Search is going to level the playing field by allowing you to leapfrog SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Today, you must compete with highly paid and resourced SEO experts to rank high on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). In the near future, instead of writing articles that have to work their way up to the front page in traditional search, you can instead have your content displayed at the top of the SERP using your preferred Social Network. Keep writing great, focused and relevant content and sharing those articles and posts on Social Networks. The content you contribute will ultimately end up being displayed, allowing other people to find your content and connect with you.

As Social Search matures, Real Estate Rainmaker will keep you in the loop with the latest important updates. Stay tuned!

Print Friendly

Posted in Electronic Marketing, Facebook, Google+, Networking, No Cost Marketing, Relationship Building, Search, Social Marketing.

No comments

By Jesse Hickman – January 11, 2012 − 34 views

5 Tips To Successful Calls-To-Action On Your Website

Just finished reading an excellent free White Paper put out by HubSpot, an internet marketing agency. The new eBook (39 pages) is titled “An Introduction To Lead Generation.” Here are some of the most interesting points that jumped out at me.

  • Calls-to-action do best “above the fold” – the space where your webpage is viewable to the user without having to scroll down. Accord to heat map analysis, anything “below the fold” will only be viewed by 50% of people who visit the page.
  • Your web designer might kick and scream about this, but if your call-to-action blends in too much with your site design, it won’t stand out as much. You want as many eyeballs to land on that call-to-action as possible, so use contrasting colors to make the CTA stand out.
  • Whenever you create a new blog post, choose an offer that’s most relevant to the content of the post. Then add a call-to-action to the bottom of that blog post linking to the landing page for that offer. Informational offers such as ebooks, guides, and webinars do very well in this space, because people reading your blog likely are eager to get more free information from you.
  • Make it clear in your brief paragraph and/or bullet points what the benefits of the offer are. It’s more than just listing what the offer is comprised of; it takes a bit of spin. Instead of “Includes specifications of product XYZ,” say something like “Find out how XYZ can increase productivity by 50%.” In other words, convey the value of your offer clearly and effectively.
  • When creating a thank you page, not only can you bring back the navigation, but you can provide other links to keep the lead engaged. You can include calls-to-action to the next step in the buying cycle, link to your blog, encourage them to follow you on Twitter, ask them to subscribe to your newsletter, and more. You can do a lot more with your thank you pages than just adding tracking code!

Click here to read the free HubSpot White Paper yourself!

Print Friendly

Posted in Advertising Strategy, Articles, E-Books, Electronic Marketing, Lead Generation (Electronic), Traffic Generation.

No comments

By Jesse Hickman – January 5, 2012 − 38 views

Living By Default

By Dan Gooder Richard

Just read a thought-provoking December 19, 2011 opinion piece in The New Yorker by James Surowieck that compares American Airlines “very smart” bankruptcy to underwater homeowners considering a “strategic default.”

Read more at http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2011/12/19/111219ta_talk_surowiecki

Living By Default

by James Surowieck

“….The bursting of the housing bubble has left millions of homeowners across the country owing more than their homes are worth. In some areas, well over half of mortgages are underwater, many so deeply that people owe forty or fifty per cent more than the value of their homes. In other words, a good percentage of Americans are in much the same position as American Airlines: they can still pay their debts, but doing so is like setting a pile of money on fire every month….It’s also possible that a wave of strategic defaults—a De-Occupy Your House movement—would get banks to take mortgage modification more seriously, which would be all for the better. The truth is that banks have been relying on homeowners to do the right thing. It might be time for homeowners to do the smart thing instead.”

Print Friendly

Posted in Articles, Bankruptcy, Mortgages.

Tagged with , , , , , .

No comments

By Dan Gooder Richard – December 15, 2011 − 53 views

Maximize Your Facebook Leads with RAINMAKER SOCIAL

The time has come for the next great leap forward in Lead Generating tools!

Introducing RAINMAKER SOCIAL, the one-of-a-kind collection of tools to enhance your RAINMAKER MEGA SITE and bring it into the Social Age. Social Media and “social search” have arrived. And, the future is now. Here’s why:

  • “Inbound links are a good measure of authority, but they are slow. In a social media world, a relevant piece of content on a subject could become outdated in minutes.” – RAINMAKER SOCIAL users love the easy-to-use share tools in the new system compared to the out-dated (and slower) inbound links. With the share tools, you can constantly share content and stay relevant without the wait!
  • “Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter are battling over the future of search. It is clear to all of these internet giants that social search is the future.” – These companies basically decide what user’s search. As they enhance Social Search, we all will be taken along for the ride too. That’s why it’s important for RAINMAKER SOCIAL users to hop on the bandwagon now so you get an early start on the future ahead of your competition.
  • “Google+ is the fastest growing social network ever.” Google+ is not important – not yet — in the inherent contact database sense like Facebook. However, going forward Google will be using Google+ as its main source of social search data. Because Google is the #1 search engine in the world (no surprise there!) that makes Google+ an important tool in Google’s Social Search Rankings. Bottom line: Social search is coming on fast. Ride the wave…don’t get drowned by it.
  • “Facebook’s current share of the search engine market is miniscule… why does Facebook not have at least a negligible portion of the search market? Simple: Private data. … The limitations of private data make Facebook a weak search engine and subsequently resulted in very little usage.” – This however has changed recently with the inclusion of the ability to select your own privacy settings with each individual post. RAINMAKER SOCIAL users are now sharing via the PUBLIC option that is now included. Use this public option as much as possible and you will build a pool of data and results that optimize your chances of being found through Facebook search.
  • “Social search is really about more personalized search engine results.” – Search in the future will be personalized. That’s why RAINMAKER SOCIAL users are building their personal search network today.

Don’t miss out on the future. Check out www.RainmakerSocial.com for more information and order today to get a jump on your competition!

For more about integrating search and social marketing read this excellent, free whitepaper: www.hubspot.com/internet-marketing-whitepapers/

Jesse Hickman

Print Friendly

Posted in Advertising Strategy, Electronic Marketing, Facebook, Internet habits, Lead Generation (Electronic), LinkedIn, Low-Cost Marketing, Networking, No Cost Marketing, Relationship Building, Search, Social Marketing, Technology, Tools, Traffic Generation, Twitter, YouTube.

No comments

By Jesse Hickman – September 30, 2011 − 20 views

Skyrocketing Home Prices Coming Soon

Buckle your seat belts.  Average home prices are set to skyrocket.  The first booster will be statistical.  How can this be, you ask?

As “distressed” sales – bank-owned and short sales – decrease as a percentage all sales, then the increased percentage of “normal” sales – neither bank owned nor short sales – will jack the “average” home price up faster than Jack and the Beanstalk.

The Orlando market is a good example.

The median price of Orlando home sales in June 2011 for “normal” sales (2011: $158,000) was 40% higher than last June (2010: $112,700).  Yet the overall “average” price was 4.35% lower this June (median price $110,000 in 2011 compared to $115,000 in 2010).  When averaging the price of all sales in June 2011, which includes prices from 60% distressed sales and 40% normal sales, the “average” price declined.  Simply put, the high proportion of distressed sales (Orlando’s median short sale 2011: $99,000; median bank owned 2011: $80,310) depressed the overall average price in Orlando, according to figures from the Orlando Regional REALTOR ® Association.

As the worst of the housing market falls farther behind us nationally, then what will happen as the proportion of distressed sales declines compared to normal sales?  Skyrocketing prices, statistically speaking.

Get ready for a drum beat of “good news” as the media headlines month after month of home price “increases.”  The good news will not be fueled by a recovery or rebound in actual values, but instead by a statistical quirk.  As the percentage of “normal” sales increases and the percentage of “distressed” sales decreases, the statisticians will shout an increase in average home prices.  In Orlando, for example, if there were zero distressed sales in June 2011, the average home price would have soared 40% over June 2010.

Buyers will be leaping off the fence, and sellers will be even more unrealistic than ever.

Good times are just around the corner…statistically speaking.

Print Friendly

Posted in Uncategorized.

No comments

By Dan Gooder Richard – July 15, 2011 − 9 views