Social Networking for business?

When it comes to social media, many real estate agents are jumping on the bandwagon and using it for marketing  their listings.  But there are some things that you need to know when you are using this media to market.

First of all, you need to engage and make friends with your perspective customers.

How many times have you talked to someone and the only thing out of their mouth is their business.  Does that annoy you?  It annoys most people, so make sure you avoid doing than on the social media sites.

It is okay to self promote, but you should also post items that are more about you, so that people can get to know who you are and what you stand for.  It does not have to be deeply personal, you can post about a favorite meal, something crazy your pets did, etc.

You can find new friends a variety of ways on the different social media sites.

You can look for those with similar interests, those who live where you are, or those who belong to groups that you belong to.  Whichever method you feel like using is the best one for you.  Make sure that when adding friends you don’t try to add hundreds at a time as the social media sites will likely mark you as a spammer and could end up deleting you.

As part of getting to know people, you have to make sure you are posting on a regular basis.

If you only post once a month, you are not likely going to make much of an impression on people.  But if you post 50 times a day with innate comments such as you are making dinner, or you are watching paint dry, you will likely find that the number of friends you have will dwindle.  Make sure that when you post you are putting up something interesting – a quick note, if you wouldn’t care, why would others?

When you are planning your marketing campaign on the social media sites, it is important to decide what you hope to accomplish.

Once you decide on this, you will need to map out what you are going to do in order to accomplish these objectives, and how you are going to monitor the results.  If you have done other campaigns, you may want to establish a benchmark or a baseline in which you can determine if you were successful.   Even after you have finished this particular campaign, you likely will want to continue watching your results, as you likely will still get hits and results.

The biggest thing to remember about social media is that it is driven by the consumer, not the business.  If you post something interesting and important, it can be shared by your friends and many people will become aware of it, but ifit is inane, it is not likely to go very far.  Social media is about engaging people, and if your marketing does that, you are likely to see success.

New friends are being made online and business is being done.  I know several real estate agents who have done morethat a dozen deals via social networking.  A couple agents tell me they use it exclusively, no feature sheets and no newspaper advertising.  Has its time come?

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