Note: To follow is an excerpt of a radio show interview conducted by Peter L. Mosca, host of Income Property Investment Talk dot com, with Jenna Ryan, or dotJenna, President and CEO of The Marketing Shop.com, a Web marketing firm specializing in brand development and lead generation for real estate brokers and agents and investors across the country. Jenna offers proven tips and techniques on viral marketing, social networking, the new social web, web content, we will talk a little bit about photos, text, audio, video, and how important they are. To listen to the show archive or download an MP3, go to www.IncomePropertyInvestmentTalk.com/120209.

Mosca: In the unlikely event that anyone listening to us right now does not know who you are, could you tell us about dotJenna and what you're currently doing at themarketingshop.com?

DotJenna: We specialize in real estate, and small business web marketing. I've been doing this since 2004 and I've sort of rode the wave of the incoming trends and the technology advances. I started out with search engine optimization, and have grown from there. I'm really about generating leads, and anything out there that will help my clients generate leads. We're doing a ton of social networking; it is just astronomical how you are able to get your name out in front of your target market and build an audience, and literally gain celebrity fame among your target market and beyond. There is literally no borders anymore to fame; it's really up for grabs through social networking, and that's really what I specialize in doing and it's fabulous.

Mosca: On your Facebook page I read, "I can help your business get famous; ask about my social marketing plans for real estate agents and small businesses." Could you share one example of how you're doing that?

DotJenna: I call it "audience," because we have to take a new approach today. It's not even marketing. We're programming. We're like entertainers. We're television producers, basically, we're radio producers, we're DJs, we're everything, so you really have to think outside of target marketing because a lot of what you're doing is building an audience, and that audience, whether or not they ever buy your product, can become very valuable to you in that they engage with you and offer social proof of your value in the marketplace. If someone is engaging with me, interested in what I'm saying, and promoting me via Twitter or Facebook, they're in my audience, and they may not be in my target market, I may not sell them a Web site or social networking services or SEO, but they are very, very important, so you have to think a little bit broader than target market in my system. I have a gift for understanding how to get into people's heads. My favorite thing is just studying and the psychology of what makes people addicted to your content, and I'm trying to figure out a way to feed people in little names, just little sound bites, in ways that are memorable and that will get them to spread it through the viral mechanisms of the Web. That's the fabulous thing about the Internet, Facebook particularly, and Twitter, is that it has built-in viral mechanisms that will spread a message if done properly.

Mosca: One of the videos that I feel is viral marketing 101 is from a company called BlendTech, makers of high end blenders. Have you see the series?

DotJenna: People are attracted to off-the-wall content. That's what's really taking off. Instead of having your staff sitting up all straight, looking at the camera and smiling, like old-school, today you have one sitting kind of off to the side. People are tired of the same-old. People don't want hype. One of the wonderful things about the Internet is that it's giving the consumer the power. So we have a savvy consumer who can delete, they can go back, and they can get more information in seconds.

Mosca: Many of my friends in the REALTOR community get so focused on SEO or search engine optimization they forget about delivering consumer-driven content. What is your perspective about SEO and content?

DotJenna: Well here's the deal: SEO is going to be around for a while, but you don't want to get stuck in yesterday, and that's part of the problem. I believe in SEO; I have an SEO company. The problem for real estate is the many competitors. Some sit all day long and do nothing but SEO. They may not be the best REALTORS in the world, but they're going to get to the top, and that's very expensive. There's an easier way to penetrate your and saturate your marketplace -- Get your name out there. If you've made a name for yourself through social media, using the right techniques, then in good markets and bad you're getting phone calls, you're getting called by the news, you're getting called by radio programs, and you're integrated into the community. I do SEO, and I would say one to ten, lead wise, you get one lead on SEO for every ten. The social media that I do, the way I do it, is also SEO. It's all encompassing. You always want to have a great Web site. I worry that a lot of agents have cheap Web sites.

Mosca: I agree that content is so very important to what you're doing, and content in and around the audience that you're trying to reach will drive people to you and that driving of the traffic, like you just said, helps to increase the SEO or the search engine optimization.

DotJenna: Content is key. I am a huge content buff. I'm a writer and love content and am fascinated by it. Whenever you say you need content, it needs to be a little bit different, because here's the deal: if you're an agent, for example, everybody else is going to know about the tax credit. Everybody else is going to have listings. You have got to differentiate yourself on the marketplace. You have got to think of some slant to build your audience, and this is going to be a broader slant most of the time, than if you were just in real estate. You have to take a step back and kind of think like a magazine editor. Your content is something that is very interesting to you because you're going to need to write about it. It may be decorating, it may be golf, you could do golf homes so you can talk about golf, it may be any number of things, but has to be something that's good enough to talk about something you're interested in. I recommend using my 25% rule for content. If you go on there and just start selling anything, you're going to not be well received. You need to make 25% of your content personal, and that means sharing personal information about yourself that may feel uncomfortable to some people because people don't like to reveal themselves, but the more you reveal yourself, the more popular you will get because people will relate with something that's personal. Then, 25% of your content needs to be who you are and what you do. Then, 25% should be hyper-local content, which is news. Cell phone news, new around your area, like there's a pothole being repaired on whatever street. This is information that is not interesting to anyone outside of your farm area, but it's extremely interesting to those within.

Mosca: What is the final 25%?

DotJenna: The last 25% is whatever your broad-based content is. I'm able to communicate with my clients in a way I have never experienced, and it just makes things so much better all the way through the process of working with people. I love it. We're on the cusp of building communities. High-thinkers are saying that all marketing decisions are going to be made in communities in the future because the consumer has so much darn power. The communities are going to rule, so you want to build community. You want to build community because it makes you more valuable as a human being period. Within a community you're going to be able to pass out your information, and they're going to be marketing for you for free, basically. You're going to market for each other and share information.

Mosca: Would you like to talk a little bit about events and what that means to you in and around marketing?

DotJenna: That's how I happened upon how good the social networking is. The market had gone bad, and it was really rough for real estate agents and real estate agent Website providers. I was saying, "Darn. What am I going to do?" So I said, "Well, I think I'll have an event." I hosted an event at a local restaurant. The restaurant was hurting for business so they gave us a free buffet and a free drink ticket for everyone who attended, and I was shocked. I put it on Facebook, and all these people showed up. I was thinking, "Wow. This is awesome." So then I did it again, but I did more marketing through Facebook, and also some postcards I've passed out, and we had standing room only. I was up there, an unknown person, in April of this year. It was going to take me ten years to get where I am today, I promise you. Here I am, standing there, in the midst of all these people looking to me, and they're bringing in chairs. That's how crowded we were. I thought, "This is phenomenal. I'm going to take advantage of this." So what do I do? Well, using the viral mechanisms of Facebook, we took tons of pictures, and then we tagged the people who were in the photo. The events plus the photos are the magic formula to getting your name out there. Take the pictures, put them on your Facebook page, tag the people that are there, and let Web marketing take over. When else in the history of mankind could we knock down walls and meet everybody's friends? Then suddenly your name and pictures are being passed around in places that you've never dreamed of. It's absolutely phenomenal.

Mosca: What is your golden nugget?

DotJenna: Add value. You need to add unique value and bring content to the table that no one else is bringing. Promote yourself: don't be afraid to put pictures up of yourself; you are the star of your own campaign, so you need to act like a star. You definitely want to hire someone to help you with your content because you don't have enough time to write it all. You need to hire someone like Peter Mosca or dotJenna or someone who can help you devise a plan and a strategy and make the most of your time. You also need to be personable and sell. Get out there. I would love to see wonderful ideas that are offbeat and not the typical, everyday, ordinary things that every agent would say.