Some say that if you start your business January 1st 2012, you are already behind. Real estate is a lag industry and things can take 60-90 days of implementation to see any results. So if you don’t start until January, you may not see any results for several months (especially in this slow economy).

The best marketing advice I’ve ever received is to ramp up your marketing efforts and activities in the 4th quarter so you can see your results once the new year hits and get it off to a fabulous start. If you wait too long, you may find it harder to reach your business or revenue goals because you were waiting for leads to convert and get those marketing results to appear. Market for next year starting NOW!

Starting now, there are probably a few things you can be doing differently, or at least get started on, that can get your 2012 started off right. For example, you can:

• Start a blog or dust off that blog you have been neglecting and post regularly (at least 2-3 times a week to start)
• Give your website a makeover and make sure the focus is on the consumer, and not what a great REALTOR you are.
• Create or find deliverables that your prospects would actually want to sign up for and get those leads starting to come into your pipeline
• Increase your visibility on Facebook and make a business pages focusing on the neighborhoods and communities you serve.
• Start up on Twitter and be visible, engage, and share with your followers.
• Start using video! Promote your properties, your expertise, and your market area
• Be sure to keep your social media activities ongoing and never let anything get stale or make people wonder if you are still in business.

It is the perfect time to examine your current business plan (if you have one) refine it, in start implementing NOW so you can have a fabulous 2012. So take some action! I want you to start it off with a bang!

Have some marketing ideas you can implement now to get next year off to a great start? I would love to hear them! Please leave me a comment below!

Megan E. Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 10 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan and her team Virtual Assistants provide top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. Megan E Barber is also the creator and author of The BVAS Connection and VA Mommy

via geekestateblog.com

Check out the great post above from geekestateblog.com about a great content idea for your real estate blog. If you’re looking for some great local community content for your real estate blog, why not create a post listing and reviewing all the various free WiFi spots in your area. This will definitely appeal to the virtual workers (like me), telecommuters, outside sales people and more who are looking for a WiFi hotspot in your community.

Posted via email from megbarberva’s posterous

5. Real Estate Q&A

Create videos of the Q & A variety. Have some frequently ask questions that you want to address? Create a video that can answer those. You can also create call to action on your blog or website and invite your viewers and readers to ask you questions about real estate, the market, about your local area, anything. Then, create a video to take the opportunity to answer each of those questions to broadcast on your blog and YouTube channel.  It is a great way to showcase your knowledge and expertise about your business and local market. If you are not an expert when it comes to a particular question, or they happen to be  of a legal nature, enlist some of your professional friends and colleagues (attorneys, loan officers, etc) to speak on your video to answer those questions.

(As in your offline life, be sure that you make videos answering questions that you truly know the answer to. Make sure not dispense legal advice or give definitive answers to subjects you truly are not trained or experienced in.)

6. Interview Your Happy Buyer and Seller Clients

Ask your past and present clients to let you interview them a little bit and share their personal experience in buying or selling a home. Invite them to tell their personal story about the buying/selling process, their fears, their excitement, and what they had learned. With your buyers, you can try doing this immediately after the closing table while clutching their new house keys and filled with excitement about moving in to their new home.

You can ask your clients to add a little testimonial for you and the end, but it’s not totally necessary. Just showing real people that are happy with the outcome of their real estate transaction, and that you were the one behind helping them could be testimonial enough without actually saying it.

If you do one of these kind of videos, be sure to have a video release form getting the right to use the image/video of them with permission to use in your blog, YouTube channel and other marketing purposes. It’s good to have all of your bases covered.

Megan E. Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 10 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan and her team Virtual Assistants provide top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. Megan E Barber is also the creator and author of The BVAS Connection and VA Mommy

Check out this Green Living Tips widget. It’s a cool little box that randomly cycles some tips for living a little greener and I think would be great little addition to a real estate blog. Right now it is only available for WordPress or Joomla sites, but it installs easily and looks great.

I’m always on the lookout for fun things to make your RE blog better. And if you need help setting your blog up, it’s a great job for your Real Estate Virtual Assistant to help with. Just sayin’.

Megan E. Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, and owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions. With over 10 years of experience working within the real estate industry, Megan and her team Virtual Assistants provide top notch real estate support services such as marketing, lead follow-up, social media, WordPress websites, and more. Megan E Barber is also the creator and author of The BVAS Connection and VA Mommy

Image via Wikipedia

Today is Day 3 of my 12 Days of Thanks leading up to Thanksgiving. And though today has been a somewhat stressful, not-so-great day, I’m making an attitude adjustment. These things brighten my day so why not reflect on them. Gratitude is the Attitude!

Today I am thankful for:

• My lovely and warm home. We are so fortunate to have a roof over our heads without worry.
• Sirius satellite radio and their has started their holiday music stations which just started. And I am listening of course! A sure way to cheer me up.
• My healthy baby boy who at the doctor today got a gold star for growth and everything. His parents know what they are doing I guess.

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” – William Arthur Ward

Today I am thankful for:

Image by Leo Reynolds via Flickr

• The gorgeous sunny fall day that we are having here today
• My very clean and dust free family room, thanks to my awesome husband who worked very hard cleaning it yesterday
• My trusty Keurig coffee maker. Without it, I would be a complete zombie.
• Getting things done. I love that feeling when I tick things off my to-do list.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” -Melodie Beattie

Image by Markus Rödder via Flickr

excuse to stuff our selves silly with yummy food loaded with carbs. The

reason it is a favorite holiday of mine because because it is gateway to the holiday season and a day to give gratitude to people and things in our life that mean the most and truly give thanks for all that we have.

Today I’m starting my 12 Days of Thanks, leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday. I’m putting it out there, the things that I am thankful for. Gratitude is the attitude.

Today I am grateful for…

• A laid back Sunday morning with my son and husband
• The huge toothless smile my baby boy gives me when he spies me in the room
• A day without rain so I can go and take a walk, which always makes me feel good
• The fact that I have started this today and get to reflect on those things that I am truly grateful for.

“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” – Buddha

Share this Post

Kate Wheeler says "Step Up Or Step Aside", and SHE IS RIGHT! If you are an agent that is not getting active in Active Rain (and Localism), what are you waiting for?

Kate’s post is a great example on why you should be on there. It is a great platform writing to your target market and making yourself a trusted authority in your local world. Not to mention it’s an awesome place to network and learn from you real estate peers.

If you are still unsure what to do with Active Rain, or how to get set up, contact a Real Estate Virtual Assistant to help!

Posted via web from megbarberva’s posterous

What do you see here? I’m using video now? That is right, I have started some video blogging. Right now I’m playing around with video and incorporating it into my business.  I’ve decided to use every tool I can in my social media marketing arsenal, and video was next on my list. So here it is, my first video.

Video blogging, or vlogging, is a fantastic tool that real estate pros should seriously consider incorporating into their real estate marketing plans. They are super simple to make with a webcam, or small camcorder (My favorite is the Flip), and can be uploaded numerous places like YouTube, Facebook, etc., to gain you more online exposure.  

From being a "talking head" giving informative advice, to showing off your newest listings or favorite local businesses, incorporating real estate video on your websites or real estate blogs is a great real estate business tool. And of course, video a task your Real Estate Virtual Assistant can help you get started with and maintain.

More tips and tricks are to come in the future. For now, I invite you to come along on this video blogging journey with me. I want to see YOUR videos too!

Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, LLC,  and runs blogs, The BVAS Connection and The Virtual Perception. Megan has been in a Virtual Assistant for nearly 5 years and has spent 10+ years doing the “behind-the-scenes” work in the real estate industry assisting agents with their real estate marketing and transaction needs.

Posted via email from megbarberva’s posterous