In this week’s Social Juice, read about Steve Jobs’ stepdown from CEO of Apple and check out some must-read email video marketing tips! Read on for more!
Steve Jobs Steps Down
Steve Jobs, the man who has arguably had the greatest influence on the modern technology age, has stepped down as CEO of Apple. Even if you didn’t grow up with Apple products in your home, Steve Jobs and his revolutionary ideas still influenced the way you thought about technology. I read a fascinating PC Magazine article that talked about Apple’s early influence on other mainstream PCs and digital products in the mid 80s. The author of the article, a passionate Atari fan, reflects on Apple’s significance in Atari product launches. “It turns out that my beloved Atari 800, like so many products of that era, was really just another me-too response to the Apple,” he stated. “After seeing Apple’s early success, Atari switched gears and began adding computer-like features to the design, such as support for peripherals, BASIC programming, and text.” And we thought Apple had become the unbeatable kid in the park only post-iPod.
Steve Jobs is not saying goodbye to Apple, oh no sir. He will serve on Apple’s Board as Chairman, still offering his brilliant ideas and personal touch to the company’s unique products. And many would say that Jobs’ has embedded his DNA and thought process into Apple. Thanks to him, Apple is synonymous with innovation, as are the company’s briliant engineers and staff. They have learned an awful lot from Jobs and are poised to take Apple to new levels in fast-developing digital eras, such as cloud computing (I, for one, am eagerly anticipating iCloud).
So what does this mean for realtors? Well, in the past few days there have been the naysayers who have written articles on how the company could fall apart without Jobs at the helm. However, a majority of the analysis I am seeing points to the company doing just fine, if not better in the post Jobs era. Tim Cook, previously the company’s COO, will now serve as CEO. This is a great appointment, since Cook has essentially been running Apple since Jobs took ill with pancreatic cancer in 2004.
The long and short of this all is real estate agents will still utilize Apple products for years to come in marketing their business. As an increasingly large percentage of people conduct real estate searches through mobile phones, Apple’s products will become all the more indispensable. Sleep well, realtors of the world, Apple isn’t going anywhere.
Spice Up Your Emails with Video
Video is one of the most popular real estate marketing tools. As real estate is a very visual industry, it makes sense to utilize video to give consumers a comprehensive view of a home. Video is consumed at an alarming rate ( according to comScore, the average U.S. internet user watches 186 videos every month, yes, month ). And it has become a staple on good brokerage websites. However, I think it is equally important for brokerages and agents alike to integrate video into their client communication plans-ie, email.
Constant Contact, and excellent email marketing system, has just introduced a video insertion feature into its interface. As Constant Contact states on its website, “Now video can be added to your Constant Contact email campaigns with a few clicks of the mouse. Our new Video Insert feature allows you to easily link to a video hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, or Blip.tv by automatically pulling in a thumbnail image, adding a player overlay to the image, and making the resulting image clickable.” This goes beyond just having a url that leads to a video within the body of your email, now you have an actual thumbnail from the video, making the viewing experience similar to that on a video service site, like YouTube or Vimeo.
Here are tips on how to use video within your emails-
1) If you do a monthly snapshot of the real estate market, opt out of the traditional text format and shoot a video. Make sure to post this video on your social media- facebook, twitter, Google +, etc.
2) Thank your email list for keeping up on your maket updates and supporting you on your blog, facebook or twitter pages
3) Share a milestone-for example, a unique sale, a certain amont of fans on your facebook or twitter pages, or having a certain blog post shared or tweeted a certain number of times
4) Do a video on how to use your website or your mobile site
5) Provide a snapshot into your local town
6) Share buyer or seller advice-ex. how to choose a Realtor
7) Share testimonials on your service
8) Wish your clients a happy holiday
Check out Constant Contact’s Video Insertion Feature guide on its website for more information on using video within email.