Google’s AdPlanner (need to register for the beta) has the potential to unleash the power of traditional demographic marketing analysis to long-tail search strategies. This is a great tool because it allows media planners to target niche sites in a highly effective manner while focusing on distinct consumer segments. For example, let’s say that I’m […]

What does Peter Gabriel’s new online project The Filter have to do with real estate search? (NOTE: I went through the The Filter Q&A and have to say it was eerily prescient).
What if there was a site where a consumer would 1) define the location where they want to live (via natural language, drop down, […]

Research papers:
Identifying inherent privacy conflicts in social network sites
Assessing the privacy risk of sharing anonymized network data
Proposed algorithm for automatically extracting social hierarchy data from electronic communication behavior
Discusses how rumors, viruses, and ideas propagate over social social networks

When bloggers attack, has some great tips on how to respond to blogger swarm attacks. Many real estate firms are leery of bloggers and allowing their agents to blog; this post has some thought-provoking ideas on how to respond.
Interview with Jordan Behan explains how Web2.0 consumers are more informed in real estate search.
Another great post […]

At its core Trulia applies intense competitive pressure to traditional media firms that historically–in the collective sense–bilked real estate firms out of millions–if not billions–of dollars for essentially non-measureable advertising. Sure there’s the one-off case of a person who walks in the front door of a branch office clutching a Sunday advert who actually purchases […]

Here’s a reason why Microsoft invested over $200 million in Facebook. It’s all about the data Facebook has compiled on its user base and the time this user base spends on Facebook. What’s the “veracity index” for this data? One assumes it’s higher than other data sources, since users’ incentives to enter data honestly is […]

The tightest definition of multichannel customer management I have yet found is:
Multichannel customer management refers to the design, deployment, coordination, and evaluation of channels through which firms and customers interact, with the goal of enhancing customer value through effective customer acquisition, retention, and development.
Neslin, et al. have authored a definitive research article that real estate firms can […]

Kevin Hillstrom, President of MineThatData has written an excellent whitepaper on conducting a multichannel forensics analysis. Why is this whitepaper an important resource to real estate firms? Because real estate firms are engaged in complex multichannel marketing endeavors. But only a handful of these firms analyze their data from a multichannel perspective.
How does a firm […]

Eric Peterson continues to provide great insight. He has an exclusive profile of the Microsoft Gatineau project. At first glance, the Gatineau project is quite impressive. What’s particularly pleasing is that it appears to have been designed for marketing personnel and business managers. The visual representation of the data clearly indicates relevant campaign success and […]

As an increasing number of real estate firms seek to embrace and integrate Web 2.0 principles in to their websites, many of these firms may encounter a sense of frustration in having to “upgrade” once again to meet, or exceed, customer expectations regarding Internet-based services. Is real estate an Internet based service? Absolutely. With over […]

In 2004, Inman News profiled e-mortgage processes. In the ensuing years, paperless mortgage processes have improved but have yet to achieve wide agent adoption rates, as do many other real estate technology initiatives (e.g., real estate ecommerce centers). Could this be a classic example of the Technology Acceptance Model theories at work? ( Wiki definition […]

Continuing the discussion from the McKinsey interview of Cammie Dunaway, she states
[Yahoo!] is using behavioral data–really mining the wealth of transactional data we have about how people are spending their time online and trying to marry that data with attitudinal data…that’s where the most powerful insights can really come from.
Insights into what? It could be […]

Jeremiah Owyang explains the concepts and value of social networks from a marketing perspective in an easily digestible manner. Yang et al (registration required), Battiston et al, and Hill et al discuss the scientific underpinnings of these topics. Juxtaposing these discussions against one another leads to some interesting insights with respect to social media marketing.
Yang […]

HitWise has demonstrated a correlation between LinkedIn and Gmail, YahooMail, and Hotmail and a corrleation between LinkedIn and Facebook. Hypothetically now…assume that LinkedIn and Facebook and Gmail, or YahooMail, or Hotmail share their databases, where a user’s email account address is the unique identifier. At this point it’s a matter of relational database mechanics to […]

Notes from my presentation on ROI at the recent Inman Real Estate Connect conference:
Issue: What are the first steps real estate firms should take to get a handle on their data to enhance near-term and long-term ROI on this data?

Since 80%+ of all originating real estate transactions begin on the Internet, firms should consider utilizing […]