By Drew Burks

It used to be that real estate practitioners set out to dominate a geographic farm or neighborhood by using methods like cold calling, door knocking, direct mail, door hangars, etc…

Now real estate pros find themselves competing in a much larger and fiercer farm … the Internet!

Social networking sites have become the new geographic farm for those in real estate and you need to be active on these sites. I am shocked when I hear agents tell me they aren’t on these sites, most tell me something like they just don’t have the time or see the value.

What are you thinking?

On the other hand, I talk to a great deal of agents who, like me, created a page on one of the many social network sites and began adding friends willy-nilly, co-workers, and clients … really anyone you could think of.

The problem is … this strategy, or lack of strategy, doesn’t work!

I spent 2-3 years working my tail off to participate in social networking, joining every site someone referred me to and blogging 2-3 times per week and got zilch to show for it. Yet I was confident that it was necessary to be active in social networks, I just wasn’t sure what I was doing incorrectly—or not doing period—so I became a student of “succeeding online”.

I have learned many important lessons when it comes to succeeding online, but below are a few of the critical ones to winning in the social networks, aka; Continue reading »