Final Post - Internship Conclusion

This summer I worked as an intern for a RE/MAX franchise with 10 different offices in my hometown. Through this internship I gained a lot new knowledge about the real estate industry, a better understanding of an entrepreneurial organization, work experience and references to keep on my resume, and more.

I got my internship while looking for a summer job toward the end of the spring semester of my sophomore year. The insurance company I worked at last summer didn't need extra help this year so I needed somewhere new to work. I've always been interested in the real estate industry and have even toyed with the idea of maybe becoming a Realtor. Thus, I thought it would be a good idea to look for some summer work in the industry to gain some experience. I sent out about 15 letters of interest to different agencies in my area and got a call back from two places. I interviewed with RE/MAX 440/Central and they told me that they were interested in having a young person come in who was familiar with social networks to set them up on various sites. Finally all my hours wasted on facebook came in handy...and I was able to explain to them my experience with different social networking sites and even show them my jewelry business fan page .

They hired me for the summer and we set it up as an intern position. I started work the week after I got home from school by training how to do reception work, which I did when I was in between projects or when they needed someone to fill in. I was trained on how to answer the phone, schedule showings and inspections, do work for the agents, etc. I also learned all about RE/MAX 440/Central which started off as one office in Quakertown, PA. Tom Skiffington was an agent in the office and went to the owner with an expansion plan. Tom expanded the business to 9 more offices in nearby cities, and the business now has over 200 agents, as well as a full staff of receptionists, bookkeepers, a title and mortgage company, and more. The success of RE/MAX 440/Central was inspiring to me as an entrepreneurship major to see how Tom could take one small office and turn it into the RE/MAX agency that brings in the most revenue in all of Pennsylvania and Delaware!

The work I did at RE/MAX varied. I was given free-reign to set up facebook and twitter accounts for the company to my liking, and was assigned various other projects from Tom throughout the summer. I did it all: copied paperwork, scanned files, researched software, liaisoned between new companies we did business deals with, and more. I

will outline the most import projects I worked on in the next few paragraphs.

My biggest project was creating and updating a facebook page for RE/MAX. We currently have 107 fans and a steady stream of interaction from the fans. I've posted a variety of different items: open house schedules, articles, helpful videos, pictures of our offices, interviews and pictures with agents, magazine articles our owner Tom was in, community events RE/MAX participated in, interesting statistics about RE/MAX, and more. I've also just started an advertising campaign on facebook as well. I made this ad to target first time home buyers and set it up to only show on people's pages who live in a 25 mile radius of our Quakertown office and who are between the ages of 22-39, common ages to be buying your first home. We are only charged when someone clicks on the ad. So far it has shown up on 17,375 pages and has been clicked 3 times.

I've also set up a twitter account for RE/MAX. I've posted mostly articles and information about RE/MAX here, as well as new listings. We've been trying to find a program that will automatically tweet our new listings as they come into our MLS provider, and are currently working on getting that to happen through our partnership with RISMedia.

Speaking of RISMedia...as I mentioned in previous posts RE/MAX recently partnered a deal with RISMedia and Tom didn't have a lot of time to devote to getting the new partnership set up. Thus Tom had me come in and work on getting everything set up including sending in company profiles, agreement documents, and starting to utilize the new benefits of the agreement: daily newsletters for our agents, customized press releases I sent out to the press, articles and videos I posted to our sites, and more. Through this partnership with RISMedia we also partnered with Mobile Real Estate ID, a company that is giving us the ability to attach sign riders to our listings where interested home buyers can text in a specific code for a house and immediately be texted back info and pictures on the house, all the while recording the person's number so the agent can use it as a new lead. I've also been helping to set this deal up, liasoning between Tom and Mobile Real Estate, and assigning codes to listings, and getting the signs ready to go out.

From all of the reception work, side projects, and social network projects I have worked on I've learned a lot. I've learned about the real estate industry; how fast paced it is and how agents must constantly be available to their clients. If you can acquire and sell a lot of listings you will earn a nice chunk of change with each commission, but if you are not selling any houses you don't have any normal paychecks coming it. I've also learned how to work for a difficult boss...Tom normally likes things a very specific way and can be blunt and particular about how everything is done, so I've gained experience working with that type of person and accepting fault for things that were not my fault to keep all parties happy... I've also expanded on my work ethic because when I wasn't doing reception work I had pretty much free-reign to work on my projects as I wished. There was no outline a things for me to do so I used my own knowledge and creativity to produce results instead of taking instructions from someone else.

While I've gained a lot of work experience and knowledge...I've also gained something else...a job! RE/MAX decided to keep me on to update our social networking pages and work on a few other projects (such as a youtube page we just started working on this week) from a far. And I really will be far away because I'll be studying abroad in France! But, all I need is an internet connection which I will have at the house I am staying so I'm going to dedicate about 5 hours a week for RE/MAX work. This eliminates the problem of me having to train someone else to take over what I have been doing, and also gives me some spending money for while I'm abroad!

Overall I think my internship has been successful. I've gained a great item to put on my resume with some great new references, learned a lot from a real life entrepreneur, and now have a continuous job I can keep doing even when I am away from school.

Good News!

I just found out today that RE/MAX wants to keep me on working for them to continually update our pages and work on other social networking things even though I'm going back to school! They're going to pay me for about 5 hrs/week of work. I'm super excited because I like the company and can keep doing what I have been from where ever I want! Which is good because I'm studying abroad in France this semester....kinda far from their main office. But, I'll have internet access and that's all I need!

Now I don't have to worry about training anyone to replace me because I'll still be working here :)

I'd say this has been a successful internship.

Last Projects

The last couple things I plan on working on while I'm here at RE/MAX are as follows:

-Making sure Tom knows how to utilize all the features of our RISMedia partnership I've helped get rolling (specifically how to personalize the daily newsletters they send out to agents)

-Getting a final answer from Tom on whether or not he wants to get set up with a Twitter program to tweet our new listings

-I proposed RE/MAX try advertising on facebook, and am going to put together a possible add that we can use and target to people in the area

-Figure out who will continue on with what I have done, and train them!

I will hopefully be meeting with Tom soon to iron out these last few details. I will then write up my final internship post. Let me know if I need to to anything else to meet the internship requirements!

Texting Sign Riders

The latest thing I have been working on is really trying to get our texting program off the ground and running. We've been working with a company called Mobile Card Cast that is setting us up with this program. After everything works, a buyer will be able to see a house for sale that has a sign similar to this picture to the left. They will be able to text a code to a number, and will immediately get a text back with information about the property, pictures, and the agent's contact information. The agent then gets this information as a lead that they can follow up on.

So far our biggest problem has been getting all the information needed for this program to work set up correctly. We have ten different offices who have listings from two different MLS providers: Trend and Lehigh Valley MLS. We have had to get both of these companies agree to share their information with Mobile Card Cast so they can have the information on all of our listings. Mobile Card Cast is a newer company, however, and so it was taking some time for Trend and Lehigh Valley MLS to allow them access to that information. They have finally allowed access though and everything is being set up now. I have started going into our admin page for the texting site and assigning text codes to some of Tom Skiffington's (the broker) listings. I've also been pasting the codes on the signs to be attached to the houses's for sale sign, and as soon as the program is fully working we'll be able to go out and put the signs up, and hopefully get some houses sold faster!

Facebook/Twitter Update

Just an update on how my pages are doing:

Facebook page almost has 100 fans! Only six more to go. I've been posting a variety of content: open house schedules, pictures of a magazine that has featured us in it, interviews with different real estate agents, events for a community day RE/MAX participated in, and more.

Twitter: trying to get it set up to automatically tweet our new listings for us. TweetLister is a company that does this (it pulls our listings off our MLS provider website and creates a unique tweet for each one) but cost about 20 dollars a month. Trying to get permission from the boss about this, but it's still in the works.

RISMedia

Another thing I have been delegated to work on here at RE/MAX is to aid in the set up our new partnership with RISMedia.. RISMedia is the known "as the residential real estate industry's definitive source for news and information for real estate's most profitable and productive professionals–and all those looking to gain a competitive edge." or, at least that's what they claim on their website.

Through this new partnership we get daily and monthly newsletters to send to our agents, customized press releases to send out, a section on our own website with real estate news, a mobile version of our website, the ability to set up texting for house listings, and more. Learn more about this cool feature here.

Getting RE/MAX situated with this company has been a long process though. I've been the main contact between RISMedia and RE/MAX and have been the one turning things in and making sure we do what we need to on time. This has included writing a company referral and service profile, coordinating the interview with Tom Skiffington (owner) and RISMedia for an article in Real Estate Magazine, uploading all of the agents information to RISMedia so they can get situated on the texting feature, sending press releases to newspapers, customizing newsletters, etc. Lots of start-up work, but hopefully soon we will get everything set into place!

Twitter Page

Out twitter page is coming along slower than the facebook page. We have 36 followers at the moment. Mostly been tweeting news articles related to real estate. Check it out here: RE/MAX's Twitter.

What I would love to see done on the twitter page is to tweet every time an agent has a new listing. That way someone can follow our page and find out in real time when there are new houses on the market. This would be perfect for someone house hunting in the area.

To do this, I would go need to add a step onto the "new listing procedure" that front desk workers go through when they add an agents new listing. I would just need to type up simple instructions such as this:

1. Go to www.twitter.com

2. Log onto our account remax440central password XXXXXXXX

3. Tweet the new listing by following this tweeting promt: Real Estate Agent John Smith has a new listing in Souderton www.urlhere.com #realestate.

4. Post the tweet

5. Sign out of twitter

This idea was given to me by Grove City Marketing Professor Dr. Powell and think it would be an awesome tool if I can get it implemented. I've emailed the owner of our RE/MAX about it but haven't heard back yet. He's a very busy man! I'll have to wait until we have another meeting and see if I can bring up the idea then.

Facebook Page

Well, RE/MAX now has a great facebook fan page up and running. You can search for it on facebook under RE/MAX 440/Central or with this url http://bit.ly/aYXdHT We currently has 79 people who "like" our page. I've updated it with information about the company, pictures of the different offices, real estate articles, a real estate tab, and am working on posting pictures and interviews with the different agents.
How does it look??

Which Social Networks should we use?

You know, there are a lot of social networks these days. Besides the big boys like facebook and myspace, there are social networks individualized for specific fields! For real estate I've found the following four:

•Active Rain: http://activerain.com/
•Real Estate Global Network: http://www.realestateglobalnetwork.com/
•Real Estate Voices http://www.realestatevoices.com/
•Real Town http://www.realtown.com/

I've done some research on which social networks would be best for RE/MAX to start using and this is what I've found.

First. Myspace is done. gone. no more. Yes it still may actually be in existence but I give it the grade of "L" for lame. Myspace is on the downslope of their popularity curve and it also just does not lend itself very well for businesses, specifically with the target market a real estate company would have.

So: no Myspace. But what will we actually use? The first ones I have decided to set up are Facebook and Twitter. Let's face it. Facebook is HUGE. Everyone is on it now days. Seriously. And, ten million users become fans of facebook Fan Pages everyday. People are out there "fanning" or now as the proper term is "liking" business pages and it's definitely the first place RE/MAX should be set up on. Facebook fan pages give you so many ways to personalize your page and offer so many applications that you can utilize on the page. You can post links, photos, videos, text, discussions, and have your fans post comments and write reviews right on the page. There are also numerous third party applications that you can put on your page for more options, such as a promotions app that lets you run contests, and there are even real estate ones that let you list houses you have for sale.

I will also be setting up a Twitter account for RE/MAX. Now, I have to admit. I used to be a twitter hater. I saw no need to tweet if I could use my facebook page to do the same thing and not be limited to 140 characters! But, after I got this internship I thought it would be wise to start using it personally in preparation for making one for RE/MAX. Boy, am I glad I did. First, it takes a little bit to learn the twitter language and figure out what RT, DM, FF, @, and # all mean!! I set up a personal account (@beccagrafton) and a business account (@dazzledjewelry) and have actually really been having a blast using twitter. I've been able to comment on things Jon Foreman (lead singer of Switchfoot, my favorite band!) has done and gotten my ideas mentioned by him on twitter, and on my business account I have gotten to interact with other Jewelry Makers. I am a twitter hater no more! I researched using twitter with real estate, and have found lists of 100+ ideas of what to tweet about that would be relevant to real estate. Dr. Powell, marketing professor at Grove City College, also suggested that twitter would be a great means to list properties as they come in. That way, if someone is looking for a home in the area they could follow RE/MAX on twitter and find out in real time when a new house gets added to the market. Lots of things to explore with twitter, and it is definitely worth setting up.

Those are the two primary social networks I want to use, but have two more I also want to get involved with: youtube and blogs. These two are not social networks per say but another great way to get connected online. Also, anything you do on both of these sites you can link to on your facebook page or twitter account. Youtube would be a great place to post videos of houses on the market, tips for first time home buyers, etc. And then after these videos are on youtube they can be posted directly onto the facebook business page. Blogging also has endless possibilities. This is where RE/MAX could post information on how to become an agent with the company, current trends in the market, etc.

So: we've got Facebook, Twitter, youtube, and blogs. I think I'll have a busy summer! If time allows I may look into LinkedIn or some of the real estate social networks, but the four listed will be my primary focus.

Is this consistent with what other businesses are using? Seems so. Read this: "Which tools are [business owners] using? Though social media giant Facebook has 400 million users – and recently topped Google in directing web traffic – it's Twitter that topped the list, with 88 percent saying they tweet. Right on its heels was Facebook (87 percent), then LinkedIn (78 percent) and blogs (70 percent.) Those four were far and away the top choices, with the next closest tool – YouTube and other video – coming in at 46 percent. Facebook was in fourth place, with 77 percent using it in the 2009 report.“

The fact of the matter is that 80% of home buyers start their search online, and first time home buyers are young and used to using to social networking. RE/MAX needs to capitalize on these two facts and get moving online, and that's what I'm here to do. :)

Resources I used so you know I'm not making this all up:

•www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/04/how-social-media-helps-small-business.html
•www.techipedia.com/2009/create-facebook-page/
•www.smallbiztrends.com/2010/04dont-ignore-your-blog.html
•www.realtor.org/rmotechnology/Articles/2009/0909_socialnetworking_virtualrealities
•www.realtor.org/rmodaily.nsf/0/dd174fce65ea948f862575b50052a140?OpenDocument
•www.realtor.org/library/library/fg125
•www.realestatemarketingblog.org/social-netowrking-for-real-estate/
•www.ezinearticles.com/?The-New-Facebook-of-Real-Estate&id=923178

Super Superpages and Mapping MapQuest

Along with social networking, I'm also getting involved with helping RE/MAX advertise all over the web. This morning I just updated all of their listings on superpages.com. Put in current office hours, email contacts, and a website URL. This picture shows all the listings I've updated. If you are not familiar with what superpages is, it's basically just an online yellow book. Tom Skiffington, the owner of RE/MAX 440/Central, noticed that not all of the offices were listed online correctly so I made sure to update them.
I also checked to make sure all of the offices were listed on MapQuest. All but one of the offices showed in up a search, and so I submitted a feedback report to MapQuest to add the office that was not showing up.

First Week

So, I started with RE/MAX this past Monday. In addition to working on my social networking project I will also be doing reception work with RE/MAX.

Monday and Tuesday I spent training on how to answer the phones, book showings and inspections, and the like. Lots of time spent on the phone so I'm glad for my experience on the phone with State Farm and as a Crimson Caller.

I have started taking shifts doing reception work, and while I'm at slower offices I've had some time to do so research for my social networking project. The good news is that there are TONS of articles out there on how to use facebook and other social networking site for businesses. Seriously, TONS. I've started putting together documents on tips for how to use twitter, facebook, etc for business that relate well to real estate. I've also started to analyze which social networks RE/MAX should invest their time and energy into joining. Per my internship projects with Grove City, my assessment of which networks would be best for RE/MAX to use will be the first thing I will officially turn in. Expect it to be posted on this blog within two weeks or so.

So What's This For?

This blog will be used to summarize the work I have been doing at my internship with RE/MAX 440 in conjunction with Grove City College.

RE/MAX 440 is the largest real estate company in Pennsylvania. It has nine different agencies in the area with many agents at each location. Such a well established company should really be utilizing social networks to reach out to advertise to new clients, but currently is not.

This is where I come in! I was hired by RE/MAX for the summer to do reception work as well as setting them up on different social networks. Stay tuned to this blog for my progress.