So there’s enough talk about Social Media being the latest and greatest marketing tool and why it’s necessary to have in your marketing arsenal. It’s starting to be overkill, so I’m sure by now you are getting the idea. I want to dig in a little deeper and to talk about adding “friends” and connections that can be beneficial to your overall marketing strategy.
So you’ve set up your social media profiles, Facebook Pages, Twitter accounts. Now what? Now it’s time to add your “friends”. You can accomplish very little in social media without friends, or connections. Who is going to see your posts, videos, or updates if you are not connected to anyone? It’s like shouting out to an empty room.
The great place to start out is by adding your own family, your friends, current and past clients that you regularly keep in touch with. But it is a good idea to be strategic about the kinds of friends and connections you make on your social networks. You want to make connections with people that will bring you business or have the potential to bring you business. And though this may be controversial to some, I am of the opinion that agents should not be spending too much of their social media time connecting with just a bunch of other real estate agents.
When some agents just start out in their social networks, they get caught in the trap of spending a lot of time adding, and friending only other agents, and ignoring the potential client base they can find from their sphere of influence and local area. Networking primarily with other agents may be fun, may generate an occasional referral, but other agents are not the people that a majority of your business will come from. In some cases, they are your direct competition (but not always). You want to connect with real potential sellers and buyers in your area, people that would want to use your services.
Say you opened a new business selling widgets. You wouldn’t necessarily want to connect primarily with other makers of the same widgets. You want to connect with people that are interested in buying your widgets. You want to get front of mind awareness with THOSE people because they are the meat and potatoes of your business.
Now I am not saying that you should ignore and not connect and network other agents on social media completely. You should spend some of your time networking with other agents. You can find some great agents out there to inspire you, to learn from, to joke with, commiserate with. Heck, in my own business, I network with a ton of other Virtual Assistants on Facebook, Twitter, etc. But it is a good idea to balance it out and strategically build your friends lists with clients and those potential buyers and sellers.
So choose your friends and connections on your social networks carefully. Be sure to spend your time networking with a good mix of potential business and other agents. And don’t forget to provide that great content! Entice people to network with you. Provide them great information in a friendly way. Do that, and you will eventually have people clamoring to be connected to YOU.
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.
It’s quite obvious. The more places your listings show up, the more exposure your listings get. And when partnering with a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, it is our job to make sure your listings get posted everywhere without you having to think about it.
Needing more ideas for your real estate video? Video is a great way to build your “trusted advisor” status, so here are a few more ideas to help you do just that. As a continuation of my series 10 Ideas for Real Estate Video, here we go with Part II which includes two more content ideas for your real estate video.
3. Featured Business
Do a video featuring a favorite local business in your market area. You can do this by simply taking your camera to local restaurant, shop, or service provider in your town. Take shots of the scenery place of business, interview the owners or workers, and make mention why this is a favorite spot to do visit or do business. It is a great cross promotion tool, a great way to show off your neighborhoods to outsiders, and another way to show your area expertise. you can even consult with the business for them to offer special discounts and offers to your viewers.
4. Highlight a Community Event
Show off a different side of yourself and your community. Highlight a special community charity you are involved in, or a special community event that speaks to you. If you are involved in something like Relay for Life, take along your camera and show highlights of the event, interview organizers and participants on why they are involved and show why it is important to you.
You could also take your camera along to special or unique festivals or parties that go on in your community. Whether it is a fall festival with pumpkin patches and scarecrows, or something that is unique to your community, show it off. It is another way to show how you are involved in your community, show off why it is a great place to live, and again it helps to build your “trusted advisor” status.
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.
I am a real estate virtual assistant, and it is no secret that I run the business from my home office. Occasionally, my husband and young son let me venture outside of the home office for a day. So when I saw that the RE BarCamp Philadelphia was happening May 27th, I jumped at the chance to fit it into my schedule. I was really looking forward to it. Heck, just getting out for a day sans diaper bag, is thrill in and of itself. So, last Thursday, I dropped the munchkin off at Grandma’s and headed to Philadelphia for a day to attend the RE BarCamp Philadelphia (or #rebcphl).
I was way excited to listen and learn, and to get the opportunity to meet many awesome real estate folks I see on my social media streams on a daily basis. And REBCPHL didn’t disappoint.
First of all, the venue, World Cafe Live, had to be the coolest I’ve ever been to for an event like this. It was a great atmosphere, a great casual setup, the music in between was fun, and lunch was great. Not a bad location at all. Since I’m little new to the area I didn’t know this place was there, but now it’s on my radar and I may be back for their many great musical acts.
I spent my time there observing, listening, learning and contributing where I could. Many of the sessions were on social media related topics, which of course has been the hottest topic over the last couple years. A couple of the most intriguing topics to me included discussion on “taking it offline” (which almost turned into a smartphone addicts anonymous meeting). Then the Raise the Bar (or “RTB”) discussion had me very interested even though I’m not an active REALTOR. It shocks me that some in the industry seem so resistant to raising the bar on professionalism and holding themselves (and each other) to a higher standard.
All in all it was a great event. I met some great people that I’ve networked with online, and made a few new friends. I am looking forward to the next RE BarCamp that comes to my neck of the woods. Next time, I might even present at a session.
Lastly, let me ask you to take a moment and help out a great friend of the RE.net, Joe Ferrara. He was diagnosed with an aggressive malignant brain tumor and he and his family need all the prayers, love, and support they could get. And check out the Friends of Joe Ferrara group started up on Facebook.
Do you Poken? That question brings up the subject of my latest techno-gadget-geek obsession… the Poken. It was introduced to me at a recent DVVAA networking lunch by fellow Virtual Assistant, Kyna Baker, and I think it is just the coolest thing ever. As usual, I’m always looking for things to make the business life of real estate agents easier, and this fun little gadget can do just that.
What is a Poken, you ask? To put it simply, the Poken is a digital business card device. It provides you an easy way to share your contact info as well as all your online social network profiles with others you meet who have a Poken too. The exchange works by simply touching the palms together with another Poken user, or “high 4″ as they call it. And viola, the green glow means the information has transferred.
Later, you just plug your poken into your computer’s USB port and transfer the contacts of the new people you just met into your Poken hub(it’s web based). You then can easily download those contacts and put into your Outlook or other contact manager. And if you make changes your contact info, it updates your connections in their hubs and vice versa. There’s no more scribbling down your social network links, or new email addresses. There’s no scanning business cards, no typing into a database. How cool is that? (Scroll down for info on where to get one)
They have 2 products currently, the Poken Spark and the Poken Pulse, and I ordered both just to test them all out. So far I am liking them a lot for different reasons. Here is a video I made showing them off and talking about the differences between the two products.
The Poken Spark is the original incarnation, and come in all sorts of eye-catching designs. I think they live up to their name as they can really spark up a conversation when people see them. They are small and can easily clip to your key key chain. The Spark holds about 50 contacts (before you download them), but does not have additional storage.
The Poken Pulse is their newer product that works in the same way, but also has 2GB of flash memory. It’s plainer looking than the Spark. It looks almost like a standard USB memory stick, but it does have the little hand on it and can be ordered with designs on the inside. It interacts with all other Pokens just the same, and has the ability to hold more contacts. Again is is the size of a USB memory stick and like the Spark, can be hooked on to a key chain.
So where can you get a Poken? The easiest way is to purchase your Poken online, and here are a number of places that sell Pokens on US soil:
Some of these vendors also allow you to by them in bulk orders, and you can even get them with your own logo printed right on them. Great to hand out for networking events, REALTOR conferences and expos, or even Thank You gifts for referrals.
Hope you find the Pokens as cool as I do. I see lots of possibilities with them as they gain popularity around the globe. And if you ever run into me in person (it can happen folks), be sure to Poken with me.
Methinks that NAR is taking some great steps in the right direction. This is some exciting stuff in my opinion. I think this is badly needed and hopefully will erase the need for agents to buy into 3rd party aggregators. This should become a truly valuable NAR member benefit… Finally.
In just a couple short weeks, the very first Virtual Real Estate BarCamp will be held on November 17th. I just signed up and so should you!
So what is a BarCamp anyways? According to Wikipedia – BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences (or unconferences) – open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants.
Why should you attend? It’s VIRTUAL! So you have little excuse not to attend. You can attend right from the comfort of your own office, and can even invite a few of your colleagues. It’s a great opportunity to learn about and share great ideas about what’s new real estate marketing, real estate technology, social media and more. And all in a informal webinar sort of way.
And did I mention that it is free? That’s right, it wont’ cost you a thing!
Educating Real Estate Agents On How To Use Modern Technologies To Better Their Business Will Never Be The Same!
On November 17th, 2009 dozens of the most respected educators in the real estate industry converge to host the first of its kind, Virtual Real Estate BarCamp.
Virtual Real Estate BarCamp is a 1-Day Learning Extravaganza.
From 9am until 4pm PST, three concurrent webinar "rooms" will each host 9 different sessions, for a total of 27 different presentations.
There is something for everyone and everything for someone, and best of all, IT IS FREE and attendance is unlimited!
Attendance is projected to be at least 1000 agents, nationwide.
Do not miss out on being part of this ground-breaking event.
Session topics include:
Social Media Risk Management
Flickr for Real Estate
Developing Your Brand
Online Advertising Secrets
Facebook for Real Estate
WordPress Training
Daily Goal Tracking
Starting a Real Estate Blog
…and much more, with new sessions being added every day.
And if that wasn\’t cool enough, individuals from around the country are volunteering to host In-Real-Life MeetUps for after the event.
Learn all day, and then meet to have a beer with local participants. This is going to be a blast!
Social media is fast becoming a huge component to an agent’s online marketing strategy, and using Facebook is a major part of that strategy. If you STILL haven’t taken the Facebook plunge and started enjoying the additional reach and marketing opportunities, then it is time. Time to just suck it up and embrace the Facebook.
Facebook is not just another place for you to market, but a place to share and ENGAGE with your clients and prospects. It is another opportunity to become a trusted expert in your local market or among your friends and colleagues. Facebook claims to have 250 million active users, so think of how many of those users may be within your reach. What are you waiting for?
You better not be using lack of time as an excuse. Being active on Facebook doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time. So if that is the excuse you are still using, drop it. With a few applications and tools you can automate much of your Facebook updates and such that it will really only take you a few minutes a day to communicate, comment and engage with your Facebook friends.
In case you didn’t know already here are a few things that you can be doing in Facebook to help increase your online presence:
Advertise your listings and use Postlets which can help you syndicate to Facebook as well as dozens of other places (DO NOT do nothing but promote your listings. Nothing is more annoying than a friend that does nothing but advertise)
Add an RSS feed from your blog. It will automatically update when you have a new blog post.
Connect your status updates with Twitter or Ping.fm. Make all your status updates in one place that will update Facebook automatically
Talk about the latest open house or how excited you are about your first time buyers new home find.
Converse directly with clients, friends and prospects and add a personality to the “brand”. Become someone they know and trust. (you don’t have to be all business all the time)
Create a Business page that can include all of your business happenings, blog postings, newsletter sign up, and so much more. Then invite everyone to become fans so you can easily broadcast your important info to them.
There is a lot you can be doing in Facebook and you are running out of excused to not be on there. So if you are still a stranger to Facebook, stop what you are doing right now (I really mean it!) and get started by doing the following:
Lately I have been exploring the uses of video for my own business as well as how to best help my agent clients use real estate video for their own business. While doing this, I ran across Coldwell Banker’s very cool YouTube channel, Coldwell Banker On LocationSM. It launched in May of this year, and though my own area doesn’t have as much activity, I am quite impressed with the look of it and it’s potential.
On the consumer end, I think the page itself is very cool with an interactive map a the top with your selected location, and all videos uploaded from Coldwell Banker agents from the selected radius. This includes listing videos, agent promotional videos, etc.
For Coldwell Banker and their agents, I think this channel and its setup is incredibly smart. This benefits their agents by allowing them to upload their own videos of their listings, personal promotion, or community videos, and it helps increase the agent’s exposure. It is also great for Coldwell Banker to help increase their brand exposure and possibly making it the go-to channel on YouTube for real estate.
Social media has become an increasingly valuable real estate marketing tool, and with their presence on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and more, Coldwell Banker seems to be a step ahead of most of the other big brokers right now. I have a few of their lucky agents as clients, and as their Real Estate Virtual Assistant I am eager to help them utilize these awesome tools their broker has provided them.
If you are not a Coldwell Banker agent, that’s not a problem. You can still have a kick butt YouTube channel on your own. Your Real Estate Virtual Assistant can not only help with your video marketing strategy, but help you develop and implement your overall social network marketing strategy as well.
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!
So there’s enough talk about Social Media being the latest and greatest marketing tool and why it’s necessary to have in your marketing arsenal. It’s starting to be overkill, so I’m sure by now you are getting the idea. I want to dig in a little deeper and to talk about adding “friends” and connections that can be beneficial to your overall marketing strategy.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=88cc0526-80d8-4c18-91a2-20f9f90981f7 "A Day Away From the Office at REBCPHL")
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=5ccc7e80-fa94-4a1c-9cbe-72a44d24445a "The Poken My New Favorite Tech Gadget")
In just a couple short weeks, the very first 
Social media is fast becoming a huge component to an agent’s online marketing strategy, and using Facebook is a major part of that strategy. If you STILL haven’t taken the Facebook plunge and started enjoying the additional reach and marketing opportunities, then it is time. Time to just suck it up and embrace the Facebook.
