While new social media marketing tools launch each day, most real estate agents really just need to focus on the particular major players: Twitter, Facebook, ExpertZoo and also LinkedIn. Using these social media tools helps to accentuate the branding potential of your real estate business.

Monitoring Social Media Marketing

An important section of leveraging social mass media for business is always to understand what interactions are happening online linked to your industry and part of service.

Twitter can be a social network where users share quick, 140-character messages together. Users “follow” or subscribe together and receive messages from the other person via multiple programs including desktop personal computers, smart phones and texting. For Realtors, it’s always best to use Twitter’s free search results. Understanding how people are discussing your real estate practice and industry/market, no matter where they are geographically, will provide you with enough information to determine if you should invest the time and energy to start and control a Twitter account. For instance, a Colorado agent could make a determination of whether a blog about the area would be popular.

If you determine that Twitter is right for your business, you can visit Twitter. com to join up for a totally free account. Here certainly are a few items to keep in mind when setting up a realtor Twitter account:

1.Use the particular name of an individual business as the Twitter username.

2.Use your organization logo or a photo of the particular person managing the account to serve as the profile image.

3.Create a custom made Twitter background that delivers additional information about your real estate practice.

4.Use Advanced Twitter Search to aid in determining industry influencers and prospective customers that your real-estate practice should stick to.

Facebook for Real Estate Professional

With more than 800 million subscribers, Facebook has become one of the major players in the social media market. Facebook can be described as a powerful platform for developing a community of advocates to your real estate practice to aid increased word-of-mouth marketing and advertising. The first step up leveraging Facebook to your real estate practice is to create a business site.

LinkedIn: A B2B Social Network

The social community many business people are most familiar with is LinkedIn. This network of 70 million business users has more than one thousand business profile pages. To begin using LinkedIn with your real estate business, it is best to create and complete a profile for yourself as well as a business profile for your business. When setting up these profiles, be sure you include all important info such as your internet site and blog Urls. Additionally, it is important to take the time to customize the descriptions to best express your business interests and create an accurate reflection of one’s experience and knowledge.

Here are 3 tactics anyone can use that offer the potential for any marketing message to go viral online.

Video

In the age of high technology many have gravitated towards visual imaging as their preferred means to be entertained or get informed. YouTube called attention to the popularity video has with internet users and now web-cams have placed this medium more directly into the hands of the individual. This now allows for greater participation along with more creativity making the use of video a very effective way to launch a viral campaign!

Social Networking

This platform is the very essence of what viral marketing is all about. Be it an interesting product, site or even comment, if it captures the attention of others there is no telling where it may end up. The social network environment is the perfect setting for creating a buzz whether it is based on fact or not. Lets face it people like to talk and trade stories and these sites are made just for that! In many ways they can be considered online cocktail parties!

Though Provoking Content

The use of content is the backbone of any internet business but it is not always for the expressed purpose of conveying a marketing message. Whether it is a blog post, article, tweet or otherwise if a particular piece of content provokes a reaction it can easily launch a viral campaign that spreads internet wide! This applies to pretty much any industry, whether you are selling widgets or promoting real estate in Evergreen, Colorado. The key is to touch upon popular and/or sensitive topics without attempting to promote any goods or services. This will allow viewers to let their guard down, relax and become more engaged in and better absorb the content! Always use some sort of signature file at the end of what you have composed that contains a link back to your site so that ultimately people, if interested, can find you.

With all the different ways to advertise online and new strategies being developed almost daily it remains impressive that viral marketing still remains popular! What this clearly indicates is the long standing effectiveness and efficiency this strategy offers in terms of circulating any marketing message is still widely recognized! In fact combining this particular tactic with the technology and global audience found online instantly multiplies the potency of any viral campaign! The 3 tactics discussed above are widely accepted and frequently used methods due to their effectiveness at spreading any marketing message like wildfire online!

A lot of agents discount the Internet when listing properties. They either pay little attention to it or they place an online listing and do nothing else. Today there are several different ways to promote your property listings online and you should definitely take advantage of them.

More and more people are using the Internet to find their next property. You’ll want to ensure that your listings stand out and that people are viewing them. Here are a few ways to do this.

Use Social Media

Create a Facebook page, a Twitter account or a YouTube profile or head to message boards or the comment sections of blogs. Use these profiles and sites to spread the word. However, it’s important that you don’t spam or harass others. No one wants to be flooded with unwanted advertisements for your services. A great way to use social media is to answer questions and offer free advice. Once you establish yourself as an expert, people will be more than willing to check out your listings.

Include Videos

If the website you are posting your real estate listings on allows it, you can post video tours of your properties online. This is an excellent way to showcase the home you are selling and it will generate much more interest than a text only listing. If you’re not able to post these videos directly on the real estate listings website, you can do so on a separate web page. Then make sure you mention the website address in your listing.

Create An Email List

Rather than waiting for people to come to you, consider asking others if they’d like to sign up for your mailing list. You’ll be able to send the latest listings right to their Inbox! Be sure you ask first however. People don’t like spam.

In today’s competitive market, it’s important to stand out. Marketing your real estate listings online is an excellent way to do this.

However, where the realtors are concerned, setting up agent websites can make their wallets lighter by several hundred dollars in addition to the requirement of paying a monthly fee of approximately $30-60 for running the website. In such a situation the realtor blogs are an advantage as many of them can be set up for free and with maintenance costs of just $5-10 per month. In fact, there are many realtors who have created their own blogs to complement their realtor websites.

Realtor blogs are more advantageous than agent websites since in the blog entries are always made in a reverse chronological order. This way the most recent information is available first. Since the most up-to-date information is available almost at a glance, the client is more attracted to the blog than to the website. Also, since blogs are nothing but personalized websites, there are greater chances of the blog being updated rather than agent websites.

Unlike the websites for realtors that just provide information regarding properties available, photographs, contact information etc., blogs are more personalized in that they present the information from the standpoint of the realtor. This gives a more comprehensive view about a property to the client than the information available through websites.

Both agent websites and blogs provide property information to prospective clients albeit in different ways. However, realtor blogs seem to have a slight edge over the websites for realtors because they provide up-to-date information at a glance and in a more personalized manner. Additionally, costs of setting up and maintaining a blog are a lot less than maintaining a website. Owing to these reasons it is quite possible that blogs might gain an upper-hand over websites in the online real estate scenario.

All said and done, using realtor websites and blogs as a complement to each other would be best option in expanding a real estate business as both have their own plus and minus points.

Although blogs appear to be better than realtor websites, for realtors it would be wise to use both the websites and the blogs to advertise their business and stand out in a large crowd.

Using social media in your real estate business allows you to develop a relationship with your customer. You can post witty, personal, special, or funny blogs, posts, or videos for your clients to see. After a while they begin to see your business as a friend, someone they can communicate with and receive information about. The relationship you develop leads to loyalty and as a business owner loyalty from customers can make or break your business. A business with loyal customers is a business that stays in business.

Not only will you form relationships with your customers but it is a great place to pick up new customers, offer new coupons, announce new deals or specials, or just to let everyone know how important they are to your business. You can also post pictures of your business, videos, or commercials, which, again helps your customer feel as if they are a part of your businesses life.

If you are not using social media to its full capability you are not maximizing your available reach to potential clients. The best thing about it is that it’s free if you choose to run your accounts yourself. There are companies that you can pay to run an effective campaign for you, if you choose. Either way you should be marketing your business through social media.

1. Click My Account on the local Craigslist site.
2. Click Sign up for an account in the bottom left of the page that appears.
3. Enter your email address and the captcha.
4. Click Create Account.
5. This will send an email to you with a link. Open your email and click the link.
6. Enter a password.
7. Read and accept the Terms of Use.

You’re now an official member of Craigslist and ready to take full advantage of what it has to offer. With its user-friendly interface, it is definitely one of the most accessible sites of its kind. Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the Craigslist way of doing things. Select your city and then conduct a few property searches. This allows you to see how homes are listed and also what your ads will look like to potential customers.

When you post real estate ads on Craigslist, remember to include detailed information. Always include a high quality photo of the property, your contact information and any of the relevant information you would include with a standard MLS listing.

You can also use Craigslist to find handymen and craftsmen. If you have a property that needs work, browse through the “Skilled Trade” category looking for the specific talent needed for the job. You also have the option of posting an ad there yourself, outlining precisely what you are looking for. This is an extremely efficient method of finding qualified workers.

If you have rental properties, post them on Craigslist. Homes, apartments, condos and trailers can all be advertised. As with other ads, it’s important to be as specific as possible. Craigslist offers an incredible amount of exposure to those who are willing to put the time in. It’s a great way to reach a specific audience in the immediate area of your property-something that entrepreneurs pay premium prices for on other websites.

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!