10 Social Media Musts

Social Media Networking has become the focus of real estate. In order to maximize your online presence and net a return interest in your efforts, I recommend applying these 10 'Social Media Musts' to your "Big Picture Plan," today!

• Active, Searchable Profiles - Twitter, Linkedin and Active Rain, increases public awareness of you and your services, gives you the ability to network with others in and out of the industry.

• Have a Facebook Fan Page – currently the only viable option for real estate agents and businesses alike that won’t violate their Terms of Service. Allows you to create an ‘online hub’ of sorts, where you can provide pertinent information such as event info, links, photo albums of for sale listings, or redirect people to other resources, i.e. blog, website, Twitter feed… Recently allows for search engine optimization, given the new username feature.

• Create a unique online presence, make yourself standout from the crowd – personality can go a long way – suggestions are “Thought of the Day,” “Property of the Day,” type posts. Quick, easy, informative and to be done daily.

• Subscribe to relevant local blogs and Twitter users, reaching out to discover new ways of prospecting.

• Remember to use Twitter’s Hashtags to connect with a much broader audience on  popular subjects, such as #Real Estate

• Update frequently - people dislike seeing old news – so be current. Post messages relevant to your ultimate purpose… don’t need to mention how great that weekend party was, instead mention the property you just sold for 5% over asking price.

• Discover clients preferred social networking site and use it to communicate with them – go that extra mile in showing interest. You need to participate, because the conversation carries on whether you partake or not. By participating, you get to share your opinions and views. This is a great way to make new connections, business and/or personal!

• Google Alerts will notify you on the latest Google results. Setup alerts for key information such as your full name and brokerage; farm areas and related community events. Proactively monitor anything written about you, allowing you the opportunity to reply and leave links back to your website/blog.

• Listen to your followers! Be receptive to their input – they are after all, your lifeblood. Make use of their critiques and comments to help improve your online presence. Getting negative feedback? Turn that to your advantage and adapt to meet the demands of your clients. This will help strengthen existing relationships, and help foster trust in new ones.

• Use free tools like HootSuite to help consolidate the places and amount of time it takes to update your social networks. Mass update all of your preferred social networks through one convenient interface.