In our last Friday Feature Focus, we discussed town pages & creating custom search boundaries for searches and town pages. This week, we'll be covering our interactive POI mapping tool, powered by Yelp.

In a standard Sequoia search, properties are shown both in search results and on each property's details page on a Google map, thanks to our proprietary LogicMaps tools. Now, you can go one step further and showcase the advantages and amenities of a location and all it has to offer - by using the rich, dynamic data provided by Yelp!

So what does this mean for you?

We can display local business and POI (Point of Interest) information, constantly updated by real users, right alongside the properties you are searching for.  So, as new neighborhood establishments open up and close down, or their products and services (and the opinions of their patrons) change, so will the information on your website.

You can watch a demonstration of our Yelp tool for the Sequoia platform in the video below-

If your Sequoia site doesn't already include this great feature, or you want to learn more about Sequoia, contact our sales team today!

Part of a 24 city tour, this month's Agent Reboot was at the A La Carte Pavilion in Tampa, Florida this past Wednesday. Boston Logic was an exhibiting sponsor of the event, which was hosted by Inman News.

David's Thoughts...

I can personally report that we had some great conversations with Broker/Owners eager to leverage technology and the web to its fullest. It was also nice to see Inman News CEO, Tim Smith, out at the conference. Always well produced and highly informative, Tim is obviously running a top notch operation.

I was happy to sit in on another Social Media Insights panel with Florida-based RE/MAX Business Development Consultant, Frank Chimento. The discussion was again hosted by Inman's Social Media Director, Katie Lance. (As I mention Katie here, I should direct readers to a nice video "snapshot" of her presentation about killer mobile apps- pretty awesome). The audience posed many questions and certainly agreed that they wished there was some tool or service to help do the work of social media engagement (or at least, the syndication for that matter). And indeed there are tools - we were very happy to talk about our Social Media Accelerator with many agents and brokers who approached the Boston Logic team afterwards. Let me be clear...I'm not suggesting you should outsource your voice, but we know that when you've got to focus on selling homes for a living, starting with a foundation for inbound marketing is better than re-inventing the wheel!

One observation at the event that I thought was note-worthy...

There was 3 general levels of participants at the conference:

1) Most participants were new to the web and technology. Realtors are learning that they need to get involved, join the conversation, and start investing their time and money online. These agents were looking for steps 1, 2, and 3. This profile probably represents 90% of the attendees.
2) The other 10% of the agents in attendance are already working social media, search engines, and the web. They were looking to fine tune their campaigns. They want to know the latest and greatest, and how to take the next step. I'm sure they got more than they could have asked for.
3) The final group of attendees were Brokers and Owners. These folks were, generally speaking, looking for solutions that will help every agent in their office. Of course, many of these folks came right over to our table to talk about how we could work with them and their offices, inquire about pricing questions, talk strategy, etc.

I'm definitely looking forward to future Inman conferences. Special thanks to Madelyn and Mike for their help too!

-DF

(David Friedman, President & Founder of Boston Logic)

Yesterday's Agent Reboot in Boston's Back Bay was a day packed with plenty of insight and inspiration, and most importantly, some actionable take-away's that every Real Estate professional could employ. Chris Smith, Inman's Chief Evangelist and MC of the event, proposed a clear notion that to stay ahead of the curve in such a competitive marketplace you've got to be an agent of change- he references a thought-provoking quote from retired U.S. General, Eric Shinseki,

If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevancy even less

A concept that has become a bit cliche to all of us over the last decade, may still be at the root of becoming the best of the best at what you do.

In almost every industry, technology continues to disrupt the most established players, and we only have to look back at the rises and falls of businesses big and small to realize only those who embraced the shift and rebooted their strategy kept a stake in the game.

Following a list of the latest and greatest mobile apps to help agents work effectively on the go (which included Qwiki, Zite, Quicklytics, Mobile Card Cast, Calcmoolator, Slydial, and many more), and a presentation about the importance of developing a content strategy that sells, Boston Logic's President & Founder, David Friedman, had the opportunity to engage the audience with a panel of fellow experts on Social Media engagement. Next to David on the stage sat the Founder of the MLSApp.com, Jimmy Mackin, along with Matthew Shadbolt from the Corcoran Group, and Heather Allen from the start up HubConnected. Hosted by Inman's Social Media Director, Katie Lance, the session was structured with a few key questions which were complimented with questions being "texted in" by members of the audience.

For the most part, the group seemed to be on the same page with the overall importance of having a presence in the social media sphere and the value of leveraging it to grow your business. However, there did seem to be a variance of opinion when it came down to technique, strategy, and the thought process throughout - a highlight of the dialogue that ensued from Katie's first question:

Which Platforms Yield the Biggest Gains & Where Should You Focus?

JIMMY: "Focus on where your customers are first. Think about who you're trying to reach, and where they are. Simple answer though, Facebook - that's where the majority of consumers are."
MATTHEW: "When tempering advice about platform choice, it's very easy to feel pressured to be on all of them...but the challenge with being on all of them, is being on one of them, well - so your focus becomes very important". Matthew went on to say that his method of choosing platforms is based on solving problems.
DAVID: Implies the choice and strategy that follows should be approached differently from an Agent's perspective (than a company's, for example). "Instead of starting with which platforms your customers are using, start with what you're already comfortable using...start by being a person, and don't worry too much about your real estate business".
HEATHER: "Choose one or two, and delve into them deeply". She also stresses the importance of having a blog, as the centralized content "hub" for your SM platforms, and also as a way to drive a larger targeted audience".

Watch the video we captured for the full panel discussion- each panelist gives an opinion on Google + and how/if it will fit into the social mix; how you go from a "Good to Great" Social Media Mastermind; and whether or not it makes sense to outsource your efforts.

Google unveiled Google+ with the same buzz-inspiring exclusivity strategy it used to roll out GMail. Google told everyone about Google+ but only let a select few people join, each of whom had a few "Google+ invites" to give out, thus slowly growing the service through a limited number a web of invitations. Not surprisingly, the strategy worked. And now, the floodgates are open to general public.

Only Google would be so bold as to think that they can get people to use their social network instead of, or at least in addition to, Facebook.

So how will they do this? Google+ claims to have certain advantages over Facebook, and it looks as though they may be right.

One of the biggest problems users have with Facebook is privacy. College students do not want their family or potential employers to see pictures of their partying antics. Employees working in an office environment may not want colleagues, especially superiors, to see posts relating to their personal lives. Facebook offered a solution to this by allowing users to sort their friends into groups and assign specific privacy settings to each group, even individual friends. However, very few Facebook users are willing to invest the time to sort their hundreds of friends into these groups and consider the specific privacy settings for each group or individual friend.

Enter Google+ Circles. Google+ requires you to sort every new friend you add to a Circle. You can customize your Circles however you would like. People from your Friends Circle cannot see posts that you post to your Work Circle. You can create any Circle you would like, Book Club, Immediate Family, Friends from Saturday Night, Ski Buddies, anything! And because Google+ is newly launched, every connection between friends on the entire network will have to be sorted by users. Privacy problem? Virtually solved. It's annoying to spend hours sorting in Facebook, but it's easy to click one drop down menu each time you add a friend.

Google+'s other main boasted features include Huddles, Hangouts, Sparks, and Instant Upload.

Huddles allow users to easily create custom group chats which is intended to make coordinating among a group of friends easier. Ever find it hard to agree on what movie to see with 5 friends? Where to go to lunch? Huddles makes it easy and fun.

Sparks is a service integrated into Google+ that analyzes your interests and sends you interesting material that you can watch, read, or share whenever you have free time. Think Digg or Stumbleupon.

Hangouts allow you to "hangout" with individual friends or entire Circles on the web. In a Hangout, users can watch a video "together," chat, and more.

Facebook users have expressed their love for mobile uploads, in which a user can upload a photo or video from their phone that can be geo-tagged so their friends know where it happened. It is a bit annoying to have to upload photos and videos. With Google+ Instant Upload, you can have photos and videos upload automatically to a private album, from which you may later select what circles can see certain media. This may sound a bit intrusive, but it is very easy to turn the uploading off.

What does Google+ mean for the SEO and SMO of my website?

Essentially, there is now one more major social network to help promote your site content.  Many analysts believe that as it grows in popularity, Google+ will offer more effective SMO than Facebook because of its methods of spreading posted and linked content among Circles and users- oh, and the small fact that it's a GOOGLE service (being analyzed and tracked by Google site crawlers). For example, if I post a link about heavy snowfall at a nearby mountain to my Ski Buddies Circle, there is a much higher chance that those users will see my post in their feed, and because it is highly applicable to them, there is a much higher chance that they will click on my link.

Have any further questions about Google+ and how you can leverage Google's new social network for your website? Don't hesitate to contact the experts here at BostonLogic- we will happily discuss any questions or comments you may have!

For LinkedIn, it's a professional give and take- tit for tat if you will- we all know that just creating a profile isn't enough. If you are in fact an "advanced" or comfortable user, then you already know that your "profile completeness" status bar should read 100%, you should have a smart yet friendly profile picture posted, and you've already connected to everyone in your personal and work email accounts (with a little selective filtering done first).

But how will you stand out from the crowd? How will you get noticed, or better yet, how will you get found? And once you've connected to everyone you know, how will you actually leverage those connections to expand your circle? This should be the real focus of such a community and the reality is there is little point in having an account at all if you aren't willing to cultivate connections that matter.

8 Best Practices & Useful Tools:

1.  Optimize Your Profile with Key Words
Think Googlebot when you're filling out your profile Summary, Specialties and Job Descriptions. First take a half hour to think of 5-10 professional keywords that you would want associated with you or your business. Next, make sure they're scattered throughout the sections noted above.

2.  Answer Questions and Start Discussions
Engage, engage, engage! Gain professional credibility and get noticed in your Industry network by sharing your knowledge. You can use Group discussions to establish yourself as a 'Thought Leader' in your field by answering group questions and bringing interesting topics to light.

3.  Create a Company Profile, Too
Particularly if you're a Real Estate Agent, it could certainly benefit you to have both a personal and company profile. Why only cultivate one community when you can have two? Adding a company profile also gives you the benefit of expanding your network, promoting specific or "niche" services, and leveraging your personal brand.

4.  Follow Smart Companies
Search for smart companies in your industry and then "follow" them- (this includes your competitors too!). You'll get the regular skinny on their employee growth, new products and services, and events they may be attending.

5.  Don't Underestimate the Power of a Recommendation
This is where the give and get comes in- make sure to give out some good recommendations, and when you request them- be sure to steer those recipients in the right direction (i.e. remind them what they worked with you on, remind them of your specialties). Oh, and did I mention LinkedIn recommendations are being used more and more as service or recruiting search criteria?

6.  Add "Apps"
Some of the LinkedIn applications are great tools that feed directly into the right-hand sidebar of your homepage. I would recommend checking out the following apps: E-bookshelf, Huddle Workspaces, Events, Polls & Real Estate Pro

7.  New! Add "Maps"
This will give you a visual understanding of the relationships between the connections in your Network (and you can share it, too).

8.  Sync Your Twitter - (But Not Every Tweet)
If you have an active Twitter account, by all means you should sync it with your LinkedIn account. However, take care when choosing to tweet your LinkedIn status update. The two social media channels are different platforms by nature, and your professional updates may not resonate or be relevant to your twitter audience (you don't want to turn off your followers!).

For more on leveraging your LinkedIn profile, check out our latest LogicClassroom video!

The rainy June day started sleepy and a bit disheveled, as most traditional conferences do, when we arrived at the Back Bay Center to begin setting up our Exhibitor Table. BarCampers were slow to arrive, and cautious to post or host unpopular topics on the big empty whiteboard – but the afternoon turned out to be anything but traditional or underwhelming!

In fact, it was refreshingly noisy, social and unbarring. It almost seemed as if the vibe in the room was mimicking the very nature of the subject we all came to discuss: integrating social media into our businesses, relationships and accepting it as the new fabric of our lives. While the process feels messy and begs a substantial humility of sorts, the end result is one that’s honest and produces eye-opening results.

Our CEO and Founder, David Friedman, led the pack with what he called “A Realtor Wake-Up Call: You’ve Been Looking at Social Media the Wrong Way”.

This seemed to be just the caffeine everyone needed as thoughts and theories began to open up about the future path of the technology tornado. One Agent expressed his concern that the role of the realtor may soon become altogether inconsequential, as social channels bypass directly to the buyer and seller. Some participants seemed more weary than others of the trend, as Union Street Media’s Founder, Ted Adler, added his belief that social media “makes it harder to be bad at your job”- but David offered a final sentiment by expressing that “social media doesn’t have an agenda, nor does it have a conscience- it’s just a tool”- a tool that will only bypass us if we let it.

From left: David Friedman, Spencer Taylor, Sven Andersen

The following session on social media presented the question, “what’s working?”- a tag-team effort by David, Spencer Taylor of Union Street Media, and Sven Andersen of RE/MAX. Sven shared an interesting notion with the group that his most effective marketing technique was the ‘personal touch’ achieved from throwing lavish or family-friendly client parties- and that social media tools like Yelp and Facebook came in a close second.

A dialogue then began about the value and ROI of  ‘community management’ techniques, such as partnering with local vendors to send out an “Angie’s List” type magnet to neighbors through direct mail – or participating in local activities and then sharing those experiences through a Facebook profile. An interesting Twitter anecdote was also offered about a realtor who was recognized at a client showing from a Twitter profile and won the client’s business as a result. The discussion soon took a turn and shifted into a panel about how much information is appropriate to share- it seemed many of the realtors were most concerned about appropriate social media etiquette and how much ‘personal touch’ to offer up online. What I heard loud and clear is that a real estate agent’s hesitancy behind social networking can be largely attributed to the very fine line that exists between personal and business life.

So what did we discover at the end of the day?

For Boston Logic, the real take-away was this: it’s not about the tool or gimmick, or even the means – it’s the matter that matters and it’s the connection that counts. Whether a magnet sent through the mail, a client party thrown with a clown, a Yelp review, a Facebook “Like” or a Tweet on Twitter- it’s the rapport that can be drawn from these frequencies that actually pushes a relationship forward and helps a business grow. There’s a sense of commonality and familiarity still at the driving center of all social networking- and this is something technology will never succeed to bypass.

Boston Logic President David Friedman recently attended the RE BarCamp event in Chicago, Illinois to kick off our expansion into the Chicago area. Fresh on the heels of our integration of MRED, the Chicago area's largest MLS, we thought RE BarCamp would be a perfect avenue for introducing ourselves to this exciting, growing real estate market.

RE BarCamp events always involve great conversations, and this one was no exception. David had a fantastic experience at the event: "I have to say that the day was one of the most discussion oriented Bar Camps I have experienced. Most sessions weren't lead by any one person. Often, there were people in the session who knew more about the topic and answered a lot of questions, but really, a conversation ensued."

The Chicago RE BarCamp event, which took place on June 6^th, featured sessions revolving around the use of social media to reach new leads. A topic Boston Logic has long been preaching, it was refreshing to see an increased focus on the use of tools like Facebook and Twitter to expand your network and your ability to make new connections through as many channels as possible.

Join Us at the Upcoming RE BarCamp in our Hometown Hub!

REGISTER NOW

Boston Logic will also be presenting at the upcoming RE BarCamp event in Boston's Back Bay - it will be held at the Back Bay Events Center (see map) on Wednesday, June 22^nd. We are proud to be a Platinum Sponsor of the event to support this rapidly growing educational forum, as it becomes one of the premiere learning opportunities in the real estate vertical. Registration starts at 7:45am and the event runs all day, until 5pm (and surely there will be an after-party to mix and mingle). David Friedman, along with fellow Inbound Marketing guru Spencer Taylor (@unionstmedia), will be co-hosting a lively "Ask The Experts" question and answer forum that you don't want to miss! Other members of the Boston Logic team hope to facilitate additional sessions throughout the day focused on putting technology to work for you and your real estate business.

Far from your average trade show, RE BarCamp events are a fantastic opportunity to learn from both peers and experts, and to share your questions and thoughts in an insightful and open forum. Oh, and did we mention it's FREE to attend? Please visit the Boston RE BarCamp website to learn more.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Join us this Tuesday, May 10th at 5pm for our next LogicClassroom on Marketing your Real Estate Business on Facebook, taught by Marketing Associate Angela Davis.

Facebook is the most visited website online, and it's important to not only have a Facbebook business presence, but to have a good one that's executed correctly.

In this concise, 1/2 hour LogicClassroom, we'll take you from the creating a Facebook Business Page from scratch to populating it with valuable content, adding some bells & whistles, and how to get potential people to "like" and  interact with you.  If you've already made a Facebook Profile for your business or a Facebook Group, don't worry: we can show you how to fix it!

In addition to taking a look at all these great features and how to use them, take a look at some of the topics we'll be covering:

• Types of Pages & The Importance of Categories
• Anatomy of a Successful Facebook Page
• Custom Landing Pages & Other Advanced Features. These include Facebook Places, Cool Apps, etc.
• Getting People to 'Like' Your Page & Interact with It. This can be with good content, variety, Questions Feature, etc.
• Pay-Per-Click Ads, for Highly Targeted Audiences
• Oops! I Made a Group or Personal Profile for My Business: How do I Fix It?

You are welcome to attend at the Boston Logic office (view map), or sign up to participate through an online webinar. The class begins at 5pm on May 10th, 2011.

Please sign up using our easy online form, or call 617-266-9166.