Recently, a member walked into HAR with a brand new iPad and asked me, “Can you please help me conduct real estate business with this? How can I use my new iPad to improve my business and impress my clients? And, my goal is going to be for my clients to use my iPad while I’m with them showing property.”
I have found that many REALTORS® are interested in social media and technology and believe it can help them in their business, but don’t know exactly why or how to get started. Additionally, there seems to be a broad spectrum of knowledge about social media ranging from those REALTORS® who may or may not have a Facebook page to expert bloggers. Wherever you are in the spectrum, there are always new ways to improve your real estate practice using social media.
Your 2011 Social Media Top-5 To-Do List:
1. Facebook– www.facebook.com. If you don’t already have an account, set one up. You can very easily and inexpensively reconnect with your sphere of influence and others as well. Remember that you can set your preferences and privacy settings so only certain groups can see your posts, pictures or personal information. If you already are using Facebook, create a Facebook like/fan page for business.
This will allow you to market properties through posting listings, sharing photos and videos, announcing open houses, posting articles and more. Be sure to also build Facebook into the marketing plan for your listings. Generally speaking, the more exposure they believe to be getting, the better. It also demonstrates that you are use multiple outlets and are technology savvy.
Did you know that there are more than 500 billion active users on Facebook and more than 50% log on every day?
2. Twitter– www.twitter.com. Set up a Twitter account if you don’t already have one and use it to engage people, drive consumers to your website, market listings and create brand recognition.
Did you know that Twitter’s search engine receives around 600 million search queries per day?
3. YouTube– www.youtube.com. Create your own YouTube channel. There is no fee and you can generate brand recognition, attract added website traffic and garner exposure for listing videos.
Did you know that 173 million Americans watch videos online every month, and YouTube is now the second largest search engine behind Google?
4. LinkedIn- www.linkedin.com Make sure that you have set up a LinkedIn account. f you have an existing account, make sure that all of the information is updated and accurate to date. There are far too many inaccurate profiles on LinkedIn. Consider the following scenario: After meeting with new potential clients, they check your profile on LinkedIn only to find out that you are not with the same company or perhaps you are newer to the business and still show in the market for employment or working at your last job.
Did you know that LinkedIn is adding members at an average rate of one per second and currently has more than 60 million users?
5. Blogging – Use and engage in your free blog provided to you through HAR. Start using other blog sites such as ActiveRain, a blog site specifically for the real estate industry. Know that there are helpful sites that are at no cost such as WordPress that can be a resourceful. Add a blog to your existing non-HAR website and there are many other blog sites that you can post to. Why? Blogging can help to direct people to your website, generate referrals and even help your placement in search engines like Google when consumers start searching for property.
Did you know that 56% of bloggers say their blog has helped their company position itself as a thought-leader within the industry and 58% say that they are better-known in their industry because of their blog?
HAR offers a Social Media designation, and individual classes for each of these social media outlets. For more information and class schedules, please visit: www.har.com/edu.
