Real Estate Marketing Tips by Joel McDonald

Hi ________,

Good for you for signing up!!! What’s your “handle”?

Twitter is like a party. As far as conversations “about you” or “about real estate” think of it this way: If you go to a party with 100 people, 20 of them are statistically likely to be moving within the next year. HOWEVER, the odds of actually overhearing them talking about real estate are slim to none. (And the odds of them talking about YOU are even slimmer.) Try to direct their conversations in the way of how you can help them with all of their real estate needs, and you’d be an outcast. Engage in ongoing conversations, however, and interject that you are a Realtor ONLY when appropriate — and you’ll get plenty of business.

Entering Twitter conversations is the exact same thing. If they’re talking about local happenings, enter into those conversations, then follow them, and get to know them. If you like knitting, search for conversations about knitting with people (whether from your area or not). By talking with people around the world about things that YOU are passionate about, the people in your network who share those passions WILL take notice, and they’ll want to do business with you when the time is right. (Some of those people live in your town, but many of them live elsewhere but know someone in your town, and others live elsewhere but will be moving to your town someday.) For what it’s worth, I wrote a 3-part series on how to find discussions going on right now that you might be able to jump in on - further expanding your network.

The power is in the network. The power of any social network isn’t necessarily in the conversations you have with people striking up a deal. It’s with people OVERHEARING you talk about things that you are passionate about, and then either taking action and getting to know you more or better yet - reach out to THEIR network and get THEIR friends in touch with you…

Last week, we had a DenverTweetup, and someone from SPAIN who is following me saw the announcement. She knew she had a few followers on HER list from the Denver area, so without even being asked, she “retweeted” my announcement to her list. I barely know her, but she was willing to help out becauase she saw value in my tweet that she could contribute to. That’s the power of social networking.

As another example: I see people in my network mention that they’re moving somewhere, or getting a job in that area almost daily. In those cases, I REGULARLY tell them to get in touch with my twitter friends who I know work in that area. In fact, I make it a daily effort to do that for SOMEONE in my network. If you were to “recommend” yourself without already knowing them, you’d be a twitter spammer (and possibly get blocked), but if I recommend them, they just might listen because a non self-serving recommendation from someone else carries a lot more credibility. (Besides, it costs me nothing to do so. Why wouldn’t I help a fellow Twitterer out?) The point isn’t “follow Joel so he recommends me”, but that there are other people on twitter who will certainly do that for you once they’ve gotten to know you, and once you have friends like that, there is no limit to how much business you might get.

Help one, be seen by many. Just like Realtors who host talk-radio shows about real estate love it when someone calls in and they get a deal out of it — that’s not why they do the radio show. They do it so they can share their knowledge with that one person, and have 10,000 or 20,000 OTHER people benefit from that knowledge. By helping one or two people during the phone call, thousands of others establish them as an expert in that area, and then when the time is right for them, they just might do business with them.

If you do decide that Twitter is a tool you can use in your marketing efforts, I look forward to getting to know you.

Sincerely,
@Joelrunner

I just watched Gary Vaynerchuk’s appearance on the CBS Early Morning Show from yesterday.

The most profound thing I noticed while watching this video was his passion - which makes him the most excellent person in his field. He doesn’t have to put on any airs or dress up in fancy suits like 98% of his competitors. He is just himeself, and he loves what he does. His passion shines through so much — that he doesn’t even have to worry about people finding him. (Notice when asked the name of his site, he barely mentions it under his breath and gets right back to sharing his knowledge.) He just provides a good service, and is there for the people that DO find him. You can find him at WineLibrary.tv

Here is a link to the 2 minute video. To me, it’s a reminder that we have to believe in what we’re doing with every ounce of our being, and we can’t just settle for getting our buyers into a home, or getting our seller’s home sold. That’s even more important in slower markets. I think all of us sometimes convince ourselves we’re too busy to deal with the “little things”, but it’s the little things that make a big difference.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that if we just did a few of those kinds of things in our day to day lives, referral business would take care of itself, and promotion tactics would not be necessary at all. If we did do any advertising or promotion, it would be 3 to 5 times as effective than if we didn’t strive toward excellence in what we do.

In my continual strive toward excellence, I’m picking a new year’s resolution early, but I haven’t yet decided what I’m going to try to do. If you wouldn’t mind, I would LOVE if you shared one thing that you do extremely well that separates you from the rest of the agents in your area. Maybe you can help me decide what it is that I’m going to decide to do to bring myself closer to excellence next year.

I was about to post a reply to someone who had commented on an earlier post about Twitter, and decided it should be a blog post instead. In a nutshell, someone commented with: “Thanks for the tips. I’ll check into Twitter after I learn more about Active Rain.”

Although I admire your discipline to not bite off more than you can chew — in this case — I think Twitter & AR go hand in hand. From my experience, checking out Twitter will help with your AR learning curve - not hinder it. If I didn’t start surrounding myself (via Twitter) with so many RE bloggers who really know their stuff, I STILL wouldn’t be on Active Rain, and I’d STILL be marketing with nothing but “web 1.0″ strategies.

A peek at how the top dogs Tweet: For a real-time example of how the “Top Real Estate Twits” are interacting right now, visit this link. As you’ll see, it’s not rocket science, and it’s not useless drivel. It’s a little bit of everything. The important thing is that they are getting their names out there, driving traffic to their blogs, getting business, and having fun doing it. It’s like a local country club, leads group, nationwide referral network, and press release network - all in one.

If you’re still on the fence about twitter, sign up for twitter and just start following the RE bloggers below (or just spy on their conversations via this link). They’re just a small sampling of the many tweeps whose company I enjoy, and who I have learned a lot from. I believe most of them get the majority of their business from their blogs, so you could learn a lot from subscribing to their blogs as well:

@JasonCrouch
@Ines
@respres
@SarahWV
@BeeRealty
@housechick
@RealEstateZebra
@KimWood
@tboard
@GingerW

& here are a few from right here in my home-state of Colorado:
@kristalk
@mizzle
@BradHanks

Follow them & don’t worry about whether or not they follow you back. Just by watching how they interact and post on Twitter, you’ll pick up on things sheerly by osmosis, and it will HELP with your learning curve on twittering/blogging. If you REALLY want to further your education, subscribe to each of their blogs (which can be found via their twitter bio - which is at the upper right of their twitter profile page.)

If you comment on this post and have a twitter account to share, feel free to include a link to your twitter name! (To make it easier for others to follow you, be sure to make it a “clickable” link that goes straight to your profile page (Like this: @JoelRunner)