CHICAGO – June 17, 2009 – Is it better to post snippets of your blog on Facebook, or merely use the social networking site 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 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 Realtors® (NAR) headquarters in Chicago, the confab offered ideas about social networking tools and their use in the real estate business.
Among the tips:
• Avoid setting up two Facebook profiles. By setting separate accounts for personal and business use, you will create more confusion about your identity. The goal of social networking is to be as transparent as possible with communication.
• Consider setting up a Facebook Fan page that focuses on business matters and connects to your profile. 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. 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. Twitter posts from a conference you attended 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, follow Twitter feeds for local TV and newspaper reporters. They’re always looking for reliable real estate sources, so 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, REALTOR® Magazine
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