Reputation Marketing News – Agent Reputation

CJ Hays comments on discussions about Yelp and other review systems

I was on the Lab Coat Agents Facebook page today and came across a post regarding why a 5-Star Yelp review wound up under the line. I then read all of the responses up till now and many of them were accurate while others were errant and others were just hateful opinions. I decided to write up a post to share with the group.

1) Yelp wants ACTIVE Yelpers to be organically motivated to leave reviews. This is why you never send out a blast to the multitudes asking for Yelp reviews because their “Gate Keeper” algorithm will see a cluster of reviews coming in within a short period of time, which tells them you sent out a blast. They don’t like that. It’s not to say you can’t ask people for Yelp reviews one on one, but they have to be ACTIVE Yelpers.

2) Yelp knows when new consumer accounts are created. It knows 5 minutes later a Yelp review was left from a new account, never to be heard from again. This is also to protect you from haters, consumers you never did business with or ex-employees. In fact I wrote an article on how to get these types of reviews removed here.

3) You can’t game the system. Just getting friends and leaving 20 reviews, if done over a short period of time will not qualify that person as an active Yelper. Too much, too soon. And do you think asking your client to jump through a bunch of hoops just so that their review will be on top respects their time? An active Yelper not only has a profile image and friends, but they need the Yelp app on their phone. They need a history of checking in from businesses like restaurants and leaving reviews over a period of time. Once Yelp sees a credible history, that review they placed under the line may be moved to the active section. I am an active Yelper.

4) The Yelp conspiracy is a nothingburger. There were a number of over zealous sales people back in the day that would lead you to believe if you did not buy their advertising, your good reviews would be pushed down. That was never company policy. Some still try the pitch from time to time but you need to call their bluff and report them. The FTC investigated and took no action. And there are ways to get bad Yelp reviews removed as noted in an article I pointed out above.

5) You can hate Yelp but you really need to embrace Yelp. Sure you can choose not to establish a Yelp page for your business and focus on other review systems, but it can also be a major source for leads. I know many agents that get leads regularly from Yelp. And if you acquire a good amount of Yelp reviews, that is the time to advertise. And, Yelp uses the gold star system which helps in making your online reviews look more rounded.

6) Claim your Yelp or Google account. If you have not established a Yelp business page or Google business page, sometimes they create them on their own from business license databases. I am not a fan of this at all because people can still leave reviews on unclaimed business pages. You can always get them removed but it is better to claim them, add accurate information and be proactive to get 5 star reviews.

7) Google is great. It is safe to assume if the largest search engine in the world has a review system, you should probably pay attention to it. Make sure people write out a full review and not just leave a star rating. The more experiential content the better. Same goes with Yelp. They rate the reviews on experiential content and the amount of words used. If you do not have a Google business page, go here to create one. This places you in the Google business directory and you could wind up in the “three pack” on page one of Google for Realtor search results.

8) Google has a gate keeper as well. If the individual signs up for Google+ just to leave you a review and is never heard from again, the review might get ghosted or moved down the list. Organics is important.

9) Facebook has a gold star system that will show up in the search results. Just about everybody has a Facebook account and it is usually active on their phone or computer. Facebook is always the fallback if your clients are not Yelpers or Google members. In addition, it’s harder to leave fake reviews on Facebook.

10) If you are a Zillow Premier Agent and/or buying leads and you don’t have a competitive amount of Zillow reviews for your market, you are not the shiny penny.

11) Be proactive. I know of agents that prep the buyer/seller for future reviews in the beginning of their relationships. As in, (paraphrasing), “when we get this done I am going to ask you to leave me some online reviews” and then asking again while the client is doing the happy dance at the conclusion of the transaction.

That’s pretty much it. I figured it would be easier to write in a post vs just going on for days in a Facebook reply. Thanks for your time.

CJ Hays

Realtor reviews from Yelp and Facebook now showing up in Google Business pages

We ran across an exciting addition to the Google Business Page boxes that appear in the upper right of Google page one search results for for businesses that have created or claimed their Google business page. You have heard me say, “If the largest search engine in the world has a review system, you should probably pay attention to it”. This is why we promote the use of Google reviews as a primary source of your online reviews. Based on the image below, you will see in addition to the Google reviews, you will see Facebook and Yelp reviews are showing up in the Google business box section called “Reviews from the web”.

From a perspective of the importance of having online reviews, the fact Google has added Yelp and Facebook reviews to their business box is quite telling. From what we can tell, the reviews are being automatically pulled and placed in the Google business box and is not a direct feed based upon some official data pipeline between Yelp, Facebook, Google and others. Here is a short video I did explaining it.

In a prior blog post where I wrote about stats that came directly from Google regarding the fact 49% of your prospects want to trust you along with this latest addition of Yelp and Facebook reviews shows me now it’s more important then ever to take control of your online reviews. Please reach out to us for a free demo on how we can manage all of this for you.

CJ Hays Featured on Super Agents Live Podcast with Toby Salgado

I was asked to be a guest on Super Agents Live hosted by Toby Salgado a few weeks ago. I discussed online marketing strategies for real estate agents including online reviews, reputation marketing and the correct use of Youtube. This marketing podcast is an hour in length and can be accessed here. I start around 4 minutes into the broadcast.

CJ Hays – Follow me on Twitter

#CJ4marketing

How To Earn Clients With A 5 Star Online Reputation

Your online reputation is made up by everything people are saying about you, or what they’re not saying. Potential listing or buying clients will determine who they will choose to represent them based on what they can find out about you online. You can control how you will appear and earn more clients by learning how to create a 5 star online rating for your business.

85% of consumers use the internet for research before making a decision. – Yelp

When you do a search online for your name, or company name, what do you find? When a listing client can’t find much information about you, where do you think they feel their listing will show up online? Both buyers and sellers want to see what other people are saying about you on sites they trust, like Google, Yelp, and Facebook.

The power to create a lead generating online reputation is literally at your fingertips. Treat every current and future client like a new potential 5 star review! Earn positive reviews from clients in order to show potential clients that you are the agent to trust.

Many of our clients tell us that by increasing their online reputation, they are generating 3-5 times the amount of leads from the dollars they’re spending on marketing. Clients have also told us that they have a higher conversion ratio of the leads they’re buying, because their reviews are so easy to find on trusted sites like Google.

Realtor Marketing Ideas

Own Your Website and Domain

If you are using your corporate/brokerage website platform, you generally don’t have much control over SEO, content, and other important factors when it comes to getting your website ranked favorably on Google. Even if you aren’t ready for your own real estate website design, you may consider purchasing domains that ought to belong to you or your business. This keeps them out of the hands of someone that may use it in a way that will hurt your online reputation, or demand that you pay an absurdly high price to get it back.

Earn Positive Reviews on Trusted Sites

One of the best marketing tips for real estate agents is building and marketing a 5 star online reputation. Start off with exceptional customer service, and have a system in place to allow you to capture feedback from every client. An effective reputation marketing strategy involves using a system that includes:

Gathering feedback from new, current, and past clients
A system to address client concerns before they become negative reviews
An easy way for clients to leave feedback
An easy way to get your feedback posted to trusted review websites like Google, Yelp, and Facebook
Continuous monitoring of client reviews that are posted about you online

Create and Manage Your Business Information Online

Surveys show that half of local searches are for business information such as address, phone, and hours. Search engines like Google pull this information from many sources across the internet, and most are from business listings. Some listings you may have created yourself, and some are created automatically by sites like Yelp, Merchant Circle, and more. It is very important for all your business listings to have consistent and accurate information. Inaccurate or missing information from your listings can be very damaging. Search engines can detect inconsistent information across your business listings, and search engines do not like to give inaccurate information. This can result in lower search results, rankings, and leads.

Do you want to see how you show up on local directories? Get a free business listing scan here.

Take Control of Your Online Reputation

When you take into consideration the amount of extra leads you can generate by having a superior presence and reputation than your nearest competitors online, building a 5 star reputation should be a number one priority!

For more tips, or to schedule an online demo of our services, visit us at www.agentreputation.net

Why some Realtors think Yelp is harming them – Stats and Algorithms

First off I want to give a shoutout to Matthew Bushery at Placester.com who recently wrote a great article on Yelp.

Today’s post is inspired by a Realtor I spoke to this afternoon as I was going over their reputation report. Other then their awesome Zillow reviews, the Google footprint was a bit weak. And their Yelp page showed 7 reviews with a 2-Star average rating. There were “18 other reviews that are not currently recommended” below the line.

This always upsets companies or business professionals reviewed on Yelp. Using this image below, I will lay out a response that will hopefully help you to understand a bit more about how Yelp works.

When I Googled this Realtor, the 2-star Yelp review was staring me in the face. I know they felt harmed by Yelp for hiding 18 5-star reviews and publishing four 1 star horrible reviews. Setting aside the fact they will never be able to terminate their Yelp account, I wanted to offer some insight.

Two of the negative reviews stated the reviewer actually had completed real estate transactions with this agent. I had suggested that if these two reviewers were making this up, the agent could ask their broker to write a letter stating they never had clients with these names which could be submitted to Yelp for review.

On or about 9/16/2012, this agent or somebody representing them sent out an e mail to a mix of prior clients, friends or family letting them know they established a Yelp account and they were asked to leave you a 5 star review.

Starting on the 16th and continuing through 10/24/2012 a total of fourteen 5-star reviews came in to Yelp. That is unnatural and is a big red flag. Then when you see that most of these reviews have had zero activity in the past three years, based upon their algorithm and tracking, Yelp assumes they asked all of these people to leave them positive reviews which is against their guidelines.

The “zero friend/one review” accounts under the line, most likely signed up to leave them a review and then immediately left that review, never to be heard from again on Yelp. Yelp tracks that. You simply cannot ask non-Yelpers to leave you reviews or they will be buried.

Now IF any of the inactive Yelpers became active, there is a chance this activity might get the reviews after 10/24/2013 published

I was going to suggest getting an additional letter from the brokerage or providing transaction documentation tied to each name of those below the line for submittal to Yelp, but if it was within the dates I mentioned, it probably wouldn’t matter because so many reviews came in within such a short time-frame. You might be able to do this with the three reviews from 2014/15 and get those upgraded.

They have all of these reviews from 2012, most of which don’t count. Six from 2013. Two from 2014 and only one this year. This shows they had a push in 2012 and then sat back to allow natural review postings which is why these four one star reviews are published along with the reviewers Yelp activity.

A correct strategy at the moment the client is doing the happy dance, for all transactions moving forward, is to mention you are building your online reputation and to find out if they are active online reviewers. It really would not take many to push you up. But they have to be Active Yelpers.

They want active Yelpers to be motivated to find the vendors they do business with and leave honest reviews on their own. You also can’t just sit back “hoping” you get reviews. You have to be proactive. You need a plan. We have that plan.

CJ Hays @area51testpilot #CJ4marketing

Thoughts on Inman News Article re Online Agent Ratings

On August 6th, Inman News published an article called, “Online agent ratings may be inflated, but they’re still valuable”, written by Teke Wiggin, Technology Writer for Inman. The article seems to be focused on Zillow reviews. I will go point by point.

“Realtors have become restaurants” is the name of my seminar, so when I saw the opening paragraph of the article stating that consumers were using third party review systems for restaurants, hotels, and product purchases, I was pleased to anticipate the body of the article.

YES, consumers are using third party review systems like Yelp, Trip Advisor and the like to look at the credibility of vendors or products. However, while a foodie may use the Yelp app via their phone to look for a quality restaurant, the majority of consumers are first using the search engines to look for (Google) the name of the business, business professional or product. Consumers are Googling Realtors.

What do they see on page one of the search? Do they see gold stars? Do they see only Zillow? Do they see a Realtor’s Yelp account? Does the Realtor have a Google business page? Do they have Google ratings? Seriously, when a consumer Googles a real estate agent, they had better see multiple review systems in place. Having reviews across multiple platforms increases the credibility of the business professional.

A statement is made in the article that online agent ratings may be inflated. What does this mean? The article seems to tie this statement to the fact that Realtors are only asking the really happy consumers to leave reviews, thus skewing the online rating of the agent. Yes, if you as an agent are guiding ONLY your happy consumers to leave you positive reviews on Zillow or elsewhere, then a consumer may not be seeing an accurate representation of your integrity and professionalism. With that said, most consumers won’t realize this.

Another statement reads, “The reason why negative reviews are few and far between may be because many people who aren’t thrilled with an agent’s performance don’t feel the need to broadcast their disappointment”. I totally disagree. You have heard variations of actions consumers will take depending on their satisfaction with a product or service. They might tell a few people if they’re happy, but they will tell the whole world online if they are really upset!

The question is whether or not the agent is tech savvy enough to have third-party review technologies in place, other than Zillow or an internal survey based system. Yelp can be a little intimidating for agents that don’t know how to use it correctly. You can embrace Yelp to your advantage. I have clients getting 10 solid leads a week from Yelp, but that is for another day.

Google Business is also a huge factor. It is safe to assume that if the largest search engine in the world has a review system, you should probably pay attention to it.

When I had first read the headline that “agent ratings may be inflated”, I thought the article had to do with the fact Zillow reviews can be gamed. And in fact, there are methods to game almost every review system with the exception of Yelp. As a former Fraud Examiner and having worked many online fraud cases, a number of odd agent reviews were brought to my attention which I investigated. I saw review numbers that did not add up.

I know, for instance, when we load a client’s customer list into our CRM, which sends out an email asking them to click on a link to leave an online review, we will get a 25% return. That 25% does not come easy. There is an entire trickle system in place to get the customers to leave their online reviews. I then compare the percentages I am aware of to numbers that seem excessive. When I see rating numbers that are equal to or even exceeding the known transactions of an agent, the red lights go off. I know how it is done.

If you are a Zillow client and you focus on Zillow for your lead generation, then by all means focus on your Zillow reviews, as you will stand out within their marketing system. Same goes for Trulia and Realtor.com. But please open or claim your Google and Yelp pages. I may not click on your website or Zillow, Trulia or Realtor.com page to see your reviews.

The Google 7-Pack is now a 3-Pack

About a year and a half ago, the 7-pack for residential Realtors in the US was removed from Google. It still existed for commercial Realtors and for some reason, residential Realtors in Canada. The 7-pack was a tool provided by Google when searching for businesses. You search for a business type and a map would show up in the upper right side of the screen, tied to 7 businesses marked from A through G. You would have to have a Google Business page, formerly known as Google Places, combined with some SEO, a website and hopefully some Google reviews. I personally think the 7-pack was removed to harm SEO for residential Realtors in the US. Six weeks ago the 7-Pack for residential Realtors came back. This was awesome as many of our clients who, via our process were located at the top of the seven-pack.

Yesterday I was demoing our reputation marketing services to a luxury agent in California when I noticed there were only three businesses located on page one of Google where there should have been seven. I had incorrectly assumed because the community was so small, I was only seeing three.

Today this article comes up online called, “Google Local Shakeup: 3-Pack Only, 7-Pack Removed; Addresses & Phone Numbers Gone“, by Jennifer Slegg. Wow, as I was basking in the fact the 7-pack came back, it is now the 3 business “Snack Pack”. You can read the article for the details.

An organic marketing target seven spaces wide would be better but three, but this is enough for us. These business listings are organic in nature and we have a plan that works. Call Us.

Agent Reputation – Online Reviews

Recently our Director of Marketing Chris “CJ” Hays, was invited to do a live interview with talk show host Danny Vegas, on WCBM. CJ talks about reputation marketing, and the importance of online reviews when it comes to generating more real estate leads. If people are going to list their home with you they need to trust you. Online reviews are like recommendations, and they need to be on the right websites, and highly visible.

Watch The Whole Interview Here

Insider’s Guide To Online Reviews For Realtors

Online reviews play an increasingly important role in the decision-making process of today’s consumers.

Think about your purchasing habits. If you go to Amazon to buy anything, you pay close attention to the customer reviews and the number of stars the product has received. You might even read a few reviews to see what positive and negative experiences other buyers have had with the product. Increasingly, the same is true for people shopping for anything, including real estate service providers.

Reviews are now a vital part of the research process for your leads and prospects. They want first-hand insight from other consumers that have used your services and, if they don’t find reviews of your business online, they may continue their search without you. The numbers tell a similar story. Consumers trust peer recommendations, like online reviews, 6.5 times more than traditional advertising. And that trust is increasing. In 2013, 73% of consumers trusted reviews — that’s a 15% increase over the year before. As a real estate professional, you simply can’t afford not to have reviews online.

While there are quite a few tips and tactics you should apply to your review strategy, the best way to get your first online reviews is just to ask. You’d be surprised how willing happy customers are to post a review if they’re asked.

We recently had the opportunity to gain early access to the T3 Experts 2014 Agent Reviews and Lead Generation Survey. The findings are astounding — not only do positive reviews help close the immediate deal at hand, but they become a highly effective word-of mouth marketing tool.

Do you have a plan for getting reviews for your work as a real estate agent, broker or team? Even if you have a plan, study the infographic we’ve put together, The Insider’s Guide to Online Reviews for Real Estate, and start generating online reviews on a consistent basis to drive leads and referrals to your business. Let us know if reviews are playing a part of your marketing plan by leaving a comment below!

– Written by Seth Price

Real Estate Not Showing In Google 7 Pack – Or Is It?

About one week ago, realtors all over the country woke up to find that they were no longer showing up in Google’s search results for terms like “Real Estate Las Vegas NV”. Most real estate agencies that show up on page 1 of Google are showing up in the Google 7 pack or 3 pack.

However, about 1 week ago, the real estate 7 packs were gone! There has been no full explanation from Google at this time. They are calling this the “Pigeon Update” and it has been causing panic for many realtors all over the country.

Here is something you may not know… Try doing a search for “Real Estate Reviews Las Vegas NV”, or “Real Estate Agency Reviews Las Vegas NV”, or “Realtor Reviews Las Vegas NV”, or any other city. The real estate 7 packs are back! Or perhaps they never left.

Look At This Example Of Search Done After The Last Google Algorithm Update 7/24/2014

This example clearly shows that if you add the word “reviews” to most search terms having to do with real estate, the Google 7 or 3 pack is being displayed. What this tells me, and what we have been saying for a while now, is that your online reputation is your most important marketing tool. Google putting so much emphasis on the word “Reviews” goes to show you how important your online reviews are.

DUI Attorneys have also seen their 7 pack listings disappear when doing a search for “DUI Attorney Las Vegas NV” or any other city and state. Try the same thing by doing a search for “DUI Attorney Reviews Las Vegas NV” and you’ll see the Google 7 pack re-appear. It seems this new Google “Pigeon” update is focusing heavily on reviews, and how the 7 pack results are to be displayed.

Google, Amazon, Facebook, and other major sites and directories know that consumers are looking for reviews, no matter what product or service they’re considering. Real estate is no different; in fact, even more so when you consider that for most people their home is their biggest asset. Referrals have always been most realtors bread and butter, which is exactly what a review is. However, with an online review, you’re not the only one seeing the referral. The whole world is, which means more leads for you!

Realtors looking to compete in this market need to focus on their reputation first, before spending dollars on all other forms of marketing. If you’re spending marketing dollars on PPC, SEO, Flyers, Radio, or even if someone refers you, consumers are still going to Google you. What they find can determine whose phone rings first – yours or your competitors.

Written by: Sean McCrory
www.agentreputation.net