social media guide Social Media, continued from page 21 potential clients can check on their professionalism. Expert users of social media say they plan to expand their use of videos and Twitter and continue to track the topics and technology preferred by potential clients.
alerted (‘pinged’) whenever you are mentioned in someone’s conversation,” says Massey.
extremely local in my content and make sure that what I write is meaningful to buyers and sellers.”
Massey says that as technology changes, Twitter and Facebook may disappear, but “the way that people are connecting won’t go away.”
Twitter: It’s Not For The Birds
“Realtors® tell me they don’t always use Twitter to get new clients, but they are using it to stay in touch with other agents,” says Massey. “For me, Realtors® are my source of business so it helps me to ‘follow’ them, ‘listen’ to their conversations and build relationships.”
Writing her blog for about two years, Klaussen has a library of relevant content that continues to attract readers and potential clients. For example, a post she wrote months ago about Colonial Village continues to bring in buyers, sellers and renters to her business.
Derek Massey, President of MidAtlantic Settlement Services, has discovered how easy it can be to build relationships with Twitter. “I’m intrigued by following Realtors® on Twitter because they can refer business to me and also because they understand the real estate business so completely,” says Massey. “I’ve met Realtors® through Twitter that I didn’t know six months ago by becoming part of their conversation with other agents.” Massey emphasizes that Twitter is about networking, not technology. “Twitter works like real-life networking, where you might introduce yourself to someone at a breakfast who is talking with someone else you know,” says Massey. “On Twitter, you have this same ability to introduce yourself and follow someone’s conversations by clicking on their username and reading their profile.” While some people may think Twitter and Facebook could become overly time-consuming, Massey says that Twitter is a perfect match with iPhones and Blackberries, which people can use for a few minutes at a time while waiting for an appointment to begin. “Another nice feature of Twitter is that you can arrange to be
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LLosa says he recently began using Twitter more because it requires shorter messages, which are less time-consuming to write than blog posts. He keeps his Twitter profile set to private, which means it requires permission to follow, because he feels more comfortable sharing comments with friends than with the general public. “Mobile media such as the iPhone puts social media at people’s fingertips constantly, so you can reach people wherever they are,” says Block. “This means you need to update your information more frequently to keep people’s attention.”
Blogging: It’s The “Write” Thing To Do While Twitter and Facebook require short bursts of interaction, most bloggers say they take more time with the articles they post. LLosa writes lengthy pieces that he posts infrequently, while other bloggers post articles bi-weekly or even daily. “The single most effective thing I do to get new business is writing my blog,” says Klaussen. “I stay
October 2009
“At first I tried to use search engine optimization techniques, but after a while I realized that what matters more is answering consumer questions,” says Klaussen. “Consumer questions are what they will search for online.” Elias says she spends several hours a day on her Loudoun County-focused blog because she feels it works better for her than emailing or cold calling. “Everything I do links back to my blog, which is hyper-local to Loudoun County, with local events, news about the Board of Supervisors and photos,” says Elias. “My Facebook Fan Page directs people back to the blog, but I also find that Facebook works well to increase my visibility to friends of friends.” Elias eliminated a separate Web site a few months ago and now uses her blog page at WordPress.com for all contacts. The blog has a home search page connected to it, along with separate blogs that are more statistical and include local market charts. “I found that my blog was drawing in far more clients than the Web site, so I decided to just use the one place for everything,” says Elias. “This may be a new trend among agents to focus
NVAR Realtor® UPDATE