Ebby Halliday, founder and chairman of the board for Ebby Halliday Companies, traveled from Dallas, TX to New York City to make an appearance on The Huckabee Show that aired last Saturday on the Fox News Channel. Ukulele in hand, this soon to be 99-year-old woman didn’t miss a beat.
Ebby went on former Arkansas Governor and presidential candidate’s talk show to discuss the company’s 65th anniversary, her real estate journey and her book, Ebby Halliday: The First Lady of Real Estate. Having yet to retire, Ebby has been influential in the real estate industry.
Ebby’s guest appearance was reported as the highest rated segment from that night’s show and the responses have been pouring in ever since.
Below is a video clip from last weekend’s show in case you missed it.
Looking for a Kentucky house of your dreams? Look no further. Today Enterprise Network Member, Milestone Realty Consultants, launched their new website in collaboration with Active Website. With the addition of new cutting-edge technology, Milestone’s goal is to create a user-friendly environment that engages customers and provides top-notch services to those looking for Louisville, Georgetown, and Lexington homes – plus other communities in the surrounding area.
Keeping the customer at the forefront of their design, Milestone believes they are now better positioned to be the leading real estate company in the region. The new website features a variety of user friendly enhancements including advanced Individual Property Websites, the integration of multimedia services, and the ability to access real time data from mobile devices.
Milestone’s website platform also includes:
The integration of the “Where do I Go Next?” button that provides users with a pre-engineered path option for relevant browsing.
Established Agent Websites to aid in each agent’s individual branding while utilizing features from the home site.
The inclusion of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and a corporate blog.
The ability for customers to create a Property Alerts account in order to receive emails when properties match their listed criteria.
Tour our cities videos that stream community overviews directly from the homepage.
Community information pertaining to neighborhood statistics, school information, and links that may be of interest to users.
By focusing on the customer’s needs, this one-stop shop real estate company is dedicated to providing quality service. From their real estate division to their rental and relocation divisions, these experienced professionals will help consumers find a home with the help of the new website while increasing their SEO standing. To find out more about the company, visit www.milestoneky.com.
At our conference this year, Tom Flanagan, Director of Information Technology at Residential Properties, spoke about the importance of unique and engaging content. According to Tom, last year 200 of the top Real Estate sites accounted for 95% of the real estate traffic online. Because of this, it’s crucial to find ways to set yourself apart from the competition.
By providing sticky material to our websites, we are able to enrich the user experience as well as improve our company’s SEO. Today, we’d like to showcase Residential Properties and a few of the ways they’re reaching customers through various platforms and reinforcing the importance of content.
Earlier this week we posted a blog discussing the need for telling a story in regards to our property listings. We showed a great example of how good writing can increase SEO and create an emotional connection with consumers. At Residential, they’re taking this a step further. Below is a video posted on YouTube that provides a great description of not only the property listing, but the community as well.
Yet another way Residential is providing content to consumers is by hosting a radio talk show called, Real Estate Insight. Every Sunday morning at 10am Eastern Standard Time Sally Lapides and her team discuss today’s hottest real estate topics. By going to their website, you can listen to the live show or catch a past airing in the archives section on Podcast. This not only allows users to hear more about the world of real estate, but is another way Residential can keep people on their site. You can also find a more in-depth discussion on the show’s blog, www.realestateinsight.com.
Finally, we’d like to mention what Residential is doing to get the entire company involved in the process. Every Season, they hold an internal photo contest and everyone in the company is encouraged to submit a photo they have taken of the community. The winning photos are then displayed on their homepage slide show as well as the blog. Your blog is a great publishing platform and is a vital way to engage your consumer. Click here to see this year’s spring winners.
So take these examples as advice for advancing your company’s website. Social networking, blogging, and contests allow for dialogue with the consumers and are just a few of the ways you can reach them. The longer you keep a user’s attention, the better your odds that they’ll remember you!
We’d like to spotlight Enterprise Network Member Residential Properties out of Rhode Island in today’s blog. Residential Properties entered a video into the 2009 REALTOR Party Video Contest on YouTube in an effort to extend the $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit.
This video features a first time homebuyer and single mom, Andrea Larocque, and Kathy Vaillancourt from Residential’s Narragansett office. With the tax credit, Andrea, who struggled to get out of debt after putting herself through school to become a radiology technician, was able to purchase a home for her and her nine-year-old son, Isaiah.
This is an inspiring video that tells a story about the importance of our customers. It’s about the emotional connection- what can we do to showcase our efforts in putting the customer first? Videos, blogs, and social networking sites can all be used to our advantage. With so many avenues for reaching out to people, we need to start finding new ways to utilize these great opportunities. Residential’s video didn’t take any expensive equipment to accomplish this task, just the desire to use these great resources to meet the needs of their customers. Follow Residential’s blog by clicking here.
Video on your website and blog has many great benefits. Video allows you to communicate more effectively compared to reading pages of information. Video is also more personable and allows for the human connection.
While we were in Chicago last week John Sable and I sat down with John D’ Ambrogio of Rubloff to film a couple of short interviews. They are only 30 – 60 seconds each. But take a look at how simple a quick video can get you interested in learning more about an idea like relocation trends. (more…)
