Daily I am reading about new opinions, tricks and new applications with social networking. Sometimes I think “this is consuming my life” – But, really it is the best marketing you can do for yourself and your business, if you do effectively.
Because I work with so many real estate agents across the country in building their social networking presence I find real estate has its own social networking niche. What works for other businesses or industries is not necessarily the case with real estate.
You need to constantly work on re-crafting your talent and message to your target audience. Your audience already knows you help buyers and sellers with their real estate needs, so get creative in keeping them focused on you because you don’t necessarily focus on your real estate marketing, but focus on local charities that need attention, local events, local issues. Ask yourself – Why would the local community connect with you? Yes, you should throw some real estate in there on occasion, but you will receive more positive exposure by focusing on what your audience is craving. Be unique and supportive. Get to know your audience and engage with them.
Believe me – this has a bigger impact and makes your audience want to see what is next or rely on you to have the information about what is happening in the local area.
As for who your audience is. You need to focus on your community. Sure connect with other agents (Keep them private, if you can) and learn from their posts and hopefully build a great network for referrals, but engage your neighbors, local businesses, etc.
I made this suggestion to a client and we re-focused and he even went as far as hosting a social networking event to help his community to involved in social networking. This was unique and a big-big hit!
Another client hosted a church networking event and again – huge hit.
I discovered the principal of our high school was following me on Twitter. I told him I would be happy to build a background page for the high school. He was very appreciative. After I created the background I would get stopped at events by people saying they saw the page. I thought to myself “WOW! Word sure gets around!” So, remember people talk and share information, so do something that gives your community something to talk about and WANT to connect with you.
Social Networking is about socializing. You have a wonderful opportunity to offer so much more than just real estate, but make them remember you when it comes to their real estate needs.
Tip – You might want to have two Twitter accounts – one for real estate connections and the other for your local community. I have two and it is amazing how well this works.
If you are attending the 2009 STAR POWER Annual Conference look for me and let’s see how I can help you make this social network marketing concept will work to your advantage.
