Twitter already has millions of users all around the world that makes it much easier for you to find prospective buyers. The best thing about this is that it’s absolutely free. By using it you are not only given a chance to promote your real estate business for free but you can also build relationships and make friends with other users. Introduce yourself to them and you’ll start to make new friends. This is a great way to win their trust and begin selling your houses to them.

To make friends in Twitter and to able to gain more followers, you need to interact with them by replying to the comments of other user’s tweets. As much as possible you have to make them feel important so for you to get a better response to your tweets. It is also essential for you to update and send interesting and informative tweets on a regular basis.

The key in Twitter advertising is to connect and communicate with your followers more often and do less marketing. This way you’ll be making more friends thus you have a bigger chance of promoting your real estate business. Once you begin gaining followers, you will also begin to build leads with Twitter.

Learning the proper use of advertising in Twitter will help you get incredible results. With Twitter being one of the highest ranked websites in the internet today, it is really obvious that when it comes to marketing your business, it is the right place to be.

The Free Way To Advertise on Facebook

Using your own account to advertise your listings to your Facebook friends is a good idea. You can post a link to the MLS listing, or better yet post a link to a custom website that has a sign up form if they want to request more information.

While you are at it, be sure to create a Facebook fan page for your business. This is another place you can post your listings, updates about the market, and anything else real estate related that you want to discuss.

The Paid Way to Advertise on Facebook

Facebook paid advertising is great. It uses the information that users save in their profiles so that your ad only displays to people that meet your specific criteria. Imagine you own a rental property near a local college that is perfect for college students. What if you could have this ad show up to people that go to that college? You can do that.

Now, the next key is to have the potential lead go somewhere that you can get their contact information from them. I suggest a very simple one page site with a sign up form, and a good reason for them to sign up. It could be as simple as filling in the form to set up a showing, but you will get far more sign ups with a stronger offer. Perhaps a list of local college friendly rentals, or something else of value to whichever demographic to which you are advertising.

Conclusion

There is no denying that Facebook is a powerful advertising platform as it is part of the social media shift, and it is about time that you give it a try. I have had a lot of success advertising on Facebook, and you can too.

There are literally hundreds of “tools” in social media to help you grow your online reputation and business and most of them don’t have practical business applications (yet!).

The world of social media and social networking can be overwhelming, when viewed as a whole but there are certain threads that run through each social platform. One of those threads is that social networking is about meeting and engaging people, not trying to sell them.

You’ve heard the “cocktail party” metaphor. Social networking is like a cocktail party, you meet people and engage them looking for commonalities and a potential basis for developing a conversation (relationship). You’re not trying to marry the people you meet online, but rather to see if there is enough interest for a follow up “cup of coffee” so you can talk some more.

If you give the “Are you or anyone you know interested in buying or selling real estate?” at the on-line cocktail party, people will shut you out and ignore you very quickly. Why? Because they can and it’s their cocktail party!

Social media and networking are not designed to replace your offline marketing strategies either. In fact they are the perfect complement to them. The more prospects you can engage online and work them through your “marketing funnel” until you get the opportunity to meet them face-to-face, the more prosperous your business will be.

To start you only need to focus on three platforms:

1. The search engines – Google, Yahoo and Bing, you have to make yourself visible to the search engines or you’ll never get found by the people that don’t already know you and even they might not have the patience to look too hard. Think page 1 “above the fold”.

2. Facebook – You have to be where your customers are and 450 MILLION people can’t be wrong.

3. LinkedIn – This is the social networking site of choice for professionals. According to a recent study the average income of LinkedIn users is $109,000/year. Don’t know about you, but I need to know more of those kind of prospects. You can learn more about using LinkedIn for social networking by reading this article.

If you’re interested in referrals from other agents, they are most likely to come from here. This is your online resume and networking here is likely to provide quicker results. If being an REO agent is in your future it’s very likely the asset managers will start their search on LinkedIn to select qualified agents.

Step 2: It’s not about you!

This is the most difficult step for most veteran Realtors®.

Think of the internet and social media/networking as part of the largest real estate shopping mall in the history of mankind. Everyday millions of shoppers head to this mall to search for some sort of information about real estate. Unfortunately there are millions of choices for them, fortunately they have a directory to help them find the store they are looking for. That directory is the search engines, Google, Yahoo, Bing and now even Facebook.

So, how do you get to be the one these shoppers find?

Since day one in the business you’ve been told about growing your brand. Traditional marketing channels like newspapers, homes magazines, marketing flyers were always about YOU!

The evolution of online marketing has changed that.

Since the day the first Realtor gave internet access to the MLS, the consumer had the “keys to the kingdom”. The consumer is control and they like it that way. They can get the information with or without you.

It’s how you add value that will determine your success.

I’ve posed this dilemma to a number of local Realtors® and have gotten the same response most of the time: “They don’t need us anymore”

Absolutely incorrect!

They still need you, but not to search for houses. They can do that while watching “Dancing with the Stars” or on their wireless devices while driving through neighborhoods actually looking at their future dream home.

They need you to be the “resident genius.” They need you to tell them what’s going on in the market. They need you to tell them what’s going on in the community. They need you to tell them why particular subdivisions or neighborhoods are great places to live. They need you to share with them the “insider secrets” to a successful real estate transaction. In short, they need your expertise!

The consumer has the keys to the MLS kingdom and they’re not giving them up, so you have to find a way to bring value to this budding relationship that is not entirely real estate related.

If you were having a conversation with someone you hadn’t previously known, and they asked “Why should I do business with you?” How would you respond?

You might say because “I’m a market expert”, or “I’m the top producer in my office”, or “Because I provide outstanding service and I put my client’s interest first.”

Those are all very good reasons, but that’s what every Realtor® says. (It’s called me-too marketing)

If everyone is saying the same thing how is the consumer going to hear YOU above all the noise? You have to have a “WHY ME?” that will separate elevate you above the competition. Your WHY ME? has to bring value to this relationship.

Never forget the first rule of relationships. The person that brings the most value to the relationship will control the relationship! In the internet world consumers want to be educated (explains why there are millions of blogs) and entertained (YouTube!). They want to receive value.

They want you to give it to them!

Your WHY ME? has to be more than words, you have to show the skeptical consumer that you’re different better than your competition. Think of yourself as the Mayor of your City/Neighborhood or the President of the local Chamber of Commerce, who happens to sell real estate. The more time you spend promoting your city, community, or neighborhood. The more trusting consumers will be of you. Then, your real estate job gets a whole lot easier!

Step #3: You need the keys, to get the engine running!

For consumers that don’t already know you, they have to be able to find you through the search engines. How will they do that? They will “Google” what interests them.

Getting found on the internet, whether it be your web page or Facebook business page or even your Google local business listing revolves around keywords, so even if you already have a well established brand using your name, start thinking like your prospects and build your business around your “keywords”.

Google Keyword Tool – you will need a Gmail account to access

Here’s an exercise

Using the Google keyword tool, enter (your city) real estate or homes for sale in (your city), the keyword tool will give you the number of searches over the past month along with variations of those terms. You can also use the tool to measure how much competition you will have.

Now search by your name with Realtor or real estate agent and compare the number of searches.

If you want to fish…fish where the fish are!

The more proficient you are with keywords, the greater the chance that someone searching for real estate in your local market will find you.

You should strive for a first page ranking on all the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) for the target markets you have selected. The chances of being found drop dramatically once you get off the first page.

So, who are your target markets?

If you said, “anyone looking to buy or sell a home”, you have almost NO chance of being found.

Why? Because that’s the playground where the big kids play and it’s very, very expensive to play there, you’re competing with Realtor.com, Homes.com, Zillow, Trulia, Movoto and all the other national listing websites. If you have enough money to compete with them, you probably don’t need this information.

If you said, “first time home buyers looking to buy in (your city)” or “homeowners looking to stop foreclosure in (your farm area)” your chances of being found have increased dramatically.

Why? These are searches in your local market (hyper-local) and you will find a better quality lead. Research has shown that the closer a consumer gets to their buying decision, the more “granular” their searches get. They may start off searching by “homes for sale”, but as they begin to focus on a particular city or neighborhood they’re going to search for “(your city) homes for sale” or “(your city) real estate”. Then as they identify particular neighborhoods, their searches might be “Paseo del Sol homes” or “Greer Ranch homes for sale”.

The interesting part of this search process is that Google has a memory, and as they recognize an individual’s searching patterns with particular keywords, they will try to match those searches with relevant content and those pages will rank higher for that consumer.

You can also try “Wonder Wheel”- Watch Wonder Wheel video – which simplifies the keyword search process by giving you the ability to branch off in a number of directions in your search and perhaps find other niche markets.

Step #4 – Write a killer profile

“A Google Profile is simply how you represent yourself on Google products – it lets you tell others a bit more about who you are and what you’re all about. You control what goes into your Google Profile, sharing as much (or as little) as you’d like.”

Even if you don’t have a website or a Facebook business page, or a LinkedIn account, you can still be found on the internet by consumers who don’t know you, by writing a “killer profile”.

A killer profile is one that sounds more like a press release than a bio. Strategic use of keywords in your profile(s) enables consumers to find you based on their searches (Step 3). When you write your profile try to be as keyword rich as possible.

Back to the Google keyword tool and look for more keyword terms that are easily included in your profile.

As much as possible (don’t make it weird) refer to yourself in the third person because there will be people who know you or are checking up on you and you want to make sure they can find you as well.

A great source of ideas for a “killer profile” is ActiveRain. Search Realtors in your local area and check out their profiles. You will soon see the difference between a “killer profile” and a “me too” profile.

You only have to write one profile. Create a word or Google document, then just copy and paste to your selected sites.

As you search for other niche markets, update your profile with keywords related to that market.

Your profile only has one purpose! Help people find you!

Just like your profile might be for an on-line dating service, your business profile’s purpose is to generate enough interest to have a first date, then you can let the relationship grow from there,

How will you know if it works? Upload your profiles to each of the search engines, to your Facebook business page, and to LinkedIn. Give it a couple days, then Google your name. You should see dramatic improvement.

Maintaining your search engine ranking is not a “set it and forget it” strategy. Too many agents have spent a lot of time building their ranking only to lose it 30 days later because they didn’t keep the contact fresh.

Your online visibility all starts with your keyword rich profile. Take the time to write a “killer profile” and you should see improvement quickly.

Step #5 – Do it!

The only bad online strategy is the one you don’t do!

Remember, you have competition out there and it’s not limited to just your MLS board. Think about how many Realtors in Southern California have access to your MLS listings. That is how much competition you have.

To beat your competition you will have to be:

1) Creative- Take a look at what your competition is doing and do something different. Just because they’re doing it doesn’t mean it’s working. Think like your prospects, how can you educate, entertain, or enrich?

2) Patient – Like all relationships, on-line relationships take a while to develop. Don’t expect immediate results. Treat your on-line platforms with the same diligence you use for your off-line marketing. Be consistent. If you feel a relationship is getting stale, get creative and try something new, if that doesn’t work try something else.

The only thing constant in internet marketing is change. The technology is changing at a dramatic pace and in a year even these suggestions may be out of date.

You have to be committed to invest the time and effort to develop your on-line reputation.

Perhaps the worst thing that can happen to you is you find a qualified prospect and when they go on-line to “check you out” (and they will!) they can’t find you, but instead find another agent who has taken the time to build an “on-line brand”.

This marketing technique builds upon knowing what a WordPress blog is. If you’re unfamiliar with WordPress or blogs in general, check out WordPress’s website and the rest of this article will make much more sense.

So now that you know some of the basics of what a WordPress blog is and what a Studio theme/template is for your blog, we can go a little more in-depth about search engine optimization (SEO) marketing for your blog, which is what’s going to drive all that wonderful, free, targeted traffic to your blog.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a big term but the concept is simple. And it’s a great marketing idea for us Realtors or agents to learn if you want free traffic visiting your website or blog.

Let me explain…

You know when you do a Google search for something and a list of website results are returned that match your search term you typed in? There are usually pages and pages of results but you only look at the first 1-2 pages, right?

Well, if you look in the upper search bar, you’ll see the total number of results that Google found, which is usually in the millions. You’d have to go through pages and pages of results to see the millions of website results.

So how do some of these websites owners have the marketing genius to get listed on the first 1-2 pages while the other millions of websites stay at the bottom of the results? SEO marketing!

There are ways to optimize your website so that search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN Bing, etc. rank your website to be most relevant to what the person is searching for. Therefore, you get rewarded with a higher ranking on the results page and get more traffic to your real estate website or blog.

Tons of SEO companies and tech guys try to “game” the search engines so their sites come up as the #1 or #2 result. The problem is that search engines like Google are changing their requirements all the time so it’s almost impossible to artificially get higher rankings.

But of course, there are some foundational ways to get higher rankings and most of them directly relate to the content on your site.

The content on your site, or the text/words, is one of the main aspects search engines scan to evaluate your website. This is why I think blogs are so effective because you are constantly writing new, relevant content for search engines to find.

You can do the same thing with regular static websites but it’s tougher. You’d have to constantly update and add new content, which is much more time consuming and technically difficult than with a WordPress blog. Plus, WordPress is much more user-friendly for “non-techy” Realtors or agents like me.

Here’s where we start to get a little more technical so buckle up…

Within your WordPress blog, there are tools called “plugins” that software developers have made to enhance different aspects of your WordPress blog. They’re incredible for all aspects of your marketing.

Many plugins are free, some cost a little money. They’re easy to install; you just search for the plugin you want, download it and activate it and “Forget about it!” (sorry, that’s my best Italian impression).

For example, I use a plugin called “Contact Form 7″, which automatically creates a contact form on our “Contact Us” page. I don’t have to deal with any programming, coding, HTML or any of that junk. I just download the plugin, adjust the settings and it’s up and running on my WordPress blog. It seems like programmers have thought of a solution like this for anything you can think of. It’s fabulous!

Since most of us web surfers don’t look past the first 1-2 pages of results when searching, we need to get our Realtor or agent blogs up as high as possible on those results pages, right? Of course, that assumes you want free, automated traffic.

This is going to be a little tough to picture if you haven’t seen or used a WordPress blog but we’ll try it anyway. When you write a post for your blog, you’ll be writing a Title, a Description and the actual Content (or Body) of your blog post.

The title you write will show up on the search engine results page. Go ahead and do a search on Google right now so you know what I’m talking about. See that blue colored “headline” for all the results? That’s the title. Just like any other marketing piece, the title or headline is vital to catch your prospects attention. So put extra effort into this part.

Underneath that title will be your description, which will tell the surfer what your post is all about, in a nutshell. See it? It’s usually about 2 sentences long, right under the blue colored title.

The content of your blog post won’t show up on the search results page but search engines will still be scouring that content with their little robots.

Now, there are certain “keywords” that people commonly search with, like “Seattle real estate” or “real estate jobs”. Search engines want to see good keywords in your title, description and blog post content.

Anyway, I hope this marketing idea wasn’t too hard to follow along with. If you’re a “techy” you’re probably saying, “Dude, give me a break. I already know this stuff.” And the rest of you are thinking, “Blog what? Search eng… huh?” In either case, this is a great marketing tool to use and learn more about.

Now go close some deals!

I am not attempting to rewrite the thought on branding. The title is to get you thinking as a real estate agent (or any business) that before you sell your services as a professional in your area, you have to sell your website. And your website will be open to public opinion and branding. The fact is, we live in a whole new world that is constantly changing, and the old fashion school of thought concerning “branding” needs some serious upgrading when it comes to the initial approach. It is ultimately you, me and the rest of the populace that defines both the website and personal brand; who you are, what you do and how you are perceived. And remember this. Not necessarily just “you” as an agent, but your website, set of search tools, targeted information, etc.

This is a harsh thought though, especially if the tide can go in the wrong direction. So, it is important to understand that in the beginning stages of your marketing, you need to not only tell people who, what, where you are, but give them the resources to be able to come to this conclusion on their own.

This holds true for the real estate agents and brokers who are looking to establish a solid position in their communities as specialists in a type of “Property Niche”. And once again, not necessarily the agent, but the website(s).

An agent can have several highly targeted websites that serve different types of buyers. And if these sites serve up the exact information the potential buyers seek and answers their questions, you are establish some ground and establishing something I call Label Hooks. In this instance, positive. For every mental impression I create in my mind about your website, I am creating a mental “label” of you, your services, and expectations. If not positive, I am going elsewhere to search.

For example, if I were looking for a Golf Home in Destin, FL, searched for this in Google and found a site that gave me everything I needed about the golf courses, the country clubs, tournaments, etc., as well as detailed information about the real estate, I would be sold on the website. I would return when I was ready to go over options with my wife, I would email to friends and family, and so on.

The point is that you planted a “Label Hook” and scored valuable points with me. Eventually I will come to a conclusion of who you are and how I can benefit from your services.

So, to continue. All positive (hopefully not negative) “Label Hooks” gives me a more solid impression of you. I call this your Individual Brand with me. It is what I perceive you to be, how knowledgeable you are about the golf communities, and what I come to expect from you as a professional. Continue this service all the way through my purchase, and I am going to share my “Individual Brand” of you on-line via Facebook, chats, recommendations, and referrals.

So in conclusion, rather than selling yourself up front (just another agent), build equity by selling your property specialization, dedication to an area or type of community, etc. through your website. Offer the cleanest and easy-to-use search and save features. Ultimately, this is what buyers are seeking. That is why greater than 80% start their search on-line!

Google has already integrated real-time data into its search results through data deals with the likes of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. But stakes are higher than mere quality search results at this point. Google’s position as the dominant web portal is now being threatened.

Google’s most recent answer is Google Buzz. Google Buzz is a handy social networking system built into Gmail that enables social networking activities like instead messaging and file sharing. You can get real-time updates on topics of interest as well as enabling you to connect to pre-existing social networking services like Flickr and Twitter.

Google is a bit late to the party, but with its heavy mass of Gmail users, Buzz could easily catch on and become the next social networking fad.

But, and there is always a “but”, if you plan to use Social Media to market yourself online, don’t think that just because it is new there are no rules. Good business practices will always win over shoddy ones. People will always feel a little leery of spending money online so it is your job to make your prospects and customers feel like they know you, like you and trust you as a person. Social Media is the perfect venue for accomplishing that but there are no shortcuts to success.

Here is my list of the 7 most important best practices for making your prospects feel comfortable enough with you to take that next step and actually spend their money with you online.

1. Be Consistent - I cannot impress upon you enough how important this is! All of your Social Media profiles should have a consistent picture of you and provide information about what you do and how you can help your prospects. If Twitter says one thing and Facebook says another that will make your prospects nervous and nervous people do not spend money.

2. Walk Your Walk – There is no excuse for the “cobbler’s shoes” argument. (remember the cobbler never has time to fix his own shoes) If you call yourself a Social Media expert you should be active online and at least have accounts on all top networking sites. You need to follow your own best practices and actually put what you teach others into practice for yourself.

3. Check Your Information – Google your own name and your business name to make sure that the information that is reaching the top of the search engine is the information you want to be there. If it is not or worse yet, you don’t even show up on the first page it is time to create a plan to change that.

4. Follow Through Immediately! – Nothing will worry a prospect or new buyer more than silence. Because of the immediacy of the Internet, we expect contact quickly. If someone purchases a product or service from you online, make sure you have an autoresponder that goes out as soon as the transaction occurs to explain what will happen next. This should be in addition to the automatically generated invoice. You should also give your buyer some way to contact you or your assistant with additional questions.

5. Provide Professional Branded Documents – In today’s world, there is no excuse for not providing your prospects with branded, tasteful receipts, proposals, or information products. You don’t even need to pay a printer. Just design them on your computer and print as necessary.

6. Provide Excellent Customer Service – This is a no brainer, if you are using social media; you have surely heard the examples of companies who have risen from the ashes because of prompt attention to a problem that was voiced online. On the other side of the coin, mediocre customer service may not get you slammed on Twitter but it will certainly put the brakes on the wonderful viral effects of word of mouth marketing.

7. Keep Your Promises – or better yet do more than you promise – Nothing makes a prospect or client feel unappreciated more than missed appointments or not providing the information you promise in a timely fashion. Let’s face it sometimes STUFF happens and you do miss an important call or deadline but if it is a regular occurrence your client will soon be looking for somewhere else to spend their money.

If you put these business best practices into place then your Social Media Marketing Plan should yield the results you expect.

To those who would put down Twitter and chastise me for writing about how to use it to generate leads and sales online, I would say: why not use Twitter?

Let me remind you of a key point about internet marketing. Actually it’s a key point about both online and offline marketing, at least in my opinion.

The point is this: why not “Do It All?” This is what the real stars of internet marketing do. There is a snowball effect when different marketing methods work together to achieve the same result.

Is there such a thing as bad marketing? I don’t think so.

Twitter can be set up as a “set it and forget” marketing tool. It’s not easy, and has to be done right, but it’s something to check out.

But the best thing about these Web 2.0 websites is that if you use them right they can be a way to stay in touch with all of your customers and prospects in a way they will enjoy.

I have 15,000 followers in a few niche markets on Twitter. They each get several Tweets from me each day. I don’t sell them anything but just give away a lot of web marketing information which is my niche.

So when I want to recommend something to 15,000 people, I can do that quickly and easily. I usually recommend articles and blogs.

If I had a bar or restaurant, I’d use Twitter to announce special events. If I had a retail store I’d use it to announce a new sale. If I was a practicing accountant I’d use it to remind people of a tax filing deadline.

So don’t forget about Twitter. It can help get you where you want to go — into the hearts and minds of your target market.

The most common way of lead generation for real estate is through the “For Sale” magazines found in every community. While that’s proven to work, the downside is the cost. Depending on your location, you might be spending $500 to $1000 or more per month.

One free method to generate real estate leads is through article marketing. You can write simple little articles that appeal to your target market. Besides being free, articles can be lead generators that never stop — they can bring in targeted prospects for months or even years to come.

In article marketing you’re going to write small articles, typically 400-700 words, that give great information. And at the end of the article is your “call-to-action” — what is it you want the reader to do? In the case of real estate, you might want the reader to call for a free CMA or to get tips on how to find the right home.

Those articles contain information that every real estate agent can spout int their sleep, but that most non-agents have to search to find. By offering this information in easy-to-read formats, you’re creating a link between yourself and the prospect. You’re also being proven an expert in the field — articles are a huge credibility booster.

Let’s take a look at a couple ways you can use those articles to generate leads.

1. Use articles as giveaways rather than business cards. Instead of leaving a stack of business cards at the local title company, leave a stack of articles that give great information. Most people are more likely to pick up and take an article that helps them than to take a business card.

2. Compile articles into special reports. Once you have 8-10 articles on buying a house, and 8-10 articles on selling a house, compile them into “special reports.” You can still use the articles by themselves, but now you have a great reason for people to contact you — to get the reports.

Those reports can be offered to the “looky-loos” at open houses, given to people who wander into the office just to see what’s available, etc.

Plus, for those real estate agents who aren’t afraid of FSBOs, the reports can be given to those people just to help them out. You and I both know a large percentage of those will turn to a real estate agent and if you’ve given them something helpful in the past, you’re the one most likely to get their business in the future.

Using articles as a way to generate real estate leads is simple, fast, and “different enough” that you’ll really stand out from the crowd. And that can mean the difference between the poorhouse and The Big House.

This recent Google Webmaster video answers the question of how Google evaluates social media links.

The following points are what I consider to be the highlights from the video:

• Google doesn’t treat social media links any differently than it treats links from any other website
• Website reputation, and here Cutts specifically mentioned Google PageRank, plays a vital role in evaluating the source of the link
• Facebook and Twitter profile information must be public for Google to index any of the information
• Contrary to popular belief, links from social media websites, as well as .gov and .edu domains, do not receive any special weight beyond the normal ranking factors that apply to all pages and links

All in all, some really good information to keep in mind when link building with social media websites.