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Archive for the ‘Social Media Marketing’ Category

Why Real Estate Professionals Should Use Hootsuite to Stay Organized

Posted on: March 11th, 2013 by Beth Heilman

hootsuite-logoIf you are engaged in social media marketing, which is a necessity in the world of business today, then you should use Hootsuite to stay organized. This helpful platform was launched in December of 2008 and has since then become the backbone of many professional’s social media campaigns.

Hootsuite offers a long and impressive list of features, including the ability to manage multiple accounts on popular social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and more. From the dashboard users can schedule updates, collaborate with their team, integrate their RSS feeds, receive customized, scheduled reports, and monitor conversations.

Hootsuite is a Time Saver

Building a significant presence through social media can have a huge positive impact on business, but it can also be very time consuming. By learning how to use Hootsuite to stay organized, real estate professionals can network, connect with clients, and generate more leads through social media platforms in the most efficient way possible. Hootsuite allows users to schedule posts far in advance, meaning they can sit down in one day and get all their tweets done for an entire month or more.

Hootsuite Helps to Increase Productivity

This platform places all social media accounts from various networks into one user-friendly dashboard. All Twitter feeds, messages, and mentions can be easily viewed in one location. Hootsuite is how to organize social media effectively. This saves users from having to toggle between and log on to many sites, which can prove to be a very inefficient use of time. The organizational tabs make it easy to use Hootsuite to stay organized. Users get to spend more time engaging their audience and less time worrying over technicalities.

Stay Connected and Advance Your Career

Lack of communication can equal missed opportunities to find partnerships, generate leads, make sales, and much more. A nice percentage of the business to business and business to customer communications that take place are happening within social media networks. Yet, many real estate professionals are busy to the point that they do not have much time to devote to social media communications. Hootsuite makes it easy to stay current and interact with others. There are even mobile capabilities that allow users to carry their social media manager with them wherever they go.

Manage your Brand

Many real estate professional must engage in brand management. Their reputation has a heavy impact on their achievements and overall success. Social media monitoring is an important and effective strategy for brand management. The analytics available through Hootsuite allows the effectiveness of social media campaigns to be easily evaluated. Plus, professionals can be notified anytime they are mentioned in a social media conversation. This helps them to know where they stand and what approach they should take next when it comes to their reputation.

With Hootsuite, building and managing a social media presence can be easy, less stressful, and actually fun. While trying to keep track of accounts on multiple social media platforms can be a hassle, combining them on the Hootsuite dashboard turns social media management into a simple activity. If you have or desire to build a significant presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, then use Hootsuite to stay organized.

Are you using Hootsuite in your business to stay organized? Do you give a hoot? Just kidding… If you are leave me a comment below or let’s talk about it over on my Facebook Page. Even if you’re not, or have questions about how to use Hootsuite…Let’s talk!!

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How To Use Google+ Communities To Build Your Referral Business

Posted on: February 21st, 2013 by Beth Heilman

Google+Logo

As a real estate agent, it is vital that you stay in contact with your clients and potential customers. The Internet has been considered as an amazingly powerful source for looking real professional while also letting your customers get in contact with you easily. In this article, you’re going to learn about the powerful Google+ social network, specifically Google+ Communities, and how it can be used for you to get more clients and develop a better online presence. It is definitely true that using Google+ for real estate agents is very powerful.

This social network is basically where people connect with each other using a Google-like social network. If you have a Gmail account, you automatically have your very own Google+ account which is pretty cool. The truth is that Google+ can be used to build a really good platform for attaining more referrals in terms of getting clients. There are plenty of people who’ve had much success and earned so much just from using social media alone for gaining clients.

How To Use Google+ Communities To Build Your Referral Business

– Create Community

In the G+ platform, you can easily create a community. This community can be for your past clients or it can be for anybody in your area looking for a home. Once you create your own community, you can make updates, so every time you say something in a new post, everybody who is a part of it will get it in their main profile page.

– Invitations

After you have a couple of people whom you know personally to be a part of the community, make sure to get them to invite others. You can even give them an incentive if you’d like to make them invite others, but do not give away a house for a new member to your community. Try not to be that desperate. The best thing to do is to let others know that if they know somebody who can use a home to invite them to the community so that you can help them.

– Open Houses

The best part about these communities is that you can use them to let others know about your future open houses. You can tell people about future discounts that may be available. This is one huge benefit. You can get more and more people to come to your open houses. The best part is that you can schedule how many people will come since people will message you and email already asking you questions, making it that much easier to sell the home.

– Public or private?

This really does depend upon what you want. However, keeping it public will allow for many others to come in easily and join in on your updates. If you do decide to keep it private, it can help on making it seem mysterious, so keeping it private may help cause more people to join.

Be sure to be very alert and to always use respond to requests, emails, and other important questions when you actually get the chance. Don’t forget to use other parts of Google+ like the “circles”. This is where you build a “circle of friends” to promote to, and sometimes it is just as powerful as creating your own community.

Have you started your own Google+ Community? Do you have a Google+ account for your business? Leave your link below and let’s connect!!

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Why You Need a Real Estate Blog

Posted on: January 25th, 2013 by Beth Heilman

RealEstateBlog

Social media and real estate blogs are immensely powerful tools for Realtors. They can help you generate leads and help you grow your business. The power of both tools lies in the exposure and visibility they offer. A real estate blog is useful when you are:

1) Creating brand awareness
2) Marketing yourself and business
3) Connect with potential customers in real time
4) Building customer loyalty
5) Managing your reputation

Property buyers are becoming savvy by the day

Majority of home buyers do not only consult their Real Estate Agents. Most of them seek inspiration from blogs and social media platforms. Research indicates that 90% of home buyers consult online resources and another 50% engage actively in social media. This revelation underscores the immense importance of social media and blogging to find real estate clients. In the next section, we’ll give you some inspiration on building your brand through blogging and social media.

Scared of setting up a blog?

Setting up a real estate blog is not hard as you think. There are many free and easy to use platforms such as Blogger and WordPress. You can start slow, connect with established professionals, and learn into to grow your blog. Most importantly, you need to be really inspired to keep your keep your post up and running. Realtors and agencies that keep an active social media presence reap huge benefits from their blogging and social media engagements.

Want to Build a Professional Image or Monitor Your Reputation?

A real estate blog can help you build a professional image. You can really score highly if you help readers or visitors make important decisions on their investments. If you are consistent and really helpful, clients will trust you and even seek you to do business. Besides building your image online, a real estate blog can help you monitor your reputation as a realtor. Web analytics tools can help you track discussions in social media spaces and most importantly, what readers are saying about you and your services.

What’s Your Entry Point?

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn remains the most common entry point for Real Estate Professionals into real estate community online. A carefully designed and professional fan page not not only appeals to potential customers, but it also increases the momentum of interaction. You can increase your followers by pitching unique ideas, highlighting opportunities, and keeping them up to ate with developments in the real estate market.

Build Your Brand Quickly

Are you are a brand, or are you working to brand yourself? If the answer is yes, then Twitter and LinkedIn can help you develop and maintain a personal branding. Your brand encapsulates your identity, values, and messages or impressions that you create. In real estate, brand is everything. If you’re not a brand, then you are losing out to your competitors. Start blogging an

Convert Social Media Traffic to Web Traffic

Major search engines and even SEO specialists know the power of social media in drawing web traffic. The reason is simple. A consideration percentage of web traffic to real estate sites is drawn from social media spaces and real estate blogs! Homer buyers and trust real estate blogs and social media scene their first ports of call before they consult. So, if you are blog is operational, you can bet a good number of them will follow you from your blog your site.

Final Thoughts:

Unless you exploit the power of social media and blogging, you can never curve a professional image change in the real estate blogging scene. Social media engagement can open up a new world of possibilities. You can get leads to generate more revenue, build your reputation and image, and establish a base of happy and satisfied clients who look up to you as an authoritative figure. Anyway, that’s just one side of it. You need to be motivated to keep your blog up and running. And, that’s where the challenge begins!

Do you have your own blog? If so, do you blog regularly? If not, why not? Let me know below…

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Are you Giving Your Social Media Marketing Efforts Time To Work?

Posted on: July 26th, 2012 by Beth Heilman

Are you Giving Your Social Media Marketing Efforts Time To Work?

Social Media Marketing, like all other forms of marketing, takes some time before you see results. You’ve heard the old cliche that “all good things come to those who wait”, right?

It’s true when you’re marketing your business offline and it’s also true when you use Social Media for your marketing.

Because the internet is so quick, instantaneous even, we expect to see over-the-top results after just a few days. I’ve even heard some gurus (using that term loosely here) say that you can see results in hours.

Talk about instant gratification…not!!

The important thing to remember about your online marketing is it’s a strategy.

For example, if you only use Pinterest and have no “friends” or followers on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to speak of, it’s going to be pretty tough starting from zero. You CAN do it, it’s just going to take a little longer. It’s a give and take.

Social Media Marketing works best when you leverage several platforms.

One of the members of my Mastermind Team is working with someone who only had their products on one SOcial Media site. They didn’t see any reason for Facebook or Twitter. They also had very limited content on the one site they WERE using and couldn’t understand why people weren’t paying any attention to their stuff. They weren’t actively going out and making connections with potential clients online either.

Hmmmm…wonder why nothing was happening?

Social Media is about sharing, commenting on and giving the “thumbs up” to other people’s blog posts, articles, photos. quotes…you name it.

It’s about sharing and being social. Get it? Social Media? I know YOU do or you wouldn’t be reading this right now.

Bottom line is, even with all the information floating around about how quick and effective social Media Marketing is(and there’s a bunch); no matter what automated thing-a-ma-jig program you might use to get your information out on the internet…marketing still takes time.

The good news is, it works like no other form of marketing that’s ever been available. Set your content up right and get it out there. Share it, bookmark it and ask your friends to do the same. Use a sound
marketing strategy and jusr see what happens.

Good things DO come to those who wait…on the right things. Your success in business is definitely one of them!

Are you one of those impatient people (like me) who want to see results yesterday and you’re frustrated? Is your marketing getting you the results you’d hoped for? Share with me what’s going on in the comments
below. If we put our heads together, we’ll kick your marketing (and your business) into high gear! Until then…

To your Online Success,
Sonrisas (smiles),

Beth

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Use Twitter Lists To Focus Your Social Media Marketing and Cut Out The Noise

Posted on: July 23rd, 2012 by Beth Heilman

Creating Twitter lists and categorizing those lists will save you tons of time and probably your sanity.

In order for Social Media to be effective in your business, you have to filter out the noise and be able to concentrate on the things that will connect you with potential customers and eventually make you money. That is what you’re in business for, right? Ok, just checking 🙂

One nifty tip I want to share with you today is how you create a Twitter list and the different types of lists you should have.

First of all, log in to your Twitter account. I’m assuming here that you have one if you’re reading this. If you don’t, trot your buns right over to Twitter.com and get one. It’s a powerhouse for connecting with
prospects.

After you log in to your account, go to your profile page and find “Lists”. Click on “Create List”

A box will pop up that gives to places to name your list, add a description and make it either public or private.

Make sure your use good keywords in your title and description. Doing that will help people who are searching for the same information find you.

For example, I have public lists called Social Media Gurus and Real Estate. Anyone out in the Twittasphere who’s also looking for Real Estate people or Social Media Influencers can come and either follow my entire list (and I’ll get notified when they do), a select few people on my list or little ol’ me (because I put together a darn good list and they like my tweets)

Here’s how you’ll make your list…

Search for the people you want to follow. You can use terms like Real Estate if you’re looking for other Realtors (I’ve found this one works better than using the term “Realtor”…go figure), a city or state you want to concentrate on. Even getting away from the work focus, you could search by a hobby or a favorite food.

Life isn’t all about business, ya know 🙂 Some really great conversations have been started on Twitter because I include that I like Merlot and Mexican food.

Now that you have your lists you’ll be able to keep closer tabs on either the people who influence the area you specialize in (can you say referrals?) You’ll also be able to keep your finger on the pulse of the latest trends in you area.

Lists are just another tool to tame the social media beast and put you in control of your online marketing efforts. Once you use them, you’ll never look back. Let me know how you’re using Twitter lists to cut out the chatter in your social media marketing. I’d love to hear how you’re doing. Until then…

To your Twitter list success,
Sonrisas (smiles),

Beth 🙂

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Frustration-Busting,
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Social Media Tips
For The
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