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.

One common way buyer and sellers meet online is through online classified ads. There is an endless amount of websites where people can search for homes.

Another option to buy and sell homes would be through an online auction. If you decide you need professional assistance, there is a real estate directory online where you could search for agents.

The property website service offers better exposure to your property that you want to sell, but for a fee. They guarantee search engine optimization of all property in their system.

A popular trend used to buy and sell real estate is social media sites. Social media sites and blogs create faster interactions between both the seller and buyer to facilitate the transaction.

Social media sites are more personal. People often feel safer and more secure when dealing with transactions through these sites.

Now a days, people who use real estate services to sell their home, will link the listing to social media sites in order to make it available to a broader range of potential buyers. Beware, though, some people might see this as spam and may stop following your blog or other sites as result.

The ways in which people buy and sell homes are increasing. The online option is becoming very popular now days. The internet makes the real estate market even easier to find what you are looking for as you can do it on your own, in your spare time and the area’s you can search are even greater.

Just as the Internet changed the way a real estate agent markets a property and looks to gain prospective buyers, mobile marketing, and specifically, text message marketing is going to change the landscape again. It is an important tool to add to your realtor internet marketing arsenal.

There are five key reasons why text message marketing for real estate is beneficial.

1. It is a 24/7 marketing tool. Once you set up the system it markets for you automatically, even while you sleep.

2. It is easy. You simply complete a few fill in the blank sections on the website and the system runs by itself

3. It provides great information. You can only include 160 characters in an SMS text message, but if you can insert a short URL into the message the user can click the link in a smart phone and open up the full MLS listing. You will never have to touch a flyer box again!

4. It is inexpensive. Compared to the cost of printing, reprinting and stocking flyers, text message flyers are very inexpensive.

5. It builds your database. When someone takes a paper flyer (or two, or three) from the box, you have no clue who they were. You could go through hundreds of flyers and never have any idea of who was looking at your property. With digital text message flyers for real estate you capture the cell phone number of the person requesting the information, and if the system has a mini-CRM built into it, you can send automated, triggered responses directly back to the prospective buyer.

Just as the Internet changed the way real estate transactions occur, text message and mobile marketing is going to change the landscape again. Even if you aren’t a big proponent of texting, your prospective buyers are, so you need to change with the ever changing technological environment.

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”.

As you can choose from which products or areas your leads are coming from, you can be assured that your leads are targeted and that all the information you are providing is right for your market and service. These leads usually come with details such as contact information and buying preferences with all the information vet through for accuracy. Your job is made much easier with the email addresses, phone numbers and their budget for their purchase provided by the service provider. As you are buying when you need the leads, most of the information is current and timely.

There are plenty of such service providers to choose from. Compare their service and price first over the internet before making a decision. It will be helpful if some of them can provide you with a free trial to their service before you decided to sign with them. There are a variety of price options, depending on the number of leads you are getting and the frequent of purchase.

The key factor is that time and energy gathering leads is saved and you will only be getting quality leads. All that you need to do is to register online and receive their service right away, hassle free. If time is important for you, then getting a lead generation service is perfect for you. You save time and energy gathering leads and you will be assured that you do not only get multiple leads but quality ones.

If you don’t already know, Craigslist is one of the most visited websites online today. It gets billions of hits and it is one of the top searched sites for every major city in the US. Not only is this site free, it’s great to boost web traffic and get in front of a targeted audience.

As a wholesaler, Craigslist should be on top of your must do list everyday. Although it may seem as easy as placing an ad on the site and calling it a day, its not as easy. As any marketing campaign you implement, there should be a schedule and an order of doing things. Here are my tips that will help you when posting Craigslist ads for your real estate wholesale deals.

Repetition – Make sure you put up 20 ads or so a week. Craigslist lists the ads based on the date they were posted so the later the day goes, the farther down on the page your ad will show. Make sure you post ads in the morning and in the afternoon. Friday and Saturdays are the best for some odd reason.

Headline – Your headline is high end real estate. When an investor or potential buyer goes onto Craigslist and looks up property in the real estate tab, they might use keywords in the search bar to narrow down the number of ads. By placing the words wholesale and investment on the headline, you will draw more attention from the search tools.

Un-Spam it Yourself – Never have a link back to your email, or an anonymous link. Just put a phone number along with a link to your website. When posting ads for wholesale real estate I get a lot of lame marketing attempts of no-name websites trying to get me to post my deal on their site. By limiting the ways people get a hold of you, you control the flow and filter the spammers.

SEO – Put your websites name inside the city box next to the headline. If someone does a search for wholesale deals in their city and up comes 30 different ads, yet 10 of those say your website, you will get people going to the site just to check it out. Its very important that you make yourself stand out, even this little bit helps go a long way.

Picture This – Having a picture whose root file name is cash buyers or wholesale deals, will help you in many ways. First of all, nobody wants to see an ad for a wholesale deal with out a picture. Its one less thing they can filter out. Also if you name your picture wholesale deals or cash buyers, when someone Google’s images for wholesale deals or cash buyers in your city, your image will come up in the top search.

There you have it. Those were five basic tips and things to know when posting wholesale deals on Craigslist. I know about other sites like Backpage and Kijiji, but who cares for now. Start with the sites that matter and work our way over when you begin branding yourself more.

The website is certainly pleasing to the eye with a mix of warm graphics and Arizona luxury home photographs. The real power of the site is in its showcasing of the different North Scottsdale communities. Property and community information are easily accessible via a map on the website or by clicking the neighborhood of your choice through the community selector.

The home page also features a Quick Search for easy MLS browsing, along with an additional choice of viewing specific lifestyle homes. Participating realtors can be found in the North Scottsdale’s Finest Agents section in case the visitor was looking for quality representation.

For those unfamiliar with either YSM or Microsoft Adcenter, each is a pay-per-click (PPC) system for sponsoring ads that appear in sponsored search results. YSM and Adcenter are very similar to Google’s Adwords in this regard, although it was actually Yahoo and its previous YSM incarnation of Overture that really got the PPC ball rolling in the early days of search results ad buying.

Many have never used the Microsoft Adcenter system. While it cannot be used as rigorously and is not as flexible as Google Adwords, the Adcenter system is still very effective. It is fairly elegant and easy to use, an edge I believe it actually has over the current YSM system which is a bit clunky and non-intuitive.

Not to mention that the merge into Adcenter will bring a broader base of eyeballs for ads. Yahoo states that it will give businesses and their ads “access to up to 154 million searchers,” and that is good news to any search marketer.

Having observed and worked with Google now for at least a decade, this is a big deal. Not so much because Google has been reticent in making changes to their search page, but because it highlights a small victory for left-side navigation.

In the area of website design, we encounter lots of opinions and preferences for different layouts and site navigation styles. We try to develop what is best for users working off of some core principles for website design like Eyetrack studies and other research.

Alternative navigation strategies abound on the Internet. You have different varieties of top nav, right-side nav, and embedded navigation styles to go along with left-side navigation.

The fact that Google has elected to go with a left-side navigation format on their new search page is a profound development. The main reason being that Google doesn’t make a major move like this without extensive testing and research. If tried and true Google, who has managed to dominate the search landscape with one of the most simple search page designs in history, made the judgment call to go with left-side navigation, then I am willing to accept that all of the prior testing and research they did points to this being the best option.