SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDE for REAL ESTATE

MIKE LYON

Copyright 2010 by Mike Lyon

First Edition

www.doyouconvert.com

All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in part in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of Mike Lyon.

Edited by Sue Publicover Cover design by Lucia Lento www.dropdeaddesign.com

Printed in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Catalog Number: Pending

ISBN Pending

To my beautiful family. Cori, Scott and Nate you give me the best memories to post on Facebook. I love you.

Contents
INTRODUCTION: Selling Real Estate in the Digital World ....... V PART ONE: WEB 2.0: THE NEW FACE OF REAL ESTATE MARKETING.............................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1: Social Media: What Is It and Why Does It Matter? ................................................................... 2 CHAPTER 2: Todays Homebuyer: Who They Are, What They Want and How They Find It .................................. 7 CHAPTER 3: Something Old, Something New: How to Marry Traditional and New Media for Bliss-Filled Lead Generation ..................................................... 11 CHAPTER 4: The You Brand .............................................. 15 PART TWO: BLOGGING FOR BUSINESS ........................... 19 CHAPTER 5: What IS a Blog? ................................................. 20 CHAPTER 6: Now What Do I Do? ....................................... 24

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CHAPTER 7: Asking For and Managing Comments .............. 29

PART THREE: CONNECTING WITH SOCIAL NETWORKS .......................................................................... 34 CHAPTER 8: Social Media: So Many Choices, So Little Time ............................................................................ 35 CHAPTER 9: Facebook: Its Kind of a Big Deal .................... 40 CHAPTER 10: LinkedIn: Your Professional Network ........... 50 CHAPTER 11: Twitter: Its not Just for Kids .......................... 56 CHAPTER 12: Viral Visuals and YouTube & Flickr ................ 63 CHAPTER 13: Get Smarter. Lose the Dumb Phone ......... 70 CHAPTER 14: Social Networking Efficiency ......................... 73 PART FOUR: STRATEGY ...................................................... 77 CHAPTER 15: Think Before You Tweet: Creating a Social Media Strategy .............................................. 78

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CHAPTER 16: If You Can Hear Yourself Talking, Its Time to Shut Up.................................................................. 83 CHAPTER 17: Social Media Etiquette .................................... 86 CHAPTER 18: Where to Be Seen.......................................... 90 CHAPTER 19: Just Show Up .................................................. 94 APPENDIX 1: How to Set Up Your Blog ................................... 98 APPENDIX 2: Spreading the Word About Your Blog ............. 103 ABOUT THE AUTHOR............................................................ 108

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Introduction: Selling Real Estate in the Digital World

Im hearing everyone in the business world talking about being in the relationship business, like its a life-altering phenomenon that has just emerged. Maybe thats the case in the corporate culture, but for those of us in real estate, weve always been in the relationship business. We are masters at courting the sale and cultivating a relationship with the customer. The purchase of a home comes from the buyer having a strong degree of trust in the agent, and that doesnt happen in a day. Being a success in real estate selling is all about the Three Rs: Recognition, Relationship, and Referral. That hasnt changed and I doubt it ever will, since the purchase of a home is usually the biggest investment a person will make in a lifetime. But the path to claiming results from the Three Rs has taken a sharp detour. Your traditional marketing methods, like ads in the real estate showcase magazine, have been shoved aside. The newspapers that you relied on to feature your listings in the classified section are shutting down their presses and closing their doors, because people arent reading newspapers anymoreat least, not in the printed version.

Life, marketing, and sales, as you knew it, are now orbiting around the internet and new media. Your prospects are searching online for properties. Theyre reading blogs and theyre engaging in conversations with their friends on social networks, like Facebook and LinkedIn. These prospects are relying on their connections to provide advice on where to buy, what to look for, and which agent to use. Wouldnt you love to be part of this conversationor at least be able to influence it? The great news is, you canand you should. The reasons are mounting: Facebook has surpassed 400 million registered users. Twitters worldwide reach totals about 75 million people. LinkedIn connects a community of 70 million professionals. There are about 200 million blogs out in the blogosphere and 31.9 million bloggers 71% of active online users read blogs And all of these numbers keep climbing! Its time to jump into the social media community. In this book, Ill give you step-by-step guidance for navigating this brave, new world. Youll learn how to get started, discover a few insider tricks, get some

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ideas on what to say once youve joined groups, and end up with an invaluable road map to success in social networking. Lets get moving and see what all the buzz is about.

DISCLAIMER: I want to make a quick note. As I write down these statistics they start to fade and become outdated. That is one of the biggest challenges in putting something like this together in written form. I will do my best to keep the numbers up to date and roll out new versions but keeping up with the fast changing Net is a tough task. All of that said I would really like to get across the concepts of being social online. Tools like Facebook and Twitter may come and go, but I believe this form of communication and connecting is here to stay.

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