Jan O'Brien - Real Estate Coach

Real Estate Online Marketing Tips - Consider Joining These 3 Social Networks

Social networks, social bookmarking, Web 2.0, social media, blogging, wikis ... there's a lot to keep up with these days in terms of internet and online marketing strategies.

Here are 3 social networks I recommend joining to enhance your online presence, business networking and overall marketing plan.

1. Active Rain - The largest real estate networking and blogging site for professionals.   Membership continues to grow at a record pace - as of today there are 77,952 AR members.  My blog posts on AR come up in Google keyword searches faster and higher than on this blog!
   
   Check out these posts from last year for more information on Active Rain:
   • Reasons to Join the Active Rain Real Estate Network
   • Another Reason to Join Active Rain - Referrals
     
     
2. LinkedIn   Connect the people in your professional network with LinkedIn.
   
   From LinkedIn website:
   
   LinkedIn is a place to find and leverage professional opportunities, now and throughout your career. LinkedIn enables you to:
   • Present yourself and your professional capabilities
   • Find and reconnect with colleagues and classmates
   • Leverage powerful tools to find and reach the people you need
   • Build a powerful network of trusted professionals
   • Discover professional relationships and opportunities
   • Tap into inside connections and information
   • There are already 20 million professionals in the LinkedIn Network and that number is growing fast. Whether you seek a job, a hire, a reference, a sales lead, an expert, or an inside connection at one of 50,000 companies, LinkedIn is an irreplaceable resource for building your professional relationships and achieving your goals.
     
     
3. Facebook -  Popular social network to stay connected with others.
   

   Use Facebook to…

   • Keep up with friends and family
   • Share photos and videos
   • Stay in touch with business associates
   • Reconnect with old classmates
   • Discuss interests and hobbies
   • Plan parties and other events

 

Beer with Bloggers, Blogging Tips from Tisza and Project Blogger Winner Announced

I'm attending the Real Estate Connect and Bloggers Connect in San Francisco and will be posting reports, updates and the best tips and ideas I gather from the various sessions. 

The first social networking session was held last night at the Thirsty Bear - "Beer with Bloggers".  The place was jam-packed with bloggers and the beer was flowing.  I met several interesting people and was jazzed to have a great conversation with my Project Blogger pick:  Tisza Major- Posner of Route66Living.  Project Blogger was an online blogging contest co-sponsored by Inman News and Active Rain where novice bloggers and blogging coaches were matched up over a 4 month period with the goal of producing the most successful blog.  The contest was not without it's controversy - over judging continuity, etc.  Project Blogger Links - quick links to all the apprentices, coaches and their respecive blogs.  The contest winner was announced today at the Bloggers Connect... and the winner's are Mary Pope-Handy (apprentice) and Frances Flynn Thorsen (coach).

Back to my conversation with Tisza.  Her best advise on blogging came from Dustin Luther of RainCityGuide fame.  Dustin related at a seminar she attended that "your blog post is your email to the world."   To me this is a powerful statement for a couple of reasons: 

1. It reminds me to write in a conversational tone; to the point with clarity and relevancy
2. Your blog is on the Internet - it can reach anyone and everyone - that's a reality check for me.   Am I writing content that matters? contributes? informs? entertains?  educates?  These are the questions that are important to me and the purpose of my Real Estate Coach Blog.

The other top tip from Tisza was about finding content for your blog.  She shared that "questions from clients can be sanitized and become a great source of blog posts."   How many times have we been asked the same questions - over and over again - from clients?  Or for me...from agents.  The big point for me here was adopting an awareness and mindset of how can this situation, question, event become a post on my blog?  Is it relevant and related to my blog's focus? 

Another Reason to Join Active Rain - Referrals!

On June 12, I posted Reasons to Join the Active Rain Real Estate Network .  At that time there were over 36,000 members (professionals from real estate, mortgage, title and related industries).  As of today, there are now close to 40,000 members.  In fact, a recent press release on Active Rain states:

SEATTLE, July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- ActiveRain, the world's largest social networking site for real estate professionals, marked its one-year anniversary today by surpassing 35,000 members and 120,000 posts, and projecting monthly double-digit growth over the next 12 months.  For the full report: World's Largest Social Networking Site For Real Estate Professionals Grows Faster Than Wikipedia In Inaugural Year

Yesterday, Active Rain announced the launch of their newest feature  - a Nationwide Referral Exchange.   The system is really simple to use.  Just post your referral.  Interested real estate agent members can request your referral by completing a comment box which sends an email to you then you select who to accept as the referred agent.  You can also browse the posted referrals and request or post your pitch to get a referral.  The referral fee is negotiated between the agents.

For now the service is free.  According to the AR press release, starting in 2008 there will be a $20 monthly fee to participate in the service.   I invite you to Join the Active Rain network of professionals.

In addition to this new referral exchange, you can generate potential leads by creating and posting relevant market content to your AR blog that can be featured in "Localism"   This feature of Active Rain is geared toward the public and as Localism.com describes what it is:

Localism will be the premier spot on the Internet for accessing local real estate information provided by those who understand local markets the best, real estate professionals.

• Find meaningful real estate information, not just demographics and listings.
• Get perspective on local real estate markets from the experts.
• Interact 1 on 1 with agents to get your questions answered.

I invite you to join the Active Rain Network today and generate some additional business while networking with your peers.

Reasons to Join the Active Rain Real Estate Network

I just joined the Active Rain Real Estate Network and recommend it highly to anyone who is really wanting to connect with other real estate professionals locally and nationally.  Some other reasons to join:

• Experience the power of social networking and Web 2.0
• Learn about and experience blogging in a community of industry professionals
• Expand and promote your business and referral base
• Share your opinions, expertise and knowledge actively with others
• Get innovative, cutting-edge business and marketing ideas

Some of the features at Active Rain:

• Create your profile highlighting your expertise, market areas, links to other sites/blogs
• Setup and maintain an easy to use Blog
• Join Groups on a wide variety of topics, specialties, areas of interest (1354 groups as of 6/12/07)
• Contribute articles/blog posts to Localism - a recent addition targeting the consumer
• The Official Active Rain Blog

It's free and easy to get started.  Just click on this link and create a profile:

http://activerain.com/action/referrals/jano444

For more information on getting your Active Rain blog and profile started check out this informative post from Denver Real Estate Agent - Kristal Kraft  and this one on Getting Started.

Also, visit my Active Rain Blog!

Happy blogging!