Jonathan Osman
By Jonathan Osman
You are a professional now. You dress in business attire during the work week. You have a website that has every home listed in the MLS. Your carefully written bio makes you appear as you are the greatest agent to receive a license. You may even have a killer buyer and seller presentation. However, I would bet that the story being told by your Facebook page does not match your corporate image.
A few months back, I needed to send a referral to an agent in another city for a listing. I found a few good candidates and decided to google their names in an effort to locate their websites. When I did, I ran across one agent’s personal Facebook profile, ranked No. 1 in Google and her website was No. 45. By cruising through what was available to the public, I discovered that she enjoyed drinking from red plastic cups, college sports, and looked stunning in a bikini during a recent trip to Miami. Needless to say, she didn’t get the referral.
She’s probably very good at selling real estate and could have done a very good job. However, the image that her public Facebook profile portrayed of her did not match the values that my clients held. It would be the same as if she went on the listing appointment and said nothing but I enjoy drinking from red plastic cups, college sports, and look at these pictures of me in a bikini… can I list your home?
So how can you avoid this? First, use the privacy controls. Screen your photo gallery and organize your photos intended for your real friends into a list. Next, organize your friends in various lists depending on who they really are to you. Every one of my friends is apart of a list, from those I went to high school with, to the people I work with today. Every list controls the image of that I want to reveal to each group of people. Continue reading »
Brian Copeland
By Brian Copeland
I’m consistently reminded by my peers “you’re online too much,” “you can’t possibly get any work done,” or “you must not have a life to do what all you do.” Every time, my blood boils inside, and I find myself breathing harder to calm down and smile kindly. My response is then, “Yeah, I manage,” then I simply shut up.
What most of my fellow-market-REALTORS® don’t know is that while they are paying $0.25 to $0.45 for postage, spending hours of time fishing in an abyss of non-measurables and spending hours chasing potential, I’m sitting back every day with free leads coming through my door with no money spent and minimal hours worked. Why? I know how to capture my bloggable moments.
Posterous, iPhones, and quick boot laptops have made our efficiency soar in the recent years. I can work any time in those gaps in my days. What are the bloggable moments you are missing or not even noticing in your own business?
Being chauffeured. I’m writing this entry while riding in a shuttle from a Canadian airport. While not all of us travel a lot, if you’re stomach can handle it, you’ve likely got a 30 minute ride when you arrive somewhere on business. Turn that idle time into productivity.
Waiting on healthcare. Doctors, pharmacies, and health providers are notorious for being behind schedule. If you simply plan ahead to bring a keyboard device, you can turn that inconvenience into a victory. You don’t Internet connection there? Big deal. Open a Word (or like product) document and start typing. The joy of the cut and copy lives forever. Continue reading »
Laura Rubinchuk
By Laura Rubinchuk
I ran headfirst into my way into my real estate career. Back then, things like Facebook were used to stay in touch with friends and family, not to subtly remind people that you’re in a referral-based business. Twitter was a new concept many people viewed as a waste of time and way for people to know what you were eating for breakfast, when you were walking the dog, or any other idle nonsense you felt like sharing with the world. Now, we see yet another way to engage with professionals, consumers, businesses, and your next potential client.
Social media has opened so many doors for me – friendships, business, even the opportunity to blog for the YPN lounge. It’s helping to change the way real estate is done. It’s changing things so much in fact, that I’ve been able to build my business on it.
I believe the industry as we know it is rapidly changing. I think we will soon see a rise in the number of under-30s taking over substantial amounts of market share. We’ve grown up with the same technology as our peers, so we understand the mentality and the communication methods. We’re just as antsy to reply to clients as they are to get a reply from us. The face of real estate will soon be much different than in years past.
I’m so excited about this opportunity to be a part of the YPN Lounge. It’s a platform for a fresh perspective on the industry, and I’m looking forward to contributing observations and thoughts.
Laura Rubinchuk, GRI, is a REALTOR® with Keller Williams Realty in McLean, Va. Visit her blog at www.ArlingtonRealEstateNews.com or her Web site at www.TheLJRGroup.com.
Stefanie Hahn
By Stefanie Hahn
I am a Google Gal to the core. I love *most* things Google. Needless to say, I was excited when I heard about the possibilities of Google Buzz, the new micro-blogging tool to come from Google HQ. In the weeks leading up to its launch the rumor on the street was that Google Buzz could kill Facebook and Twitter and gain top-level market share very quickly. Kill Facebook and Twitter? Wow. That’s big news in my little geek world.
At first glance Buzz looks and feels like FriendFeed, another micro-blogging tool recently acquired by Facebook. From what I can tell so far, the best parts of Buzz are that I am not held to 140 characters, I can upload a photo directly on my Buzz page, I am able to add links without requiring the use of a URL shortener and my followers’ comments on a post are attached to that post and displayed underneath. I can also “like” a post.
By highlighting these strengths in Buzz I know it sounds as if I am bashing twitter. Okay, the character thing is what makes twitter. I get that part. But twitter also needs a ton of upgrades on the user experience side of things – as can be seen just in the number of third party apps that are out there to make the experience better.
Getting back to Buzz, though, I can already tell after a few weeks that there are a few things I don’t love. Continue reading »
Stefanie Hahn
By Stefanie Hahn
LinkedIn- www.LinkedIn.com: This is one social media tool that I recommend for all real estate agents. LinkedIn is your Web 2010 resume. When consumers Google your name – and they are Googling your name – you want your LinkedIn profile to show up in the results.
What is LinkedIn? In a nutshell, it’s your online resume, complete with recommendations. Spend some time setting up your LinkedIn profile and really building out your information, start connecting with your sphere of influence: former colleagues, classmates, group members, vendors, and your past clients; then work on scoring a few solid recommendations.
If you are new to social networking, LinkedIn is a nice smooth way to slide into the hot tub. You have to put the work into your profile initially and then spend some time reaching out to your connections, but after that, LinkedIn can become pretty passive. You can easily manage your profile and connections in just five minutes a day.
There are a few questions/concerns that I seem to get over and over again with regard to LinkedIn that I am addressing specifically in this post. Continue reading »
Stefanie Hahn
By Stefanie Hahn
For a very long time I hated Twitter. Hated it. I hated that I felt like I was broadcasting my life to people I didn’t know. I hated the amount of DMs (direct messages) I received from porn stars, perverts and others trying to sell me SEO tricks and the like. I hated the cumbersome search to find people that I was interested in following, and I am not a fan of a “these people are cool so follow them” list. Most of all, I hated that actually using twitter.com to manage your Twitter account basically sucked.
But my part of my job is to get out there and try these tools and then advise my agents – so I gave Twitter a fair shake… I thought. By the time RE BarCamp Philadelphia rolled around last May, I had broken up with Twitter and moved back in with FriendFeed. If you ever attended a BarCamp you know – your Twitter handle is almost more important than the name on your badge. I attended a session with the TwitterQueens @LesleyLambert, @HeyAmaretto and @MayaREguru and learned more about Twitter in 45 minutes than I could have ever imagined. I felt left out afterward and I decided to give Twitter another chance. This time around, I broadcasted less and shared more. I learned the unwritten rules of the retweet, the hashtag and other Twitter tweaks and tricks.
Still, I found Twitter to be dull. A necessary evil at this point, but not something I enjoyed. I continued to teach our agents about Twitter and the various ways they could use it for their business, but I’m not sure too many of them bought it, because really, I didn’t buy it.
I can’t say exactly it happened, but something suddenly clicked into place for me and Twitter. In the last 6 months or so, I have learned to tolerate Twitter and even (shhh ….) enjoy it. Why? This part is easy – connection. I was craving connection but broadcasting instead. Once I started actually connecting with people on Twitter and building real relationships – I got it. Finally reaching out to others and putting myself out there allowed me to make real connections.
Initially, I would reach out via DM – a private “hello, how are you?” to someone, and then connect by way of the @username mention. There is nothing cooler than meeting someone in person that you have connected with online in a meaningful way. It’s like running into an old friend that you never met. Twitter has widened my business and my social circles – I have connected with agents on Twitter that I might never have met offline, real estate and technology trainers from all over the place and even made a few friends along the way. I teach my agents that want to use Twitter for their business to find and follow the locals, connect and build relationships and attend or host Tweet-ups to achieve that IRL (in real life) interaction with folks using Twitter.
And Twitter – the twitter.com, I mean – has improved along the way, too. Now I can create and follow lists, a feature I love as a list-person. I can search and even save my searches from right on the homepage. Even the Twitter spam reporting is easier now. That said, I still use TweetDeck to manage my Twitter account(s).
Twitter is not for everyone, I know that… and I’m still not in love with Twitter. But I get it now.
Stefanie Hahn is the education director for Coldwell Banker Hearthside, REALTORS® in Willow Grove, Pa. Visit her Web site: www.StefanieHahn.com.
Nobu Hata
By Nobu Hata
I was just getting used to the concept of sharing my Facebook status with folks other than my family and friends when Twitter came along a couple years back.
Then came 2009; the year of the citizen journalist; the year near-instantaneous sharing of events, pictures, and Web-links with your friends/family/clients/anyone in general became the new norm. It was the year Twitter went from being a “thing” to a verb, akin to Facebooking and Googling. It was the year Twitter broke into mainstream use, and it’s not looking back.
On deck for 2010? With the recent proclamation of Foursquare.com as the “Next Big Thing,” the broadening use of social media outlets as an initial consumer search tool, the recent additions of Twitter “tweets” and Facebook “status updates” in Google/Bing search returns and the expectation of the new-consumers’ need for immediate communiques, it’s clear: the time is now for the use of real-time, hyper-localized use of social media as a business tool.
Essentially, what you did/saw/read today isn’t as relevant anymore as what you ARE and WILL BE doing/seeing/perusing right now, and it’s that concept that will rule in 2010. Foursquare (for example) linked to Twitter and Facebook helps you share just that. So, how else will we need to address this new mind-set shift?
Empower yourself. Get to know how the newbies Foursquare and Gowalla – upstarts that are driving this new real-time/hyper localized mentality — work. Learn how they integrate with your Twitter and Facebook profiles on both your laptop and mobile phone, it’s literally as simple as starting an account. It’s the power of these updates that will rule this new social media landscape.
Real-time relevant content. Content is still king, and relevancy of that content goes hand in hand with it. Become the “Mayor,” a la Foursquare, of your open house and link it to Facebook status updates. Rave about a new listing you previewed on Twitter and Gowalla and link it to your Facebook Fan Page. Become a neighborhood specialist by touting the newest restaurant or shop by “checking in” and giving a shoutout while there — better yet, partner with that business and raise the presence of both yours and theirs online. Add a Twitter feed (perhaps one comprised strictly of new listings once active, complete with hashtags?) to your website and link it all together for SEO happiness. The development of these tools opens a world of opportunity to reach our to friends, fans, and peers in real-time.
Don’t panic. Many of the SM rules still apply: know your audience/demographic, determine the all-important type of message and frequency of broadcasting that will apply to them, then follow through. Treat it like an old-fashioned marketing campaign — seriously! — and don’t over-complicate it.
Be mindful of the noise you’re making. Unless your friends, fans, clients, and prospects like hearing about your real estate biz 24/7, (chances are, they won’t) don’t over-do it. While, there’s no better CRM tool than social-media, listening, interacting, and watching for behavior change is going to be the best way to use these tools. If not, we better start watching for the “Death Knell of SM as a Business Tool” as the next big thing in 2011.
Nobu Hata is a sales associate for Edina Realty in Minneapolis, and a founding member of the Minneapolis YPN group, the YoPros. Visit his Web site at www.nobuhata.com.
Jeremy Williams
By Jeremy Williams
You work hard to add content to your blog so why not allow all that great content to be shared to the masses. Two of the biggest social media platforms right now are Facebook and Twitter. Millions have chosen to get connected whether socially or for business networking purposes. Sharing your blog with Facebook and Twitter users is easy with just some simple html.
First you will want to create jpg buttons containing the following text: Share on Facebook, retweet, and tweet this. You will want to save these buttons on a site like Flickr or Photobucket so that the image will have an http reference. Once you have the buttons created you can copy and paste them into your blog. For this exercise you can reference my blog at www.activerain.com/blogs/williams4yourhome.
Now you will need to make the buttons in your blog a link to carry out the specific actions. Here is the html for each action that allows content to be shared with Facebook and Twitter users.
Share on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=”link of blog post to be shared”
Retweet – http://twitter.com/home?status=RT%”link of blog post to Retweet”
tweet this – http://twitter.com/home?status=”link of blog post to tweet”
Allowing your blog content to be easily shared among Facebook and Twitter users is a powerful way to reach the masses. The more informative or interesting the blog post, the more likely people that read will share it among their Facebook friends and Twitter groups. Gain exposure through this viral means of social media marketing. More exposure allows for opportunities to develop relationships, which can lead to developing potential home buying and home selling clients. Start sharing…
Jeremy Williams of Keller Williams Realty NE in Kingwood, Texas specializes in the residential real estate market of Kingwood, Atascocita, and Humble, Texas. Visit his Web site at www.williams4yourhome.com.
Drew Burks
By Drew Burks
I’ve heard it said that …
… “Life is all about who you know.”
But, I believe there is something even more important.
Who Knows You?
That’s right… who knows you is far more important than who you know. This may be one of the most valuable benefits of social media and quite possibly the one area that most people are missing. Social media is your opportunity to build and expand your brand awareness, but you don’t do this by friending just anyone that will accept your friend request.
Social Media isn’t a competition, there is no award given out to the one with the most friends and fans.
Too many people focus on the wrong things like, adding friends/fans and relentlessly broadcasting their message down the consumer’s throat.
If you are doing a good job being you, being authentic and being relevant, people will want to add you as a friend to expand their network! In other words, they will want to know you! Brooke did a great job with her recent post “Being Business Effective via Social Networking” when she explained the need to:
- Make yourself worth following
- Respond to your friends, fans, and followers
- Give to receive
Who Knows You?
Let’s think about this for a moment. We all love getting referrals and who gives us referrals? That’s right, people who know us give us referrals.
Here is a good article about using social media effectively to manage your online reputation. Social media can help you increase the number of people who know you. The more people who know you the greater your business will be.
Spend your time being relevant, adding value to others, leaving people and situations better than they were when you met them — and people will know you.
Drew Burks has built a brokerage in San Diego, Dream Design Realty, with a unique twist on an old business model. His Web site is devoted to helping real estate pros succeed with technology: www.WebRealEstateTools.com.
Nobu Hata
By Nobu Hata
Let’s face it, when it comes to sharing our expertise on forums such as the YPN Lounge, Twitter, even Facebook, we sure spend a lot of time preaching to the choir. Social Media how-to’s, blogging tips, Twitter in your marketing plan…
The fact is, the majority of us have already figured out how to implement new media tools into our real estate model. We recognize that in this overly-transparent, borderline-creepy, uber-connected world we live in, being JUST THAT is paramount in our business. Because of this, we’re arguably more in tune with a fickle consumer demographic and relate better to the first-time buyer who’s now making up the majority of transactions nationwide. We know that doing so requires us to take aim on a constantly moving, consistently changing target.
The time has come to take the insight we have gleaned and the practices we have developed and open it up to the “old guard,” for lack of a better term. You know who I’m talking about. All of us have a group of agents in their office whose eyes glaze over at the mere mention of Facebook. Who think blogging is a monumental time-suck. Who remember when “MLS came in the form of a binder full of paper!” Who all think we’ve got it pretty easy. We know this isn’t the case.
Truth of the matter is, these barriers are totally self-induced because of technological intimidation and/or perception that these “time-sucks” have no value. Sitting in multiple classes at NAR09 and watching these folks stream out by the boatload really made this hit home for me. It’s less about age, and more about mindset… and the beauty of mindset is that it can be changed.
Whether it’s at the local office, brokerage, association or national-level, every little bit of instruction helps! Volunteer your time developing and teaching CE classes. Recruit converts to local REBarCamps. Share what you’ve learned at RealtorCon, InmanConnect, et al at Sales Meetings. Turn your Twitter feed into an all access journal and show them how to use it. Reaffirm that what we’re doing is no different than what they’ve been doing for generations, it’s just that the mechanisms have changed. And most importantly, be open to their opinions and feedback! Yes us YPN-Gen REALTORS have a lot to share, but we just might learn something along the way.
We sometimes forget that it’s these very agents who have persevered through multiple economic downturns, have seen the industry change at a lightning pace recently, and who are actively shaping our industry. It’s our obligation to give them insight into our practices, to learn something from each other, and together shape the industry we will be inheriting.
Nobu Hata is a sales associate for Edina Realty in Minneapolis, and a founding member of the Minneapolis YPN group, the YoPros. Visit his Web site at www.nobuhata.com.
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