QWASI brings together Mobile and Social Networks for Real Estate

Share your next home on Facebook and Twitter with CellSigns. Buyers and Agents can now share real estate listings via Mobile and on Social Networks FaceBook & Twitter.

PHILADELPHIA, November 19, 2009 – CellSigns, Inc., the leading provider of mobile tools and services for real estate, announced today the addition of new social network features to its CellSigns Property Marketing and Mobile Agent solutions. CellSigns brings together two very powerful forces: mobile and social networks.

`Continuing its leadership within the Real Estate Industry, CellSigns brings new ways for Home Buyers and Real Estate agents to tag and share their properties on social networks. With the addition of FaceBook and Twitter connections, home buyers can now tag a home and share it with family & friends on social network accounts. It’s become vital for REALTORS and real estate agents to reach across social networks like Facebook.

According to Parenting Group’s research panel of 5,000 moms, 60% of moms report having used a social network in the past 24 hours. Of that group, over 80% are online with Facebook. According to a recent eMarketer survey, “mobile social networkers” will total 56.2 million by 2013 in the United States, accounting for 45 percent of the mobile Internet user population and highlights the importance of using this media to reach Gen X and Gen Y as a means of communication.

Agents using CellSigns Property Marketing and Mobile Agent can easily extend their area of influence through mobile and social networks. The services can also distribute and syndicate their listings, automatically. This allows agents to provide greater reach for their listings and reach new buyers and sellers in the process.

- Automatically distribute listing content to FaceBook or Twitter

- Allows FB and Twitter friends to see full details of the listing content

- Data automation available through MLS Feeds (IDX or RETS) and Direct Broker Feeds

The first client to launch with these new features is the Allen Tate Company. Allen Tate, the Carolinas’ leading real estate company and the 11^th largest broker in the country, is making real estate text messaging available throughout the Charlotte, Triad, Triangle and Upstate South Carolina regions. Properties with mobile texting capabilities will be identified with sign riders, indicating the unique property ID and text messaging number. The mobile texting technology is compatible with all types and brands of cell phones.

“The power of mobile search, mobile marketing, and social networks come together with the CellSigns mobile real estate service,” notes David Geipel, COO of QWASI, Inc. “Mobile is not a trend or fade but a way of life in real estate. It’s a ubiquitous activity that encompasses search and discovery. What we’ve done with our services is to tap into the strengths of mobile and social networks. Allowing home buyers, for example, to pull up to a home for sale, search via their mobile phone using SMS (text messaging) or even Mobile Web (WAP) and then share that property with their family or friends is very instinctual. It gives the buyer a chance to let others share their thoughts on that home directly with others.”

Home buyers can sign up for Mobile Agent by visiting http://www.mymobileagent.com.

CellSigns has also introduced these features to its popular mobile IDX service Mobile Agent. Mobile Agent is the only mobile real estate service that allows buyers and agents to search and interact via SMS & WAP. The CellSigns real estate text messaging service and mobile search tools were awarded the “Most Innovative Technology of the Year” award in real estate from Inman News.

ABOUT CELLSIGNS

CellSigns (www.cellsigns.com), a wholly-owned subsidiary of QWASI, Inc. company, is a leading mobile applications company providing interactive solutions and mobile marketing for businesses via text messaging, SMS, MMS and WAP. Supported by every major wireless carrier and working on over 99% of all cell phones, the company offers Mobile Agent real estate search, private label mobile search tools, mcommerce, SMS Chat, Text Ordering, Mobile IM (MIM) applications, customized alerting and the only interactive property marketing service for real estate. CellSigns powers over one million real estate listings, 1.5 million mobile ads and mobile alerts.

VIDEO: CellSigns and Mobile Agent – the power of Social Networks

November 19, 2009 in Press Releases   |   No Comments

CellSigns by QWASI Featured in REALTOR Magazine

Reach out and Text Someone Article points to Texting overtaking Voice on your cell phone.

If phone calls and e-mail are still your preferred way to share information with clients, it might not be long before text messaging takes priority. According to the 2008 REALTOR® Technology Survey, 35 percent of real estate practitioners use cell phone texting on a daily basis; another 27 percent text on at least a weekly or monthly basis.

The general public has also embraced the convenience of texting. While the number of phone calls made or received by wireless subscribers in the United States remained relatively steady from 2006 through mid-2008, text messaging skyrocketed nearly 450 percent, according to a Nielsen Mobile analysis.

Many real estate practitioners have recognized this phenomenon and are incorporating text messaging into their client communications. “One of the first things I ask when I meet new clients is if they can receive text messages on their phone, and if they would like to be updated by e-mail or text,” says Richard Van Kluyve, broker-associate with Century 21 Premier in Mount Juliet, Tenn.

About half of Van Kluyve’s clients tell him they prefer text, including one house-hunting couple in their 20s who’ve taken texting to a whole new level: “We may have spoken on the phone 10 times, but we’ve probably sent 100 text messages back and forth in the weeks I’ve been working with them,” he says.

But don’t just assume that only younger clients are apt to text. With texting now available on all mobile phones, consumers of all ages are appreciating the ease of using their keypad to send real estate practitioners a quick question, arrange a meeting, or comment on a home they’ve toured. In fact, a whole class of mobile marketing services has emerged to deliver listing data directly to a consumer’s cell phone—and capture leads for real estate practitioners in the process. Once you’re subscribed to services like CellSigns, you can post a special text code on your listings’ For Sale signs. Consumers who drive by the home can punch the code into their phone to receive a return message with property information and photos. Van Kluyve hopes for the day when clients can even receive text alerts as listings are added to the MLS, similar to e-mail alerts that are now commonplace.

Even as text messaging goes mainstream, there are times when it’s better to do things the “old-fashioned” way—with an e-mail, a phone call, or a meeting. Texting’s casual convenience is ideal for any situation in which a quick and informal message will do. Messages that are long or complicated or that can potentially spark questions from clients are better left to other media. Here are some other general guidelines:

•    Don’t text without permission. Ask clients if it’s OK for you to send them text messages. They may not be familiar with the medium, or they may simply be annoyed by it. Depending on their phone service, they also may have to pay for received messages. And never text a prospect you don’t know; it can land you in legal trouble. A pending revision to the CAN-SPAM Act prohibits sending unsolicited text messages to a wireless phone number unless the recipient has given prior consent or you have an established business relationship with the recipient. Also, the federal Do-Not-Call registry applies to text messaging.

•    Learn the lingo. Texting is all about fitting the most words into a maximum of 160 characters for the sake of speed and convenience. Even if you feel silly using shortcuts like BTW (by the way), QQ (quick question), or THX (thanks), you’ll want to be familiar with the terms so you can decipher clients’ messages. For a list of common abbreviations, visit Webopedia (www.webopedia.com).

•    Be considerate. Texting can quickly become addictive. But when meeting with clients or colleagues, don’t be absorbed with your cell phone—reading messages and hammering out replies. Let clients know at the outset if you’re anticipating an important message that will require your immediate attention. Otherwise, turn your ringtone off and reply to messages when the meeting’s over.

•    Set limits. When you encourage others to text you, you’re implying that you’ll always be ready to take their message—and customers often expect a quick response. You may want to establish hours you’ll be available.

Mike Antoniak is a journalist and technology expert with a focus on real estate applications.

May 2, 2009 in Press Releases   |   No Comments

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December 31, 2008 in Blog   |   No Comments

Mobile Agent Puts Home Info in the Hands of Buyers & Agents

July 23, 2008 in Press Releases   |   No Comments

CellSigns awarded 2008 NAA Innovative Operations award

CellSigns wins award for on-demand Mobile Alert System
with the Palm Beach Post newspaper

By LaShell Stratton

At The Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, Fla., taking a good idea and making it even better is a strategy for success. Since 2004, the Post has built on previous award-winning online products to create even more innovative digital media systems.

This year was no exception. The Post adapted a classified advertising technology, Classifieds on the Go, that it developed with mobile vendor CellSigns (www.cellsigns.com) and created an on-demand mobile alert system to notify users about hurricane and tropical storm activity in the Atlantic Ocean during hurricane season from June through November.

“One of the responsibilities of newspapers is to help protect people and their property,” says Dan Shorter, former general manager of PalmBeachPost.com.

In January, Shorter was named president of digital media at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

Classifieds on the Go, which won a 2007 Innovative Operations Award, allows readers to access classified ads on demand by typing a text message code in their cell phones (“Good Ideas,” April 2007, p. 52).

Last year wasn’t the first time the Post was recognized for its mobile technology. The newspaper earned recognition as a NAA Best Practices Award winner in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

The Post brainstormed other practical uses for the Classifieds on the Go technology, says Gina C. Wilcox, digital operations director. The Post also wanted to build a system that advertisers could sponsor, which led Shorter and his award-winning team to the mobile alerts.

The Post development team realized that many residents rely on their cell phones to communicate and find information during storms so, in May 2007, it began working on the alert system.

Technical Manager Dale Swain wrote a PHP automated script for the newspaper’s server that monitors the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (www.noaa.gov) every five minutes for updates about hurricanes near South Florida. The script pulls key information, such as the hurricane’s wind speed, category, direction and speed of movement, and translates it into XML before sending it to CellSigns.

The files are then dropped into CellSigns’ database, and the hurricane data are placed into fields. When mobile device users dial the word STORM to the Post’s mobile short code, they receive a text message about the hurricane’s progression. Mobile users also can view the newspaper’s STORM WAP site, which contains breaking news, live radar images and more. Users can access the alert system and the WAP site even if they don’t subscribe to the newspaper.

As an added precaution against failure during hurricanes, CellSigns placed the alert system on corporate servers outside Florida.

The final product took about three months to develop, Wilcox says, and a few weeks later, the newspaper sold a sizable sponsorship package to Publix Super Markets Inc. As part of the package, Publix could include its brand as well as a link to its Web site with alert text messages, says Wilcox. The package also includes promotions in other STORM services such as subscriber-based mobile alerts, the newspaper’s weekly HTML newsletter containing preparedness tips and advisory e-mails that are automatically generated every time the National Hurricane Center issues an update on active tropical activity.

The on-demand alert system can be easily adapted by other newspapers, whether they are in the Midwest and want to alert residents about tornadoes, or are on the West Coast and want to send updates about earthquakes, says Bill Bolger, vice president of production at The Indianapolis Star and a member of NAA’s Printing Technology Committee, which helped to judge the I.O. Awards.

“It probably didn’t hurt that we had tornadoes around here about two weeks before I reviewed the entries,” Bolger says. “I looked at this and thought, ‘We could use something like that here.’ ”

April 20, 2008 in Press Releases   |   No Comments