These lifeskills set the stage for better communication between teacher and student, student and student, and even child and parent. The lifeskills provided me with the opportunity to help my students interact more positively, engage in cooperative learning, and problem solve when disagreements arose.

With the advent of new marketing techniques (namely social media strategies), it seems rather apparent that we should infuse the lifeskills we learned back in the day (when we began learning to better communicate and cooperate) within our current business goals and strategies. So I’ve taken character education full circle here by suggesting the following: “10 Social Media Lifeskills for Real Estate Professionals”.

1.       Integrity- Be the real you. Strive for authentic engagement by being the same person you are online that you are offline. Instead of selling what you do, share who you are and your daily experiences. And when it comes to your avatar (profile picture) be a person, not a real estate logo. People connect with people, not signs and buildings.

2.       Active Listening- Although it’s important to share your  interests, it’s even more important to pay attention to others. Learning what your network is passionate about only helps you ask better questions, provide better resources, and become a better advisor.  Who’s Talkin? and SocialMention are 2 social search engines that make it even easier to monitor certain people and topics you care about.

3.       Effort- Add value! Know your expertise and passion well enough to identify resources that may be helpful to your network.  If you’re not sure where to look for great resources, try a social bookmarking tool like Delicious or Digg where others share their favorite articles. Monitor your resources and share regularly, provide your own insight and strategies for implementation.

4.       Respect- You gotta give it to get it! Show respect for others, even your “competitors” in your niche. And when it comes to connecting with new people on social networks like Facebook or Linkedin, consider sending a brief authentic message explaining why you’d like to connect or how you know them. Don’t bombard people with spammy or salesy messages. Social Media is NOT about hard-selling, it’s about mutual respect.

5.       Caring- Reach out to others, colleagues and clients alike! And do good things without being asked like retweeting others tweets, “liking” or commenting on Facebook posts, and commenting on or praising blog articles you enjoy. Connect and befriend local clients and business owners online.  For example, join local interest or business based Facebook groups that you care about or want to get involved with, or create your own. Join or volunteer for a local cause. This shows how much you care about the city and neighborhoods you work and live in.

6.       Responsibility- Think before you act and take responsibility for your social interactions. If you write an article or share a resource that you found from someone else, be sure to source that person by linking back to the original article or a social profile. If you make a mistake or offend someone unknowingly, apologize. And be sure to welcome feedback and be responsive to it.

7.       Cooperation- Sometimes you can get to your goal that much faster by collaborating. Share and work together with others in the real estate industry or in your local market area. Draw upon the strengths of others and pool your resources whether it’s organizing an event, creating helpful Web content, or asking for help with a project.  For example, co-host a blog based or Facebook contest, help plan a Tweetup or nearby REBarCamp, guest-post on local business or interest based blogs, co-author a local ebook for homeowners, co-sponsor a charity event, etc.

8.       Trustworthiness- If you make a promise to someone, then do it.  Don’t be a slim shady and betray someone’s trust in you. That’s the fastest way to get unfollowed or unfriended. Provide clear expectations on your blog and social profiles about the real estate services you DO provide. If you list your expertise as working with independent women homeowners, make sure you deliver that expertise online and when working with clients. That’s how you become your network’s trusted advisor!

9.       Courage- Try something new! Are you interested in getting your feet wet with video? Don’t be afraid to dive in and give something a try! It’s all a learning process anyway, and even failed attempts can be endearing!

10.   Diligence- Create a custom social media marketing plan for your real estate business and commit to it. Schedule daily check-in times for maintaining your social profiles and/or read and research time for blog articles. Be consistent!

One last reminder….measure what you make! If you share a resource via Twitter or Facebook, use a URL tracking tool like BudURL, Cli.gs, or Bitly. If you blog, be sure to take advantage of what good analytics can tell you, try Google Analytics or GetClicky.com. Studying what your clients do or don’t react to can provide you with insight as to what kind of content or resources your network finds helpful! This way you can reach more folks and keep the conversation flowing!

Is a KPI like CSI?

I should probably start with something about web metrics. Web metrics are those bits of data like “pageviews” or “unique visitors” or “bounce rate.” Most analytics packages, like Google Analytics, VisiStat and so on have hundreds of these little data chunks.

We don’t all have time to look at all the reports. And many of the reports don’t contain information on which we can act. So one strategy of getting value from the analytics package without spending our day gazing fondly over medium/source performance charts, is to identify a handful of really important metrics.

And that’s pretty much what a KPI is: a really important metric. More completely, a KPI (just an acronym for “key performance indicator”), is a metric that is directly relevant to your business goals and is built on data that you trust enough to take action.

My favorite article on what makes a KPI special can be found at visual revenue.

The conversion conversation

I’m going to be mentioning conversions a lot in the following KPIs because I think that more conversions generally leads to more money. I think that conversions are better than page views or time on site or any number of other metrics. For lead-generating real estate sites, I like to use contact forms, user registrations and property details emailed to a friend as common conversions for real estate sites. But your site or strategy may have other conversion goals. The important thing is to set up those goals, measure them, track them and love them.

It’s also important to remember that a conversion is not a sale. Conversions turn ordinary human beings into potential customers on your lead list. They want you to tell them why they should work with you. And that’s pretty valuable (not as valuable as a sale, but still valuable).

Alright so we’ve got that part down. Now on to our list:

#1 Conversion Rate (aka Take Rate)

What it is:

This is the number of conversions divided by the number of people who visit your site (I like to use unique visitors).

What it indicates:

The higher your conversion rate, the better qualified your visitors are (your off-site marketing is working) and the better your site content is at encouraging visitors to convert (your site optimization is working). Hopefully, it also indicates a future increase in revenue.

Example actions to improve your conversion rate:

• Is your site designed to get people to contact you? Make more contact points and see if your conversion rate goes up (assuming contact is a goal, of course).
• Is the traffic to your site the kind that you want (the infamous “visitor quality”)? Make sure your marketing efforts are leading people to the right page. Make sure you are marketing to people who want, need and can afford your services.
• Is your offer any good? Try changing the wording you use to entice people to convert, explain to them the benefits of why they should contact you.

#2 Traffic Sources

What it is:

The percentage breakdown of how people find your site, usually broken down into broad groups of “Search Engines,” “Direct,” “Referrals” and “Other/Campaigns.”

What it indicates:

This one is all about your dependence. In particular, dependence on search engines. If the algorithm changes tomorrow, what percentage of your traffic is at risk of never finding you? Word of mouth and past clients? Those people are probably the ones who type in your web address and get put in the “Direct” bucket. It also lets you know who else is sending people your way and if your campaigns are working. Traffic Sources is a friendly little monitor on the main roads leading into your site. Which ones need repair?

Example actions to take based on Traffic Sources:

• No search traffic? Time to read all those SEO/SEM guidelines out there and put them to work.
• No direct traffic? Maybe no one knows you or your web address is hard to spell. Try some off-line advertising and other branding efforts so your market knows who you are and types in the address directly.
• No referrals? Start participating in online communities (your profile will usually allow you to link to your website) and blogs. Start making great content and letting others know it’s there.
• No campaigns traffic? Start advertising or start optimizing your advertising (that could be another blog post or three on its own).

#3 Top Conversion-page Exits

What it is:

A visitor gets to within one step of converting but decides to go somewhere else. For example, maybe they get to your contact page but don’t fill out the form and instead go to the “About” page.

What it indicates:

The nagging question your visitor from converting right then.

Example of what you can do with Top Conversion-page Exits:

• Is there anything from the Conversion-page Exit you can incorporate into your conversion page? Try to answer their question without making them leave the conversion page.
• Is there anything you can do to get a conversion on that Conversion-page Exit? From the example above, try putting a contact form on the “About” page.
• How can you get those questions answered before they get to the conversion page? Sprinkle content from the Conversion-page Exits on all the pages people arrive at (your home page will likely be the biggest of these).

Keep testing. Keep learning. Keep taking action.

So there are three things you can track about your website and it won’t take you long to figure out how. Track the results. Test new ideas. Adjust your site based on what your users are telling you when they come to your site, convert or don’t convert and go somewhere else on your site.

———-
G. Dewald is a software product manager and head of the analytics and site optimization for Union Street Media, a web design and development agency specializing in integrating MLS/IDX search into office and agent websites. He often spends his day lovingly gazing upon take rate and top performing content data. He writes regularly at the Union Street Media blog.

The Bubble Gum Interviews – Each and every one of them is oddly fabulous! Finally someone gets to the heart of what we really care about…you know…drag racing in Houston, Starbucks, arm wrestling Chuck Norris or Brittney Spears. Thanks Lani, I look forward to the next one!

The Honor is All Mine! – It sucks to be overlooked. Just an oversight on their part I’m sure. But can I buy you at beer at the next Beers & Bloggers so that I can say I know you now?

Ten Marketing Tips You Can Learn From A Prostitute – An amazing introspective article detailing the dualities between prostitution and real estate. Very motivating!

Business Goals – A plan is good. A plan with real expectations is even better. Some of us need to plan our “nice time”. Thanks for the tip!

Top 5 Reasons Why You Wouldn’t Hire a Penguin as Your Next Realtor® – Yes, I run into Penguins from time to time at the gym. They are always the ones ignoring the “no cell phones” rule and insist on talking on their cell phones as I’m running on the treadmill….take it outside already!

Please Don’t Destroy My American Dream – This actually brought back nightmares of my former neighbors who held weekly BBQ’s on the roof of their 7 bedroom home. They had dirt bikes too. (Which I don’t mind enjoying on occasion.) But not while the neighbors are making their own “Jack Ass” movie dragging themselves on crates down my front lawn.

Mademoiselle? Oui. La Spinster?…ZUT! – “Bella Donna” sarebbe la mia scelta!

What I’ve Learned in Two Weeks of Real Estate Brokers Classes – Get to the point already!

WordPressing their widgets into your Facebooks! – Perfectly hilarious and smart!

And, I’m looking for “Dancing with the Bloggers” contestants. Still working on the logistics of the venue…it may have to take place in my gym locker room. But if you own an iPod and you have a little shake left if your booty….you’re in!