It was getting close to Inman Connect NY, and I could feel the urgency in a text message from Matt Beall, ”did you get my email regarding the social media case study for Inman?”

I’m sure somewhere—in the ether that is my inbox—sat an email from Mr. Beall. Knee deep in a Hawaii Life interface redesign, however, my Gmail account was left unmanaged and overflowing its 200G limit.

Since integrating social media into our real estate search in September 2011, I hadn’t really thought about the project. Social (from a business standpoint) was not driving sales, and my mind was on other things that were—specifically a recent surge in mobile traffic led by the iPad.

With Inman looming on the horizon, however, it was time to do a little digging into our social integration project. A text message to Yax, Hawaii Life’s lead programmer, and a few minutes later the Facebook insights installation was complete.

A quick test drive of the Insights interface (Facebook could learn a thing or 2 from Google Analytics) and I was off. 332,828 Facebook impressions in the month of December. Wait…what? 332K impress…ions? Could that be right? It was.

Still, with over 1.2 million impressions in the 4 months since launching the Facebook comment box and other social media buttons, it had resulted in zero trackable sales. But that doesn’t mean that the integration into search wasn’t working, just not how we expected.

Instead of generating leads that turned directly into sales, social media created a platform that allowed other people to share our brand.

Using Social Media to Build Brand

You can learn how Hawaii Life is using social media to build its brand in 2 ways:

1) Short & Sweet - The slides for the Inman presentation in PDF format, sexified by Winny (Creative D / Co-founder):

Case Study – How to (Effectively) Integrate Social Media into Property Search

2) Detailed – The entire report which was used to create the presentation:

Integrating Social Media into Real Estate Search

If you have questions, comment below. I’m sure there will be several. There were at Inman after Matt gave his talk, which I believe (without being bias) was one of the better presentations at the conference.

Tip #1: Do Your Research

When creating (or promoting) a real estate website, it is essential that you pick the perfect keywords or keyword phrases. When doing so, utilizing Google Keywords can help you to not only find out the competition for each of your desired keywords, but also how many searches each keyword receives locally and globally. This research can help you tailor your keywords to your desired audience while also increasing your chances of success in marketing these keywords.

Tip #2: Effectively Utilize Titles

Now that you have your keywords, it is essential that you use these keywords effectively. When creating titles for everything from your website pages to your blog posts and URL links, you should include your keywords in these titles. As a result, search engine are more likely to pick upon your keywords and help move your website toward the top.

Tip #3: Include Internal Links

This is a SEO tip that is often overlooked but is incredibly important for search engine optimization. When you create blog posts (or website pages) that are related to other content on your website, include an internal link back to that blog post or website page.

Tip #4: Increase Content

One trap that many people fall into is spending a surplus of time creating relevant content for their website and achieving the desired ranking and then stopping all efforts. In a matter of weeks, they stop creating new content and slip in the ranking as a result. Therefore, keeping your website updated with fresh content is important for effective real estate SEO.

Tip #5: Monitor Link Count

Although it is important that you include internal and externals links in your blog posts and website content, it is also essential that you do not over link. Just like adding your keyword too many times on a single page can hinder your SEO efforts, having 100 links on a single page can hinder you as well. Therefore, link within your blog posts but ensure that you are not linking too often.

Tip #6: Utilize Images

Especially in real estate SEO initiatives, properly utilizing images is very important. Make sure you put a description for the image and a URL that includes one of your targeted keywords or key phrases. As a result, search engines will award you for this simple effort.

Tip #7: Ensure Usability

One of the most important things for real estate SEO includes usability. Google is a huge advocate of user-friendly websites that provide helpful links and information. Therefore, ensure that your content is beneficial to your users and provides a simple—yet effective—interface.

Tip #8: Include Virtual Tours

The utilization of videos and pictures are incredibly important in increasing SEO for any website; however, they are even more important for real estate SEO efforts. Including virtual tours of the properties you have for sale can actually help increase your search engine ranking while also drawing potential customers to your website.

Tip #9: Obtain Backlinks

One of the ways that search engines determine the quality of your website is by the number of authoritative backlinks you receive to your website from other quality websites. Keep in mind that not just any link to your website will work; instead, they should be from quality websites that are relevant to real estate. For example, a link to your website from Business Insider will be a lot more effective in increasing your page ranking than a link from a random blog.

Although it may be tempting, do not submit your website to free directories that claim to provide quality backlinks to your website. These “free” backlinks that require little effort often turn away search engines as opposed to drawing them to your website.

Tip #10: Keep Patient

It is essential to realize that it takes time and effort to increase your search engine ranking; therefore, patience is required. Your website will not go from nonexistent on search engines to the #1 spot in a matter of days. However, if you are property utilizing real estate SEO tips that prove to be highly effective and remain patient, your website will start climbing in rank before your eyes.

From search engine optimization to rich snippets, Google has yet again set the bar high for its competitors!

But what, exactly, does all of this information have to do with real estate businesses? Supposedly, Google is working with both Service Magic and Zillow to improve the rich snippets for real estate companies. These new snippets are highly detailed and provide a user-friendly listing of properties for sale. And since we all know that Google strives for user-friendliness, it would not be shocking if this new rich snippet becomes “the norm” in the real estate industry in the very near future.

Although this may seem like a rather minor change, it is great for real estate companies wishing to highlight their best properties. Within seconds, customers can identify at least 3 properties that your company has for sale in a given city from the search results! The rich snippet includes the number of photographs, the address, and of course the list price.

This new data is also exceptional from the real estate business perspective as your rich snippet can instantly attract potential buyers to your website within a matter of seconds. This is definitely a great move on Google’s part that is mutually beneficial—both for the companies and the potential homebuyers.

In the end, props to Google for piloting these new real estate friendly snippets! Now we will all play the waiting game until we can all take advantage of this updated feature.

I didn’t think much of it, but then I saw the news on Techmeme a little while later that Google confirmed that Google Apps users will gain access to Google+ soon.

Lori, and the millions of other Google Apps users, can breathe easy now.

What do I think of Google+? Well, I do have a thought or two — and will put them into a post soon.

Google announced that they will begin delivering advertising inside map imagery. They will also begin limiting the number of times a free map can be displayed. This causes big potential headaches for IDX providers and Brokerages alike.

First, many MLS’s don’t allow advertising to be displayed in or around their IDX data. Literally overnight, thousands may find their solution out of compliance as a result causing a mad dash to either upgrade to Google Maps Premier API or find another solution like Bing Maps or Map Quest.

Second, brokers might find themselves inadvertently providing free advertising space for their competitors inside their own listings. Software vendors were notified that they have 90 days before ads begin appearing sometime in July.

While it’s probably not a game changer for the bigger players who can afford the $10,000 a year Google Premier starting fees, this will definitely leave a lot of people scratching their head wondering what to do next.

In the past, I always concentrated on optimizing my web pages for Google first, and Yahoo! and Bing second. That’s because Google’s competitors delivered a fraction of the traffic—making the search giant my go to source. But when Yahoo! threw in the towel and announced that Bing would be powering its search (2009) I knew that Microsoft was going to give Google a run for their money…well, at least close the gap.

Despite recently being busted by Google for copying their search results, Bing has managed to gain 5% market share in February, according to Hitwise.

This is on the heals of a 21% increase for Bing in January. Bing’s gain in traffic is obviously affecting Google who is down -4% over the past 2 months.

Why is this happening? Hitwise suggests it’s because Bing’s success rate (percent of searches that result in a visit to a Website) is through the roof. Bing (and Yahoo!) have achieved success rates of over 81% in the past 2 months, while Google has maintained a 65% success rate.

What’s so important about success rate? When people search, they click to visit websites when the search results match what they’re looking for. So a lower success rate indicates poorer search results. Matt Cutts makes a strong argument that Hitwise’s success rate it not a true measure of visitor satisfaction:

I think the phrase “successful search” is considerably less accurate than “left the site after searching,” because someone can leave a site for lots of different reasons.

Whoever is correct, that fact remains that Bing is grabbing market share from Google, and that Google is on a mission to improve its search results with their latest Panda update. Time will tell if this helps. In the meantime, Bing is giving me more reasons (and more visitors) to concentrate on optimizing for their search algorithm. I suggest doing the same for your real estate website.

Strategically this is a great move for Zillow, and will effect the real estate industry in several ways. From a real estate agent’s perspective, this expands marketing reach and puts everything into one user interface…saving agents time and allowing them to focus on other tasks.

On one of the MLS committees I sit on in Maui, there is a lot of opposition to large real estate sites like Zillow. While I understand why some Realtors might see these types of sites as a threat, I encourage you to think about this as an opportunity to gain more exposure for your client’s listings.

So, back to my question. Did Google dump their real estate listings because of partnerships like this between Zillow and Yahoo (and Trulia and CNN)? Well…yes and no. Google does state that one of the reasons they cancelled this service was because of, “the proliferation of excellent property-search tools on real estate websites” (and this blogger would argue that Zillow is one of the best real estate research tools around). However, Google has some of the brightest minds in the industry, and if they wanted to throw their programmers at real estate, they could blow everybody out of the water.

Personally, I think Google has bigger fish to fry. I don’t think Larry Page is taking being dethroned by Facebook as the most visited website very lightly.

But, let’s be real here. Does this news really “change” anything? What does the lack of real estate listings on Google maps mean to consumers? Nothing, zilch, nada. Have you ever talked to an home buyer using Google maps to search for their next home? That’s what I thought. Do you personally get bunch of traffic from Google base? I doubt it. Not once have I heard an agent or broker tell me they are seeing considerable traffic from Google Base/Google Maps; Zillow, Yahoo Real Estate and Trulia are still king in sending traffic and leads to brokers and agents.

So from a consumers perspective, no one — and I mean no one — should even bat an eye at this news. And from the agent/broker perspective, I’d argue no one is really going to notice the difference.

When you really think about this news, it’s just such a no-brainer for Google. They are making a killing with their existing Adwords service in the real estate vertical. Why would they spend time, effort, and money cannibalizing that revenue stream by continuing to invest in a product that’s not working? It just doesn’t make any business sense, and they obviously agree. It’s certainly a small win for the execs at Yahoo, Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com since they now have to worry a LITTLE less about Google taking over the real estate industry.

THE ACTUAL NEWS

Personally, I think the big big winners in all of this are actually the IDX vendors — a group I haven’t really heard even mentioned this week (though I was not on the webinar yesterday). There were some Google Base based IDX solutions such as RealBird who, with the imminent shutdown of Google Base, all of a sudden have to radically change their business model and real estate offerings, or cease to exist. None of these search offerings based on Google Base data are perfect, but are (were) certainly a cheaper alternative to put listings on a website for those agents who choose to go without an IDX product. Now, those possibilities are off the table — so the remaining options for those agents and brokers without IDX are to do one of the following:

• Put no listings on their website — horrible idea
• Only put their own listings on their website — not what consumers want, and hence not a good idea
• Link a “home search” button off to an aggregator such as Zillow — with cobranding, this is probably the best idea of the bunch for the budget-conscious. But still not ideal.

Or, those agents and brokers can get with the program and give consumers a completely integrated search experience right from their own website. And pay an IDX vendor for that service. Let’s be honest, if an agent can’t afford a monthly payment for an IDX service to provide the home search functionality that they KNOW buyers are looking for — they don’t have a business.

Winners = IDX Vendors.

Ok, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Update: You can listen to the webinar (or read the transcript of it) conducted the other day here. Turns out IDX vendors did get a fair amount of air time.

Zillow Real Estate Market Report provides Home value index for major US metro regions. I used it to create a Google Fusion Table. Check it out NOW!.

Google Fusion Table of US Metro Home Prices

Once you bring up the Table, select Visuallize/Map menu option to view this on a Google Map as shown below.

Map Visualize Menu

This will show Home Values of major US metros on a Google map. The marker color indicate the home price (red being the highest). Click on a marker to view the metro and the price. This window can be customized including the markers.

Home Valuation of US Metros

To limit the view, select Show Options link and specify the filter criteria. I have specified Metros with home prices less than 100K as an example below.

Select Show Options

Specify Filter Criteria

This will display US Metros with home prices less than 100K as shown below.

Metros with home prices less than 100K

Metros with home prices more than 400K

See complete Google Fusion Table demo.

You can do the following using Google Fusion Tables.

Import your own data

Upload data tables from spreadsheets or CSV files, even KML. Developers can use the Fusion Tables API to insert, update, delete and query data programmatically. You can export your data as CSV or KML too.

Visualize it instantly

See the data on a map or as a chart immediately. Use filters for more selective visualizations.

Publish your visualization on other web properties

Now that you’ve got that nice map or chart of your data, you can embed it in a web page or blog post. Or send a link by email or IM. It will always display the latest data values from your table and helps you communicate your story more easily.

Learn more about Google Fusion Tables. Let me know if you have any questions.