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Real Grader is a service for improving and building an agent’s online reputation and brand identity.
Platforms: Browser, mobile
Ideal for: All agents and brokerages
Top selling points:
- Emphasis on Google Business Profiles
- Monthly coaching calls
- Instacard digital business profile
- Full-service social media management
Top concerns:
There doesn’t seem to be any aspect to the service that helps with the impact of negative reviews.
What you should know
Real Grader has three primary products: an online reputation ranking score, a digital business card called Instacard, and a comprehensive social media content service called Done For You.
All three contribute to almost everything an agent needs for a complete online presence. Agents will still need to build and ensure the content integrity of a website.
However, the mobile-first Instacard is also browser-responsive, meaning it also functions as a branded landing page, which also has a number of benefits.
The reputation grader handles all the little things that go into making sure you are who your reputation says you are.
Agents can be a lot of things to someone they’re meeting for the first time. Without the online presence to back it up in this era of real estate, being nice in person simply isn’t enough, especially when you’re being referred.
The service makes sure your digital footprint and all else that matters online is accurate and consistent across the following eight platforms: Google Business, LinkedIn, Zillow, Homes.com, realtor.com, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
That’s much more work than it seems and just as important. Up-to-date online profile content is also crucial to search engine optimization and marketing.
The Instacard is designed to put an end to the paper business card. That’s what QR codes were supposed to do. I don’t think we’ll ever tire of keeping business card printers in business, but that doesn’t take away from this cool technology, even if it’s a bit gimmicky.
The Instacard can be sent to anyone with a cellphone or email address by tapping an icon on your phone’s screen. The recipient will see a full-screen (on desktops, too) “card” profile that shares a headshot or favorite lifestyle photo, contact information, direct social media links, on-tap call, text, email commands and even a video.
You can be instantly added to a person’s address book and have your online reviews and listings be displayed. There’s also a call to action to have the recipient review you.
Digital business cards aren’t new, but Instacard has some rich functionality, especially the review and listings component.
I was told that people love these things, and apparently Ryan Searhant is psyched on it. But, once your contact information is in their phone, how often will the other aspects of it be used? I’m not sure. I suppose it’s a first-impression type of impact and can help push people to your web presence.
Real Grader isn’t a hands-off marketing partner, despite all it can do for you. New accounts are giving a 90-minute onboarding call to chat about goals and strategy, and to get to know the person whose online identity is about to be in their hands. There are also monthly coaching calls.
The company doesn’t necessarily include services for handling bad reviews on Yelp, for example, or Google. If handled correctly, most businesses can come out on top of a bad review. It would be nice to see this addressed in a future update.
Lastly, Done For You is a clearly named social media content creation and scheduling service. It focuses on Facebook and Instagram.
The company’s in-house teams use Canva and the popular software Later to build out content and run your accounts.
They do a good job of ensuring agents look different on their Instagram accounts, using different colors and content schemes. Done For You even does Instagram Stories and creates Highlights, a function of the app that saves (by category) the unique parts of a Story.
Real Grader recently launched a nationwide partnership with Douglas Elliman, and as of this writing, 2,500 Long Island Elliman agents have an Instcard program.
You won’t find a successful agent who isn’t well represented online, and it’s completely acceptable for someone else to handle it for you. In fact, it’s recommended.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.
