I saw an interesting tweet from one of my Twitter friends (@csmillie) today that went something like this %u201CDear Real Estate Agents, DM%u2019ing me random listings, especially those in the 905 will only get you unfollowed%u201D. This caused me to chuckle and remember a blog post we put up on social media and newspaper classifieds. The post spoke to the appropriate ways to use social networks for traditional content, i.e. classifieds, and as much as that was a guide for newspaper publishers, there were lessons in there that could be applied to any traditional vertical, and that includes real estate agents.

Instead of DM%u2019ing random listings to folks whom you have no idea if they are interested in what you have to offer, consider posting things like the following to Twitter:

• Listings for homes with interesting history. Link out to a blog post that speaks to why, even if I were not in the market for a home, I would find the specs and the past of this particular home interesting. This works for readers, especially if the home is in their city, neighbourhood, or in an area they are strongly familiar with.
• Listings for dream homes, mansions or high-end condominiums/penthouses. We all love to dream and for many, this would be an attractive start to any day, or even a great way to steal a quick break at the office, when choosing to not play solitaire or mahjong. These Twitter posts could link out to the agent%u2019s site where the specific listing is housed, thus driving traffic to the agent site and causing awareness.
• Post interesting real estate and market information that could be read by anyone, no matter the stage of the home buying cycle that they are in.
• Post links to blog posts that will help first time homebuyers and or even those looking to sell or get help with their current mortgage payments

Put plainly, advertising using social media is not as simple as applying your print or banner strategy and although  none of the above post suggestions blatantly advertise and agent%u2019s entire suite of property listings, it will help to promote the agent as a brand and avoid upsetting those they want to attract in the social networking sphere.

Avoid the itch to use third party Twitter automation tools to post all of your classifieds or listings %u2013 they will only do you and your brand harm in the social sphere.

Signed @adition

No no, this is not the newspaper payment wall blog, but as we keep up with global publisher reaction to what we think is a move in the wrong direction, we want to keep you informed as well. Plus, it really is something new for us to talk about in the newspaper industry. How much longer could we discuss failing revenues and pure play online competitor models? Nonetheless, it appears as though the European markets are moving along at an aggressive rate to introduce online newspaper payment walls; more so than any US organization and a lot of that has to do with circulation penetration by geography. Watching the circulation numbers in Europe (excluding the UK) versus the US, one clearly sees a greater penetration in the European markets. To put it into perspective, according to the World Association of Newspapers, globally newspapers saw a circulation increase of 1.3 per cent, but when you review the ABC numbers on circulation, you see that US papers experienced a decrease of 10.6 per cent last year. There seems to be a greater value proposition being told around these newspaper properties in European markets, outside of the UK and understanding that value could aid North American publishers in creating some profitable newspaper spin-offs.

So, given consumer reaction to the printed news in Europe, I can see how some publishers may think that monetizing or adding payment walls to their generalized news content online, would be the next obvious step. The only concern I would raise is that an online payment wall, now – in the ever exciting age of digital – regardless of what part of the world you are in,  just makes it easier for a pure play online news competitor to come into your market with strength. That loyalty to the printed word will only last so long, especially if I find I can get unbiased coverage of the same news online and for free.

Most recently in Europe, the publishers to launch payment walls are the French paper Le Figaro, and as of today, Axel Springer with two of its German newspapers, the Berliner Morgenpost and the Hamburger Abendblatt.  And as we’ve  also posted in recent blogs, there are a slew of others working out their payment wall model as well.

An online job search engine site called Juju has supplemented their listing value by releasing a Job Difficulty index by US state.  Interestingly enough, the results show that the white house state is undoubtedly your best bet when sourcing employment and Michigan your worst.  The results make sense, as the US government is working tirelessly to employ resources to aid in many of their large scale service tasks and legislation and with Michigan being the automotive state, it goes without saying that employment rates will follow the declines experienced in the automotive industry.  According to FederalJobs.net, the US government is the largest employer in the country, employing an approximate 2. 7 million Americans.

 

Continuing on along the theme of employment visuals, below are three views taken from a CBC coverage piece on employment.  These visuals show unemployment rates from North America and Europe on a colour coded map. It’s very interesting to see how things have changed, especially across the US.

• Slovakia in the red in 2003, with an unemployment rate of over 17%

• 

  Slovakia in the red in 2005, with an unemployment rate of over 18%

 

• Spain in the red in 2010 with an unemployment rate of over 19%.
• United States listed with an unemployment rate of over 10%

 

Juju.com was built on the foundation of  JobSearchEngine.com.  Juju houses over 10,000 job listings mostly from the US, with some content reaching into Canada.

Juju was formed in 2006.