Recently, another real estate broker looking to enter the wonderful world of social media and online marketing asked me for some advice. I am nothing close to an expert, but I have gotten started, I am starting to see some results, and I am very excited about the enormous potential so I offered her the following advice to get started:
I would say the basics are:
1. Website — you need to do that to have credibility. There are a lot of template sites out there you can use to get started or you can get someone to design your site relatively inexpensively.
2. Facebook — you are already learning why this is of value. I make a point to post on here regularly; and don’t just post real estate stuff. Post whatever you are interested in — “having fun watching the grandkids!” Over time, people get to know you and feel comfortable with you.
3. Twitter — I use Twitter to meet new people. Then once I start to talk to them, I use Facebook to get to know them better. I met someone on Twitter awhile back, then got to know her better on Facebook, and now I am sending her referrals. I met another person on Twitter who is a very successful businesswoman and mother of 6 young kids who is now coaching me on how she gets it all done.
4. Blog — www.wordpress.com. It’s free and easy to get up and running. In fact, some people have their blogs set up to be their main web presence. You could consider that. Don’t let the blogging overwhelm you. Before long you will be writing content that will make for excellent blog posts. Like I am going to take this message I am writing to you right now and post it on my blog (without your name of course).
The most important thing is to not get overwhelmed. Take baby steps. Maybe set a target to post 5 times on Facebook tomorrow and find one new person to become friends with. Then the next day, do the same thing and maybe set up a Twitter account, and so on. I think you will find that it is fun and it’s exhilarating when you are on Facebook just chatting with a friend and you get a message from someone who needs help in real estate. It feels like you are getting business just for having fun online.
Let me know what you want to try next and I will help you as much as I can.
