Published by: Avanti Way & Entertaining Real Estate

Contents 01. Introduction: What is Social Media and what is the correct way of using it?................

02. Tip #1: Define Who You Are vs What Google Says About You........................................

03. Tip #2: Be the Expert And Find Your Niche...........................................................................

04. Tip #3: Have The Content Come To You................................................................................

05. Tip #4: Devise A Strategy For Your Strengths......................................................................

06. Tip #5: Don’t Mix Business With Real Life..............................................................................

07. Tip #6: Get Creative or Delegate..............................................................................................

08. Tip #7: Be Consistent ...................................................................................................................

09. Conslusion: Just do it! ...................................................................................................................

10. About the Author ...................................................................................................................

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Published by: Avanti Way & Entertaining Real Estate

Published by: Avanti Way & Entertaining Real Estate

Introduction: What is Social Media and what is the correct way of using it?

“No man is an island” - John DonneHumans are social animals. We thrive through social contact and interaction, and the “Social Media” trend is simply another way to do what we do best: communicate.

According to Wikipedia.org, Social Media includes: “web-based and mobile technologies used to turn communication into interactive dialogue.” But what it really comes down to is that these new tools enable all of us to communicate with more people than we ever thought possible in a way that is both easy and often times even fun.

But what is the right way to use these tools and why?

Try to imagine a room full of your friends and colleagues, some of whom you haven’t seen in years; most of them are going to be happy to see you and hear what you’re up to, especially if you can give them a tip or two or help them out with genuine questions about Real Estate. Now, imagine that same room, same people, but now you come in and start screaming at the top of your lungs a whole bunch of random data, or worst, radio commercials, complete with funny jingles: “Momma has the magic of Clorox2…”

I think you can imagine their faces.

In that one example, I’ve just given you the right and wrong way of using Social Media. But the difference will only matter if you truly want to harness it as a way to increase your leads and overall sales.

But does Social Media really help?

According to a survey by ActiveRain.com, one of the leading Real Estate Blogging platforms in the country, the difference is clear:

Published by: Avanti Way & Entertaining Real Estate

• Rich Real Estate Agents invest 6x more in technology• Rich Real Estate Agents BROADCAST via social media • Rich Real Estate Agents spend 10x more on marketing

But if you’re reading this e-book, there’s a good chance that you’re already pretty busy and the idea of cramming even more things on your to-do list is a daunting, scary task.

So what if we could take the best tips out there, filter them for their timesaving tricks and tailor them just for Real Estate Professionals?

Well, that’s exactly what we did.

Here are the 7 Best Social Media Tips for the busy Real Estate Professional. They’re short, relatively quick, and perfect for even the busiest of us all.

Tip #1: Define Who You Are vs What Google Says About YouHave you ever “googled” yourself, or for that matter, searched your name through any of the other search engines?

Come on, you know you have… and if you really haven’t, you strange person, then do it!

What do you find? Try adding your city, your industry. How easy is it for people to find you, especially when they search by name?

This will paint a clear picture of your online reputation or your lack thereof, and in business your “reputation” is your Brand.

So the FIRST Step is exactly that: Define your Brand

Published by: Avanti Way & Entertaining Real Estate

Perhaps your name is too common or there are several agents with similar name variations in your area. When I first googled myself, I realized that – on top of having a very common name – I also shared it with an ex-con (true story). Thus, I now use an extended last name that makes my identity more unique.

Will you need to add a middle initial or start using a business name? This is the best exercise in branding you will ever have, and this is the time to make all those decisions about your business; because being a Real Estate Professional means just that: you ARE your business, and as such, you have to treat it like an Entrepreneur.

Tip #2: Be the Expert And Find Your Niche“According to the European Journal of Social Psychology, one of the key components in successful social media marketing implementation is building ‘social authority’. Social authority is developed when an individual or organization establishes themselves as an “expert” in their given field or area, thereby becoming an influencer in that field or area.” - Wikipedia

So you work in Real Estate, so what? You’re just about the same as any other agent. No wait, you know a lot about the Art Spaces they rent in Midtown, or the new developments in Downtown… ah, now we’re talking!

Right there, in a nutshell, is your expertise. Your ideal clients are the ones that seek you out for what you do best, whatever that may be. So your social media “topics” or “content” should really show off what you know so well.

But what if you do mostly Short Sales and have been dreaming about breaking into the Luxury Market?

You and about half of the Real Estate population, by the way, but my question is this: Why haven’t you done so already? The answer is simple: you don’t have enough experience, which – if you’re paying attention (and I hope you are) – is the total

Published by: Avanti Way & Entertaining Real Estate

opposite of being an “expert” at something.

This book is for “Busy Real Estate Professionals”, therefore, whatever you’re currently doing is actually generating sales, and that’s a great thing.

So what’s my advice?

Be the Short Sale Expert. As the clients increase and the income is there – just like in any business – then you can branch out into whatever direction you want.

Still dying to do Luxury?

Then join a Luxury team and brand yourself as that Luxury Rookie starting out as part of a Dream Team. But you still have to make sure that you have the financial cushion necessary to practically “start over”. Once again, you are an Entrepreneur. What is your ten-year plan? What is your business plan? If you don’t have that, you have far bigger problems and you’re probably reading the wrong book.

So whatever you choose to do, find your Niche… and LOVE it.

The more passionate you are about your niche, the higher your chances of success and the more people you’ll likely attract. Once again, your #1 client is the one that seeks you out and actually pays you to do what you already love to do – and that’s true in any industry.

Published by: Avanti Way & Entertaining Real Estate

Tip #3: Have The Content Come To YouRemember that old adage about working smart and not hard, this is the Internet’s timesaving equivalent.

Start by going to google.com/alerts and setting up Google Alerts with your name and/or your company’s name, your social handles (like Twitter ID’s, etc.), your farming Area (like “West Kendall Real Estate”, for example) and even your niche, (like “Luxury Real Estate Miami” or “REO Properties Brickell”); you can create only one alert per set of keywords, but there an unlimited number of alerts available.

Now every time someone writes about you in his or her blog or there’s a breaking story in your field of expertise, you’ll be alerted right through your inbox. Your name might not create too many alerts at first, but the idea is just like the movie Field of Dreams: “if you build it, they will come.”

You should also start using some RSS Readers for this same purpose. Pulse is a great way to take all that news on the go right inside your mobile device – it’s like Google Alerts on steroids.

There are several more, like Google Reader or the social media readers like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, but choose only the ones you’ll know you’ll use… remember, you’re trying to save time, not give you another reason to waste it.

Published by: Avanti Way & Entertaining Real Estate

Tip #4: Devise A Strategy For Your StrengthsDo you love to write? Then blogging will definitely be your thing.

Not a man (or woman) of many words? Try Twitter.

Always have that Flip Camera rolling? Get your own YouTube Channel.

What if you’re already a social butterfly? Then you’ll thrive on Facebook or LinkedIn.

There’s even free Internet Radio Stations for all those who love to hear themselves chatter, or if you’re passionate about making PowerPoint Presentations or PDF’s on different Real Estate topics, you can publish them on Issuu or SlideShare and start sharing them with the rest of the world.

The possibilities are truly limitless, but you’ll waste huge chunks of time if you try to do them all. You’ll spread yourself too thin and then burn out before you can really reap in the benefits of your work.

Remember that whole thing about how it was often even “fun” to use social media, well, that’s your barometer.

If you are suffering miserably trying to write a one-paragraph blog and hate it, then everyone who reads it will suffer equally and your blog will die, one miserable reader at a time. The same goes for opening different accounts, creating profiles and then never using them – instead of an expert, you’ll look like you closed down the shop.

Choose your favorite platform and devote the time you put aside for Social Media to cultivating it. The best thing is to get rid of all those extra blogs you don’t use or those other social media accounts you barely touch, but wait, before you do that, you have to read the next tip.

Published by: Avanti Way & Entertaining Real Estate

Tip #5: Automate! Automate! Automate!The second-best thing from having content come to you, is to create an almost magical way that simplifies the way content is then shared and/or reposted across the different platforms.

Automatic aggregators such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck are not only great in pulling that content, they’re amazing at scheduling and posting things almost everywhere and at any time into the future.

Cross-platform blogs such as Posterous, not only autopost snippets of your blogs on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a good number of other sites, creating a post is as easy as sending them an email and their software takes care of the rest.

The NetworkedBlogs App on Facebook is another amazing syndication tool, allowing you to “syndicate” various blogs to your Facebook pages (because yes, you can have more than one!).

Like these, there are many, many more. So if you’re a blogger and your poor Facebook, Google+ and Twitter accounts are suffering – automate them so that one account immediately updates the other.

Automating is like having your own personal virtual assistant, except these ones are actually free. You can’t be that.

Published by: Avanti Way & Entertaining Real Estate

Tip #6: Your Business is NOT Your Real LifeSo now that you have a strategy in place, make sure that you always separate your Business accounts from your Personal accounts.

If you’re going for the blog, try choosing a blogging platform that allows you to add several blogs under one admin account (Posterous, Tumblr and Blogger are great options) or you can have your Business blog or website on an entirely separate platform that tailor more to businesses, like WordPress, for example.

Going to concentrate on Facebook, Google+ or both? Make sure you create Business Pages for your Real Estate Profiles.

Separating business and pleasure might seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised. Which, by the way, does not mean that you can go all-out and start posting those drunken Las Vegas nights on your personal accounts, unless you make those videos private… very private. As in, not even on the Internet.

Time and time again, interested clients are sifting through Social Media (both personal and business) to try and create a complete picture of an individual’s life. It might be unfair, but those insults you slung at your mother-in-law could come back to bite you where it hurts most: your wallet.

Published by: Avanti Way & Entertaining Real Estate

Tip #7: Be ConsistentWhatever you decide to do, be aware that even if all you’re doing is Twittering once a week, it will require consistency.

Remember that room full of friends and colleagues, they’re going to expect that you at least return their “hello” or answer a question when they ask it. If you walk into the room and then sit there, frozen, not moving or participating, they’ll eventually ignore you and move on… or call the paramedics, it depends on how glazed-over your eyes look.

Eventually you’ll see it for yourself, it’s happened to the best of us (and still does every once in a while), just when you’re building up that following, a client keeps you busy for weeks and weeks, and next time you’re on to post something spectacular, you expect your usual couple of hundred people, or couple of thousand, and then you get… nine.

So choose one day a week, or a few hours on different days of the week and dedicate them solely to Social Media. Put it on your calendar or your tasks, and make it a routine.

In the end, if you’re doing it right, not only will you enjoy doing what you’re doing and interacting with your audience, it might just become second nature to share that great article or post that amazing property photo.

Interacting with clients was never this much fun.

Published by: Avanti Way & Entertaining Real Estate

Conclusion: Just do it!Once that decision’s been made, now comes the easy part. If you’re a blogger, then write, write, write; YouTube or Vimeo guru, then shoot, shoot, shoot, or for everything else, share, share, share.

If you enjoy what you’re sharing, or think it’s great advice, the people that follow you or are in your social media “circles” will probably like it and value it too. Because that’s the great thing about Social Media, your fans, or “friends” or circles, are already connected to you somehow, and if they haven’t blocked or banned you, then it’s a good chance that they actually like what you have to say.

And the next time they need a Real Estate Agent, there’s a good chance they’ll think of you.

Published by: Avanti Way & Entertaining Real Estate

About the Author G.R. de los Reyes is a journalist, a licensed Real Estate Agent and Imagineer. She writes mostly for television and internet blogs, and every once in a while, she gets to write short, fun plays to act out with her children at church.

She directs Entertaining Real Estate, the media and future luxury division of Avanti Way.

Acknowledgements & SponsorsThis e-book was specifically written in honor of Social Media Week in Miami and the Social Media Workshop sponsored by Avanti Way, Exquisite Bites & Kaylin Printing, held February 15, 2012. Thank you to all our sponsors and especially Avanti Way, for their continued dedication to innovation in the field of Real Estate Technology and for sharing those innovations and knowledge with the rest of us.

Published by: Avanti Way & Entertaining Real Estate

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