Social Media Best Practices

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor REALTOR® Magazine

Social media should be used to create communities and not to push listings out. You wouldn’t go to church to hand out your listings, and therefore, you shouldn’t do it through your Facebook page.

That was one of the main arguments presented by Ginger Wilcox, GRI, Kelley Koehler, and Mariana Wagner—all experts with the Social Media Marketing Institute—at the Introduction to Social Media session at the 2009 REALTORS® Convention & Expo this morning.

The panel advised real estate pros to think about using social media to connect with people to build relationships that will eventually lead to communities.  Read more

REALTOR®2.0: Getting Started in Social Media

By Todd Carpenter, Social Media Manager, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

The world of social media, as applied to the world of real estate, is about five years old. Yet we are only now reaching a critical mass of agents who realize this is not a fad. As with mobile phones and e-mail, social networks and blogs are becoming mainstream tools for REALTORS®. If you’re ready to get started, here are three excellent resources to get the ball rolling.

1. Look at this post. Read more

All Things Tech at Inman Real Estate Connect

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

The mood in the Grand Ballroom of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, the site of the 2009 Inman News Real Estate Connect (August 5-7) conference, was remarkably upbeat. With this week’s encouraging news about the housing and job markets, the atmosphere was palpably different from just six months ago at RE Connect in New York. At 1,800, attendance was notably up from last year’s conference, and most sessions were standing-room-only.

Presenters seem to concur that signs point to a slow recovery, but recovery or not, the industry still needs to adapt to a different environment. Sherry Chris, president & CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC, argued that the average office space will need to decrease from 124 sq. feet per practitioner to 49 sq. feet and that newer associates will demand more technology. Read more

Authenticity and the Social Web

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

In the September issue of REALTOR® magazine, we’re bringing you a cover story on the realities of doing business on the “social Web” — i.e., the vast array of sites that allow people to communicate, collaborate, and network online. Our aim for that article is to help you sift through the constantly changing tools, terms, and techniques in social media and uncover some core characteristics of this extraordinary new virtual world.

One of the more significant bits of advice that I came across in my research and writing was the importance of being genuine. To use social media successfully, you have to be yourself. This sounds easy, but there’s always a temptation to project an image of yourself that overstates your abilities or experience, or perhaps alters your demeanor to fit a potential client’s perception of an ideal real estate professional. Read more

Market Yourself on Social Media!

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

A couple of weeks ago, I had the good fortune to sit in on a session held here in Chicago for the new Certified Social Media Marketer (CSM) credential. Developed late last year by Bill Lublin and the team at the Social Media Marketing Institute, it aims to help professionals promote themselves via online networks.

Lublin started devising this designation when he noticed a gap between enthusiasm for using social media for business and an actual understanding of how to do this effectively. A couple of points that real estate pros need to know as they think about how to use social networks to sell themselves and their services are: Read more

Using Social Media to Get Ahead in the Business

How can you use social media to reach out to your clients in the real estate business? More than 100 real estate pros met today in Chicago for the RE Bar Camp to brainstorm ways to better leverage social media for their business. Watch the video below to hear how some attendees are using social media. Also, check out the article Smart Ideas for Better Social Networking to glean more ideas from the conference.

Jack and Suzy Welch Took the Twitter Challenge

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

There is an interesting article on the homepage of BusinessWeek from corporate guru Jack Welch and his wife Suzy on why they Tweet. For some time now, Oprah’s been using Twitter and it seems if she’s using it, the whole world would be too. I mean come on, it’s free.

I’ve been encouraging everyone to sign up for the “Twitter Challenge,” where you post at least five tweets a day for two weeks. As I talked to friends about it over the weekend, I found it’s hard to express what exactly is so powerful about the application. The Welches address this problem as well in their column. It’s like trying to describe a party and the reality is you just have to go, interact, and see for yourself. Read more

Trying to Sell Through Social Media? Not So Fast…

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

Knowledge Networks, a company that produces social research, recently released a report that shows more than 83 percent of the online population between the ages 13-54 use social media, but less than 5 percent of social media users turn to these sites for suggestions about purchasing decisions.

The study, which can be found here, broke down the things people are more likely to use social media to assess, such as travel services and clothes, and the items users are less likely to seek online advice on, such as groceries. While real estate was not specifically queried, the survey did offer data on other large purchases, including cars and financial services. One could infer that most users wouldn’t make many important decisions about home ownership through social networking. Read more

My Twitter Challenge

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

I recently interviewed Jack Dorsey, one of the co-founders and CEOs of Twitter, for an upcoming technology column in REALTOR® magazine. He is as engaging and as much of a visionary that many in the media have suggested he is.

While some argue that Twitter has reached its threshold, I think it’s just the beginning for this application. Read more

Me, Myself, & Facebook.

Recently, a real estate agent I hardly knew asked me, “Don’t you think your Facebook page is unprofessional?” My reply was, “Don’t you think yours is a little too professional?”

Both of us are right, or wrong. It depends on how you look at it. Read more

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