Corporate Reputation

A corporate web marketing strategy used to be quite straight-forward: put up a website and create the content . When internet users searched for you or for the services that you provide, you would expect them to find you and read your marketing information. Your website would define your online reputation.

Today, the situation is more complex. Now that 13% of internet users are also content creators, chances are that not all the content about your company is created by your company!

Here's an example. Everybody hates the phone company. Prices are high and service is terrible. Try this. Google "Customer Service Bell Canada" and Google "Customer Service Rogers". Sure, the first few results are corporate phone company web pages, but even on the first page of results, you get several pages like
Why I Hate Bell Mobility and Customer Service Nightmares | Boycott Rogers!.

As the growth trend of user generated content continues, it won't be long before the critics of these phone companies dominate the results page and the actual corporate sites will be on page three or four.

The point is that companies are losing control over their reputations. Reputations are increasingly defined by the public on the web. The management of brand reputation is slipping out of the hands of companies and into the hands of customers.

Space Database Stacking Plans

The Space Database stacking plan is a back-end service that supplies content to many commercial real estate websites. It is one of our key technical innovations that facilitate getting marketing drawings out to prospective tenants as quickly and easily as possible.

Our stacking plan is a website tool that seamlessly blends into a clients leasing and marketing site. This can look any way clients want it to look:

Here is a sleek and cool version that includes a tabular report as well as leasing contact information:

And here is a version that gives you a great sense of what the building is actually like. In this case the vacancy information is semi-transparent and 'floats' over the building image:

In both of these cases the diagrams are integrated with live data from the Space Database drawing management application. Any changes made within the program are automatically and instantly updated. Links in the stack will pull up PDF file drawings of the available space.

In addition to measuring buildings, creating re-usable CAD files and calculating areas in accordance to BOMA 96, Space Database also provides the software and services to make all of this information accessible and useful. Our software and services streamline and speed up the leasing process. We help landlords find new tenants and we help speed up the process of getting them moved in.

Are Residential Brokers Technology Leaders?

There's a stereotype that residential real estate agents are amateurs; that most of them work part time and they have nowhere near the business sophistication or sales skills of commercial brokers. This might be true in some ways, but in one aspect residential brokers are way ahead of their commercial peers: the use of the interactive web to build a network, market themselves and generate more revenue.

I've come to this conclusion by rather unsophisticated means - only web browsing really - but here are some examples of what I have found:

Residential brokers are keen on technology and there is a lot of online support to help them leverage new web tools. Here are three:

• A blog by Loren Nason called Future of Real Estate Technology, focuses on technology for real estate agents. "you will find some technology products are a waste of your time and money, and others are the best investment you can make." Loren will help you tell the difference.
  
• Here is another site that helps agents leverage technology. On My Tech Opinion you can learn about new real estate sites and services. They have tips on social networking and you can find out, amongst other things, how to use web based mapping and how to insert YouTube video into PowerPoint.
  
• Joel Burslem's blog The Future of Real Estate Marketing examines the impact of the Internet on real estate and real estate marketing. He offers lots of information that allows agents to harness web 2.0 technologies.
  

Then there are a whole host of web based services and applications that support residential agents. Here are three:

• Trulia is a real estate search engine that incorporates some interesting web technology. There are map based searches that are built as mash-ups on top of Google Maps. You can take virtual walks in neighbourhoods - using Google Street View. Agents can showcase their expertise by participating in the 'Advice & Opinions' community.


• Home Gain is a service that connects real estate professionals. It also now provides a blogging platform for real estate agents to build their online communities.


• Zolve is a social network for real estate professionals. Agents can chat and share tips and ideas. They can also write blogs and promote themselves in various ways. This site has some nifty interface features.

So why do residential agents seem to be so far ahead in the use of interactive web technology and social networking? I can think of three reasons:

1. First, most of these people work independently. Where do they find help? Most likely, they will turn to a web-search to find tools that they can use. They cannot rely on IT departments and are therefore keen on web based solutions.


2. Second, residential agents do not know who their next customer will be - but they know it someone that knows someone they know. Web based social networking is a natural extension of how a good agent operates anyway: build a network and keep it warm.


3. Third, many large companies with big offices are working hard to control web 2.0 applications. Many IT departments block these tools at the firewall. These sites are seem as a threat to corporate security and control. Perhaps commercial agents, who work in offices, are discouraged, if not prevented, from using the social web for work?

Of course there are exceptions. There are commercial brokers who are using the new tools effectively. Here's a good example. Look at what Hans Hansson is doing on his blog at Starboard TCN.

Hans candidly shares his experience in the business and he offers very good advice to prospective clients. It's surprising that more commercial brokers don't have a web presence like this.

What do you think? Are commercial real estate agents, brokers and landlords missing out on the social web? Or is it not a medium that they would benefit from as much as the residential folk do?

Marketing Blogs

I've come across two excellent blogs on marketing. The first one is by Guy Kawasaki. Guy used to be the chief 'evangelist' at Apple and is now a VC, writer and all round guru. The blog covers a wide range of topics from new technology to marketing and management. It's got a lot of humour and the scope is very wide. My suggestion is to start from the 'Categories' list half way down the page on the right hand side and pick what you are interested in.

Here's the address: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/

The second marketing blog is by Paul Dunay. Paul currently is Global Director of Integrated Marketing for BearingPoint. This blog is more focused on specific marketing techniques. Paul has done a lot of work on integrated marketing and he has a great deal of experience with web based marketing, lead generation and social networking. A nifty aspect of this blog is that Paul conducts interviews with other thought leaders and managers. He makes these interviews available as pod-casts. He's in the iTunes store and you can subscribe to him for free! I've been listening to these podcasts on my way into work. They're really good. This blog (and podcast) is excellent for anyone who is interested in effectively using the web to expand business.

The web address is http://buzzmarketingfortech.blogspot.com/

You can find the podcasts in the iTunes store if you search for 'Buzz Marketing for Technology'

Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is a useful tool for building a professional network on the internet. It's a little bit like Facebook or MySpace, but without the goofy factor. On LinkedIn people post their credentials and experience. The value comes in when you link to useful and helpful people that you know, because you can then access their list of equally useful and helpful people. In this way you can leverage a network of contacts exponentially.

LinkedIn makes a point of reminding you to only connect to people who you know well and who know you. You will be sharing contacts. You may be asked about them. They may be asked about you. I would also add that it is important to think of the quality of the contacts you make. Are you connecting to people that have useful skills and knowledge? Do they know other useful people? Are they likely to be helpful in the network?

Another benefit of LinkedIn is that it can raise your own profile. Other people can find you and you can show off your expertise by participating in the Q&A section of the site. You should make sure that you have meaningful information about yourself. You should also consider posting this information on your public LinkedIn page.

Here's how to make sure you have a good public profile:

1. First make sure you fill your profile with details about your skills and experience.
   
2. Next, turn on your Public Profile - click the Edit link in Public Profile setting.
   
   
3. Choose the items you want to display to the world.
   
4. Change the URL of your profile from the default to something more meaningful:
   
   

Now you have a profile that is visible to the world and will be picked up by search engines!

The next thing to do is promote your profile. If you have a website or blog, you can easily create a link button to this page. Here's a button link to my profile:

And here is the code that you can use to link to your profile:


<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/YOUR_PROFILE_URL_HERE" ><img src="http://www.linkedin.com/img/webpromo/btn_myprofile_160x33.gif" width="160" height="33" border="0" alt="View YOUR_NAME_HERE's profile on LinkedIn"></a>

Good luck with building your network!

Rotten Reputation

There's a new site that has recently been launched. It is a mash-up that uses the Google Maps api and adds on a layer that allows users to comment on their neighbours. The comments are usually negative and the site is called Rotten Neighbor.

I'm not sure how useful this will be. It will simply be a site to vent anger and hatred; or as a way to play pranks on friends. It's fun as a bit of entertainment but I doubt it will be a useful tool to help pick a neighbourhood in which to live. But it still may be successful in terms of web traffic!

This site does illustrate an interesting point however. Our reputations are vulnerable online. If we do not have a strong online presence, we do not have a voice to defend against sites like these. As the web becomes increasingly interactive and social, it will be very easy to trash someone else. As individuals we need to be involved in the discussion in order to protect our own reputation.

Take these two landlord reviews for example:




Mold Problem:

Landlord renovated basement without permits. Black mold problem that has spread throughout three units of house, making previous tenants sick. Building not maintained well, freezing cold in winter. Landlord is also quite sexist and derogatory to female tenants.




Tight Ass:

The owner is a slum lord. Doesn't like to spend money to fix his investment.

Who knows if these statements are true or not. The landlords are unlikely to know that these comments exist and they're unable to give their side of the story.

Landlords rely on their reputation to attract and retain tenants. To protect themselves, they need a strong online presence. They need to be aware of where discussions that affect them are happening. As in the real world, landlords need to be approachable and responsive online. If landlords are not available to engage in an online conversation, if they can't address their critics, disgruntled individuals will take their comments elsewhere.

Long Tail Evidence

The 'Long Tail' is a popular term these days. It is the idea that the aggregate of all the little niche markets is bigger than the mainstream markets. The total number of book sales for obscure books (less than 1,000 copies) is greater than the sales of the top ten list of books that sell over a million copies.

The internet and the power of search mean that we are now opening up all of these small, obscure niche markets. Buyers and sellers can now find each other. For example, today you can have an active market for salt shakers on Ebay that was not possible before.

The market for information is no less affected. Look at this example of news media. Not only are niche web publishers creating new content, they are also taking market share from the big players. Here we see a chart that displays the percent of total page views for a selection of information sources. You can see that Wikipedia and Blogger which are published by many individuals have grown exponentially in popularity. At the same time the commercial news media - published by editors - has been loosing market share since 2006.

Factoid: The term "Long Tail' was coined by Chris Anderson who is the editor of WIRED magazine. He now has a book called "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More"

Spyfu

Here's another useful competitive web analytics tool.

You may be curious about web advertising and what it could do for you. You may be even more curious about how online advertising is working for your competitors. How much are they spending? What kind of results are they getting? Well, there is a site that can answer these questions: www.spyfu.com

Type in any url to find out what they spend on key-word advertising. I typed in spyfu.com to see what they were doing themselves and here is what I got:

You can see what their daily budget is, how may clicks they get as a result and what this clicks are costing them.

Another interesting feature is that you can see what the search terms are that they are paying for. What their most successful AdWords are:

Try it out on your competitors. Try it out on your own company and let us know - is it accurate?

Holiday Traffic

If you ever wondered if the commercial real estate industry takes a break over the holidays, we have the answer for you! Over this past break we saw a dramatic drop in web traffic to our site. Starting on December 19th, traffic dropped to around half of the usual. During the time between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day the number of visitors never exceeded ten percent of what we normally get. Only on January 7th did the activity return to normal levels.

We're on Wikimapia!

Well, we made it! We are now listed on Wikimapia. You can find us by searching for 'Space Database' or just by drilling down over the carpet factory:

When we first added this, voting buttons appeared to let other users respond to this listing. Enough users voted 'yes' to keep us on so now it is permanent. It is very easy to add in content. Help make this a more useful tool by putting in your own content!

UrbanDB

We've found this to be a great resource for getting basic building information before we start work on a job. It's a website with a detailed database of buildings. It's especially well documented and detailed in the Toronto area. You can find it at www.urbandb.com .

To price and plan a survey job properly we need to know what kind of building we are dealing with. This site gives us the year the building was built, the number of floors and a picture of the building.

The site has details on 3,949 buildings in Toronto. If you search on a Toronto address in Google, chances are urbandb will be somewhere at the top of the list. So is this a large company with a dedicated team of researchers to maintain the site and enter all of these details?- No!In fact it is the part time 'hobby project'of one guy.

Taylor is his name and he has built this site using open source technology. He has opened up the site to anyone who wants to help out by contributing information. He has succeeded in building his own Wikipedia of buildings!

Rod is modest about the success of his site "it takes a large number of volunteers to keep things running. Every little piece of information helps."

UrbanDB illustrates three important points. The first is the power and sophistication of open source technology that exists today. The tools that are now available enabled one person (although technically skilled) to put together an incredibly sophisticated site in their spare time. Secondly, web collaboration - getting users to contribute the content - is a great way to gather data. This site is populated by the work of volunteers that just happen to be interested in buildings. Finally, this project demonstrates how 'flat' the internet is. This site is more popular and probably has more traffic than dedicated commercial broker and building owner sites could ever hope for.

Movin' on up!

Although the Alexa rankings may not be too reliable for a couple of reasons, we seem to be getting some results! Today our ranking is 2,644,108 which is up from 3,851,993 when we started tracking our position. Basically, this means that we are now slightly more popular on the Internet. there is over a million more websites that have less visibility than ours.
Is Alexa reliable? Yes and no. Alexa figures out how popular sites are based on the sites visited by users who have installed the Alexa tool-bar. Because only a small fraction of browsers have this installed, Alexa suffers from a 'small sample size'. On the other hand, Alexa is the only web traffic tool that follows actual users, so even if it is not perfect, it is the best tool available.
In any case, I believe that our change in ranking show that there has been some positive results of our web visibility improvement efforts that we described earlier this year!

Strategy and Our Website

Over the last year, a great deal of thought has gone into what the direction of our business should be. The results are reflected in our new website. Besides updating the design and the graphics we have also refined our positioning. There are two key points. The first is that we do not just produce data - rather we turn data into valuable 'strategic assets'. The second point is that we provide integrated solutions that support and leverage the work that our clients are engaged in.The most important message on the site is the value proposition is 'turn your building drawings and related data into strategic assets'. We then invite people to see how we do this for their specific roles: 'find a solution designed for you:'
We then have a series of pages that focus on the needs of each type of customer we have and the ways in which our products support them. Every product is not for everyone - and certain combinations are more valuable as integrated solutions than they are as stand-alone services. Here is the 'grid' of solutions:

In addition to presenting our products as part of a bundled solution, we have retained the left hand navigation which has become somewhat of an internet standard. You can get to each product through this navigation tree also.

Whenever a visitor drills down to one of these topics from anywhere, the left-hand menu is highlighted, so you always know where you are in this grid.
The goal here is to illustrate the value that our products bring to our prospective clients and to deliver the message in a way that is clear, memorable and compelling!