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CRM 2.0 - Why Can't Social Networks Port into CRM Systems?
2008-06-06 01:59:00
Customer Relationship Management ("CRM"), one of the least attractive administrative tasks facing any business, needs an overhaul. Most systems have their users manually input and update contact data into data siloes that are currently  incompatible with social networking applications like LinkedIn and Facebook which can harbor that same base data and more. CRM systems have three tracking functions: Contact database - name, address, phone, email, etc. Contact history and details - dates of contact, discussion topics, contact interests and personalization, priority Tasks - next steps, deadlines, timeline, alerts, priority In addition, CRM systems provide management functions: Categorization of contacts, projects and tasks by folders, or better, tags.Data mining and metrics to monitor and elucidate user efficiency - contact growth rate, best use of time, close rate, benchmarking vis-a-vis other users Automated marketing - drip email campaigns, The real estate prof...
More About: Social , Technology , Social Networks , Networks , Port

More Corporate Attempts at Social Media
2008-06-05 00:41:00
Following up on yesterday's "social networking is a waste of time" IBM ad, here are two examples of corporations trying to incorporate social media functionality in odd ways: Clorox's Mom network - celebrating bleach! (h/t to Profy blog) I was looking up a word in the Merriam Webster dictionary and noticed I could socially "share" the word in various ways. And sharing the word on my Facebook profile actually works...
More About: Comedy , Social , Media , Corporate

IBM Ad Clueless on Social Media
2008-06-04 01:15:00
This new IBM commercial on YouTube sends a polarizing message that dismisses social networking as a waste of time. The reason I show this - the commercial somehow capsulizes a common reaction a Web 2.0-centric or blogging real estate professional gets from their colleagues... "why are you doing this?" I'm assuming since the ad passed the focus groups (IBM always uses focus groups), most people either liked or could relate to the commercial. I myself find it arrogant and puts IBM, a maker of social software, in a distinctly "not getting it" light. Even the casting of the scary cold, business-suited female boss and the "I don't want to work here" slacker dude perpetuates unseemly stereotypes. Unbelievable this actually passed IBM marketing, which btw, seems to have posted the commercial on YouTube along with other IBM commercials under the name IBMEIC. But that's me... what do you think? As a real estate professional, can you relate to this? Please comment, even a Twitter-like "I t...
More About: Social , Media , Clueless

Explaining the Impact of Twitter and Friendfeed - the Slide Show
2008-06-02 21:17:00
I've condensed my recent musings on Twitter , Friendfeed, Social Media 2.0 and Blogging 2.0 into a slide presentation.You may download the presentation Explaining the Impact of Twitter and Friendfeed - it has the links intact. Pardons, it's a 7mb file; I still don't know how to shrink collateral well. | View | Upload your own
More About: Show , Slide

Guest posts - Real Estate 2.0 Vendors and Changing the Rules of Mass Media
2008-05-30 12:36:00
I've been focused lately on the implications of Web 2.0, social media and Twitter on real estate, and by extension, online business marketing.  I want to refer readers to two guest posts this week: At HomeGain blog:HomeGain evolves with Web 2.0 - the real estate industry as a whole will remain hopelessly behind in incorporating the best of Web 2.0 marketing. Companies like HomeGain, as well as the usual suspects in the space - Active Rain, Trulia, Zillow, etc. - will begin to provide a comprehensive set of services ranging from online marketing to business management tools to guide the real estate professional through the minefield, and that will begin to kick off the elusive Web 2.0 revenue model. At Real Estate Radio USA: Mass Media and Real Estate Must Completely Change Their Business Models - Real estate agents were used to buying classified ads in newspapers, and mass media was glad to oblige. Now that print classifieds are diminishing in effectiveness, mass media pub...
More About: Vendors , Changing

Politics and Real Estate Don't Mix, Especially Now
2008-05-28 11:33:00
Social media, particularly the advent of microblogging platforms like Twitter, have loosened the inhibitions of bloggers. Since Tweets naturally revolve around personal, daily life, I do notice that the two big polarization topics, politics and religion, begin to be bantered... and quite often. Today's political environment has moved into a unique, politically charged realm that cuts across cultural lines. A real estate blogger/Twitterer, by positioning themselves politically one way or the other, simply threatens to alienate a significant portion of their readership by age, race, gender or religion (I'll purposely refrain from providing links to examples). Since real estate is a profession where political persuasion shouldn't really factor in too high in the hiring process, why alienate potential client bases? And it's not too hard to intuit the political character of the blogger, and all the more refreshing that they don't egotistically get carried away and take the pulpit st...
More About: Politics , Events , Estate , Real Estate , Blogging

New York Times Embraces Content Distribution
2008-05-27 11:34:00
Yesterday, I discussed how the Twitter API created the massive application set that has been driving Twitter's popularity. Each application redistributes Twitter content.Now the New York Times is opening its content to developers with an API to be delivered soon. Although no one knows exactly what Times content will be accessible, the API opens up developers to creating new applications using Times' content, say - restaurant reviews, sports, real estate classifieds. From Read Write Web:An API is a logical next step for newspapers. It will give developers access to their vast amounts of well-researched data, and allows the paper's brand to be spread easily across the web. More access to Times content and the ability to mash it up in new and interesting ways can only be a win for both readers and the paper."The web of the near-term future isn't about pages any more," wrote Marshall Kirkpatrick in his massive post on APIs in March. "It's about data, flying around, hopefully under ...
More About: Distribution , Content , New York Times

Twitter and Blogging 2.0
2008-05-26 02:46:00
Why Twitter became the application du jour The key to Twitter's wildfire adoption was in opening its API to developers who then built Twitter applications on top of the feeds. Mashable lists 140+ Twitter applications. Twitter.com isn't actually the primary recipient of its web traffic, Larry Dignan @ ZDNet says 90% of Twitter traffic are its API calls. On the negative side, Twitter now has famous network down times because too many users are accessing Tweeter via those applications.Why Twitter's popularity is crashing it Here's why: Twitter's broadcast model, although similar to "closed circuit" radio doesn't broadcast on a simple mass media standard, like radio airwave. Each "tweet" is stored in a huge database, and then must be broadcast across a variety of media - to mobile phones, websites, or one of the many Twitter desktop clients - and specifically to a group of followers. Problems arise, according to Om Malik when a burgeoning number of Twitterers like Scoble have 25,0...
More About: Blogging , Disintermediation

FriendFeed "Rooms" and Blogging 2.0
2008-05-23 11:49:00
I've been discussing the converging intersection between mass media and social media lately. Mass media strives to deliver the most content to the most consumers. Social media strives to deliver relevant, customized content within and among disparate, granular societal groups. The concepts of mass media are now making an imprint in social media by aggregating blogs, Twitter feeds and all those social networks into digestible channels. Duncan Riley calls it "Blogging 2.0". Like any other 2.0 paradigm that speeds up the distribution of data, bloggers are becoming disintermediated. The premise is simply readers of blogs don't need to visit the blog any more. There are feedreaders, Friendfeed, del.icio.us, Facebook, blog networks, Twitter and other arenas where blog content are "syndicated". By taking the conversation away from the individual blog, Riley claims the professional bloggers who make a living off of traffic will suffer. Why is this happening? Blogging 2.0 is a manifestatio...

Twitter integrated into mainstream media site
2008-05-22 01:15:00
On Sunday, I discussed how Twitter feeds (or variations) will be aggregated into channels by mainstream media. Yesterday's release that Summize, a Twitter search engine has partnered with Huffington Post to display Twitters by tagged subject is an indication to this effect. Here's how this works... each article in the Huffington Post has tags.Clicking on the tag brings up more articles on the subject, including specific Twitter feeds related to the tag.Unfortunately, Twitters related to real estate don't seem relevant, principally because the tag is too generic. This is a good try to attribute relevancy to Twitter feeds, but will work better with more detailed "Long Tail" tags, such as "Sacramento foreclosures". Here's an idea Huffington Post might consider for general tags to make them relevant - create individual Twitter feeds, such as @huffpo_obama that Twitter links to their Obama articles. Then, followers to @huffpo_obama (and there would be many) can Twitter comment about ...
More About: Media , Site , Integrated , Mainstream Media

VoiceCloud - No More Checking Voicemail
2008-05-19 23:55:00
Here's a list of pet peeves I don't want to do on my cellphone. All have to do with voicemail: 1) Check voicemail messages 2) Listen to voicemail messages 3) Have to remember to call someone back after receiving a VM (my hit rate is .500) 4) Have to check all my saved VM to make sure I didn't forget to call back someone 5) See 4 above... listening through all 10 saved VMs 6) Not having unlimited saved VMs I've been getting rave feedback from VoiceCloud, a voice-to-text tool that transcribes voicemails and sends them to your email address. Check out Roberta Murphy's review.  Here's an example: On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 10:47 AM, Tom wrote: I like your voice cloud  Pat.   Tom Patrick Kitano to Tom Hey Tom, we like the Lakers, particularly vs. Utah... On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 1:04 AM, <noreply@voicecloud.com> wrote: Hey Patrick, I'm ready to get home and watch the lakers play, I hope they could win just because ...
More About: Voicemail

Twitter Channels
2008-05-18 13:32:00
Cheryl Johnson expressed a common complaint about Twitter ... the noise:I used to enjoy twitter conversations immensely.  I backed off as it seemed more and more people were just "broadcasting" instead of "conversing".  Kind of like being in a room with 55 radios all turned on each to a different station.  :-0I think the trick for me would be to go back in and "unfollow" a whole bunch of people to get back to a more managable conversational level.Although I suggested "watching" the noise passively to get the full effect of the real estate conversation happening on Twitter, I also agree that it can be exhausting or time wasting tracking irrelevant conversations.TWITTER WILL EVOLVE INTO CHANNELS Like Cheryl's 55 radio station analogy, Twitter will eventually evolve into channels - technology, finance, real estate, sports - here are some scenarios: Finance channels will cover breaking trader news faster than the news wires. Twitterers broadcast China's Chengdu earthq...
More About: Channels

Why mainstream media should be developing online real estate magazines
2008-05-14 01:00:00
A few days ago, I noted that the new and most relevant online real estate magazines are best exemplified by blog properties like Agent Genius or Bloodhound. Mainstream media should be playing this card - building their own local real estate magazines - because they already have the consumer traffic base and can leverage their brand names to capture real estate readers.Newspaper publishers Screenwerk cites the local online newspapers' trend to "site diversification" in order to capture more relevant local traffic. Greg Sterling's main point: Newspaper sites cannot accomodate all the various local uses cases and newspapers need to build or buy (if they can) other sites that will. The Gannett Mom sites (e.g., IndyMoms) are a great example of the strategy. Make the newspaper sites as usable as possible but build other sites (demographically focused, vertical, etc.) for content and ad distribution. Real estate fits this paradigm. Newspaper sites or companies like Planet Discover...
More About: Media , Estate , Real Estate , Magazines , Online

REO / Foreclosure Online Resources
2008-05-13 10:56:00
Six months ago, I wondered why there were very few bloggers focusing on the REO/foreclosure markets. Last quarter, even in markets like Minneapolis not usually associated with the CA/AZ/FL foreclosure debacle, foreclosures and short sales accounted for 27% of home sales. Since the beginning of the year, a lot of resources have popped up -  International Listings compiled a comprehensive foreclosure investors' online resource guide of 100 sites.
More About: Resources , Real Estate Investment , Foreclosure , Online , Mortgages

The Real Online Real Estate Magazines
2008-05-11 10:55:00
I recently noticed Agent Genius's (new?) tagline " a National Real Estate Magazine". It's the perfect metaphor for how blogging is converging into mainstream media  under the guise of a "magazine" format. Magazine 2.0, using Wordpress, drives down the cost of an online magazine to insignificance, and positions Agent Genius as a real estate media property (in the old world, Oprah spent $20 million to launch her national magazine...)Note the intuitive difference between online newspaper and magazine. Inman News, Realty Times and RISMedia have always been positioned as news sources or networks with a mission to provide journalist quality and factual reporting (umm... some do this better than others). Magazines , on the other hand, aggregate articles and provide perspectives and subjective interpretations, making their online equivalent ideal for blogger authors. Both online formats attract readers in the same way people read both the New York Times and the New Yorker magazine.Gre...
More About: Real Estate , Online

Adjusting the credit score goalpost in an upside down market
2008-05-09 03:17:00
Forbes.com's Maurna Desmond's May 8 article calls Alt-A loans "subprime in sheep's clothing". In short, crumbling housing prices will push more mortgages into default simply because even relatively affluent borrowers may not stick around once equity turns negative. The "walkaway" factor has changed the reliability of credit scoring. The FICO score has been an accurate indicator for default risk. Now, the more important default indicator may be the personal debt-to-value ratio (that FICO scores do partially factor in), which requires a marked-to-market home valuation (and I don't think the credit bureaus use Zillow). Thus, the credit scoring system has loopholes... for example, a borrower with negative equity can accumulate credit card lines in order to continue to pay their bills on time and support their FICO scores, up until the day of reckoning when either their debt resources run out, or they just walkaway. I don't think the major credit bureaus can change their existing fo...
More About: Credit , Market , Score , Upside

Global cooperation to support the dollar
2008-05-08 11:56:00
The media has been sighing with relief that the greatest depression since the 1930's doesn't seem likely. However, global inflation remains an elephant in the room threat (Goldman Sachs analyst predicts $200 oil by year end ), and it's encouraging to see the world banks working in concert to ensure a stronger dollar to keep inflation at bay:Europe and US unite on stronger dollar (FT) All about the dollar - what the currency strategists think (despite the fact that today, ECB's Trichet isn't signaling lower interest rates on Europe's side in order to combat inflation, causing a dollar dip) But we're certainly not out of the dark forest yet, none other than George Soros claims we're in a bear market rally that will tip back into despair: The Wall Street Journal writes that Soros recently said ?The markets are breathing a sigh of relief but the fallout in the real economy is only now beginning.? Soros does not even bother to say that there is any light at the end of the tun...
More About: Economy , Cooperation , Dollar , Global , Support

Mortgages take the stage on real estate sites
2008-05-07 15:45:00
Homethinking, the leading real estate agent review site, adds an application for accessing lender data compiled within the Federal Reserve's Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) database for the year 2006. Although the data is old, it reveals geographic distribution of loan amounts, subprime usage and specific lender activity by county.The implication of the data is to understand the counties where subprime and its associated rate resets will be significant. Homethinking's Niki Scevak and Inman News' Matt Carter describe the data and impact in more detail. Up to now, real estate listings sites have relegated their mortgage offerings to affiliate mortgage applications that have become recognized by consumers as (annoying) lead generation tools. With mortgages so hard to get lately, real estate sites like Zillow look to offer more innovative products like their mortgage match up service to cater to the consumer. Another valuation modeling site Cyberhomes will eventually leverage the...
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Sites , Mortgages , Real

193 unit San Francisco complex sold at $730/sqft.
2008-05-06 01:43:00
SocketSite, San Francisco 's property evaluation blog, reports on the $115 million record sale price for a new 193-unit luxury apartment complex in the new Mission Bay, valuing the units at $730/sq.ft. More interesting is the comment stream of readers trying to justify why the purchase was made - examples: What many of you seem to overlook is that UDR is a publicly-traded, investment grade REIT. Check their public filings - they recently borrowed $200MM at LIBOR+85. That's 3.6%. If that's the cost of capital on this project, it may well pencil out of the box.(According to this GlobeSt article, the cap rate is in the mid-4% range)If the developer can only sell those units individually for $600/sqft, why would they offer $730/sqft? They understand that rents are going to rise around here for the foreseeable future. Note that the sellers had planned for a 9-month lease-up but they were able to get all 193 units into contract in just 4 months. The purchase is puzzling conside...
More About: San Francisco Bay Area , Complex , Sold

Explaining the massive derivatives market and why the Bear Stearns bailout
2008-05-04 17:36:00
With the markets looking a little more rosier these days, we can only remind ourselves of the ghost of Bear Stearns ' bail out only 48 days ago. It's still being interpreted. On Saturday, Warren Buffett talked about the bailout, the problems with the derivatives market, and the declining risk of a financial meltdown, and mentioned an incredible statistic that I thought was a typo: If Bear had failed, one or two other investment banks would probably have collapsed within a few days, he said, adding that Bear had roughly $14.5 trillion of derivative contracts outstanding the day after it was bailed out. "The parties that had those contracts would have had to establish the damages that they could claim against that estate very quickly," he said. "Imagine the damage of everyone trying to unwind those contracts," Buffett said. "That would have been a spectacle of unprecedented proportions. It would have resulted in another one or two investment banks going down in a few days." ...
More About: Economy , Market , Derivatives

The economy - false or real optimism?
2008-05-03 13:37:00
Two financial luminaries' views on the credit crisis:Buffett says credit crisis ebbs for Wall Street firms James Dimon, JP Morgan, says no near end to financial crisis And on the economy: From Forbes Rich Karlgaard (admittedly their tech blogger) Only a month ago, such sages as George Soros and Alan Greenspan were shouting from bullhorns that the 2008 global financial mess was the worst since World War II. Only a month ago, the only argument among nearly all journalists, pundits and leftwing politicians was whether the U.S. economy would stop at a recession or tumble all the way down the tubes to a 1930s-style depression. Very few challenged the recession presumption. Now, if your definition of a recession is the traditional one of two consecutive quarters of negative growth, then those very few contrarians are correct. There is no possibility now--zero, nada, zip--that the U.S. will suffer two consecutive quarters of negative growth in 2008. Points from the gloo...
More About: Economy , Real , Optimism

Real estate search technology is overrated
2008-05-02 09:04:00
The real estate industry is the search technologists' siren's song.  They find a better way to search and look for applications to industry verticals. They see real estate, with its complex data parameters and believe that any iteration that makes search a little bit easier will become the consumer Holy Grail. In addition, they perceive the industry as a cash cow with agents and lenders, etc. making commissions of 4 to 5 digit fees, and believe it's more lucrative to capture a small % of these huge fees than to apply search to lower fee capture products like dating or retail.Of course, the reality is simplifying search doesn't matter to the consumer. They want data credibility...  consumers eventually figure out that they need to visit various sites to cobble together what they perceive as comprehensive listings data (remember, if you're a real estate professional who read blogs, you know MLS services, Trulia and Zillow paint partial pictures, but the consumer doesn'...
More About: Technology , Estate , Real Estate , Search , Real

HomeGain blog network
2008-04-30 19:09:00
HomeGain continues to inch closer to Web 2.0 with its new blog network for its real estate clients. And with it, HomeGain can now call itself the one stop shop Lead Generation portal... with a business model. In order to blog on HomeGain, an agent registers for the Source4Sellers product which provides them sponsored visibility to consumer traffic by zip code. I registered and noted the pricing for San Francisco zip codes 94109 (lower Pacific Heights) and 94123 (tony Pacific Heights were $99.95 and $159.95 per month, respectively. (Good pricing transparency). The concept behind Source4Sellers and the blog network is to show HomeGain clients that blogging supplements the lead generation of zip code sponsorship. It's an enticing product for a newbie blogging agent who wants to be assured of some sort of active lead generation via the sponsorship while concurrently "trying out" blogging. I applaud GM Louis' strategy to pull in new customers with an evolving smorgasboard of lead gener...
More About: Blogging , Network , Blog

Grand Theft Auto IV - film maker meets gamer
2008-04-29 12:39:00
I love films, I was in the business for a few years... Martin Scorcese is one of my favorite directors... Like most film buffs, I've been waiting decades for an immersive game-as-movie experience. The common thread to all these blockbuster reviews for Grand Theft Auto IV - they all invoke the magical name Scorcese when comparing the game experience:Much more than a game, Grand Theft Auto IV is a five-star interactive drama GameSpy review Rockstar's most important game ever Four minute gameplay chase video - comment: is this a Scorcese game?
More About: Technology , Film , Gamer , Maker

Google Page Rank update
2008-04-29 00:42:00
Some time this Monday evening Google updated its page ranks. None of the tech-dominated Twittersphere I follow mentioned it. A Technorati search for "page rank" at 10:30pdt, only Dave Smith (h/t) and Greg Swann noticed it, no one else, even the SEO guys. It was a non-event, another indication of the SEO community's lack of interest in what once was an awaited online event.
More About: Technology , Events , Page Rank , Page

How banks can charge higher loan rates despite Fed rate cuts
2008-04-28 03:08:00
Here is the simplistic reasoning why banks are charging higher loan rates, despite Fed rate cuts (explained well by Jonathan Miller / Matrix) Investors of any kind of mortgage backed securities have vanished. Therefore, banks, as lenders, can no longer offload their mortgages to investors like Bear Stearns or Lehman Bros. Now banks are forced to hold the loans they make. This is why banks are recapitalizing, and still need $100 billion more (according to UBS analyst) to offset the losses from write-downs on bad loans, so they can make more loans. Since banks are assuming risk for the loans they make, they charge higher rates for these loans. Greater risk, greater return (in business school, this is called CAPM) Many lenders have disappeared, leaving little competition. Since banks don't have the capital to make loans (see #4 above), they make loans only to their best credit worthy customers With loans hard to get (#6 & #7), banks can now charge higher rates for bigger margin...
More About: Economy , Banks , Loan , Charge , Mortgages

Markets stabilizing? Housing is last
2008-04-27 14:49:00
Following up on last Thursday's development re: European Central Bank moves supporting the US dollar, Barrons has also chimed in on the end of the dollar's slide.This spring's dollar slide, coincident with global inflation of food and oil prices (very few predicted the $120/barrel Brent crude) impacted consumer sentiment as much as the other crises: credit crunch, recession, etc.And with the consumer feeling poorer, the housing markets certainly aren't going anywhere. In this past week, media voices are calling a bottom to some of these crises. Stock markets are stabilizing pending any further evidence of a recession next week. Bond prices fall as investors sense credit crisis easing. The housing markets will only stabilize when the consumer feels comfortable; it's the market that is positioned last in line as other markets begin to recover.
More About: Economy , Markets , Housing

Chat client proliferation
2008-04-26 00:38:00
Along with text messaging, chat has become a ubiquitous Web 2.0 application. I list the various ways you can reach me: Application Chat client Who I chat with Email GmailGtalk Gmail users, fave 5VOIP Skype Skype chat Skype users, most used chat clientWeb/blog Chat box Gtalk (Google created a  smaller, more elegant Meebo /Plugoo widget)Usually people I don't knowSocial network Facebook Facebook chatFacebook network, not used. In fact, I think it's the chat client that will break the chat camel's backMicro-bloggingTwitterTwitter DM (direct msg)The usual Twitter suspects everybody knows What's surprising is the contacts beeping me via chat is as natural as taking/not taking a phone call. Chat is still asynchronous communication that works flexibly into busy schedules.
More About: Proliferation , Client

ECB cooperation to maintain dollar's strength
2008-04-24 13:35:00
The European Central Bank and its president Jean-Claude Trichet have been posturing with the mission to fight inflation by maintaining and not dropping ECB interest rates relative to the recent sharp drops by the Fed. It has contributed to a weakening dollar. Food price and oil price inflation, exacerbated by the weak dollar, have become high profile topics that make the ECB stance look unkind. Once the dollar's slide reached $160 per euro, the ECB shifted posture today: "We're concerned about the possible implications for financial and macroeconomic stability," Trichet told reporters, according to Dow Jones Newswires. He added that it's "very important" that U.S. authorities have said a strong dollar is in the country's own interest.The remarks came after the euro hit a record high against the dollar Tuesday of $1.6020. "Is it a coincidence that the change in tone came after the euro breached $1.60, and that so many ECB members are taking a less hawkish tone? W...
More About: Economy , Cooperation

April housing market anecdotes
2008-04-24 01:06:00
The 90/10 rule seems  to be in play this April , as in 10% of Realtors are managing 90% of the transactions. Our California title insurance friends are telling me that the number of transactions remain depressed this month, but our friends, many in the 90% group, are seeing the spring uptick just because they are in that 90% group. Here are some anecdotes about the spring buying season: Teresa Boardman says StPaul feels like 2005 San Francisco bidding wars video from Market watchBusiness Week profiles Altos Research data in assessing spring buying opportunities in 15 metro markets Some day, NAR will finally forecast the bottom right... the NAR spin chart from NJ RE Report h/t Matrix / Big Picture. Click to Matrix for a chronological list of NAR's economist quotes.
More About: Housing , Anecdotes