Attention all real estate professionals:
Are you looking for relevant data and figures regarding blogging in real estate? Do you need precise answers to questions such as “What tactics have the best results in social networking?” and “How does my blog compare to others?”
If so, then check this out…
The Center for Real Estate and Social Technologies (CREST) has officially launched a rad (yes, I said “rad”), new, grassroots social media research initiative specifically for REALTORS®.
The Center for Real Estate and Social Technologies (CREST) will be the definitive research and education resource for social technologies in the real estate business, conducting surveys and other projects to generate benchmarks and best practices that REALTORS® can employ to improve their social networking, blogging, and social media marketing efforts. CREST’s surveys will always be in the 10-15 question range, real estate specific, and conducted every 2-3 months so you can spend less time filling out surveys and we can continually release relevant information to you.
CREST’s first effort, a 14-question survey focused on real estate blogging, was released today over at VARbuzz.com. CREST will be providing the aggregate results to those who complete the survey and provide an email address to send the results to. The best part about it is that it’s free (minus a few minutes of time).
Having access to information like this is something that I’ve heard a lot of people talk about and wish for (including me). It’s nice that we’ll finally have a chance to get it.
Jim Reppond
June 24, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Too bad this survey is so restrictive. It wouldn’t take my answers unless it fit it’s “format” Makes you wonder if the data will mean anything.
Aria Schoenfelt, Austin Luxury Homes
June 24, 2008 at 2:07 pm
I like the idea of knowing more about how social media and blogging work in our industry so that I know where to focus my energies, however, the survey they have up asks only about traffic, which is a small part of the story. Who cares about traffic, what I want are conversions! I want to know which avenues people are successful in and numbers would help me see how my efforts compare.
Jennifer in Louisville
June 24, 2008 at 2:10 pm
@ Jim – I’m right there with you. While interesting, I’m not certain that any of the results would provide anything really useful. How would it be beneficial knowing that the guy in Atlanta Georgia gets 100 times more people/visits/comments than the guy in Thousandsticks Kentucky? (just an example)
Benn Rosales
June 24, 2008 at 2:28 pm
@Jennifer, even worse, you won’t even know that it is a guy in Kentucky or Georgia…
Ben Martin, Va Assn of REALTORS
June 24, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Hi everyone, thanks for your feedback on the survey. In an effort to keep the surveys short, we’ll be delving into some of the more results-oriented questions in future efforts. There’s certainly a lot of ground to cover, as Jim, Aria and Jennifer have pointed out. But of respect for your time, we didn’t want to embark on a 60-question survey right off the bat. I want to emphasize that this is the first in what we expect will be a long series of surveys.
However, I will take issue with the statements that this first round of data won’t produce anything useful. When we run the crosstabs, we expect to find some interesting correlations between, say, number of monthly posts and number of subscribers. Or perhaps, what is the relationship between length of time as a blogger and average monthly unique visitors to the blog?
By way of background, this survey was developed in collaboration with REALTORS using social media in business, a VAR staff person with a graduate degree in mass media with a concentration in statistics, and another VAR staff with a long history of blogging and (more recently) social media research.
In the meantime, give the survey a try. It should only take you 5-10 minutes. And if you have any suggestions on how this first survey could be tweaked to improve usability, or any suggestions about questions to ask in future surveys, please contact me directly. Ben at varealtor dot com.
Ben Martin, Va Assn of REALTORS
June 24, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Also want to mention that if you would personally like to help analyze the results and draw conclusions or make make recommendations, please drop me a line. That e-mail address again is ben at varealtor dot com.
Jennifer in Louisville
June 24, 2008 at 3:00 pm
I think the biggest problems for those conclusions are defining the blog’s potential target audience and their search engine rankings for the sampling. Even if all things are equal (same frequency of posts, or length of time as a blogger), the person in Atlanta Georgia is vastly more likely to have dramatically higher numbers than the person in Thousandsticks Kentucky.
Now, if you can get a lot of persons to take the survey from the same market – you might be able to generate some interesting data.
But even with that, you’d need ALL of the blogs to have the same Theme, Layout, Design – so that items like Blog Aesthetics don’t skew the results. [If a blog is horribly ugly – people just won’t stick around generally no matter what.]
Daniel Rothamel, The Real Estate Zebra
June 24, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Is the survey perfect? Nope.
However, as one of the people who collaborated on it’s development, I think it is a good start. Let’s be real here, something like this has never been done in any capacity. At least, not that I have ever heard of. As bloggers and people utilizing new media, doesn’t it behoove us to have at least SOME data? The way it is now, we are all kinda left to our own instincts and gut feelings as to how much traffic is “a lot” or “a little.” We know little about how much other bloggers are posting, and whether or not there is any correlation between frequency and traffic, as is often purported.
I know that when I went on my self-imposed RSS blackout for a month, I noticed what I thought were interesting trends in blog posting frequency, but I had no way of quantifying any of it. Maybe this survey will yield some useful data.
We all go around proclaiming the benefits of blogging. I know I do. We get asked all the time to show numbers, and we never can. I know I can’t. Perhaps this survey will be the first step towards being able to at least provide some data that could be used to quantify the benefits and best strategies for real estate blogging. I don’t think that is such a bad thing.
Is the survey brief? You bet.
Brevity was the point. It could have been much more comprehensive, and maybe it should be. That will be an answer that will be determined by respondents. Heck, if people are more willing to fill out one long, exhaustive survey rather than a more frequent short ones, I’m all for it.
I think that if everyone will just give it a try, it could go a long way towards yielding some very useful results. How useful will sort of be left up to the respondents. The more, the better.
It will be a very small first step, but at least it will be a first step. It might even be a stumble, but I think that with time, CREST could really hit its stride and provide some useful insight for the industry going forward.
Danilo Bogdanovic
June 24, 2008 at 6:58 pm
retweeting @RealEstateZebra If you’re a real estate blogger, you’re participation in this survey would help a GREAT deal: https://is.gd/EVQ
Mark Eibner
June 24, 2008 at 7:12 pm
we’re at it again CREST Launches Rad, New, Grassroots Social Media Research Initiative:.. https://tinyurl.com/5wqab8
Bob in San Diego
June 24, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Aside from ego, does it matter?
These stats are worthless in a sales business.
Jay Thompson
June 24, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I took the survey. Is it perfect? Of course not, and it never claimed to be.
I find it interesting that so many are dismissing the data — before it’s even collected and analyzed.
Statistics on subscribers is worthless??? I will be the first to admit (and I have said just this) that it is the type of subscriber or reader that matters, not so much the number. But numbers can certainly impact the bottom line. Real estate tends to be a numbers game. The more potential prospects you can reach, the better odds you have of converting a prospect to a paying client.
There’s no question that a blog in say Phoenix, has far greater chances of reaching more people than a blog in Thousandsticks, Kentucky (or Georgia). On the other hand, it’s entirely possible that our Thousandsticks blogger might capture a significantly larger percentage of the total pool of local home buyers and sellers than I could ever hope to capture in Phoenix.
Why not take the survey and then take a critical eye to the data?
To dismiss it now seems premature.
Heather Elias
June 25, 2008 at 7:43 am
I can’t wait to see the results. It’s probably true that a hyper-local blog about a small geographic area is likely to have different numbers than a hyper-local blog about a larger market, but I still think we are going to see correlation between number of posts and number of subscribers, or time since the blog began and number of subscribers. Agree with @Jay, let’s get our hands on the data before we start bashing the effort in an area that no one else has tackled thus far.. =)
Danilo Bogdanovic
June 25, 2008 at 7:48 am
Is any survey bullet-proof? No. Can you always argue the results of ANY survey? Yes. Is having SOME kind of survey/data better than not having any? Absolutely.
As some have said, I’d rather analyze and discuss the numbers and results of the survey/data than not having any number or results at all.
Jim Reppond
June 25, 2008 at 8:24 am
From The Simpsons:
Scully: Homer, we’re going to ask you a few simple yes or no questions. Do you understand?
Homer: Yes. (lie detector blows up)
Yep. That gave us volumes of data…..VERY Useful….
Mark Eckenrode
June 25, 2008 at 5:27 pm
this is a nice step towards understanding the impact all this REnet activity is having on the industry. that’ll be the interesting thing and i hope one CREST pursues… like never before are consumers and agents able to communicate in such an open manner. how will the public’s perception of the industry change as a result?
Matthew Rathbun
June 26, 2008 at 6:16 am
hahahahah “rad” hahahah Wanna go play pac-man after we watch “He-man” 🙂
It’s a survey… It’s a start…
Jeremy Hart
June 26, 2008 at 6:36 am
“From The Simpsons:
Scully: Homer, we’re going to ask you a few simple yes or no questions. Do you understand?
Homer: Yes. (lie detector blows up)
Yep. That gave us volumes of data…..VERY Useful….”
Thanks Jim.