During an IM exchange last week we were talking about real estate agents and how social media could help realtors uncover prospective customers. That got me thinking about how I would use social media if I was a real estate agent and what would be the three social media sites I would use.
Disclaimer is that if you are a real estate agent, your first step should be to put up a blog. Once you have an active blog, then you can work on social media sites:)
Site 1: Facebook
Facebook is a great way to connect with, and stay connected to, former clients, friends and marketing partners. But Facebook is also a great way to network online.
Log onto your Facebook account and go to your profile. Click on the education tab and fill out your high school and college. After saving your profile, you’ll find links on the bottom of the education page to find your classmates.
Befriend your classmates and send them a message. Who knows, maybe they will be the market to buy or sell real estate or know someone else who is. Ah, the power of social media networking
Site 2: LinkedIn
Linkedin is an often overlooked business social network by realtors. What I like about LinkedIn is that your profile page is your online resume. The more details you provide about yourself and your success the better the picture you can paint for prospective customers.
LinkedIn also has a neat feature called LinkedIn Answers where you can ask questions or for research. Want to hear what people are thinking about the real estate market or different suburbs? Ask your focus group and get answers.
Site 3: Meetup.com
Meetup.com is a great way to get out and meet prospective customers. Sign up for a free account and then look for groups that interest yet. Not real estate groups as they will be full of real estate agents? Once you have your groups you can RSVP and go to the meetings. Introduce yourself to as many people as you can and try to get to know them. These are your future customers so be happy and inviting.
Did I miss any social networking sites that work well for real estate agents?
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Those 3 would be my pick although I would look at twitter or friendfeed too. LinkedIn is evolving and it may prove to be a good social networking destination, although I have found it to be very heavy on HR recruiters with a clunky interface.
My favorite is facebook especially the pages from a business point of view. They are challenging but at a higher level than most FB interaction.
There is no question that the launch of facebook pages was a watershed for using facebook for business, and being able to measure results. I have built a number of pages (with tens of thousands of fans) and have learned how facebook pages and groups are different and similar. Now that facebook is “opening up” their platform, we’ll see what the future brings!
I think Facebook is a way to connect with, and stay connected to, clients, friends and marketing partners.
I actually did some research into this for a client not too long ago. There are quite a few more out there specifically for the RE industry, like Active Rain, The Flipping Pad, Bigger Pockets, and RealSeekr. And don’t forget the power of Twitter – lots of effective applications there. Realtors can use the TwitterLocal app to send messages to local followers.
We think its great that Realtors are increasingly embracing social networking and social media. In addition to some of the benefits already mentioned, it’s a great way to increase online presence, generate new referral streams, enhance listings with the array of multimedia options out there, and drive organic search traffic to websites and blogs. What’s fascinating is that our kids are already using social networking sites to engage and share with their friends and family – and of course these are the home buyers, sellers and agents of tomorrow.
I too think that the power of twitter is almost unmatched. Combine that with Facebook and SEO and you’re golden. Especially in these times people go to the Internet first!
Interesting topic, I actually just posted an article on social media strategy for Realtors not last week and sited the same three sites in my article. Besides those sites listed above I would also recommend BlackWidowNetwork.com, ActiveRain.com, and twitter. Great article!