Saturday, April 30, 2011

Article: How Fast-Growing Companies Use Social-Media Marketing

How Fast-Growing Companies Use Social-Media Marketing
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219554?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+entrepreneur%2Flatest+%28Entrepreneur+Update%29

Between conversing with customers and connecting far-flung employees and operations, social media has become a prized resource for small businesses. And many business owners now say their efforts are paying off.

Four in 10 women-led business owners attributed an increase in revenue to their social media efforts, with 10 percent reporting a “significant” revenue jump, according to a survey conducted by Women Presidents’ Organization.

The data is based on the responses of 259 women-led companies that submitted applications for the annual Top 50 Fastest-Growing Women-Led Companies ranking. The list was released this week by WPO, an advisory group for multimillion-dollar women-owned businesses.

And while 40 percent of respondents said they haven’t seen sales improve from social media, 31 percent of them remained “hopeful,” as they cited other benefits such as building credibility or bolstering recruitment efforts. Just 16 percent reported no use of social media.

But for those who have achieved bottom-line success in part by socializing their companies, what’s their secret? Consider the social-media strategies of these three fast-growing from the WPO ranking.

BrightStar Franchising

Shelly Sun is the co-founder and CEO of BrightStar Franchising, a Gurnee, Ill.,-based homecare service.

Shelly Sun, co-founder of BrightStar Franchising [ranked No. 1], says there’s no question her social media marketing is paying dividends.

Not only has BrightStar’s Web traffic nearly doubled to total 55,000 unique monthly visitors, compared with 33,000 just a year ago, annual sales also surged 60 percent to $99.6 million in 2010, compared with the previous year. She expects the climb will continue in 2011 with projected annual sales of $150 million.

What’s BrightStar’s secret? Never a big dabbler, Sun who is also chief executive of the Gurnee, Ill.,-based homecare service, hired a dedicated staffer in 2008 to manage the company’s social media efforts as well its online reputation.

Today, BrightStar employees blog about the industry as well as post practical tips and advice on a range of topics from a new-babysitter checklist to hiring a homecare aid. Staffers also post links to relevant health and aging news stories on BrightStar’s Facebook page, and they’ll upload the occasional marketing video or event footage onto YouTube.

Sun’s advice: Cultivate in-bound links. By serving as an information resource for caregivers and people who need them, she’s been able to attract more than 72,000 in-bound links — links to her site from other sites — up from 600 a year ago. She says posting in-bound links to the site from online press releases and having nearly 200 franchisees all undertaking their own social media marketing helps.

“Everything we do with social media is trying to direct people to our site,” says Sun.

Rebecca Minkoff

imgimgimgimg New York-based accessories and apparel designer Rebecca Minkoff.

Article: (Try to) Map Your House with MagicPlan [Apps]

(Try to) Map Your House with MagicPlan [Apps]
http://gizmodo.com/?_escaped_fragment_=5794954/try-to-map-your-house-with-magicplan

Should you ever need a floor plan of your home, bringing in a professional to do the measurements might be expensive. And time consuming! So MagicPlan wants to replace human work, automatically creating a map of your humble abode.

Does it work? Sort of. The interface is a little wonky, and lining up the wall-measuring reticles with your camera is tricky. I managed to create a fairly accurate rendering of my kitchen, but my living room came out looking like it’d been sucked through a black hole. Still, the app is free, and allows you to (potentially) map out dozens of rooms in a multi-floored home, making things easier should you ever want to sell or renovate the place. One caveat: a creepy message about “anonymous data collection” pops up when you first start the app. With no explanation. Hm. [iTunes]

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Friday, April 29, 2011

Article: HOW TO: Start Marketing on Foursquare

HOW TO: Start Marketing on Foursquare
http://mashable.com/2011/04/27/how-to-foursquare/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29

There are more than 8 million users on Foursquare — up from just 1 million a year ago. This explosive growth means one thing — you might want to get your business on Foursquare. After all, Radio Shack reported that the average Foursquare user spends 3.5 times more at its retail shops than the average customer.

The most recent iteration of the location-based app, Foursquare 3.0, expanded the features and made it much easier for businesses to jump on the bandwagon and start marketing. Best of all, it’s free. Foursquare is winning the location-based app game because it has the biggest user base [aside from Facebook Places] and it pleases both parties — customers want to be recognized, and businesses want to know who their biggest fans are. Mashable spoke with Eric Friedman, Foursquare’s director of business development, about how businesses can get started on Foursquare and the various marketing options they have available to them.

“Foursquare works well when a moment of commerce happens,” says Friedman. And commerce is exactly what business owners are looking for. Plus, as smartphones penetrate the U.S market (currently, about a third of U.S. consumers have a smartphone), there will be even more Foursquare users.

“We’re on every single platform that’s out there, so there’s never been a better time for businesses to start using Foursquare,” Friedman says. “There’s no cost, it’s easy and it works.”

Want to get started? Below, Friedman walks Mashable through all of the steps.

Brands With Brick-and-Mortar Locations

“[Small businesses] have the same resources available to them as a super large QSR, an Italian restaurant or a Starbucks, and that’s a really powerful tool,” says Friedman. He’s referring to the Foursquare for Business Merchant Platform, which creates an even playing field for restaurants, retail stores, museums, mom-and-pop shops and other businesses. The owners can claim venues on Foursquare, establish specials and analyze data on Foursquare’s dashboard. Here’s how to do it.

Claim Your Venue

imgimgimgimg

Article: Facebook Fan Page Best Practices with Mari Smith [@InboundNow #18]

Facebook Fan Page Best Practices with Mari Smith [@InboundNow #18]
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/12731/Facebook-Fan-Page-Best-Practices-with-Mari-Smith-InboundNow-18.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HubSpot+%28HubSpot%29

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Article: New breed of entrepreneurs turn profits to social ends

New breed of entrepreneurs turn profits to social ends
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/new-breed-of-entrepreneurs-turn-profits-to-social-ends-20110423-1ds1r.html

Identified a gap … Sebastian Robertson is funding a not-for-profit organisation. Photo: James Brickwood.

BUSINESS schools took a long hard look at themselves after the global financial crisis. Were they responsible for churning out ready-made ”millionaires by 30” who caused the mess?

If one of the new subjects they are offering is anything to go by, then the answer is yes.

Social entrepreneurship - the term used for conventional business models that deliver social or environmental returns - has been added to business schools across the US, Britain and, now, Australia.

Cheryl Kernot, a former politician turned associate professor at the centre for social change at the University of NSW, is at the forefront of social entrepreneurship in Australia.

”Young people have been looking at how to harness a business with a social purpose, not just to generate their own wealth,” she said.

”[This is] a call to action to address the systemic failures of our traditional institutions.”

There will always be a place for charity, she says, but social entrepreneurs use business principles to make profit and reinvest it in a social purpose.

The School of Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) was established in Britain in 1997. Benny Callaghan, the Australian chief executive of its schools in Sydney and Melbourne, said he was witnessing a shift among the young generation towards giving back to the community.

”The younger generation are … deciding their life and career is about more than making money,” Mr Callaghan said. ”[They] want the work they are doing to have an impact on other peoples’ lives.”

SSE student Sebastian Robertson, 25, left a lucrative finance job to start his own not-for-profit business. He created Batyr to educate students about the ”white elephants” of the school playground, such as mental health, sexual issues, anxiety and depression.

”We charge schools for the delivery of the talks,” he said. ”But for the benefit we think the students will get, even if it only connects with one student … then we believe it’s money well spent.”

Timothy Devinney, of the University of Technology, Sydney, is less convinced by the emergence of social entrepreneurs.

”I would say the world is more open to social entrepreneurship but this in itself is nothing new. Our society is no more or less moral than it was 50 years ago.”

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Article: Developers dread late fibre arrival

Developers dread late fibre arrival
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/developers-dread-late-fibre-arrival-20110406-1d4fu.html

DEVELOPERS are complaining that new housing projects are at risk of delay because of the mammoth task of connecting large estates to the national broadband network.

The government has made the NBN Co responsible for connecting all new buildings with more than 100 units and the company aims to appoint contractors by next month.

However, the president of the Urban Development Institute of Australia, Peter Sherrie, said some developers feared they would not have fibre connections on time because of the complexity of connecting new buildings at short notice.

The NBN Co aims to appoint contractors to connect new developments by the end of the month but Mr Sherrie said there was ”a lot of angst” in the industry that the company would be snowed under by developers seeking fibre connections.

”For people who are finishing a project [before NBN Co can] deliver fibre to the premises, there may be some delay,” he said. ”That’s obviously causing us some concern.”

NBN Co’s executive general manager for new development, Archie Wilson, conceded there was confusion among developers but said those facing potential delays had failed to follow the proper process.

He said developers were meant to sign contracts with NBN Co to arrange fibre connections three months before the fibre was needed. However, some were failing to do this, prompting some ”challenging conversations” with the industry.

”There’s a been a change to the industry and not everyone’s read the volumes of communication that we’ve put out there … But we’re pragmatic about it, our job is to roll out fibre and that’s what we’ll do, and we’ll work with the developers to make sure that we get it in at the time they need it.”

The $36 billion network’s roll-out has sparked significant changes for developers because they are now required to install pits and pipes, which they have not previously done. For the NBN Co and its contractors, connecting developments in isolated areas is also a significant challenge.

Mr Wilson said the earliest requests for connection from developers were for late June, and these had been brought to the front of the queue.

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Article: Rents on the rise as buyers dry up

Rents on the rise as buyers dry up
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/04/06/3184107.htm

Rents on the rise as buyers dry up

By finance reporter Lexi Metherell

Updated April 6, 2011 17:43:00

There are signs rents are starting to pick up again, with potential first homebuyers choosing to lease houses rather than buy.

A report by RP Data shows, after sluggish growth in recent months, national rental rates were 1.4 per cent higher in the March quarter than the same quarter a year earlier.

A senior research analyst at RP Data, Cameron Kusher, says rents are likely to continue to rise because higher interest rates, and a cautious attitude among first homebuyers, mean more people are staying in the rental market.

“The first homebuyers aren’t active so, if they’re not buying their own home, they’re either: a) living with their own parents; or b) they’re out there in rental market,” he explained.

“Although migration’s slowing, we’ve still got a growing population … so all the factors are suggesting to us that rental growth during 2011 will be quite strong.”

Mr Kusher says a fall in new home approvals and housing finance indicates that this trend will continue for some time.

“People are just very conservative out there at the moment, first homebuyers are pretty much a non-event in the market at the moment, and that’s going to create more demand for those rental properties, particularly now that we’re seeing building approvals and dwelling commencements starting to taper off as well,” he said.

The report shows the average national rent was around $360 a week in the March quarter.

Capital city house rents were about $20 a week more expensive than the national average.

However, Western Australia’s Pilbara region has the most expensive average weekly house rent at $1,650, while Tasmania has the cheapest at $235 a week.

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Monday, April 25, 2011

Article: Facebook-Infused Job Search Site Finds Listings From Your Social Graph

Facebook-Infused Job Search Site Finds Listings From Your Social Graph
http://mashable.com/2011/04/05/in-the-door/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29

How many of your Facebook friends work for companies that are hiring? Chances are you don’t know, but new job search startup In The Door launches Tuesday and plugs into Facebook to surface that information.

In The Door’s premise is simple: Let job seekers use their social graph to find open positions where they might have an inside edge. You need only log in with Facebook and In The Door will find and sort job listings at the companies where your Facebook friends work.

CEO and founder Liz Carlson says she wanted to create the site after she learned that a friend landed a job at Google by way of a recommendation from a mutual friend. Her online job applications, meanwhile, were being automatically rejected by computer algorithms and never reached the desk of a hiring manager or recruiter.

“I wanted to figure out how to digitize the process,” she says of being inspired by her friend’s success with an inside recommendation. “Instead of just seeing a long list of unqualified jobs, why don’t we start by showing companies where you have an inside connection?” she thought.

Carlson took her idea to the Founder Institute, where she participated in the summer 2010 program. Tuesday, she’s ready to launch the bootstrapped Facebook-infused job search site and solicit feedback from users.

The site, in its present state, lets you view all the companies hiring in your network, explore by city and search all the surfaced job listings. The homepage shows friends’ companies that are hiring, with a count of friends employed by the company and jobs available listed next to each company. You can then view a company’s page to check out all job openings and see which of your friends work at the company in the question.

For now, In The Door merely aggregates job listings from third-party job sites such as Indeed. It also leaves the friend-to-friend, “I need a favor…” conversation piece to Facebook. Later, these two pieces will become more tightly integrated into the site experience so that companies can accept applications and recommendations through the site.

Friends-of-friends job search is also in the works. “Users will be able to explore second degree connections,” says Carlson.

At launch, In The Door does a solid job at surfacing positions you might have a better chance landing because you have a friend on the inside.

The startup is giving away 100 invitations to companies who want to personalize their company page and link to their career site.

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Article: Push to control Nerang deer threat

Push to control Nerang deer threat
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2011/04/07/306045_gold-coast-news.html

NERANG’S deer problem needs to be controlled now before it becomes an even bigger problem, an urban ecologist warns.

Griffith University’s Darryl Jones specialises in wildlife management in urban areas and said much of the deer population problems in southeast Queensland were caused by the collapse of the velvet and deer meat market.

”Hobby deer farmers who weren’t making money any more simply opened the gate and let the deer go,” he said.

”Deer are turning up in places they should not be and are doing large amounts of damage to the environment.”

Mr Jones said although it was easy to say ”something needs to be done” it was not as simple as culling deer in residential areas.

”You need a long-term perspective and co-operation between landowners and authorities to make something work,” he said.

One way to curb the deer population in Nerang, he said, could be to set up a paddock with grain or something that would attract the deer each night.

”It could take a couple of weeks for the deer to get used to walking through the gate and eating there each night, but once that happens you can go out one night and shut the gate,” he said. ”The deer can then either be humanely killed for meat or relocated somewhere out of the area.”

Without natural predators and the availability of young trees and plants in residential areas, Prof Jones said the deer could grow to larger than normal sizes.

A council spokeswoman said Gold Coast City Council had no jurisdiction to manage declared pests on State Government or privately owned land.

”Several years ago the council requested permission from the State Government to reduce the feral deer numbers on its behalf this request was subsequently denied,” she said.

”A community-led approach to catch and relocate the deer on private property needs the support of all residents in the street.”

The Department of Environment and Resource Management did not respond to Sun inquiries before going to print.

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Article: Brisbane outfit in for SBW and Cooper

Brisbane outfit in for SBW and Cooper
http://www.espnscrum.com/super-rugby-2011/rugby/story/138516.html?CMP=OTC-RSS

The group behind a proposed Brisbane-based NRL franchise is hoping to secure the services of union stars Sonny Bill Williams and Quade Cooper for their new enterprise.

The Brisbane outfit’s application is expected to be confirmed later this year, with a view to actually competing in the NRL in 2013. And, according to Bill Rae, one of the delegates involved in the bid, contact has already been made with Khoder Nasser, who manages both New Zealand centre Williams and Wallabies fly-half Cooper.

“We don’t know whether we’re in or not, but we have approached Quade and Sonny,” he told the Sunday Telegraph. “We want Quade and Sonny Bill to get their World Cup campaigns out of the way first, but once that is done we will up the ante for them.

“We’ve started talks with these guys and we want them on board. We believe we can offer them a great opportunity to potentially be part of history and obviously they would be the perfect recruits for us.

“We’re being realistic about this. At the moment we don’t have an NRL licence and the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) will be hard to beat when it comes down to dollars. Because we don’t have a history, we need some special talent to build the club from scratch and we’d love to see Quade and Sonny on our wall as the originals.”

Williams, of course, made his name in rugby league and Nasser admitted that a return to the 13-man code at some point in the future is a distinct possibility for one of the most coveted athletes in professional sport.

“I can confirm that I have had an approach from the Brisbane bid team,” he said. “It’s flattering that these people know who the cream of the crop are and want to bring the best of the best to their franchise. Of course (a return to league) is something Sonny will consider, he started his career playing rugby league.

“Quade has a phenomenal passing, running and kicking game and this is a guy who has got one metre to play with. It’s been proven by many athletes, including Sonny, that if you are great in rugby league you can be successful in rugby and vice-versa.”

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Article: Rental market tight in wake of floods

Rental market tight in wake of floods
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/property/rental-market-tight-in-wake-of-brisbane-floods/story-e6frg9gx-1226042446339

JANUARY’S floods in Brisbane and Ipswich had only a short-term effect on the southeast Queensland rental market, but the lack of new housing coming on to the market is leading to tighter competition for existing properties.

Figures issued by the Real Estate Institute of Queensland yesterday show that the vacancy rate for Brisbane’s rental market was 1.8 per cent for the six months to the end of last month, a big drop from the 2.6 per cent recorded in the six months to the end of last September.

While the January floods affected the prestige Brisbane riverfront property market, they also hit the rental markets in less affluent areas, some not directly on the Brisbane River.

Residential Tenancy Authority figures show that demand for three- and four-bedroom houses increased after the floods, while the two-bedroom unit rental market remained relatively stable.

But in general, agents are now reporting that the rental market has begun to return to normal conditions.

REIQ chairman Pamela Bennett said the impact of the floods on the rental market was mainly confined to flood-affected areas.

“With reduced rental accommodation in their immediate area, many tenants and home owners displaced by the floods had to look to other suburbs for accommodation in January and February,” Ms Bennett said.

But REIQ agents in unaffected suburbs reported that this did not result in any significant increase in rental demand in their local areas.

But the outlook in the Brisbane rental market is tempered by the overall slowdown in the housing industry throughout Queensland, particularly the southeast corner.

The biggest shortages of rental housing were in the areas immediately around Brisbane, with significant drops in vacancy rates in the Caboolture and Pine Rivers areas.

Most of the regional cities were steady, but there were substantial drops in vacancy rates in Cairns, Townsville and Rockhampton.

Ms Bennett said the rental market was starting to be affected by the subdued property market with few first-home buyers and investors leading to more demand and less supply in the rental market.

“This also occurred in 2008 when high interest rates deterred buyers, so it is not difficult to ascertain that the current economic conditions and the rapid nature of rate rises last year are having the same effect this year,” she said.

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Article: New York Times Gets Its First Tumblr

New York Times Gets Its First Tumblr
http://mashable.com/2011/04/06/nytimes-tumblr/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29

The Gray Lady has just launched its first Tumblr account, but it’s not showcasing the newswriting and photojournalism content you might expect.

The new Times account — T on Tumblr — covers the domain of T Magazine, the style and culture magazine of The New York Times. The subject matter is a perfect fit for the arts- and community-focused mini-blogging platform.

The Washington Post recently took to Tumblr with a blog full of behind-the-scenes info and musings on the future of journalism. But The New York Times‘ first foray into the world of Tumblr is less news and more pure fashion.

In fact, we recently wrote about fashion brands flocking to Tumblr, and T on Tumblr makes sense for the same reasons: The content is highly visual, and the posts are potentially highly viral. Due to features such as one-click reblogging, Tumblr Fashion Director Rich Tong says, “There’s a huge capacity for fashion content to go viral on Tumblr.”

And visual, cultural content for the creative communities is exactly what Tumblr is aiming for these days.

T on Tumblr is replete with huge, magazine-quality photos of pretty people making funny faces. Captions are brief and contain links to the official T Magazine site. The blog also curates a “Posts We Like” section.

Horacio Silva, T’s online director, told The Cutline, “It’s a great way of bringing to the surface a lot of these great visuals that for any reason may have been overlooked.

“We take a very curatorial approach to the editorial decisions we make. I think that aspect lends itself perfectly to Tumblr.”

Check out T on Tumblr, and let us know in the comments what you think of the project. Is this approach more appropriate for Tumblr than the news-and-commentary tactic of the Washington Post?

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Article: Watercress the new wonder food

Watercress the new wonder food
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2011/04/20/309645_gold-coast-news.html

THE State Government thinks health-conscious Gold Coasters may soon be swapping lettuce for watercress. Mounting evidence shows watercress may combat certain types of cancer. Food scientists at the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation are determined to find the most nutritious methods of preparing and cooking the leaves.

The cancer fighting capability of watercress, a member of the brassica family, is due to the high levels of phytochemicals known as isothiocyanates (ITCs). These are the same disease fighting components found in broccoli and cabbage.

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Article: Penthouse, rural shack cost the same

Penthouse, rural shack cost the same
http://www.news.com.au/money/property/mining-boom-pushes-average-rent-for-central-queensland-house-up-nine-times-more-than-brisbane/story-e6frfmd0-1226040921422

GIVEN the choice, where would you live?

A two-level, four-bedroom, three bathroom penthouse apartment overlooking the Brisbane skyline with a sweeping balcony and access to a sparkling rooftop pool?

Or would you live in four-bedroom, one bathroom, weatherboard house with a carport in central Queensland?

Well if you have around $1450 a week you can have either.

The Courier Mail reports today the mining industry has affected house prices in some towns to such a degree that it costs around nine times as much to live in the rural town of Dysart as it does to live in southwest Brisbane.

The high cost of housing and huge demand from mining workers has even seen instances of “hot-bedding”, which means sharing a room with someone on an alternative shift.

The cost is driving many companies into the controversial fly-in, fly-out schemes or putting workers in temporary camps, causing huge social problems in some towns.

Young people without mining jobs in towns like Moranbah are reportedly forced to live in caravans - often with five or six people together - because they cannot afford the $1200 a week rentals.

The Real Estate Institute of Queensland found Dysart had the state’s highest median rent of $1200 a week for a house, but this was collated over the average rents for all houses.

Current listings show a four-bedroom house in Dysart can fetch as much as $1800 a week in rent while the median rent for homes in suburban Forest Lake, in Brisbane’s south west, is $362 a week.

The REIQ said state-wide market conditions over the past 12 months resulted in better returns for investors because house prices had generally softened and rents remained stable.

“The natural disasters in Queensland … no doubt impacted buyer confidence, however February saw an increase in the number of dwellings financed across all buyer segments,” REIQ chairman Pamela Bennett said.

The union representing coalminers, the CFMEU, has campaigned heavily on the destruction of mining communities through fly-in, fly-out operations. Yesterday it described the rents as a disgrace.

CFMEU state secretary Jim Valery said it was not only miners affected because towns could not attract council workers, emergency workers or even bank staff because they could not afford rents.

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Article: Aussies sought to buy US real estate

Aussies sought to buy US real estate
http://www.news.com.au/money/investors-sought-to-buy-us-real-estate/story-e6frfmci-1226040754283

AUSTRALIAN investors are being asked to pump millions of dollars into high-risk US houses, the same assets that triggered the global financial crisis.

In the first listed investment of its type, financial planner Dixon Advisory is seeking $80 million from mum-and-dad investors to purchase the heavily discounted homes.

House prices in the US have suffered a five-year slump and remain up to 60 per cent below their 2006 peak.

The collapse in US house values led to millions of people walking away from their homes, which under US law left the banks and other lenders with responsibility for their clients’ debts.

It was this avalanche of mortgage defaults that started the world-wide collapse of the wholesale financial system and triggered the global crisis.

According to Dixon Advisory, it plans to buy up homes in the New York metropolitan area, particularly family homes in Hudson County and New Jersey.

The pool of houses is expected to produce an annual return of more than 8 per cent, based on estimated rental income. However, the company has not detailed the forecast return it will pass through to investors or its fees.

Dixon Advisory’s directors include high-profile financial advisers Daryl Dixon and Max Walsh. The plan will be marketed to individual investors and self-managed superannuation funds.

“Valuations for US property in certain areas, with strong fundamentals such as the New York metropolitan area, have become very attractive,” Dixon managing director Alan Dixon said yesterday.

“At the same time, housing affordability measures in the US are at record highs and rents have been mostly stable throughout the period, resulting in very attractive yields to investors currently.

“This, coupled with the record high Australian dollar, provides a unique investment opportunity for investors to gain access to this highly attractive asset class.”

The property fund plans to issue units at $1.60 each, compared with a net asset value of $1.57, with a minimum subscription per person of $2000.

Dale Gilham, analyst at fund manager Wealth Within, said there were benefits and risks associated with the US housing market. The benefits include potential capital gains, if prices recover, and higher than normal rental income.

The risks include currency exchange and growth forecasts that assume the US economy is improving.

Mr Gilham said he was wary, as the investment “has not been tried and tested over years”.

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Monday, April 18, 2011

Article: Using An Editorial Calendar For Your Blog

Using An Editorial Calendar For Your Blog
http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/blog-editorial-calendar.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SearchEnginePeople+%28Search+Engine+People%29

You already know that a blog is a trifecta win for your website:

Fresh content on your blog is a big attraction for search engines
A blog gives your target audience a reason to return to your website on a regular basis,
A blog attracts new visitors looking for the info you have to offer

The key to keeping your blog fresh and relevant is to organize yourself in a way that will help you post valuable, useful, and fun content on a predicable schedule.

planning strategically
like
a publisherIf you are like me, when I established my blog I was loaded with ideas, overflowing with excitement and full of plans. The key is to harness this energy and get those ideas organized.

How do I do it and how do I help my clients do it? We set up an editorial calendar that provides a simple structure to guide content organization and creation for many months to come.

Publishers originally used editorial calendars as a guide for advertisers to build targeted ads around the planned content. Pleasing advertisers is probably not an issue for your blog, but planning strategically like a publisher makes a lot of sense.

First, the key to successful blogging is consistency – the New York Times doesn’t show up every now and again does it? Second, you can plan to present content in a variety of ways; writing, videos, and using images. Some people love videos, some bulleted lists, mix up your delivery to engage as many people as possible.

Here is a simple example, the subject of your blog is Facebook and you post once a week. A logical Editorial Calendar could be:

• Week 1: An editorial – “Is Facebook still a player?”
• Week 2: A tutorial – “How to build Welcome pages for businesses” (create a video)
• Week 3: News – Facebook has just launched a way to turn personal pages into business pages
• Week 4:Guest post – ask a trusted colleague to guest blog. It will remove the pressure from you to write something, and expose your audience to other people. (Also this could be a terrific opportunity for link exchanges, which is another SEO booster!)

My clients and I set aside a little time at the start of each quarter to layout the calendar. I suggest that you use Google Analytics to review your stats and examine which posts are drawing the biggest audience and which keywords are sending visitors your way. If you see that your Facebook video tutorials are popular, schedule more!

If you are working in WordPress it is also possible to write a series of articles and editorials to save and publish at a later date. This one minute video tutorial will walk you through the process. There is an excellent WordPress plugin that is simply called editorial calendar, and this is a super tutorial video which will walk you through the features and best ways to use the editorial calendar.

My advice, set aside some time to think through your message and the frequency you can commit to for the next several months. Lay out your plan and get with it.

Do you use an editorial calendar or do you have other tools and processes to keep your blogging going? Share them in the comments!

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Article: Managing Real Estate Talent

Managing Real Estate Talent
http://www.matthewferrara.com/blog/company/managing-real-estate-talent/

The classic real estate business model asks each person to do everything. Agents must master dozens of skills. Managers must know those, plus management ones. The results are polarized: spectacular success amidst widespread failures, even at the same companies. Maybe the solution is to fix an organizational design flaw whose time has come.

Consider the truism: 10% of the agents do about 90% of the business. What does that say about the large portion of the industry who generate few or no outcomes, but still show up to work? Similarly, different managers in branches of the same company produce different results. Some meet their recruiting goals, others miss those marks but hit their profit goals. All have access to the same systems, tools and training.

We could rationalize: different markets, consumers, motivation levels, etc. But suppose for a moment the problem isn’t people. What if it’s the way the people have been organized?

Consider two key social developments in the last two centuries (yes, look at history). Since the mid-19th century, Western society has increasingly valued specialists. General practitioners in medicine, science, education, industry have disappeared. College graduates emerge with specific degrees. A vast array of single-focus technical institutes has emerged: hair design, cooking, computer engineering and lab technicians. We even ask little children are asked what they want to be when they grow up. Bobby wants to become a fireman, Sally an astronaut.

Hardly any child aspires to become someone who does a little bit of everything at varying levels of competence every day.

Which leads us to the second development: hyper-specialized business missions. Few companies try to do a little bit of everything any more, a la Sears. At one time the Ed Sullivan Show featured a variety of talents. Today, there’s a magazine for every peculiar specialty: Running, Walking, Jogging. Success means focus, segmentation, execution, consistency.

Specialization allowed Ford to produce hundreds, not dozens, of cars per month. Specialist teams design different parts of the same computer, then collaborate on the final product. Industry newcomers displace veterans using specialization: By deploying a single model plane throughout its fleet, Southwest slashed costs, time and resources for parts, training, and maintenance. It tackled the problem of scheduling and absenteeism, making flight attendants and pilots interchangeable. Some legacy airlines cycle through bankruptcy still trying to overcome the disadvantages of dissimilar planes, parts and personnel.

Adam Smith, Taylor, Marcus Buckingham have taught and re-taught this lesson for centuries. Successful companies divide the work, train and equip specialists, leverage individual talents, and manage the process. The key technology is properly applied talent, not the adoption of robots or social media.

What if we apply this to the real estate industry?

Traditional operating procedure has focused on recruiting and equipping agents as generalists. Each person is trained to be a duplicate “basket of skills” capable of doing every part of the sale. Rather than consolidate independent cottage workers into a work-divided factory, the real estate industry has opted to replicate the generalist model, building additional cottages (branches) around town, hoping that more generalists would equal more sales.

Moreover, the generalist skill basket is huge. To be successful, agents must master agency representation, prospecting skills, market analysis, pricing strategies, advertising, e-commerce, legal compliance, finance, negotiation tactics, staging skills, transaction management, accounting and relationship management responsibilities. It’s hardly surprising that so few people can manage them all to break the $100,000 income level. And the basket continues to grow.

Some industry specialization exists: Relocation specialists are the most common. Pseudo-specialization is more common: agents focusing on certain property types. Yet this isn’t operational specialization, since they must still possess proficiency in the rest of the generalist basket items.

The case may be worse for managers, many of whom come from the agent ranks. Not only are they expected to demonstrate proficiency within many elements of the sales basket, but they must also master a management basket. Operations, technology, budgeting, recruiting, conflict management, training and strategic planning require other talents, tools and resources.

So what’s the solution?

Move the boxes around on the company org chart. Start assigning people to tasks according to their individual talents, not street addresses. Find that manager who is a talented recruiter and let them recruit all day long, with no other responsibilities, for any branch that needs additional talent. Eliminate recruiting for everyone else with no talent for it. But figure out what they are good at, instead. Can they coach? Let them coach agents in any branch. Is there a great bean-counter amongst them? Assign him to manage the budget for multiple offices. Just don’t ask him to conduct an office meeting or strategic planning session. You get the idea.

Stop thinking of management as a location-based activity and start thinking of it as a company-based allocation of talent. Deploy human resources by proficiency, not street address. One person can coach hundreds of people; manage dozens of budgets or recruit as many new agents as needed each year if you let them stick to it. The pilot doesn’t serve the drinks. The quarterback doesn’t block. The surgeon doesn’t treat a cold.

Reorganizing the org chart of the real estate company is critical to the future. It can release hidden talent in your existing group, and create the structural conditions to attract the next generation of team-oriented, specialist Gen Y’ers. That’s not a contradiction in terms, either. Talent-based organizations improve motivation and morale, too: People don’t hesitate to do things they like to do. Smart companies make it possible for them to maximize what they can do well, and stop asking them to do things they cannot master.

Global business has been taking advantage of the specialist movement in social education and organization for decades. There’s a great opportunity awaiting real estate companies who make the shift from churning generalists to designing specialists (in managers and agents) to deliver the next generation of real estate services in the future.

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Article: From kitchen to couch: pet chooks fly the coop

From kitchen to couch: pet chooks fly the coop | brisbanetimes.com.au
http://m.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/from-kitchen-to-couch-pet-chooks-fly-the-coop-20110415-1dh3e.html

They don’t shed fur and won’t scratch your couch, but they do love going for walks and can provide you with breakfast.

The humble chicken is now being considered an ideal inner-city pet who’s just as good at providing you with organic free-range eggs as snuggling up next to you to watch MasterChef.

Well, perhaps not MasterChef.

Chickens are social creatures who love human companionship, according to Ingrid Dimock.

The Brisbane mother has seen her City Chicks business expand from a part-time job a few years ago to a successul franchise with branches in Sydney and another soon to open in Melbourne.

From her home in Anstead, on Brisbane’s western fringe, Ms Dimock sells chickens and coops, feed, egg incubators and chicken leashes and nappies. Yes, that’s chicken nappies. ‘‘People wanted to take them inside their house but chickens poo constantly,’’ she said. ‘‘So they can put a nappy on it and it can go inside as a treat, watch TV with the family.’’ The ‘nappy’ - a fabric pouch the chickens don’t seem to mind wearing once they’ve gotten used to it - has become so popular that Ms Dimock is now selling about ten each week through her online store. She also sells two or three chicken leashes, made from converted small dog leads. The leashes were developed on the request of a client who wanted to be able to take his chicken to his kids’ soccer games. ‘‘Your best ideas come from your clients,’’ Ms Dimock said. Families not quite ready to commit to being full-time fowl owners can rent out a few birds and a coop to see if they like it (and if it’s okay with their neighbours). The growing trend for pet chickens among city families is due to increasing demand for organic or free-range eggs, as well as a desire to get kids off Facebook and into the backyard, Ms Dimock said. ”People want to know where their food is coming from. They want their eggs to be free-range and we sell organic feed so they can have organic eggs as well,” she said. ”The other reason is they want to get the kids outdoors and getting their hands dirty.”

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Article: What Happened to the Markets in March?

What Happened to the Markets in March?
http://www.raywhite.net/?p=4774

Our obsession with overall market direction continues. It is apparent that a new factor needs to be incorporated in any searching analysis – the impact of some fading values in a number of our markets. Not in all, and not nearly as dramatic as many commentators have broadcast.

Many in real estate expect that a “sellers” market is the natural order of things and get frightened when that cycle (inevitably) turns. Many buyers are now buying the desired asset that was previously beyond them.

So our total unconditional sales of $2.3 billion proved to us that a platform base is being established. Why? Evidence that buyers are beginning to relish their new found prominence in the property “feeding” cycle. Also encouraging is that buyers simply want a good deal and are not seeking to humiliate our sellers.

Again, there are many counter prevailing forces. Australia’s two biggest cities are powering on (predictions of Melbourne’s imminent reversal now seem panicky). New Zealand’s Auckland showing leadership.

The resource states (Qld and WA) are not yet enjoying an improved balance between buyer and seller. But this remains the theme we have focused upon for months – the big cities are showing the same resilience as the biggest US cities.

And buyers will continue to benefit from a renewal in competition between the Banks in home lending. Brokers are coming into their own in clarifying the differences in different mortgage products – the variety in offerings is perhaps the most comprehensive it has ever been. Stories of brokers being able to enhance the entire transaction to the benefit of their buying clients is constant.

Stability of interest rates (NZ actually lowered theirs) is good news.

A story from Indonesia is enlightening – their domestic market has rarely been so active and aggressive. And that is because their interest rates for borrowers have dropped to an “incredible low” ten percent! Proof that, at the end of the day, most things are relative.

What’s new at Ray White?

The Company’s just completed season of Award evenings was a continuing inspiration. Again and again, stories of commitment and skills’ development pervaded those taking the Award categories. More Awards for property management reflect the dramatically enhanced standing we now place on providing a dramatically elevated service to investment owners – who consistently own around 30% of all properties, although this percentage is under some pressure.

The key Group Awards will be presented at our Bali Conference in June.

A special purpose briefing on the property implications of the Christchurch market was recently held in Sydney. We often forget how much property is owned by expatriates. We were delighted with the response to our session. We will continue to conduct these special sessions as a service to people interested in their property assets.

An agreement has been concluded to open in Kuala Lumpur – the opening ceremony to coincide with our Bali Conference. We continue to believe we have a role to play in Asia.

In Victoria, we continue to challenge that unique Melbourne tradition – where all Auctions should be held “on site” – recent successes from our Melbourne businesses are showing how powerful and successful are “in rooms” auction events.

Ray White Invest’s WA Retail Centres are being expanded to exploit their long evident potential.

Our next issue will look deeply into the post natural disaster Queensland market.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Article: How real estate agents use social media

How real estate agents use social media
http://peterfletcher.com.au/2011/04/12/how-real-estate-agents-use-social-media/

On April 12, 2011, In Social media, by Peter Fletcher

An online survey, conducted by Postling, of more than 500 real estate professionals in the USA has found:

84% of real estate agents use social media.
79% use Facebook and 48% use Twitter.
Most (55%) feel comfortable using social media, while 26% are only somewhat comfortable.
Agents are missing opportunities by not using video for property marketing.
29% of internet searches result in a prospect contacting an agent.
45% of searches lead to a prospect walking through an open for inspection.
Real estate agents are ahead of other industries in the use of Facebook but they’re behind in the use of Twitter and WordPress.

These stats demand agents rethink their web and video strategies.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Article: How Likeable is Your Company?

How Likeable is Your Company?
http://www.matthewferrara.com/rssfeed/how-likeable-is-your-company/

Over at the Harvard Business Review’s blog today, I found an interesting entry by Andrew McAfee titled, Do Your Younger Customers Even Like Your Company? that made me think of the parallel challenges facing the real estate industry.

Here is an excerpt:

I had an interesting conversation earlier this week with a very experienced consultant whose company works with many of the largest financial services providers in the world — the banks, funds, and insurance companies we’ve all heard of. He told me that a lot of them were noticing the same disturbing trend: their younger customers really didn’t like them.

Across a lot of these companies, there’s a dominant model for how to interact with customers around big-ticket events like buying life insurance, setting up a brokerage account, saving for college or retirement, and so on. The model involves initial recommendations from the company, often delivered in face-to-face meetings, sporadic follow-ups, and more frequent and routine transactions (making deposits, paying bills, etc.) that nowadays often happen online.

Now this sounds remarkably familiar, doesn’t it? McAfee goes on….

What’s so bad about this? In the eyes of digital native customers, a few things. The initial recommendations are seen as untrustworthy, since they come from someone who’s likely to be more interested in maximizing personal or corporate income rather than customer well-being. The meetings and phone calls around these recs are intrusive and inconvenient, and the documents impenetrable. And the associated websites are clunky; it’s harder than it needs to be to execute processes and transactions, find basic information, and get questions answered. In short, the human interactions seem to date from the Eisenhower administration, and the online ones from 1996.

McAfee goes on to say that customers work with these companies even though they don’t like to, because the companies control access to the desired product or service. But he challenges us to consider if that’s the best business model: control access, or better experience. Plus, he notes, the digital viewpoint is spreading, to all generations hopping on the Facebook-iPad-smartphone information management nexus,which will create an opportunity for companies who move swiftly to adopt their customers’ viewpoint to mop up from companies that do not part from their legacy systems, including intransigent employees, fast enough.

For me, the most interesting part of the piece isn’t the usual “stress” upon technology itself, often interpreted as the “thing” modern customers want, but the trust and likeability factor between customers and these companies. The insight is that the purpose of innovation isn’t just to reduce paperwork or speed up the transaction, but to convey to the consumer that you have their best interests at heart, that you speak their language, and that you wish to earn their trust by being transparent. Most of all, McAfee notes that the human interactions need to progress from the ways things were done back in “Eisenhower’s days” alongside the improvements in technology process, which we often put more resources into updating or adopting.

We’ve been challenging our clients to think about the process, not just the tools, for years. For example, no amount of tweeting is going to get Gen X consumers to attend an open house if you’re still scheduling them for Sundays (as in the 1960s). It’s not that the customer doesn’t know about your open houses; it’s that they fall on an inconvenient day of the week – one that hasn’t been convenient for many people since the days of Laverne and Shirley.

The industry is ripe for process changes, not just increasing the speed of the traditionalist model.

How well is your company updating it’s likability with consumers, by improving the process side of your business, not just adopting the latest gadgets?

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Monday, April 11, 2011

Article: Twitter Considering Facebook-Style Pages for Brands [REPORT]

Twitter Considering Facebook-Style Pages for Brands [REPORT]
http://mashable.com/2011/04/05/twitter-pages-brands/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29

Twitter might introduce pages for brands similar to those on Facebook, according to reports.

The initiative, which Marketing Magazine reports is being lead by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and President of Revenue Adam Bain, is to give brands their own space on Twitter — a page they could point to and use to deliver content, while encouraging Twitter users to follow them.

In a similar move, Foursquare launched Pages Gallery
Monday, a showcase of different company pages on Foursquare.

The question is: Does Twitter really need branded pages? On Facebook, the entire brand experience revolves around the company’s page. That part of the experience is currently lacking on Twitter, where brands can only promote themselves through sponsored hashtags, lists and tweets.

However, one could argue that this constant flow of information, without many single static elements for users to grab onto, is part of Twitter’s appeal. What do you think? Could pages improve the Twitter experience for users and brands?

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Article: Use the web to market yourself

I recently made an enquiry with a Real Estate agent about a neighbouring office in my area. There were at least eight For Sale signs hammered in the ground so I just picked one of the agents to call.

Aside from finding out more about this property I was looking forward to making this call to experience being on the ‘other side of the fence’ on a sales call. One of the reasons I was so excited was that my perception of Real Estate agents was that they were best of breed when it came to sales, marketing and deal making.

We can all improve what we do and since sales is an important part of what I do with my web design and online marketing business, I was keen to learn a few tips from the experts! However, you may be amazed to discover that during the conversation I was never asked for my name, my number or even my e-mail address. As we both hung up our mobiles, I realised this agent now has no way of reaching me again, even if he wanted to.

I was a bit deflated as I was really hoping to be taught a lesson or two in sales. Of course one isolated incident like is no grounds to make sweeping generalisations and I have always admired Real Estate agents for their charisma, tenacity and enthusiasm. However, the experience did leave me wondering, “How could I share what I’ve learnt on the Internet to help Real Estate agents use the web to their advantage?”

So here’s what I put together.

11 Easy Ways to Use The Web to Market Yourself & Make More Sales

Build your network online

Build and maintain a list of prospects, clients and friends in an online database. Each time you talk with someone new, just ask for their details or get their card and jot down a few notes about them. Enter them into your database and follow them up with a friendly e-mail.

The great thing about the Internet is that you can access it from nearly anywhere so even if you are on the road all day, with your laptop or iPhone you are away!

Tip: You can set up a free online database using Google Docs or you may use paid services like Salesforce.com.

Write a regular e-mail newsletter

The key to e-mail marketing is making the e-mail interesting and useful. If you write your newsletter to educate or entertain your readers, chances are you’ll build good long lasting relationships with them. Take the time to make your newsletter interesting and people will forward it to their friends and help promote your services.

If you’re not sure what to include, write articles about people – an interview, a profile, photos, a client’s case study or a story in the media. People are interested in people – just look at the success of Master Chef and reality TV!

Write a blog

Blogging is probably the most effective thing you can be doing on the Internet as it allows you to bolster your online reputation. Try googling your name and see what comes up. If you want to be found, get a blog and start writing. I’m sure prospective buyers are googling you before they make their decision and blogging is a wonderful way to raise your profile!

Send press releases to PR web

If you want to get some publicity, try sending your press releases to PR Web as well as your list of journalists. Writers from all over the world may pick up your article and that can generate unprecedented publicity. Go to www.prwebdirect.com/

Conduct online surveys

Wouldn’t it be great if you knew what people wanted? Or knew how they’d prefer to deal with you? The good news is it’s easy to find out. Free websites like Survey Pirate and Survey Monkey allow you to create simple online surveys which you can send around.

Tweet on Twitter

If you don’t know about Twitter yet, it’s to time to check it out. If you want to be top of mind, tweeting is great. You can follow industry experts or better still, establish yourself as the expert by posting useful and entertaining ‘tweets’ (ie 140 character updates) and building a base of followers.

Linked In is the biggest online professional network and many people consider it “Facebook for work”. It’s free to join, it’s growing rapidly and it’s the perfect place to connect with your colleagues and prospects. It’s kind of like an online CV and a great way to differentiate yourself.

Hire a Virtual Assistant

As Real Estate agents you’re understandably busy working on deals and pressing the flesh, so why not engage the services of a virtual assistant? You can have documents prepared or research done by offshore assistants and it can cost peanuts. Hire a virtual assistant from $2 to $3 per hour through oDesk.com or Elance.com

Make the most of Google Maps & Street View.

Have you got leads that are interested but they’re too busy for an inspection? You could map out some directions on Google Maps so they can check out the properties in their own time. You could also use Street View to send the prospect a picture of the property too.

List your properties on Google Maps Real Estate

It is now possible for people to search for real estate using Google Maps. It’s free to use and it’s free to list! I think this service will make huge waves. Check out http://maps.google.com.au/help/maps/realestate/

YouTube testimonials:

Get video testimonials from happy clients after a sale and post them onto YouTube. If you carry a digital camera with you can start today. Why not film a video introducing yourself as well? Start a YouTube channel and embed the videos on your blog.

Adam Franklin co-founded Brisbane web design company Bluewire Media in 2005. Bluewire Media is focused on online marketing for the Real Estate and property sectors and is also the only web design company that is ISO9001:2008 quality assured and has a money back guarantee. www.BluewireMedia.com.au

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Article: How Google Plus One Works For Ranking [SEO Theory]

The web is a series of “things” with links between them.

In math a series of “objects” with links in between them is called a graph.

In computer science a graph is data structured along the mathematical graph concepts.

The World Wide Web then looks like and can be acted upon mathematically as a graph.

Graph algorithms – series of math calculations to extract data from or conclude things about a graph – are heavily used in computer science.

GOOGLE’s PAGERANK ALGORITHM

At the heart of Google was the PageRank algorithm.

PageRank is a graph algorithm that extracts meaning from a graph (the web) by looking at the structure of the graph: it looks at the links (edges in math) between pages (nodes) and assigns a numerical value to each page based on the links found. By repeating this several times, going over the same graph time and time again, the most connected pages can be found: these pages are then considered by Google to be the most important (#1 ranking), and their links are considered the most influential.

The correlation Google draws between link, value of links, and the importance of a page was an intuitive one. People who used Google found the search results ordered (ranked) this way very, very relevant, confirming the intuitive correlation.

GOOGLE +1 CORRELATION

We just know in our gut that there has to be a correlation between the number of people that like (Facebook), tweet (Twitter), or Plus One (Google) a page.

That’s the answer.

The question is: what is the nature or the meaning of this correlation?

Is there a correlation between relevance and social shares? Traffic and social shares? Are social shares maybe only relevant and correlated within one’s social network; you visit what I visit but outside of our relationship people could care less? Do pages with more links get equally more social shares? Are too many social shares a sign of web spam?

FACTOR ANALYSIS

When you have a lot of related data in rows and columns (a table of data for you and me; a matrix in math) you know they are related in the sense that the data belongs to each other.

If you want to explore or confirm relationships in, especially, massive data sets with lots of “noise” (bad data), unknown connections, and all kinds of cross linked interactions , then you would use factor analysis.

Factor analysis is a mathematical tool that can show patterns of occurrence.

For example, in a large data set of everyday objects, factor analysis can show that there are patterns of occurrence. That beds appear with houses but are less likely to appear with office. An insurance expert could use the data set of everyday objects together with everyday accidents and factor analysis could shows or confirm that ladder appears a lot with broken bones.

Combining social and economical data social scientists, economists, and politicians can explore which patterns seem to be beneficial for economic growth or which promote peace and stability.

FACTOR ANALYSIS TO EXPOSE +1 CORRELATION

Google will go through a period where they collect +1 data but not act on it.

Once they have a large data set they can apply factor analysis to have the data tell them what the meaning of the +1 variable is and what its various values seem to imply.

The patterns of occurrence found can be compared with models Google might have made or with a similar data set from a smaller collection which contains more trusted data.

With the plus one meanings known, Google can then codify this meaning.

Aware of what the different values stand for, which frequencies are normal, and which patterns of appearance are odd, Google can set the bottom and ceiling triggers and create a negative filter, a normative filter, and a positive filter.

MEANING PREDICTION

I expect that the primary occurrence patterns will be:

Social Influencer: this is where +1 starts today and will start every time. The pattern is localized in the social network of the user making the +1 vote. From that user the effects ripples through her network, causing additional +1 votes from other people in the network; the +1’d site is very valuable or relevant to that network for that query.
Other terms relevant here: localized expert; trust.
Network Hopping: when the initial +1 has traveled through the localized network and the subsequent +1’s cause people in the connected networks (friends-of-friends, etc.) to +1 the result.
Associative terms: viral; expert; meme; middle-of-the-road.
Query Relevant: the result of the first two is that the +1 is highly relevant according to ever growing numbers of searchers.
So: expert advice; “best of…” (not necessarily “best”)

The meaning of these patterns, or their value, seems to be inverse to the level of connectiveness: the less people voting each other are connected, the better their vote.

That is, if a PHP expert has found a page with good code and +1’d it, someone performing a similar query sees this results and +1’s it and these two people are unrelated, then the +1 has high value in suggesting query relevant value then had the two known each other.

This in turn suggests that low numbers of +1’s can be just as valuable as high numbers of +1’s depending on the connectiveness between the voters.

Perhaps this can be used to add an inverse corrective filter, one that says that the more votes from within the immediate network + the more votes from within the direct neighboring networks = less value for non-connected networks – until a certain level is passed.

Suggested reading: Bin Gao, Tie-Yan Liu, Wei Wei, Taifeng Wang, and Hang Li. Semi-Supervised Ranking on Very Large Graph with Rich Metadata [PDF]. Microsoft Research. March 2011.

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Article: Property investing: Not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme

Property investing: Not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme
http://blog.aussie.com.au/property-investing-not-a-scheme/

Property investing: Not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme

Property investors looking to get rich quick from buying and selling real estate over the next few years will be disappointed according to agents PRDNationwide.

The heady days of the last decade where huge profits were realised from the property boom are over as more subdued growth is predicted.

According to an economic and property snapshot produced by PRDnationwide, Australia is enjoying a healthy employment market, increased business confidence, and continued population growth.

Activity in the property market however remains relatively soft compared to years past.

PRDnationwide research analyst Aaron Maskrey said if interest rates stay on hold for the foreseeable future, this could potentially lead to greater buyer confidence and increasing activity in the market.

“Momentum will be gained if interest rates are kept on hold – this would lead to greater confidence and should spark higher levels of activity.”

However, Mr Maskrey said it was highly unlikely that the property market would return to the skyrocketing rates experienced several years ago.

“We have seen the property market catch its breath and it is likely that the rate of growth will be slow and steady for the next few years,” he said.

“Those looking to invest in property should do so with a plan to hold on to it for longer than five years.”

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Article: Stunning Photos Capture Great White Shark Lurking As Children Play On Australian Beach

Stunning Photos Capture Great White Shark Lurking As Children Play On Australian Beach

By The Daily Telegraph

HAWKS NEST, Australia - Shocking photos emerged Thursday of a great white shark lurking in the shallow waters of an Australian beach as two little boys play happily on the sand.

The photographs, published by The (Sydney) Daily Telegraph, show how frighteningly close the juvenile maneater came to the shoreline at Bennetts beach in Hawks Nest, a popular tourist destination about 130 miles (210 km) north of Sydney.

The images were taken a few weeks ago on the same stretch of beach where wakeboarder Lisa Mondy was mauled by a great white on March 16.

Locals said that while shark sightings were not uncommon, to see them so close to the beach was rare and alarming.

David and Tracey Lowe were at the beach the day these photos were taken and saw a 6.5 ft (2m) great white, less than 32ft (10m) from the beach.

“We thought this was a good spot to go swimming and at first it looked like a shadow or something in the water,” Tracey Lowe said.

“Then this wave came up and you could see the shark swimming through it. Once you got over the fear it was quite fascinating.

“There were two sharks at one point but the other one just came in close for a short while and then moved out again.”

Hawks Nest Surf Life Saving Club president Stephen Howell said sightings were common at this time of year because of the schools of bait fish and salmon in the area, adding, “That’s what the sharks are after.”

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Rising rental yields and super changes have investors eyeing housing market: NAB survey

http://www.smartcompany.com.au/property/20110405-rising-rental-yields-and-super-changes-have-investors-eyeing-housing-market-nab-survey.html

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Article: The Australian: Buy now, but where and what?

Buy now, but where and what?

April 4, 2011 ·

Income and growth are still the goals for investors, but opinion is increasingly divided on how best to secure them. Article by Jo Studdert.

The rumour is, it’s a buyer’s market. Property prices are stable or falling: now is the time to buy.

But where and what? Is it better to make one investment in an expensive area or several in cheaper places? Should you buy a house or an apartment or town house?

Ultimately your decision will be affected by your ability and willingness to take on debt and the state of the local property market and the economy.

Traditionally, investors have sought income (from rents) or growth (from rising property values).

With income (yield), the rule has always been the cheaper the property, the higher the yield. With capital gain (growth), it is the opposite: the dearer the property, the bigger the gain, but these distinctions are fading.

Stephen Bock, sales director at Ray White in Sydney’s Manly, says growth and yields are high in his beachside suburb, and significantly higher than in cheaper neighbouring areas.

“Yields on Manly apartments are 5 per cent where in 2003 they would have been 3 per cent, not because property values have fallen but because rental demand is up,” Bock says.

“And in some cheaper nearby suburbs owners can have trouble finding tenants. It is always better to buy in a desirable suburb because there is always excess demand: lots of people want to move in and no one wants to move out.”

Scott Calcraft, a long-time Manly resident and investor, says the suburb is the best place to live and to invest.

“Why? Because everyone wants to live here,” he says.

“It’s got the best of everything: restaurants, a fishing-village feel, and five beaches to choose from depending on which way the wind’s blowing.

“My first investment property here had such a multi-multi performance that I bought a second, and I wish I’d never sold anything in Manly.

“I would have been a multi-multi millionaire. It’s magnificent.”

Monique Wakelin, principal of Melbourne’s Wakelin Property Advisory, agrees. “It is never a question of the number of properties you own, it’s always about quality,” she says.

“So go for one good property in an inner-city area rather than a bunch further out.

“Buy a place with true architectural scarcity value as close to the city as you can in areas where demand exceeds supply. The more money you have to invest, the less you should compromise on quality.

“You will get about 3.8 per cent rental return, but you should not buy on the basis of yield: property is capital, so buy for its capital growth.

“I would advise investors actively to avoid any property with a yield above 3.8 per cent to 4 per cent because it suggests there is not enough demand for that property to grow in value.”

But Vince Movizio, principal at at Ray White in Sydney’s western suburb of Fairfield, disagrees, saying “poorer” suburbs such as his offer capital growth and high yields these days. He says it is almost impossible to find houses to rent in the district.

“As soon as one becomes empty for a split second, tenants are queuing up,” he says.

“There is not, however, so much interest in small apartments.”

Movizio says a vacancy is financially disastrous if you have only one property in an expensive suburb with a correspondingly large mortgage. “But if you have a few places in a cheaper area and a tenant vacates, it won’t kill you.”

Rents in lower-income areas used to be well below the median, but Movizio says that has changed. “Fairfield used to have low rents and therefore low yields, but now our rents are extreme and so is capital growth.

“Having the railway line and the M7 [freeway] keeps our prices up and we have more variety of property types so can appeal to a wider audience.”

But generally yields have been poor. Australian Property Monitors research shows rental growth in most capital cities is up only 1 per cent to 3 per cent for houses and down by 0.2 per cent for units in the December quarter, nowhere near covering interest rate rises.

Yields on houses ranged from a low of 3.64 per cent in Melbourne to 4.99 per cent in Hobart; and, for apartments, from a Canberra high of 5.47 per cent to a Melbourne low of 4.31 per cent.

The story was a bit better for capital growth, except in Sydney, where property values have been stuck in the doldrums since 2009, but even nationally, growth has been moderate. Andrew Wilson, senior economist with APM, says: “The prospects of capital gain in Sydney are better than they have been for years, especially if you buy in expensive suburbs, and rental yields in Sydney are always good.

“Capital growth in Perth and Brisbane has been very poor, and only moderate in Adelaide, so opportunities are there, but there has been a 33 per cent growth in house prices in Melbourne in the past 18 months, so much of the capital gain has already happened.”

Daren Schneider, spokesman for the West Australian branch of the Real Estate Buyers Agents Association, says 68 per cent of sellers there have discounted their properties by an average of 6.3 per cent in the past year, so growth did not work for them.

Wilson says Melbourne has an oversupply of entry-level studio apartments, which will dampen rentals, and Brisbane has an oversupply of entry-level houses, so is not offering much capital growth or yield.

But Brian White, chairman of Ray White, says there is another factor that investors should not ignore: emotions.

“You need to consider whether a property appeals to you, for if it doesn’t, it probably won’t appeal to owner occupiers and it is owner-occupier buyers who drive property prices, not investors. Investment apartments in [Sydney’s] Mosman are not likely to be desirable to owner occupiers, so you could be better to buy out west where there are always owner occupiers."

To find out more checkout my blog at Jason Rose

Article: Top 5 Facebook Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make

Top 5 Facebook Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

While Facebook marketing is on the rise among small businesses, many are still struggling to master the basics.

“Many people have difficulty with just the basic Page set up,” says social media marketing consultant Nicole Krug. “For example, I still see people setting up their business as a profile page instead of a business Page. I have other clients who jumped into Groups when they came out and have divided their fan base.”

Here are five more common Facebook marketing mistakes to avoid:

1. Broadcasting

Ask any social marketing consultant what the number-one no-no is on Facebook, and he’ll likely tell you it’s “broadcasting” your messages instead of providing fans with relevant content and engaging on an continual basis.

“With Facebook, marketers of any size can do effective, word-of-mouth marketing at scale for the very first time. But Facebook is all about authenticity, so if your company is not being authentic or engaging with customers in a way that feels genuine, the community will see right through it,” says Facebook spokeswoman Annie Ta.

Peter Shankman, social media consultant, entrepreneur and author of “Customer Service: New Rules for a Social Media World,” agrees.

“Your job is to interact, not just to broadcast,” says Shankman. “Fans are looking for a reason to connect with you, and they’re showing you that by clicking ‘Like.’ Your job is to give them a reason to stay.”

According to Andy Smith, co-author of “The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change,” many businesses immediately ask how Facebook is going to make them money and have that be the focus, as opposed to trying to engage customers and provide a meaningful, authentic online experience. “Marketers need to recognize that people go to Facebook to make a connection or feel like part of a community,” says Smith.

2. Not Investing Adequate Time

Another common mistake is underestimating the amount of time a successful Facebook strategy entails. Many social media consultants report seeing a pervasive “set it and forget it” mentality among small businesses.

“Some small business owners are under the impression that if they set up a Page on Facebook, that’s all they have to do. They think people will just naturally come and want to be a fan of their product or service,” says Taylor Pratt of Raven Internet Marketing Tools. “But it takes much more of a commitment than that.”

It’s not just fan growth that will suffer from this approach — it may also hurt your relationships with existing fans, particularly customers who have come to expect timely responses to their posts and queries.

“Unlike traditional advertising methods such as a radio spot or a Yellow Pages listing, you can’t just create a Facebook Page and just let it run its course,” says Alex Levine, a social media strategist at Paco Communications. “Creating a Facebook Page is the first of many steps, but the Page needs to be updated and monitored constantly.”

3. Being Boring or Predictable

When they’re thinking about marketing, some business owners forget that Facebook is a social place where people share things they find funny, interesting or useful with their friends. Think about what kind of content your fans would actually want to share when planning your posts.

Shankman also cautions against becoming too predictable. “Status updates by themselves get boring. But then again, so do photos, videos and multimedia as a whole. Your job is to mix it up. The moment you become predictable, boring or annoying, they’ll hide you from their feed. So keep it varied and personal — a video here, a photo here, a tag of one of your fans here.”

Creating too much “filler” content by auto-publishing content from your blog or Twitter feed can also derail your efforts. Joseph Manna, community manager at Infusionsoft, recommends using Facebook’s native publishing tools to gain the most benefit from Facebook.

“Whatever you do, DON’T automate everything,” says Manna. “It’s nice to ‘set and forget,’ but the risk is two-fold: publishing systems sometimes have issues, and Facebook places low-priority on auto-published content.”

4. Failing to Learn About Facebook Mechanics and Tools

Since Facebook is a relatively new medium, some businesses have yet to explore all its functionality and they’re missing out on creating an optimal brand experience.

“Many small businesses do not take advantage of the tools to introduce themselves to the Facebook audience,” says Krug. “For example, the ‘Info’ tab is rarely utilized well, and very few small businesses [create] a custom welcome page.”

Krug also sees frequent mistakes around one of the most basic elements of Facebook presence: the profile image. “Most companies upload a version of their logo, but the resulting thumbnail image that shows up in news feeds often only captures a few letters in the middle of their logo — this partial, meaningless image is then how they’re branded throughout Facebook,” says Krug.

Facebook Insights, Facebook’s built-in analytics system, is also often overlooked, and with it the opportunity to analyze post-performance to see what types of content gets the most engagement.

5. Violating Facebook’s Terms

Not only is it critical to know how Facebook works and what tools are available, it’s also important to know the rules of the road — something that many businesses miss.

“Every day I see organizations endangering the communities they are growing by violating the terms they agreed to when their Facebook presence was created,” says small business marketing consultant Lisa Jenkins.

What are the most common violations? Some build a community on a personal page instead of a proper Facebook Page. Others fail to abide by Facebook’s rules around running contests. And don’t even think about “tagging” people who are in an image without their permission.

“Tagging people to get their attention is not only a violation of Terms but can be reported by those you are tagging as abusive behavior on your part — which brings your violation to Facebook’s attention and opens your Page’s content to review,” warns Jenkins.

To avoid these common mistakes, invest time in learning about the Facebook platform, educate yourself on how to build and sustain an audience, and don’t forget to engage with people like you do in real life.

“What sets small businesses apart from large companies is their ability to make personal connections with customers,” says Ben Nesvig of FuzedMarketing. “They tend to forget this when they join Facebook, yet it’s their biggest strength and asset.”

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