We’re trying to return to business as usual, and it’s the month of real estate roadshows to get us in the mood.
Throughout February – April, I’m embarking on a real estate speaking/training extravaganza.
Nicole and I are both speakers for the Real Estate Institute of NSW, The Future Is Now Roadshow, covering 20 locations throughout NSW. I’m dove-tailing that with the realestate.com.au Prop20 event (details below) in all capital cities, and that’s intertwined with presenting a half-day social media workshop for First National Real Estate across all capital cities too.
We have some awesome projects to share with you in coming weeks. Great clients and terrific work makes us really proud and keeps us motivated and excited to be here every day.
Watch this space 2020, we’re coming for you.
Valentina xxx
Google’s Phasing Out 3rd Party Cookies
t’s kind of sad to see the cookie crumble 🍪 so to speak, but as privacy becomes a bigger issue (see my last article, it WILL freak you out), the behemoth is answering the public call.
3rd party cookies are cookies that are set by a website other than the one you are currently on. For example, you can have a “Like” button on your website which will store a cookie on a visitor’s computer, and that cookie can later be accessed by Facebook to identify the visitor and see which websites they visited. It’s how retargeting has been working for years.
Google announced third-party cookies in its Chrome browser will be phased out “within two years.” They want to replace them with a browser-based mechanism as part of its “Privacy Sandbox” initiative – a way to restrict improper tracking while continuing to allow ad targeting within Chrome. This is pretty monumental considering cookies have been used for 3rd party tracking for 25 years.
Google are initiating a standards discussion with the broader industry about how to support both user privacy and personalised, data-driven advertising. Consumers want choice, and Google wants advertising 💲. Apple blocked 3rd party tracking on Safari in 2018, but their model isn’t based on ad revenue – but what they’re missing is the customised experience for their users.
It’s a heavy ask to be across all of this, so that’s why I’m here summarising it for you. Retargeting is the core of personalised data, and after a quarter of a century, that’s about to change.
Instagram Updates: Short or Long Captions Perform Best?
Insta has evolved dramatically in just 12 months. Stories took over the feed, filters barely feature anymore, stickers are out of control and numerous tests have been done on effective content since the platform took away the ❤️ counter.
In fact, since hiding the ❤️counter, we’ve seen a ⏬drop of 15% in engagement in Australia.
So with 👍removed and content having to work harder than ever for customer engagement, we draw attention to the captions that accompany the images. There are plenty of examples for shorter captions vs longer captions – but which ones perform best? Any guesses?
Our Top Blog of 2019 was Nailing Instagram Captions, and when we re-read it, it needed a serious makeover. Nicole has updated the blog with all the best advice we can muster in a single blog post with a focus on 💬. Don’t be left behind, we’re making it easy for you to stay in front!
WordPress vs WIX vs Squarespace: Why We Build In WordPress
Oh I love being asked why we won’t build a WIX or Squarespace website, but when I see an industry 🔱 god support my thinking and rationale, it’s a sweet question.
We’ve updated one of our most popular blogs – Why Build A WordPress Website, which includes a major update: Neil Patel, the brains behind Crazy Egg and a well-known columnist for HubSpot, breaks down how each of these web platforms perform for SEO – the operation of being found by 🔎engines and showing up as a result against a search. We’ve long known all of this, which is why we only build in WordPress (or Shopify).
The purpose of a website SHOULD include the ability to have your website found when someone is searching for your business name, product or service.
If you’re at the pointy stage of making a website decision 🤔, I assure you that this blog and independent review by Neil Patel will help you make a confident decision in just 6 minutes ⏰.
Iris Skin & Beauty
When Kathryn and Danielle from Iris Skin & Beauty 💆came to Banter they had a dark and moody website and marketing collateral, which had been their colour palette for a long time.
They invested in refreshing their brand without changing their logo and now have a 💄beautifully fresh and warm colour palette to set them up for the years ahead.
With their new branding in good shape, a new website then followed. We lifted the professionalism 💅, not only through design and layout of information, but through the investment of professional photography 📸with the talented local Gina Umoren.
We 💖partnering with a local business that wants to learn and have the confidence to manage their own marketing. Kathryn has attended social media training 📖with me and has also invested in the creation of branded social media templates with us, which enables her to edit and manage her social profiles independently. THIS is taking control with confidence.
Our engagement also resulted in creating a custom prescription card ✉️ for the business to keep a track of their client details and to deliver loyalty offers. Our true joy, however, is watching the continued success 🥂of a local business, driven by engaged and caring individuals.
Recent chats and upcoming stuff
LAST CHANCE FOR LOCALS: Bringing Customers Back – Social Media after the bushfires
I’ve created a localised 🐨social strategy for businesses to encourage locals and short-stay visitors back to the Highlands. You don’t need to think, you just need to do.
In 90 mins I’ll be sharing this strategy 📓- I won’t just tell you what to do, I’ll make sure that you know how to do it. I’ve created the ideas, and I’ll answer all those questions you might have on how to make it actually happen. There’s one session left, on Thursday this week – tickets are only $40 and seats are limited. Let me help you in these tough times following our 🚒natural disasters.
More Real Estate: Speaker at Prop20
The one property event you won’t want to miss in 2020 is Prop20 from realestate.com.au. For Residental Sales Agents 🏘️, Property Managers, Developers & Builders, Commercial 🏨Agents and media agencies & marketers, Prop20 is a build-your-own-agenda event hitting all capital cities in March & April.
I’ve been invited to join as a 🎤speaker on the tour, with my session focusing on Marketing to Millennials. I’m talking channels and messages, behaviours and attitudes of our next cashed-up, buying-power generation. You’ll hear from a raft of leading industry experts on consumer trends, tips to master your craft and how you can position yourself and your business to be future-ready. Tickets are available now.
Facial Recognition Is Tracking You NOW
It’s like a movie script, but it’s real and happening now.
There’s an Aussie techie, Mr Ton-That, who invented a tool, Clearview AI, with ground-breaking facial recognition. You see, the backbone of Clearview IA is a database of more than three billion images which have been scraped from Facebook, YouTube, Venmo 😲and millions of other websites, which is far beyond anything ever constructed by the United States government or Silicon Valley giants.
This means that you have lost your ability to walk down the street anonymously, to some degree. Clearview IA have provided it to hundreds of law enforcement agencies, ranging from local 👮in Florida to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
It’s quite an easy to use system too. You take a picture of a person, upload it and 🔍get to see public photos of that person, along with links to where those photos appeared. Federal and state law enforcement officers have used this app to help solve shoplifting, identity theft, 💳 fraud, murder and child sexual exploitation cases.
Don’t forget, where there’s awesome technology and application, there is an equal amount of evil 🙈. Google stepped back from similar tech in 2011. But it doesn’t just end with the force of good – Clearview has also licensed the app to at least a handful of companies for security purposes. That’s the great undoing there, the end of our privacy as we know it. If you thought the Cambridge Analytica scandal was big, this is bigger.
Reading privacy notices, terms and conditions and adjusting your security settings are non-negotiable in our modern world.
Read the full article with a 🍹, you’ll need it.
Until next time, enjoy!
