1. Twitter Twitter is a great tool to interact with potential buyers/sellers. It’s important, though, to work on building relationships with local users. Here’s a video review of some tools that can help you find other users in your area: http://activerain.com/blogsview/914574/Finding-Other-Local-Users-on-Twitter

2. Localism/Activerain I’ve heard many stores of agents finding clients through Activerain and Localism. Just stay active on the sites, post to your blog, leave comments and be as visible as possible.

3. Your personal blog I wrote about the value of blogs in a previous post (http://activerain.com/blogsview/893435/Activerain-Blogs-A-Key-to-Real-Estate-Success).. They can be immensely powerful to attract local buyers/sellers and present yourself as an authority in your market.

4. Your personal website I think it goes without saying that your personal website is key to marketing yourself and your listings. If you can, capture names and emails from your website or your blog, which will help you build…

5. Newsletters Building a list of subscribers in your area and sending them regular communication that is relevant to their interests is one of the best ways to build long-term relationships with potential clients. Even if they’re not looking to buy or sell today, they will be someday, and you will be at the top of their list.

6. Realtor.com Many, many home shoppers start their search on Realtor.com. Upgrade to showcase (more pictures,, plus your name and contact info on listings) and if it makes sense for you, they even have a targeted advertising program where your banner is displayed on local searches.

7. Real estate search engines Other than Realtor.com, there are dozens of places buyers search for homes. Some of the more popular ones are: Trulia, Zillow, Oodle, Homes.com, Google Base, Craigslist, and plenty of others. Make sure you (and your listings) have a presence on all of these sites.

8. Google Adwords If you’ve never tried it, Google has an advertising platform that will show your text ad on the Google search pages for the keywords of your choice. For example, when a user searches for “homes in Indianapolis” you can have your website shown at the top of this search and only pay per click to your site. http://google.com/adwords

9. Agent review/ranking websites Your reputation is everything. If a potential client visits an agent review site and sees a great review from a previous client of yours, it can catapult you to the top of their list. Make sure your past clients review you and give them every reason to write a good review. IncredibleAgents.com and HomeThinking.com are two popular agent review sites.

10. Online referrals/publicity Make a list of the top blogs, websites and forums dedicated to your city and become best friends with the owners. One article recommending your services could bring you multiple clients, for free.

11. Ads on local websites Much like above, visit local blogs or websites focused on your target market and ask for their advertising rates. It may take more work than throwing up ads on Google, but the ROI and branding impact can be much stronger.

12. Flickr Are you uploading your property photos to Flickr? Didn’t think so. There’s 2 interesting things about Flickr that make it worth your while. 1) It gets a lot of traffic and 2) you can add a comment right below each photo – a great place to advertise your business. Include your email, phone and even a link to your website.

13. Virtual Tours You can say I’m a little biased since I own RealSpace Tours, but a nice-looking tour of your property with your branding info and a “contact me about this property” box is a great way to find buyers.

14. Posting on Local Forums Most larger cities have message boards dedicated specifically to their area. If you have one of these in your area, it’s a gold mine! Spend time regularly posting helpful answers and taking part in discussions; be sure to include a relevant forum signature about your business.

15. Comments on Local Blogs Just like forum posts, find blogs in your area and leave relevant comments on the posts that grab your attention. Of course, don’t spam the comments, just make sure you enter your web url when it asks you for it in the comment form, that’s all you need.

16. Myspace It seems like when Facebook showed up, Myspace fell off the map. But it still gets a ton of of traffic and I would recommend at least having a fairly active profile on the site.

17. Facebook I’ve written an entire series on the benefits of Facebook. I believe it can be very useful for finding local users who may be interested in buying or selling a home. See more posts on Facebook here: Part 1  |  Part 2  |  Part 3

17.5 Facebook’s advertising platform Facebook has a very effective advertising platform. For real estate professionals, it may be one of the best. It allows you to target users in your area and instead of directing them to some 3rd party website or landing page, they can be directed right to a facebook page about you.

What other techniques have you found to be effective? Share your stories on how these (or other) sources have led to results for you:

Reasons to Blog

There are four key ways that blogging can have a huge impact on your success as a real estate professional. 

You become an instant authority – When a potential client visits your website they see information about you. They see your face, your pretty design and your well-written sales copy. In 2009, this doesn’t go a long way to convince clients to pick up the phone. However, when a potential client sees your blog they can then trust you as an authority on your local real estate market. They see that you take the time, every week, to write about the market they live in. This solidifies you as a trustworthy professional in their mind. 

Blogs Speed Up Relationships – I have previously likened social networks (things like Twitter, Facebook, ActiveRain) to free billboards around your city. A blog is the same concept but on a much more effective scale. With a blog you’re able to provide value to your readers. Instead of a basic Facebook friend request (which does little for either party), a blog gives users value and when they need to sell their home, they’ll remember the value you’ve given them.

Knowledge – When you begin blogging, that perceived “authority” is not just imaginary, it’s very real. For a committed blogger, their blog is at the top of their mind at all times. They’re constantly scanning for new blog topics and new ways to provide value to their readers. This goes a long way to truly make you an authority on your market. You’ll find that blogging expands your horizons, it opens you up to new, creative perspectives that you may not have otherwise seen. This is often a pleasant, unexpected change that can go a long way to improve your knowledge and your confidence level of the market you work in. 

Convinced yet? Good. Now let’s go over how to be effective with your blog. 

Getting out and writing about anything, anywhere, and in any way is great. That’s the first step, but here’s a few pointers that may help you be as successful as possible with your blogging efforts.

Where to Blog – There are a variety of blogging platforms but, for real estate professionals, you’re looking at one of the best. Using your pre-built ActiveRain blog is an option worth considering. It has your photo and contact information, it’s easy to use and it’s customizable. Another option, if you’re looking for something in addition to ActiveRain, is wordpress.com. They offer free blogs that are a breeze to setup and give you a blog at yourblog.wordpress.com.

What to Blog About – I believe real estate blogs should contain at least 50% local information. Since local leads are the ones you need, it makes sense to blog about your regional market. Updates on market conditions, featured homes in your neighborhood, even local events and activities are all great topics to cover. 

How to Get the Word Out – There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to blog marketing and that’s the subject of another entry. But the first step of good marketing is good content. If you’re writing valuable, insightful blog posts several times a week: people will find it and they will love it. Also, once your blog is launched, you want everyone you know to be aware of it. Update your business cards with the blog url (it’ll be the first place clients visit), add it to your email signature, email your contact list about your new blog, add it to Facebook profile, Twitter about it, etc. etc. – everything you can do to make people aware will be valuable in the long run. 

Five years ago the center of an online marketing strategy would have, of course, been a website. However, I firmly believe that moving forward in this era, a blog must be at the center of a marketing strategy. A website about a real estate business is generally just a static advertisement. Clients will visit, look around and leave. However a blog is interactive, it’s fresh and it’s (hopefully) valuable to the audience. Blogs  are marketing tools that can help build relationships, create authority and separate you from the crowd in the 21st century.

Question: Do you have a blog? If so, how have you seen it impact your business? If not, what are you waiting for?

Add your Activerain blog posts to your Facebook profile automatically

Facebook allows you to add the posts from any blog (including those on activerain) to your Facebook profile, which is a great way to get your activerain blog noticed. To do this, first install this Facebook app: http://www.Facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=5315590686. Follow the instructions of the application and enter your “rss feed” url which is http://activerain.com/blogs/username/rss (changing username to your activerain username) and every time you post something on Activerain, it will get posted automatically on your Facebook profile!

Put a “Share this on Facebook” button on your Activerain blog

Facebook created a system where any webpage can be “shared” through your public timeline on Facebook. To see what I mean, take a look at my sidebar under the RealSpace Tours banner is a “Share This on Facebook” link. When it’s clicked, it brings up a box that allows others to automatically post my blog to their Facebook timeline.

To add this link to your Activerain sidebar (just like I have in my sidebar), copy the code below and paste it into your “Blog Settings -> Blog Description” under the “My Settings” menu from your Activerain profile:

<a href=”http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=http://activerain.com/blogs/username” target=”_blank”>Share on Facebook</a> 

(changing username to your activerain username)

This will allow other Activerainers to easily “share” your Activerain blog with all their facebook friends.

Link Your Facebook Profile from Activerain & Vice Versa

It almost goes without saying that the most important thing you can do is make sure you have a link and description to your Facebook profile under each Activerain blog post as well as on your Activerain profile page. You should also have a link to your Activerain blog from your Facebook profile.

Join the ActiveRain Facebook Group

We’ve already discussed how you can create a group and fan page for yourself (see here), but joining other groups can be valuable as well. You can interact with other members and grow your friend base. Activerain members even have a group on Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/group.php?gid=2707000332 – joining this group gives you access to over 1,000 Activerain & Facebook users. What better way to cross promote your profiles?

These are four quick and easy ways to integrate your marketing strategy and cross promote through Facebook and Activerain. Questions on integrating anything above? Additional ideas on cross-promoting? Post them below:

“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.”

  —  Diane Ackerman

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along … You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

  –  Eleanor Roosevelt

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.”

  —  (John) Calvin Coolidge

“When you take charge of your life, there is no longer need to ask permission of other people or society at large. When you ask permission, you give someone veto power over your life.”

  —  Geoffrey F. Abert

“Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown.” 

  –  H. Ross Perot

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

  –  Henry David Thoreau

“Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; its when you had everything to do, and you’ve done it.“

  –  Margaret Thatcher

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”

  –  Dale Carnegie 

“The universe is like water, it wants to keep moving around you… it’ll get out of your way as soon as you decide who you’re going to be and how you’re going to do it… I believe very strongly that we are who we choose to be.”

  –  Will Smith

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, if he wins, knows the thrills of high achievement, and, if he fails, at least fails daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

  —  John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Your Turn! What are you favorite quotes? Add them below:

It’s all about interaction on Facebook. It’s a “social” network: interacting, adding friends, talking to users, joining groups, etc. are all vital in order to make the most out of Facebook. The more friends you have (and the more your interact with them), the farther your reach will be and the more opportunities you have to find new, high-value leads. 
  

The Key to Facebook is in the News Feed. When you first login to Facebook, the majority of the page (the entire left side) is used for the “news feed.” When any of your friends update their status, write on your wall, upload new pictures or do virtually anything on Facebook, it will show under your news feed as it’s happening. This means that when users comment on your wall, all of THEIR friends will see your information. When they join your group, all of THEIR friends will see your information. This is where it gets powerful…if you have 20 people a day interacting with you and they each have 100 friends, that’s 2,000 people (mostly local) that will see your name and may potentially click through to your profile – every day, for free.
 

If you don’t have a fan page for yourself, you’re missing out. Facebook allows users to create pages for anyone (including themselves). These are different from profiles in that they can showcase your business more than your personal profile can. An example of this would be “Danny Greene” (whom I just picked randomly) and has 74 “fans” of his real estate business.

Once your page is online, Users can become fans of you. From there, they can leave comments, read more about your business and you can interact as well. Fan pages even provide the opportunity to email all users in a group (i.e. about new listings, open houses or any other newsworthy things you’re doing). This keeps your potential clients actively involved with you and keeps you at the forefront of their minds. 

To create a Facebook page for yourself visit this link: http://www.Facebook.com/pages/create.php
 

Advertise on Facebook. If you have an advertising budget, Facebook is absolutely worth a try. It’s one of the most targeted ways to reach your potential customers. One really powerful thing about the Facebook advertising system is that it even allows you to promote your fan pages (see above) rather than some static, external site. The ads are also extremely targeted: you can place ads that will show only to demographics that you select (i.e. Boston residents age 25-35) and they will be directed back to the Facebook fan page where they will see your information. This is another opportunity to build relationships. Another opportunity to generate leads. 

http://www.Facebook.com/business/?socialads

To recap, four simple tips to get the most from Facebook are:

Interact with the community. Get out there and add friends, send messages and talk to your audience. This gives you dozens (hundreds?) of personal connections with potential real estate clients. 

Use the news feed to your advantage. To do this, get people talking to you and interacting with you on some level, every day.

Setup a fan page. Get your business and your brand a page where users can discuss your business and you can interact on a more targeted level

If you have a budget, advertise. With thousands of local visitors you can target, there’s few places can provide the return on investment that Facebook can.

And of course, the final step is to add me to your friends

Facebook is a social networking website that allows users to interact with friends and take part in discussions and groups created by other users. Setting up an account is fairly self explanatory from the site’s homepage at Facebook.com.

There are several misconceptions about Facebook that need to be addressed before we get started:

Facebook is just a big waste of time – It sure can be. There’s plenty of fun applications and features in Facebook that are absolutely worthless when it comes to business. And there are some that are priceless. It, like everything else, is what you make of it. These articles aim to keep real estate professionals on the right track and away from the clutter. We’ll be looking at what makes Facebook effective for business, especially real estate. All the other fun and exciting (time wasting) features can easily be ignored. 

It’s only for college kids – This is how it began. In the early days, it was a place for college students to meet others at their school. Now, however, it’s becoming one of the most effective business tools for people of any age. In fact, today, users age 26-44 make up over 45% of the total Facebook userbase. 

It’s just for “socializing,” not for business – There are features built into Facebook, as we will see, that are primarily meant to be business tools. From their brilliant advertising system, to fan pages, to the news feed, there’s no other system in the world that’s able to create buzz as quickly or effectively as Facebook.

Facebook builds relationships on a whole new level. As a real estate professional, the goal of your business is to build relationships and generate leads that will turn into sales. Traditionally this is done through local advertising, door-knocking, cold-calls, etc. – anything that will get your name and image to the public. What Facebook does best is allow you to meet these potential clients, just as you would offline, but on a much larger scale. As I mentioned, there’s over 245,000 users in Chicago alone, if you’re a real estate professional in the Chicago area, that’s tens of thousands of people who may be looking to buy or sell a home that you can reach out to, for free. 

Leverage is what makes Facebook different from offline marketing. Door knocking can work, I’ve heard of many agents making a great income from just door knocking; however, their success is limited by the number of doors they can physically knock on. Facebook turns this model upside down. By putting a profile online and interacting with other users (as we’ll see tomorrow) on a large scale, clients will being to knock on YOUR door. You’ll have hundreds of potential clients seeing your name, viewing your information and building a relationship with you. 

Part 2 is Coming Tomorrow. Now that we’ve seen what Facebook is capable of, Part 2 will go into more details on how to use Facebook to actually find leads and generate real estate business. And I want to stress the importance of having an account, understanding how to navigate the site and “wrapping your head around” the concept of Facebook before we start the second part. Take some time to look over the site and understand the basic concepts. As always, leave a comment or email me if you need any help. 

Why Blog Subscribers Matter

Wouldn’t it be great if every post you wrote ended up getting featured on Activerain? Well, for your blog subscribers, each post pretty much is featured. When a user subscribes to your blog, they will see all of your most recent posts along the right half of the “blogs” page. This gives you recurring exposure across your entire list of subscribers. When you write a new post, you can be sure they’ll see it.

For example…let’s say you write a fantastic blog entry that you’re sure the community will love. You post the entry and within 10 minutes, you’re not getting any more views. The problem was that you didn’t have any subscribers following your blog and it got lost in the pile of other blog entries. WIth no subscribers, your only opportunity for users to read your entry is during the few minutes it’s on the “most recent” page. Then, unless someone specifically searches this topic, your entry is basically lost forever. However, with 250 blog subscribers, the majority of them will see it, comment on it, tell their friends, build buzz around it and your post will get the attention it deserves. 

Increasing Your Subscriber Base

So – now that we understand the importance of blog subscribers, how do we go about actually getting more subscribers?

Subscribe to your favorite blogs

When you subscribe to a blog, there’s a good chance that the writer will then view your profile and subscribe to your blog as well. When you’ve showed interest in them, they’ll show interest in you.  

NOTE: That doesn’t mean you should just follow every blog on the entire site just because they might subscribe back. Only use this technique with the blogs you’re truly interested in.

Encourage users to follow your blog from each post

You may want to include a simple note at the bottom of each new blog post that encourages users to subscribe. Something like…”Like this entry? Subscribe by clicking the link above my picture!” This is an effective and non-spammy way to make users aware that you’d appreciate more subscribers.  

Write Valuable Content

Of course, if you have nothing “subscription worthy” no one is going to subscribe! Even though I mention that subscribers are an important part of your blog, producing valuable content is infinitely more important. True success with any endeavor will come through providing the community with content that they can benefit from and enjoy. 

Question: Are you currently subscribing blogs on Activerain? If so, do you check your subscriptions more often than other blog pages?

Everything can be expressed in 140 characters or less. If you’re like me, you tend to turn quick notes into full blown essays. But what I’ve learned from Twitter (which has a limit of 140 characters per status update) is that virtually everything in life can be expressed in 140 characters. And even more, most things should be expressed in 140 characters or less. If an important client sends you a quick note and you reply in 2 sentences instead of 20, a few things are accomplished: You don’t waste time writing more than you need to, the recipient doesn’t waste time reading it, the reader still gets the answer they were looking for and you sound more powerful. There’s a sense of power in saying: “See you then.” that cannot be achieved with “Oh yeah, that sounds great! I’m looking forward to it… Oh and ….and also….and…..”. 

Everybody Likes to be @ed. When you tweet that you just ate at Burger King and someone and says “@yourusername – I love Burger King too!” you like that person from then on. You respect them, you pay attention to them and you look for opportunities to @ them back. The fact that they took the time to recognize you and your interests is something you value. The problem is, we @ people a lot more on Twitter than we do in real life. Why is this? And as much as people like being @ed on Twitter, they like it a lot more in real life. Think about how you can @family @clients @friends. Would it make a difference if you started “@ing” your past clients more often?

Trust, friendships, and followers are built through contribution. If you’ve been using Twitter for long, you have undoubtedly noticed spammers adding you. You view their profile and they have 1 update and are following 12,000 people. Does this pay off? Have they built meaningful relationships with the people they’re following? NO! I see this as another representation of the real world. Sure, you can cold call everyone in the phone book or send an email to 100,000 addresses at once, but without the individual relationships to support that contact, it’s likely to fail. Another way this could be seen is in terms of contribution. If that spammer had instead taken the time to update their account with interesting, informative, meaningful tweets for a few months and slowly started adding & engaging other users, they would have been hugely successful at promoting their business. Instead, they tried to take a shortcut and their account was quietly ignored by everyone. 

And, of course, you can follow me @realspace and if you like this post, feel free to tweet it out!

Finally, I stick by what I say, and I did claim that everything can be expressed in 140 characters or less, so…let’s try re-wording this entry:

Life lessons I learned from Twitter: everything can be said in 140 char., people like to be recognized & you can’t shortcut contribution!

What is RSS?

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndicate” and the best way to understand it is to think of it as very simple and portable version of a blog’s content. While their blog’s website has a design and can only be seen at theirwebsite.com, the blog’s RSS feed is portable and can be read (in it’s text form) from anywhere. When a blogger releases a new post, the RSS version is created automatically and can be viewed from a variety of places (like Google Reader).

Finding RSS Feeds

Virtually every blog has an RSS feed built in, even all ActiveRain blogs have RSS feeds. To find the feed, look for the icon (like the ones below, but usually orange) or the words RSS and click the link. The url in the address bar is that feed’s address. For example:

How Do I Use Google Reader

Visit http://google.com/reader. If you currently have a Google/Gmail account you can login with those details, otherwise create a Google account. From there, you can begin to add RSS feeds (see above) that Google Reader will track for you. To add a feed, simply click the “Add Subscription” link on the left side inside of Google Reader and paste the feed url (i.e. feed://blog.realspacetours.com/feed/).

Great, But How Does This Help My Real Estate Business?

The benefits of using something like Google Reader are three-fold:

First, it saves enormous amounts of time. Instead of bookmarking and visiting 50, 100, 500 blogs, all the entries show up on one page where you can skim through to find the articles that are of interest to you.

Second, following many blogs ensures that you will never miss anything. If it happened, you can be sure someone has blogged about it. Forget the newspaper, 100 quality blogs will give you a perfect snapshot of the world, local and real estate news you’re looking for.

Lastly, I want to share one of my techniques that can have a substantial impact on your online marketing efforts. If you’ve been following my blog you know how big I am on interacting with your community, blogs are the number one way to do this. Here’s how: most blogs will allow comments on the posts, on which you can leave your name (branding) and website (web traffic). By using Google Reader to skim for relevant posts, leaving a valuable comment with your name (i.e. “John, I completely agree that……and I think that……”) you are exponentially increasing the reach of your brand. Just think: if you’re leaving 10 comments per day on blog posts that are related to your market, and each post receives 500 visits on average, that’s an extra 5,000 targeted people every day that will be seeing you and your brand. Needless to say, blog comments are powerful.

If you’d like a feed to get started you can add the Blog.RealSpaceTours feed at: feed://blog.realspacetours.com/feed/

Still have questions on RSS? Feel free to ask in the comments below:

Truly, Deeply Care

We all know the surest way to get lost in the noise is to not care about the client; to do the bare minimum and move on. When you go beyond the call of duty to do the little things that might not “matter” to your commission but you know will matter to your clients, it leaves a strong impression. 

Try this: when you’re meeting with a potential client, take copious notes on everything they say (Yes, even how they have 3 dogs now, but want to get a few more and can’t decide between Chihuahuas or Boxers…and every other vital story they feel like sharing). Then, periodically repeat your notes back to them to show that you’ve been paying attention. There’s a good chance their ramblings have never been taken seriously and this will make a lasting (sticky) impression. 

Engage Your Clients Regularly

Don’t let your customers forget about you. Online: use newsletters, frequently updated webpages and articles, etc. Offline: Send mailers, make phone calls, invite your past clients out to coffee, whatever. When you’re active in maintaining relationships, you’re much more likely to stick in the minds of your past, present and potential clients.

Try this: Too often, our customers are “talked at” rather than talked with. Give your client a call and ask their opinion of the new home they’re in. Send a newsletter survey to get their ideas on a topic. Setup a system where you call each client on their birthday. Do everything you can stay in regular contact throughout your entire relationship.

DON’T Be Different – Be You

Every marketing guide stresses one point: you have to be different. But here’s the problem, since everyone is trying to be different, everyone ends up being the same! Thinking about how you can be different is a recipe for disaster. Thinking about how you can be true to whoever you are will ensure that you’re happier and you’re authentic. Authentic people stick in the minds of their customers for much longer than “different” people.

Try this: Are you passionate about the Red Sox? It would be a mistake to hide this from your clients. It might not make any logical sense to incorporate baseball with your real estate business, but it would be much more deadly to ignore your personality. Sliding in comments about Red Sox baseball–if that’s your personality–is a great strategy to make you unique and memorable in your clients’ minds. Talking about your brilliant marketing strategy (that they’ve heard from 4 other agents today already) probably isn’t going to make your memorable or likable. 

I believe one of the most important areas in any business is to leave a lasting, positive message with your customers. From there, it’s so much easier to get valuable referrals and repeat clients. Spend some time thinking about what you can do to make your business memorable with your clients. 

Question: What about in your life, not just in real estate, what memorable experiences have you had as a customer?