Public Relations & Social Media

Public Relations What is

Public Relations Defined The flow of information between an organization and its audience

Differentiation Public Relations drives sales by building credibility, increasing brand awareness, positioning you as a thought leader and differentiating you from your competition.

Public Relations vs. Advertising Think of it as Earned Media vs. Paid Media Through public relations you can communicate to your audience through an objective third party. Only 14% of buyers trust ads. 78% trust the opinion of others. Integrated marketing (using both) is best approach.

Take the Spotlight Be a Storyteller Interesting listings/auctions – research history Interesting stories about buyers, sales team Tell your story Be an Expert Real estate market news Share interesting statistics Provide tips on local news Share tips – top 10 lists

United Country Public Relations National Public Relations Goal – Raise consumer awareness about United Country and position the company and affiliates as experts, resulting in increased buyer leads and listing opportunities for all offices and attraction of new offices to strengthen our network Focus – National, regional, industry and trade media Affiliate Public Relations Goal – Generate awareness of you, your office and position you as the experts among your local audiences by sharing information with news media in your marketing area to increase your listing inventory, sales and attract the best talent to your team. Focus – local media in the markets you serve

Public Relations Success

National Public Relations Successes

Public Relations Tools Public Relations Resource Center – Intranet Press Release Distribution Sites – SEO PR Department – Just a phone call away

The PR landscape is changing….quickly Print circulation is down 7 million over last 25 years Unique readers of online newspapers are up 30 million in last 5 years ABC, CBS and NBC collectively get 10 million visitors per month MySpace, YouTube and Facebook collectively get 250 million visitors per month

Public Relations 1.0 (Traditional Media) - Journalists are the middlemen Public Relations 2.0 (Social Media) - Eliminates the middleman Social Media has turned monologues into dialogues.

Social Media So, what is

Social Media is a conversation supported by online tools like these:

It’s a conversation. It’s relationship-based. It’s trust marketing.

500 Million Active Facebook Users Source: Tech HeraldTech HeraldPhoto Credit: Oversocilized Oversocilized

10 Billion+ Tweets Sent on Twitter Since 2006 Photo Credit: Rosaura OchoaRosaura Ochoa Source: MashableMashable

2 Billion Videos Are Viewed Each Day On YouTube Photo Credit: jonssonjonssonSource: TechcrunchTechcrunch

What’s in it for You

Social Media for Business Public relations Targeted leads Customer service Loyalty building Collaboration Networking Referrals Market research Brand marketing Consumer education And…customer acquisition

Social networks are calling…are you answering?

75% of Americans use social media. 50% of homebuyers are on social networking sites. 79% homebuyers aged are on social networking sites. 90% of homebuyers use internet as their main information source. Time spent on social networks is growing at 3x the overall internet growth rate.

It’s like an online “milk route.” Use it to expand your sphere of influence.

Getting Started 1 – Listen (Google Alerts, TweetDeck, Social Mentions, HootSuite) 2 – Engage (Namechk) Secure user & domain names Consider SEO terms/branding 3 – Evaluate Keep realistic expectations Be patient – Don’t expect results overnight

Considerations Ask yourself: Who is my audience? Where can I reach them? What do they want to learn from me? Realize: Priority 1 – What they are passionate about Priority 2 – What they need to know to do their job/live better Priority 3 – Anything so creative that it captures their attention Priority 4 – Everything else

This means that the key is CONTENT! Entertain Me Educate Me Inspire Me Intrigue Me Inform Me Here’s what readers want from social media:

Social Media Messages Have a story to tell Be authentic Show your personality Share – don’t just sell Add value to conversations Learn from interactions Be personal & professional Take a minute to proofread Respect copyrights Keep your business goals in mind ALWAYS consider your audience

500 million users 50% of active users log on daily Personal page vs. Business page Use variety in postings Opportunity to be the promoter of your market

Instead of: “Need to sell your property? Call me.” Try this: “Thinking about selling? Here are 10 tips for getting your property ready for the market.” Instead of: “Little Rock is the best place to live.” Try this: “Recent article lists Little Rock as Top 10 city for….. Read the full article here.”

190 million visitors per month 65 million tweets per day Updates of 140 characters or less (micro-blogging) Following/Followers & Tweet/Retweet

Instead of: “Just ate lunch…I’m stuffed.” Try this: “Just had the best cherry cobbler of my life at Mary’s Café in Little Rock.” Instead of: “Just signed a new listing.” Try this: “Just listed an amazing acreage. That brings the total for the week to 4 new listings and 2 contracts.”

YouTube 13 hours of video are uploaded every minute Virtual tours, auctions footage or educate about your expertise area Virtual tour - take a walking tour of town or neighborhood It’s easy to do –Inexpensive camera options –Simple video posting

50 million users Great tool for recruiting Also useful for business to business networking and information sharing Illustrate your expertise Get recommendations

There are currently more than 200 million blogs 34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands Consider starting your own blog – ActiveRain or Blogger. Participate in other blogs - add value to the conversation by sharing your knowledge.

Home Office’s Strategy What’s the

Social Networking Facebook: Twitter: YouTube: Flickr: LinkedIn: (search groups)

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