Daily Real Estate News
| June 16, 2009
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Smart Ideas for Better Social Networking
Is it better to post snippets of your blog on Facebook, or merely use the social networking to direct people to your blog? Should you Tweet about what your buyers had to say about your latest listing? Is it worthwhile to establish a presence on Bright Kite?
These were among the questions that some 150 real estate pros chewed over Monday during the daylong RE Bar Camp Chicago, the latest "user-generated conference" dedicated to innovative real estate business practices and strategies. Hosted at the National Association of REALTORSŪ headquarters in Chicago, the confab offered smart ideas about how to incorporate social networking tools into your business by real estate pros who use them regularly.
Among the tips shared:
- Avoid setting up two Facebook profiles. By setting separate accounts for personal and business use, you will create more confusion for users about your identity. The goal of social networking is to be as transparent as possible with your communication.
- Consider setting up a Facebook Fan page connected to your profile that focuses on business matters. This way you won't overwhelm your entire friends list with real estate issues they may not care about.
- When posting comments from prospective buyers about a listing, consider your liability. You should never disclose confidential information shared by clients.
- While more people are pushing their Tweets automatically onto their Facebook page, this may not make sense because the sites reach different audiences whose interests may not match. You want to engage people according to their needs. Your Twitter posts from a conference you attended, like Re Bar Camp, may hold no interest for your Facebook friends.
- Go to search.twitter.com to find real-time information about any topic streaming through the service, rather than just information that comes through your personal timeline.
- To obtain media coverage for your business, start following Twitter feeds for local TV and newspaper reporters who are always looking for reliable real estate sources, and engage them in conversation.
- Explore other sites like Brightkite.com, a location-based social network where you can see where your friends are and meet other people who are nearby.
Source: Wendy Cole, REALTORŪ Magazine
Watch a video of what Re Bar Camp participants had to say at REALTORŪ Magazine's Speaking of Real Estate blog.