Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

No Such Thing as Free Advertising? Maybe There Is

David Etheredge, CEO of SavvyCard, is running a new promotion for their RE-Target media network—you know, those banner ads you see on MLS dashboards and such.

SavvyCard now works with MLS organizations that represent over 450,000 agents. David sent me a document outlining the promotion. Here’s a clip:

They have MLS orgs representing over 450,000 agents. David sent me a document outlining the promotion, here a clip from the doc,

“On July 1st, 2025, SavvyCard will select one company and provide them 1,000,000 advertising impressions on the RE-Target network at no cost (a $30,000 retail value) as a no / low-risk way for that company to validate the effectiveness of RE-Target as a marketing channel. The selected company will have no requirement to purchase advertising after the initial 1,000,000 impression trial, and there are no hidden fees or expenses associated with this promotion.”

Read the full document for all the details. I can tell you from experience—I’ve used their service before, and it’s totally legit.

Many vendors already know that the pop-up screen you see before logging into the MLS is the gold standard for exposure. And being on top of the MLS dashboard? That’s prime real estate too.

Anyway, if you’re interested, David says you should contact him directly at David [at] SavvyCard.com.

For $30,000 in free advertising, it’s definitely worth a shot.

Pro Tip: Custom Business Cards

Well, the 1000watt’s Brand & Marketing Summit isn’t finished but I’m already ready to share a great tip I came across today. Former W+R Studios Director of Marketing Frances Wiseman (and Giant Steps collaborator) came up with a great way of promoting herself at the event with these custom event business cards. Check out the upper left of the first photo, “Remember? We met at…”

So smart! She got 50, for less than $30 bucks. You could go cheaper but she chose a thicker card stock. Love it.

Pro Tip: Order that ribeye steak

Your mileage may vary.

T3 Sixty’s Annual MLS Study

I have to say that the Real Estate Almanac is one of the most used tools I have. I was asked to pass along this announcement and hope everyone will consider supporting T3 Sixty’s efforts.

“Each year since 2018, T3 Sixty in collaboration with RESO have produced the Organized Real Estate rankings section on RealEstateAlmanac.com. The ranking include the MLS subscriber counts and organizational types for each of the 521 MLSs across the United States along with REALTOR® association membership counts. To ensure they have the most accurate information possible, T3 is again asking MLS Executives to share their current MLS subscriber counts for publication of the 2024 version of the list which will be published electronically and shared with the industry in February of 2024.

Building on their success with last year’s intial research, MLS executives will also be given the option to take part in T3’s confidential MLS Executive compensation and benefits study. This year, based on feedback, the independent research firm has added the option to complete an MLS COO and CTO study. It is important to note that the individual results of these studies will not be made public, but each MLS survey participant will be provided with a complimentary synopsis report of the research results. 

T3 Sixty 2024 MLS Count and C-Level Compensation Study

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Clint Skutchan, T3 Sixty’s SVP of Organized Real Estate directly at clint@t360.com.”

Clint Skutchan, T3 Sixty

Genius

Pro tip: Adding your title to your profile image in Zoom meetings.

This tip works for vendors or clients. The situation is that you don’t know what that person does for the company. They may be new or recently promoted, or you just forgot. It happens.

I find it helpful to know the roles of the people I’m speaking with. Are they in charge of membership? A new director? Is that a developer? The finance guy?

So adding a title to your profile is super helpful. That way anyone who mouses over your image on a Zoom meeting can see your name and your role in the company.

In Zoom you can add a title to your name in two different ways.

  1. Just add your title for one meeting only.
  2. Add your title to your profile so it always shows up.

I’m going to focus on #2. Otherwise, you’ll have to reenter your title every time. If you want to permanently add your title follow this instruction.

Click on the gear icon on your Zoom start screen

Click on the “Profile” link on the left-hand column, then click on “Edit My Profile”.

On the next page click on the “Edit” link.

Next, add your title in the Last Name field after your last name. Then click the “Save Changes” button.

This is one of those things that vendors hope clients implement and clients hope vendors implement.

You’re both welcome.

“Prepare for the death of social”

I’m attending the Content Marketing World Conference in Cleveland. I’m told it’s the biggest conference on content marketing in the country. It’s my first year here and its been great. Highly recommend it to any inbound marketers out there.

One of the speakers, and the founder of CMI, Joe Pulizzi, gave a great presentation about the future of marketing. One of his slides struck me. It said simply…

“Prepare for the death of social”

The premise is that social media is reaching a tipping point. Fake news, lack of privacy, hackers and the fact that sooooo many people/companies are pushing ads on social media that it’s becoming somewhat of a cesspool. A platform people will not trust any longer.

I know many agents who leverage social media in their business. Also, many vendors rely on selling ads as a business model. And a lot of those ads (most) are on social media platforms (Facebook).

Joe doesn’t know if this will be one year from now, 3 years, or 5 years. But it’s still good advice.

Be prepared.

Vendor Tech: Get off the floor!

It’s trade show season again, so that means many of us have been on the road. I still do a little booth duty now and then and thought I’d share something with everyone.

Does this look familiar?

Yup that dreaded rat’s nest of cables on the floor, just to the side of the table cloth at your 6 foot table. Sometimes your charging cables are too short to reach your phone on the table, and it just looks like shit.

But today I have the solution for you. The Accell Powramid! These bad boys are awesome for trade tables and regular conference tables.

Sure they take up a bit of table space, but no bending over, no rat’s nest of cables, they fit all types of power bricks and they come with 6 outlets and two USB charging ports. Love ’em.

You can buy them at Amazon, here’s the link. => Accell Powramid

Take my advice, order twice as many as you think you’ll need because once you start using them you are gonna to find other places to put them.

You’re welcome.

Pro Tip: How not to be a Harvey

The Rock Test: A Hack for Men Who Don’t Want To Be Accused of Sexual Harassment

“Are you a man confused on how to treat the women you work with? Do you feel like if you can’t say or do *anything* you don’t know what to say or do at all? Well stress no more! This life hack will have you treating women like people in no time.

You’re welcome.

Pro Tip: Soapbox by Wistia

We are a big believer in video at W+R Studios and have used it effectively in our support and marketing efforts. Due to this we are also a big fan of Wistia, a video hosting company out of Massachusetts. They have a really wonderful company culture and their website if chock full of tip and tricks. I’ve attended their last few conferences (WistiaFest) and at this last one they introduced a great new tool called Soapbox. Basically it’s a quick and easy way to make screencasts just using Chrome. It’s free and so easy to use, you really have to try it to appreciate it.

I did one this morning so you could have an idea of how it works. You can also check out this page for more information.

Soapbox – Cloud Streams Product Update Sept 17

Sponsored By ICE