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QR Codes in real estate marketing

Mar 23

Posted by LesleyLambert in customer service, social media | 2 Comments

When is a real estate sign also a web page? When the agent is using a QR Code on the sign to market the home!

qr code 49 Jefferson

What is a QR Code?

A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. They are currently used for a wide array of purposes including: driver’s licenses, paperless coupons, on bills and other publications. A QR code, when scanned by a smart phone (i.e.: BlackBerry, iPhone, Android) will take the scanner to a website.

QR Codes are a fantastic way to promote any kind of marketing information in a modern, non-traditional and green method. A code can contain text information, a phone number or a website url: any information that you want to share with your customer.

While used widely in Japan and other parts of the world for some time, the use of QR Codes is a fairly new concept in America.

Enter Lesley Lambert, Realtor for Park Square Realty in Westfield, MA and co-founder of TQ, Inc Social Media Consulting. Lambert prides herself on her use of technology in real estate marketing. Over the past few years she has become a blogger; including blogging for both local and national online magazines, studied search engine optimization and web site coding and has been using social media tools to grow her business.

“I learned about QR Codes at PodCamp Western MA and through a post by Lani Rosales on Agent Genius,” said Lambert. “The code was added to the event t-shirts by one of the organizers, Jaclyn Stevenson. After having the concept explained to me and then seeing it in action, I got to thinking about a QR Code campaign for my real estate marketing.”

Lambert is rolling out a marketing campaign that will include the use of QR Codes on sign riders at her listings as well as on printed materials like flyers and postcards.

Lambert explained how she sees this working. “Let’s say a potential buyer with a smart phone drives by the house and is curious. They stop to write down information and then notice my sign rider. They take a scan of the QR code and ZIP! they are delivered to a webpage dedicated to information on that property. A website that is rich in information and content like video, photos and important documents…all available instantly by scanning the code”

While Lambert knows that this isn’t a commonly used tool, yet, she feels it is the marketing wave of the future and is excited to be offering something new and innovative to the home sellers and home buyers.

“I am also trying this out as a test program that we can add to our list of services for real estate consulting,” Lambert added.

If you have a smart phone you can find a QR Reader application in your application store. Go download the free application and give the code above a try. To encourage the fun in this new gadget, Lambert is running a contest. Anyone that tries the QR code on her newest listing (seen above) will be taken to a page with instructions on how they can be entered into a contest for a $25 Starbucks gift card.

“It’s like a virtual scavenger hunt,” concluded Lambert. “I want this to be fun for people.”

Real estate may never be the same.

Except for the 800 Pound Guerrilla in the Room…

Feb 19

Posted by HeyAmaretto in customer service, guerrilla marketing, social media, twitter | No Comments

Who decides what is cool and what is not?

My daughter, aged 11, has recently become obsessed with the Vlog Brothers. One of these brothers is an author, gearing books at children about my daughter’s age, maybe a little older. In addition to the YouTube channel which these brothers run- which has incredible calls-to-action, they have a Ning social site- very popular.

We went to the book store the other day, and, in addition to looking for and begging for John Green (one of the brothers’) books, she insisted on printing and bringing along these papers to slide into books such as Harry Potter and those written by Maureen Johnson:

NerdFighters- another call to action

She then actually put the papers into the books!

What better advertising is there?

I saw an incredible post about guerrilla marketing circulating twitter today. Not all of it appears guerrilla in how I understand the term, but there is so much good advice on here that I am going to go through, write it down and work out a business plan from it.

The thing is: this is low-cost in money, and medium-cost in effort and thought. It can work with any kind of business with the correct targeting and consistency.

“Customer service is the new Lead Generation” - Matt Dollinger said that to me on twitter the other day, and it is true. What will you give to your customers today?

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United Airlines- how quickly word can spread

Nov 7

Posted by HeyAmaretto in customer service, social media, twitter | No Comments

This is why most people use twitter. It is a way to stay connected in short bursts, and networks can extend all over the world.

In the same way that people share bits of their lives, they will also complain about what goes wrong- and, where before the Internet their thoughts would have touched a small group of people, now online influence extends to the thousands- to the world really.

This video got over 2 million views. When I flew United, it was one of the first thing that the flight crew referred to. “We are experiencing a slight delay upon take-off; the ground crew is slowly and carefully stowing your luggage,” one quipped.

Twitter is an ideal way to step in and solve problems before they get big.

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Why does Comcast Care?

Nov 7

Posted by HeyAmaretto in customer service, social media, twitter | No Comments

Does an online presence work?

Here’s one example of a success story- and there are many others. Do you have fond feelings for your cable company? Most people don’t- and Comcast wanted to change that. They developed a twitter presence, choosing ComcastCares for the twitter name instead of just Comcast. This was actually a very smart move, because each time the individual trying to reach Comcast on twitter typed that name, he or she reinforced that idea.

Frank Eliason uses a search to track comments about the company: “Eliason discovered that by doing a search for the word “Comcast” (and occasionally “Comcrap”), he could find tweeters who just happened to mention service complaints he could address. In December 2008, he celebrated the handling of his 22,000th tweet.”

Instead of waiting for contact from the person who is unhappy with service, Eliason monitors a search and proactively deals with problems. This is very important in creating a strong customer service social media program.

Companies like Comcast are dealing with an individual’s issues very publicly in the twitter offer to help, as all conversation is seen in the public stream. Additionally, press releases announcing the addition of a social media component to customer service will reach a large audience in a more effective way than advertising. And Comcast itself has been the subject of a multitude of news articles, again more effective than advertising.

What does this mean? A company can add a whole new layer of publicity- but this can be a double-edged sword. You need a plan in place to be able to address any complaint that is brought up. Comcast’s offer of “Can I help?” would not be effective if systems for dealing with problems were not in place.

From http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/10/30/why-does-comcast-care-about-twitter-video/ by Jeremiah Owyang

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