Blue Paper: Social Marketing Tools for the Real Estate Industry
Abstract
In our Blue Papers on Social Media and Virtual Offices, we describe some of the newer technology tools available to small business owners. But real estate is different from other businesses. You have different reasons, specific to your industry, to use these tools. This Blue Paper outlines some of the tools and services created with the real estate industry in mind, and how you can best use them to help grow and promote your business.
Who should read this
Real estate agents, or anyone who is interested in using social media in the real estate world.
denotes an action item.
Social Networking
Popular social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, or MySpace), as well as real estate industry-specific sites, give you new opportunities for staying connected to your whole network. These sites give you a place to connect with your existing network and to meet new folks with similar interests.
Some real estate-oriented social networking sites:
- Active Rain is for real estate agents and others in the industry who want to promote and grow their businesses. There’s a lively blogging community here, offering a place to share ideas about online marketing and networking.
- Localism.com describes itself as “The World’s Most Complete Neighborpedia.” This is a growing site that offers up the flavor and unique character of specific neighborhoods. Photos and maps, as well as neighborhood and property descriptions, are included.
- Mydealbook.com is used by those in commercial real estate, including architects, developers, agents, and brokers. This is a network for sharing information about deals.
- Realseeker is for buyers. They can search here for properties nationwide and then discuss them with others, using built-in communication tools like Skype and Twitter.
- Trulia is a real estate search site that uses advanced search features, like heat mapping, as well as input from agents to offer more accurate—and therefore, more useful—information.
- Zillow is not a social networking site in its own right, but allows users to integrate Zillow information into their own sites.
- Zipvo Real EstateMedia Network is YouTube for real estate videos. Agents and others—like production companies—share information about making videos. Buyers can use Zipvo to search for videos in their locations of interest. Agents can integrate their videos into other sites.
But are real estate-specific sites all you need? You’ll also want a presence on the social networking sites used by the rest of the world. Connecting with potential clients, keeping in touch with former clients, and professional networking are happening all over the general population’s social networks.
MySpace
MySpace is a casual network that allows anyone to post information, pictures, and videos. In terms of the real estate business, it’s used to connect with buyers and other agents. One agent who uses MySpace explained that his younger clients think it’s cool and convenient when they find him there, and some of these clients communicate through MySpace, instead of using e-mail or the phone.
LinkedIn is for a more professional crowd. Profiles are built around users’ professional backgrounds, which makes plugging in to a network for job searches or new business easier. Real estate agents report using LinkedIn as a referral-building platform, to get testimonials from clients, to keep in touch with former clients, and to let former co-workers know about their career moves.
Facebook is gaining momentum as a professional networking site. It provides great options for building your profile—including images and videos. Facebook has a rich system for finding, joining and collaborating with groups—anything from ancestry to favorite hot sauce to political views. Agents report it is an easy way to stay in touch with current and former clients. Facebook groups can be created for anything—making it possible to reach a niche of buyers, such as a modern architecture group, or a fixer-upper group.
Set up an account on a social networking site. You’ll establish an online presence and be able to start building your professional—and personal—networks. Spend some time looking at the sites listed above. Which site’s atmosphere feels right for you and your business? Once you’ve set up an account, remember to contribute to others’ conversations. It’s important to join in, by commenting on posts, joining groups, and responding to questions. And of course, don’t forget to publish information about your business.
Blogs
Your fellow real estate professionals report that blogs (the online journals also known as “weblogs”) are the single most effective tools for fostering relationships and communicating with clients and others in the business.
Real estate agents are finding innovative and surprising uses for blogs. Here are a few examples:
- Nathan Shaw uses his blog, NoVaGreenAgent.com, to promote green properties and share tips with his clients—and all those prospective clients!—on greening their properties.
- Jim Minkey at Absolutely Foster City Blog runs a Funky Foto Contest each week from his blog. He posts pictures from all over his city and has readers guess what’s in them. The winner gets a gift certificate from a local business. It’s a great way to show off the community, build relationships with local businesses, and attract people to his site.
- Kristal Kraft at Denver Real Estate & Relocation blogs about the community she lives and works in, including major events (like the Democratic National Convention) and natural ones (like storms). She has made herself the authority on her community. Who else would you want to buy a house from?
- “Housechick” Kelley Koehler at The Housechick Blog tells the personal stories of her clients as they go through the buying process. Her blog offers a personal look at the difficult process of home buying.
- Don’t forget the duds. The wonderful Burbed.com showcases the lemons from the real estate listings. Are these places for real?
Setting up and running a blog takes commitment as well as time, and will only really be worthwhile to users if you update it with fresh posts regularly. Lucky for you, real estate-specific blogging advice abounds. Before you begin, look into RealEstateBloggers.com. You can find more advanced features at http://www.regator.com. And for great information on the best tools to use when setting up your real estate blog, try the 4realz.net Toolshed. Chris Brogan—a mastermind of the social networking community—has a number of recommendations in his blog post, Social Media Starter Moves for Real Estate. He offers advice on many topics, including: making videos, attracting potential clients to your blog, and adding local flavor to your listings.
Microblogging
Think of Twitter as Blogging Lite. With a limit of 140 characters for each post, writers are forced to keep it short (and sweet). Twitter keeps you connected—and, compared to blogging, is a quicker and easier path to creating your own online following. You can use Twitter’s search engine to find Twitter-ers local to you. Using Summize.com, you can track conversations about certain neighborhoods, and pop right into those conversations.
Scott Lockhart talks about using Twitter as an easy way to follow the daily activities of his team members.
Setting up a Twitter account is quick and simple. You’ll be able to make some great connections. Be sure to let @BatchBlue know you are in the Twitterverse. We’d love to learn more about what you’re doing there!
Photos & videos
A picture is worth a thousand words… so ten will be worth an extra $10K, right? Using photo and video sharing sites, real estate agents are coming up with fresh ways to get buyers engaged with their properties.
Photo Sharing
Flickr is the granddaddy of all photo sharing web sites. It’s easy to upload and categorize pictures, and most blogging sites allow you to display (easily!) photos from Flickr. Joe Zekas posted a useful how-to article for real estate agents getting started with Flickr and Jeff Turner shares good information on using Flickr’s photo sharing to build a library of images related to your selling community.
Video
We Sell Louisville! is run by partners Bob & Norine Sokoler and Bob & Fran Medley. They produce TV shorts for real estate listings and publish them as YouTube videos at Louisville Homes TV.
Keep Zipvo in mind too—it’s a great resource for video sharing. Here’s a good five-minute video that takes you from outer space, up the garden path, and to the bowl of apples on the kitchen table.
Though not real estate agents, TechOpinions hosted a contest asking agents to submit, via vlogs (video blogs) their answers to, “What technology product or service has made the biggest impact on your real estate business? And why?” Winners are posted on their site—have a look for some interesting ideas and inspiration.
Social Bookmarking
Using a social bookmarking site such as del.icio.us, you can find and share resources from around the web that are relevant to your business. You can also share any information you are producing on your site or blog with the del.icio.us community.
ActiveRain posted a useful introduction to social bookmarking.
Create an account in del.icio.us and begin “tagging” all of the websites from a particular neighborhood (local schools, PTAs, restaurants, newcomer’s groups, chambers of commerce, etc.) Then publish a link to the list you’ve made on your web site. Not only is it a great way to share information about your region, but it will help others searching for information on that neighborhood find you. For example, I created a list of sites pertaining to technology in real estate and published it. And I’ll keep updating it! You can find it right here.
Managing the New Network
As you build these new networks, it is important that you keep track of your new contacts and the conversations you have. You’ll want to keep a record of the new connections you’re making, how you found each other (maybe they left a comment on your blog, or were referred by another Twitterer), how to contact them (e-mail? Facebook? Twitter?) and any conversations you have had with them (online or in person).
To help with this, we’ve developed BatchBook for Real Estate—our own client relationship management product. With BatchBook, the power of SuperTags tracks the information you need to know in the real estate business—contact information, as well as pet’s name, professional sports team loyalties, favorite restaurant… and anything else that will help you keep your connections and your business strong.
Using social media tools and technologies is changing the way we do business. By familiarizing yourself with what’s out there and by getting involved, you open up a wealth of opportunities for building your network, learning from others, and growing your business in new and exciting ways.