6 Ways Agents Can Dominate on Twitter
Having a solid social media presence as a real estate professional is crucial to your overall marketing strategy, not only for boosting brand awareness, but also to establish your company as the go-to authority in your area. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that nearly 47 percent of real estate businesses say that generate the best quality leads through social media compared to other platforms. And 77 percent of Realtors say that they leverage social media to connect with young buyers. Considering the popularity of social media as a source of information for both buyers and sellers, it is crucial to learn how to maximize the benefits you may reap from platforms like Twitter. Read on to learn more about connecting the dots to effectively dominate Twitter as a real estate agent. 6 Ways to Effectively Market Your Real Estate Business on Twitter As millions of users continue to use social media for marketing their businesses, it is vital for real estate agents to catch up to these marketing strategies for business brand exposure and business success. And Twitter offers just that. Here are tricks to get a business edge on Twitter: Establish Your Goals Establishing your goals can provide the clarity required to effectively market your business on Twitter, whether your objective is to attract the attention of consumers, sellers, or top recruits in your area. Promote Your Brand To attract more Twitter followers, establish your brand identity and spread the word about your brand. This means that you must be consistent in your presentation. For example, your logo, theme, and color must be consistent throughout all platforms. Then, share tweets about your brand to get exposure and user engagement and generate leads. Engage with influencers Real estate agents should interact with influencers. Connecting to those with a good following in the real estate niche is ideal. Establishing productive relationships with influencers can significantly benefit your company's success. Post Engaging Content In addition to engaging with influencers, one of the most important things you can do to keep your current audience interested and draw in new ones is to put time and effort into creating content they enjoy. The best way to increase your visibility on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and the rest is to create high-quality content. You can achieve this by posting high-quality images, videos, infographics, and the like. Adding a few real estate-specific keywords to interesting material may also help you gain more followers. Leverage Twitter Tools Juggling your day-to-day tasks with your listing appointments and showings can be challenging. However, if you want to make the most out of your time on Twitter, you should consider getting tools that will help you keep track of mentions, reply to tweets, engage with your followers and increase efficiency. Some of these tools include: Buffer Sprout Social Monitor Your Progress Nothing is more frustrating than sending out tweets only to discover that no one has read them. Keeping tabs on the response to your tweets is an excellent approach to stay ahead of your performance. Also, you can use Twitter's analytics tool to track your account activity. Conclusion Keep in mind that these are only some of the suggestions that could help you attract new followers and maintain the interest of your current audience. In the end, what matters is providing your users with a comprehensive overview of your services and to offering amazing content that will keep them engaged and help you in enhancing your online presence. To view the original article, visit the Realtyna blog.

Twitter and Facebook Newsletters, Google Core Update: Everything Real Estate Agents Need to Know
The year 2021 is rich on updates. Many new features and updates rolled out this year, including Twitter and Facebook newsletters and a Google core update. Twitter Newsletter for Real Estate Agents Creating a Twitter Newsletter is possible with the Revue platform. This Netherlands-based company was acquired by Twitter in 2021. If you're interested in email marketing, this is the news you definitely need to check out. With the Revue platform you can: Compose and schedule newsletters – What is good with Revue scheduling is you can incorporate other social media links, like Facebook or Medium. This will help you get more visibility for other social media channels with just one newsletter. Create your own newsletter template – You can create your own design, choose the color scheme and the layout of your content. This feature is available in The Design tab under your Account settings. Email Lists – Aside from having the option to grow your email list with just native Twitter subscribers, you also have an option to import any email list you have acquired over these years. You own the rights to this list despite it being uploaded on the Revue platform. Analytics – Twitter Newsletter also gives you an opportunity to evaluate how your newsletters perform, by providing you with the insights data. You'll be able to check average open and click-through rates, unique opens, subscriber growth, as well as engagement and much more. How to Access Twitter Newsletter Function? To access this function you just need to do a few things. Sign up for a Revue account. You can sign up with both your Twitter and email account. Give Revue permission to access your Twitter. The next step requires you to create a profile URL to add the title of your newsletter, and to choose your country of residence. Twitter will provide you with the steps you need to follow. Note that for now Twitter newsletter is visible only through a mobile browser and not with the mobile app version. Paid and Free Newsletters Twitter Newsletter has a free and paid newsletter option. If you decide to have a free newsletter, Twitter won't take any cut from you. In case of the paid newsletters, Twitter will take a 5% cut from the money generated through Twitter paid newsletters. Facebook Newsletter for Real Estate Professionals Email marketing is on a roll this year. Yet another platform, Facebook, added a newsletter function. Bulletin is what the new newsletter is called, and it was created for people to find their audience, maximize their reach and monetize the content. What is cool about the new service is that Facebook doesn't get a cut from the money you accumulate through Facebook newsletter. So, if you're a real estate coach, or just a real estate agent trying to find an appropriate platform for your content, Facebook Bulletin is worth checking out. Aside from having an option for posting blog content, there is also an option for podcasts. Visitors don't have to log into Facebook to access this content. For now, Bulletin isn't launched worldwide and the number of content creators who can apply to Facebook Bulletin is limited. To learn more about Facebook Bulletin, check out their official website. Google Core Update As an owner of an IDX real estate website, the Google core update is directly impacting you as well. Recently, you might have noticed a spike or downfall in traffic. This might be caused by the new Google core update that is rolling out these past few months. What does the Google core update target? First and foremost, spam websites – Google is becoming more and more focused on a safe and secure experience for users. Websites that can't provide that are going to see a huge downfall in traffic. IDX website speed and load time – A positive experience is what matters now, and no positive online experience can be achieved without a good page loading time. Check out our article on page load time, and learn more about what you can do to improve it. To view the original article, visit the Realtyna blog.

Open House? Live Tweet It.
Social media is a great way to market yourself as a real estate agent. You may find yourself looking at new ways to share a listing or advertise for an open house. One great way you can showcase an open house is by live tweeting it. Twitter is a platform that is meant for short, quick messages that you can share with your followers and allow them to engage with you in real time. Twitter is a great way to keep a conversation going, but that isn't the only benefit to live tweeting an open house.

6 Tips and Tricks to Get Organic Followers on LinkedIn and Twitter
There's a lot of information out there discussing the ways a brand can organically grow its Facebook Business Page, but sadly, not as many resources regarding other social media platforms. Yes, Facebook may be noted as the largest social network, but your business can (and should) expand its reach across other sites. LinkedIn and Twitter, for example, are two channels where many businesses set up profiles, but never fully utilize their accounts. Let us familiarize you with the benefits of LinkedIn and Twitter and provide a little insight on why your business should actively try to expand its reach on both.

5 Ways to Use Twitter to Drive Real Estate Leads
Twitter is not just for President Trump. It's great for real estate agents, too! Many business owners use Twitter to connect with customers and to generate leads. Twitter offers a great platform for finding new real estate clients. Similar to real estate marketing on Facebook, there is a fairly easy and foolproof process you can use to do this on Twitter. Offer Free Stuff Honestly, who doesn't love free stuff? We all do. Successful lead generation on Twitter starts with a compelling free offer. This doesn't have to cost you a lot out of pocket, but it may require a little bit of time. Real estate agents can create a free report or a video that highlights tips for selling a home, how to find the right neighborhood, how to price your home for sale, and a whole host of other interesting topics.

10 Real Estate Influencers to Have on Your Radar
How do you keep up with the latest happenings in the real estate industry? In an ever-changing landscape, keeping up with the most up-to-date trends can make all the difference in closing more home sales and gaining more clients. Real estate has so many players and firms that you may find yourself overwhelmed by the plethora of options on who to follow professionally and socially. That's why we put together a list of some of the top real estate influencers out there in the USA, based on their careers, accomplishments, and social presence. This is by no means the be-all and end-all of lists, and we know there are plenty of real estate pros and influencers out there. But, if you're new in the industry (or a seasoned pro) and you're looking for some of the experts and influencers out there to keep an eye on for advice and the like, this list is a great jumping-off point. Real Estate Influencers to keep your eye on: Leigh Brown: Coming from a sales background, Leigh Brown is now a partner and chief broker at Leigh Brown and Associates located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Leigh's work has made her one of the top selling real estate agents in Charlotte. She has been a longtime speaker and advocator for real estate, especially in terms of sales and motivation advice. She's a writer at REALTOR®Mag, her own blog, as well as many other media outlets as a guest writer. Follow her on Twitter: @LeighBrown

The Art of Tweeting
Twitter is a great platform for people to blast messages across the globe in 140 characters! We see a lot of agents and brokers using Twitter as a platform to promote listings and increase their personal brand awareness. We all know the importance of Twitter and appreciate it, but there is some etiquette to it. Here are some tips to prevent common mistakes people make on Twitter. Represent Yourself Through Your Profile Have a professional looking profile picture. Put a header image; this image helps communicate a powerful message about your business. The 140-character Limit 140 characters are enough to say just about anything. It is important to phrase your Tweets within this limit (yes, it includes spaces as well!). It's completely acceptable, in fact appreciated, if the content is 110-120 characters. Choose your words carefully!

Following #ICSF: Day 1 at Inman Connect SF
Inman Connect kicked off today in San Francisco with a full schedule. Between all the talk about data, marketing to Millennials, and the Zillow PR machine, we took a moment to peruse the conference's Twitter hashtag, #ICSF, for the best tweets of the day. Consider them little glimpses into the excitement that is this year's Inman Connect SF.

10 Real Estate Agent Problems
Every job comes with a unique set of problems and being a real estate agent is no exception! If you're ever looking for a laugh, we highly recommend you check out the #realtorproblems hashtag on both Twitter and Instagram. Today we're sharing 10 of the funniest recent posts:

Use Your Tweets Wisely
So, you've finally joined Twitter. How do you know what to tweet about to maximize your time and energy on this rapid-fire platform? How often can you tweet without annoying people? Your followers' Twitter feeds moves at lighting speed, so it's okay to post up to 10 times per day or more. Just don't do all your postings at once, as this floods people's feeds and is considered spamming. Spread your tweets out through the day and evening for maximum visibility. Switch up the types of posts so it doesn't get too boring for your followers. Since you are a real estate professional, it's expected that you'll post about real estate topics much of the time. However, you can also tweet about other things that are interesting or helpful to your followers. Here is a typical day's worth of Twitter posts: Post around five informative articles or interesting pictures/videos from around the web. Re-tweet interesting posts from people you follow (see below for more on this). Respond to a couple of tweets from others. This is especially effective if you can find people asking questions about real estate, and answer them. Post personal comments about real estate or links to content you have written on your blog. It doesn't have to be a recent piece, either. For example, here is an article about the inaccuracy of Zillow home value estimates. Most real estate agents are constantly explaining why a "Zestimate of value" should be ignored to both their buyer and seller clients. We all know how far off base Zillow can be! This is the kind of helpful information your followers will enjoy and gladly re-tweet. You can even add some humor into your tweets. Here's a popular tweet I sent along with the blog link: "You have better odds of seeing Big Foot than an accurate Zillow estimate."

Following #ICNY: Straight Talk from Barbara Corcoran, Zillow, and more
Wild blizzards couldn't keep the attendees away from this year's Inman Connect in New York City. The conference kicked off its official first day with the likes of Barbara Corcoran, Spencer Rascoff, and more gracing the stage. We kept up with all the action by following conference goers via the Twitter hashtag #ICNY. Below is a sampling of our favorite tweets from day one. Jacy Riedmann - @alexisohanian "In the industrial revolution, you had to open a factory to start a business, now, you need to open a laptop." #icny Andrew Strickman - Great start to #ICNY with @alexisohanian on thinking like a startup: "Make something people want. The back button is your enemy." PointDrive - "Love your early customers." - @alexisohanian #ICNY @InmanConnect Kevin Hawkins - Alexis @reddit - The Web is simply the world's biggest water cooler #ICNY Chris Nichols - "Invest in and leverage proprietary data". What's your "ONLY" statement? Your competitive advantage? - Joanna Lord #ICNY Angela Raab - Ecosystem means participate in the industry but also participate where your consumers are. @JoannaLord #icny

Following #NARAnnual: Conference Wrap-up
Today marked the final day of NAR Annual in New Orleans. As we write this, Realtors from across the U.S. and Canada are on their way home after 4+ days of educational sessions, events, giveaways, parties, beignets and po' boys (all the food pictures were seriously mouthwatering!). As usual, we took to Twitter to follow the official conference hashtag, #NARannual, and the ongoing events. After all, the best reporters are often the attendees themselves. Although there were far too many great Tweets to include here, we've done our best to round up the best. ### Valerie Garcia - If you don't want sellers rating, ranking, and reviewing you, it's probably because you are doing a crappy job. Just saying. #NARannual JenniferArchambeault - Brokers should take control of brand consumer experience & not leave min standard up to individual agents #cryeleike #narannual #RISmedia Brandon Martens - Verbiage change! "Charge a brokerage fee not a commission" @alexmils. Even @leighbrownremax wrote that one down! #narannual Brandon Martens - Have sellers help you select comps from what's on the MLS @leighbrownremax #narannual Valerie Garcia - Ask questions in your listing appointment that you can allow them to say yes to! @leighbrownremax #NARannual

#ICSF Day 2: Tech Adoption, Branding, UX and...Surfing
It may just be my inner Californian talking, but a presentation that employs surfing metaphors is okay in my book. Judging by all the tweets surrounding broker Matt Beall's talk during Inman Connect San Francisco's second day, that assessment is correct. Day two featured a robust schedule of speakers and sessions, ranging from Bran Inman's interview with RE/MAX CEO Margaret Kelly to a panel of buyers sharing their experiences as consumers. There were plenty more hella gnar presentations at Inman Connect today. To glean the best nuggets of wisdom, we took to Twitter to follow the official conference hashtag, #ICSF. (Missed our coverage of Day One? Read it here!) *** Zach Schabot - Love this philosophy from @mattbeall "Don't leave waves to find waves" #ICSF Rosemary Buerger - What do you do in a lull? You paddle and position yourself to ride the next set of waves! @mattbeall Love this! #ICSF Jay Thompson - I wanna learn to surf. #icsf

#ICSF Day 2: Off-MLS Listings, Tech Tools and beyond
Day 2 of Inman Connect wrapped up just hours ago. As I write this, conference goers are pausing to catch their breath before embarking on what's sure to be an exciting night out in San Francisco. Today, attendees participated in a full schedule of engaging sessions with titles like "The Paperless Revolution" and "Software is Eating the World." (When they weren't networking at Lobbycon, that is.) Since we believe that the participants themselves are the best reporters of the Inman Connect experience, we turned to Twitter to follow the conference's official hashtag, #ICSF. See below for highlights of the best Twitter updates from Inman Connect, day two. * * * BoomTown - No. 1 consumer complaint: agents don't communicate what they're doing. @benkinney says be transparent. Let them know how u r helping them! #ICSF Coldwell Banker - "You are not selling things. You are helping people to make an informed choice." - @ThePeyman #ICSF Bill Risser - If you email a client a listing and they can't view it on their phone, you blew it. - Jessica Swesey of @1000watt #ICSF Coldwell Banker - Listening to Bruce Zipf (NRT CEO) discuss the importance of continually building a salespersons skill set. #ICSF pic.twitter.com/pnZgFHRV5F

3 Tools To Manage Your Real Estate Twitter Account
When you dive into the world of Twitter, it starts becoming abundantly obvious some of the shortcomings of the service once you start scaling up the amount of followers you have. How do people with thousands upon thousands of Twitter followers keep on top of their accounts? How do they keep growing their follower count while removing junk accounts or those who don't follow back? Here are a few free tools we've used at Lone Wolf to help manage and grow our social media presence. Social Media Management Tools For Real Estate Agents ManageFlitter This service is one of the best out there for giving you a great overview of who you follow. Their easy to use interface makes unfollowing accounts a snap. Identify who isn't following you back, or those accounts that are inactive helps clear space for you to follow new accounts. You'll find that once you get above 2000 followers this becomes important as Twitter imposes caps on the ratio of accounts you can follow at one time. ManageFlitter also has a bunch of Pro level filters, allowing you to see all your followers, as well as identify a whitelist. This is quite handy, as in a lot of cases you'll have accounts you want to follow but they won't follow back--be they celebrity accounts or major brands that don't typically follow back. Handy Tip: Use the Fast Select feature to quickly select a bunch of followers at one time. Just drag inside this area and you'll be able to bulk select users to unfollow.

Online Marketing: Vine for Real Estate
Did you hear the (social media) news? In late January, Twitter introduced Vine – a mobile service that lets users share short, looping videos. Here at Point2, we're always interested in the marketing potential for new social media developments and, since you're in the increasingly social real estate business, we think you should be, too. Here's what real estate professionals need to know about Vine: Vine Points Easily create and upload unlimited 6-second videos with audio component Instantly post videos on Vine, then share them on Twitter and Facebook Find, follow and interact with your sphere of influence Use hashtags like you do on Twitter For iPhone users only (at present) Available free from the App Store Will Vine help you sell a house in six seconds? Probably not. But there is definite potential for creating engaging videos with real estate marketing applications. Vine's integrated recording feature lets you effortlessly edit video clips together, so you can produce both tiny stop-motion videos and seamless footage.

Using Twitter to Sell Homes in Just 15 Minutes a Day
These days it seems like everyone has a Twitter account. Politicians, celebrities, sports figures and companies have recognized the numerous opportunities that this information network provides. Real estate businesses use Twitter to connect to potential leads, promote their brands and sell homes. Because Twitter doesn't require hours spent writing pages of content, you can devote 15 minutes a day to promote your real estate business and services. Before you start "tweeting," it's best to come up with a plan. What to Tweet Just as easily as you can engage your target market with interesting tweets, you can also annoy and alienate your audience. According to Pete Deininger, REALTOR® at Breckenridge Real Estate, "The golden rule for businesses on social media is to never be salesy." You want to offer your followers substance. According to Tierra Wilson, tounder and CEO of New Media 4 Agents, "We don't just put the Tweets out there and hope for the best. We use multiple strategies to tweet home listings. One of the most effective is just to have fun. People love to see the inside of homes, so we use their natural voyeuristic tendencies to get them to take a peek. We tweet specific home features with links to images. For example,'Cold outside! Wish you had this fireplace? For $250k you could. #interiors #realestate' and we include a link to a single property website or IDX listing with pictures of the home." Come up with a strategy before sending out tweets. Are you selling specific types of properties such as commercial spaces? Are you just building up a following? What target market are you courting? Your answers to these questions will dictate what you tweet. It's also important to keep in mind that not every tweet has to be about real estate.

Top 5 Twitter Mistakes You May Not Know You're Making
Twitter has always been a complex platform to master. Whether it's the lingo (tweets, RT, hashtags) or the culture, there are lots of unwritten rules about how to use Twitter. Today I'm going to outline a few Twitter faux pas that real estate agents can make without even knowing they're doing it. 1. Having A Private Account This is one of the more puzzling choices I've found that new users of Twitter make. Making your account private only serves to shield you from connecting and properly leveraging the service to your advantage. When someone is looking to follow you on Twitter, it definitely sends the wrong impression when they click to follow and see that their request is now pending indefinitely, waiting for a busy real estate agent to get around to approving their follow. Many times I've seen descriptions implying that they're looking to connect with new clients, yet they've essentially put a moat around their Twitter account. Only people who have been approved can see private tweets, so it makes acquiring new followers much more challenging, as nobody can see what you talk about to get a gauge of what kind of user you are.

What’s a “Promoted Post” and which one is right for you?
With three social networks each debuting their own variation, 2012 has become the year of the Promoted Post. An alternative to traditional online advertising, these programs are less formal, more engaging, and give potential and existing followers a glimpse into your personality. Not all may be right for your real estate business, however. Our comparison of four major promotional programs can help you decide where your marketing budget is best spent. Facebook Facebook debuted their new "Promoted Posts" feature early this summer to help Pages increase engagement among followers they already have. Administrators just select "Promote" in the bottom right-hand corner of the post they want to promote, select how much they want to spend, and Facebook will display the update in the newsfeeds of more of their fans. Is it useful for agents? Because the average Facebook post is seen by only 16 percent of a Page's followers, this is a great way to re-introduce your business to fans who may have forgotten about you. Is there an open house coming up, or a new property that you want generate interest in? Promote your posts to maximize awareness of important events or listings. Twitter While similar to Facebook's Promoted Posts, Twitter's new "Promoted Tweets" feature is more automated, giving users less control over what tweets are promoted and to whom. Instead of choosing which posts to promote, Twitter analyzes your tweets and automatically promotes the ones with the highest engagement levels. You can choose to exclude certain tweets from promotion, but that's the extent of your control. Is it useful for agents? If you find Facebook advertising overwhelming, Twitter's promotional features may be a better choice. All you need to do is choose the geographic area you want to advertise in, set your daily budget, and your campaign will essentially operate on autopilot. Twitter will analyze the tweet content of users within your chosen area and automatically display your top updates to those with similar interests. Unlike Facebook's Promoted Posts, Promoted Tweets are based on cost-per-click, meaning you are only charged when users click on your post. This means that you are only paying for people who explicitly interact with your content, ensuring that your marketing budget is spent on those who are highly engaged.

#ICSF: Day Two
Many of my RE Technology teammates are representing at Inman Real Estate Connect in San Francisco this week. Unfortunately, I am not among them. So that I don't feel like I'm missing out completely, I'm following the conference on social media and sharing it with you nice people. If you missed my coverage yesterday, you can read it here. Now let's get started with today's highlights from ICSF. Follow ICSF 2012 If you'd like to follow ICSF yourself, you can check them out here: Twitter – also check out #ICSF Facebook RealEstateConnect.com/sf12 #ICSF on Twitter Some of my favorite Tweets for Thursday, August 2nd: Alain Pinel Realtors @alainpinel : Quote: "Can we stop calling it social media? It's media! Why call them Internet consumers? They're consumers!" @MattBeall #ICSF Matthew Shadbolt @Corcoran_Group : Nice advice at #ICSF from @LisaArcher "Any time you receive a compliment, ask for a referral, and build your lifelong book of business." Jeffrey Kershner @jeff_kershner : 5 ideas to get the mobile experience right: 1. Play to your strengths. @1000wattbrian #icsf Jeffrey Kershner @jeff_kershner : #2 Deliver the greatest good to the greatest number of users. Search should be simplistic. Forget the weirdos. @1000wattbrian #icsf Jeffrey Kershner @jeff_kershner : #3 Care about the design: Think about the beauty of your application. Make the interface pleasing. @1000wattbrian #icsf Jeffrey Kershner @jeff_kershner : #4 Kill friction. Don't make it hard to use your mobile app, ie remove passwords, usernames and barriers @1000wattbrian #icsf Jeffrey Kershner @jeff_kershner : #5 know what you want: define the goal of the mobile app. Is it to generate calls, leads, showcase brand etc. @1000wattbrian #icsf Cynthia Hoskins @Cynthia_Hoskins : "Pulling Your Listings from Aggregator Sites: Who Wins?" session at #ICSF. Now this conference is going to get good!

22 Real Estate Twitter Accounts You Should Follow
If you're starting to use Twitter to kick start the social media marketing plan for your real estate business, you're probably looking for some quality people to follow. One of the biggest complaints from new users to Twitter is the process of finding people to follow. This process has become a lot easier than it once was, with the introduction of Twitter lists and the revamped Who to Follow search. However, it still can be a bit of a chore, so that's where this list of real estate Twitter users comes in handy. When creating this list, I looked for Twitter users who are doing a great job of engaging with their Twitter feed. Many of them manage to mix in a little personality with relevant information about the real estate market as a whole, as well as local to their area. I have varied the list, so they are a mix of accounts ranging from a couple hundred to thousands of followers. This list displays users from across the spectrum of real estate tweeters, from agents and brokers, to mortgage brokers and home stagers. I've made it easy to get started. Just click the official Twitter follow buttons in the list below! Note that the buttons may take a few moments to appear. Real Estate Tweeters Follow @MsREAgentLA Angelena with a love for homes and my city. Follow my tweets and come talk to me. North East Los Angeles Real Estate Services. Follow @Agentopolis Real estate agent directory, REALTOR® directory, realtor marketing, home search, real estate information. Follow @RobMcKichanRLP Award Winning REALTOR® at Royal LePage Oakville; Broker, Accredited Senior Agent. Also serving Burlington, Milton, Mississauga, Etobicoke, Toronto/GTA. Follow @Ryan_TopleyC21 REALTOR® with Century 21 Lloydminster. I am a dad, a husband, and all around good guy. Follow @homingCloud A real estate information social and matching platform, connecting home owners with home seekers so they can bypass the middleman and be happier, not broker.

How Much Time Should Real Estate Agents Spend on Lead Generation?
How much time should real estate agents spend on lead generation every day? This is one of the most common questions that we get at the Internet Marketing Specialist Designation. When real estate agents get efficient at time management by blocking out times of their day for lead generation, they have more opportunities to get out there showing houses! Here is our take on how much time should be spent in each of the key real estate lead generation categories each day. This content was offered as part of the IMSD class Best Real Estate Marketing Sources, where we discuss how much each of these lead generation sources are going to cost, how crowded the space is, and other factors to consider when choosing a marketing mix. Advertising – 15 Minutes These are your yard signs, flyers, business cards, and other print advertising. Once the initial setup is complete on these items, the time you spend placing orders and making small modifications is minimal. Pay Per Click Advertising – 15 Minutes Managing your PPC campaigns can be as addictive as online gambling. Fight that urge to over-manage this category. Get in to Facebook Ads or Google AdWords, check your analytics to make sure your ads are running as planned and your budget hasn't suddenly exploded, then get out!

Four Easy Ways Social Media Can Improve Your SEO
If you find yourself overwhelmed by terms such as meta tag, site map, or search engine optimization (SEO), you have come to the right place. We get that your number one job is sell homes and, likewise, our number one job is to simplify online marketing strategy. We will show how improving your SEO can be as simple as a Tweet, Share, +1, Pin or Like. More and more potential buyers search for homes using Google. When they drive by and see a house for sale they quickly do a Google search to find the listing, so it's important that your listings are at the top of Google. How do you get your listings to the top of Google? Improve your website's SEO by engaging with your social media networks. The following four techniques explain how to most effectively engage with social media to drive your SEO, and get to the top of a Google search. 1) Start a Google+ Page Google+ is a newer social media tool but marketers are quickly learning the value of incorporating it into their marketing strategy. Since it is a Google product, it is believed that it may have a strong impact on Google search rankings. Simply stated, when you "+1" online content, it serves as a social endorsement to your Google+ network. Below are some easy tips to use Google+ to boost your SEO: Create your brand's page. This is the easiest step! It is basic, but an important building block to building your online identity. Keep your page visually compelling and post fresh content several times a week. Work on building your Google+ network. The larger your network, the greater the effect on your site's traffic and rankings. The more content you add to your Google+ feed, the more Google can index your posts and include in search results, improving your Google rankings. Add a +1 button to your website and your listings, so your site visitors (and you!) can +1 your content and share this endorsement with their Google network.

A Little Birdie Told Me: How Real Estate Agents Can Use Four Strategies to Become a Twitter Expert
I am consistently at a loss to explain why it seems that so many real estate agents and brokers don't use Twitter. As a well-established and unique social networking platform, it is a very convenient method of sharing short messages and a superb way of sharing links, photos and videos. Twitter took flight six years ago (can you believe it?) and it still seems to be looked down upon as a place where people spew their ever-changing location, breakfast entrees or endless political opinions. But when I see how great and helpful Twitter is to real estate marketing, it makes me wonder why more people don't take advantage of it. In questioning a general lack of Twitter love from agents and brokers, I've had a chance to do a bit of research and I do see the issues. Real estate agents and brokers simply need to learn how to use Twitter to their advantage and they need to stick with it. The road in Twitterville is dotted with "dead birds"–abandoned accounts where an agent posted a few times, never to return. I have also seen accounts where agents posted a handful of their most glorious home listings and then migrated away. Perhaps as a baseline to this blog post, it should be understood that the only people that will receive your news on Twitter are those who "follow" you (or if someone searches a keyword that happens to be contained in your post). Just because you "tweet" something doesn't mean a hill of beans if no one is following you. Therefore, building a group of followers should be a long term goal. Here are four helpful tips for fledgling tweeters in the real estate industry.

Using Twitter Lists to Organize Your Contacts
    Contributor Austin Allison of DotLoop says: If we’ve learned anything from social media, it’s that not every contact falls into the same category. You probably aren’t going to send out the same information to current clients as you would prospective clients. You may want to send introduction information to new contacts while friendly updates might be more suitable for people you have sold to in the past. Different People Need Different InformationYour clients can also be grouped by social dynamic. For example, young families might not be in the market for properties preferred by retired couples, and young professionals could be searching for an apartment in an exciting part of the city. For these reasons, you should be careful about how you organize your contacts.

Video: Tech Tuesday with Maya Paveza
In today's video Maya Paveza of TheHipRoof.com answers these important questions: What do I do about strange people following me on Twitter? I'm getting married. What do I do about changing my name on my social media accounts when everyone knows me by my maiden name? Most of my connections on Facebook are the same as my connections on Twitter. If I post the same thing on Facebook and Twitter, will it be overkill for these people? Do YOU have any questions for Maya? Comment here. Click on to the next page to watch the video.

Tuesday Tech Tip with Maya Paveza of TheHipRoof.com
Today's questions for our social media guru, Maya Paveza: Should I be using YouTube and making videos? Zillow on Facebook? What do I think? Twitter - what, how, why - help! To watch the video, click on to the next page.

So You Think You Can Post! Insight Into Good Social Content
Guest Contributor Roost Offers these insightful tips for social media: If you have ever struggled with what to post on your Facebook Page or Twitter account, then this following webinar video is for you. Join Terra Khachooni and Derek Overbey from Roost as they provide tips, tricks and insights on what, how and when to share on your social networks. Click to the next page and view this informative video! 

Tuesday Tech Tip with Maya Paveza of TheHipRoof.com
Maya strikes again, dropping some knowledge on our RE Technology readers. In this week’s video, she answers three important questions: Android or iPhone? How can REALTORS® use QR codes? How should agents discuss crime stats? Pulling from her own substantial experience and her research, she provides in-depth answers and actionable advice. For example: have you ever considered adding a QR code to your business cards? Read on to the next page for the video!

Tuesday Tech Tip with Maya Paveza of HipRoof.com
Tech Tip Tuesday We’ve paired up with real estate and social media guru Maya Paveza to keep you up-to-date on all the latest tech tools. This week, Maya’s video unravels the mysteries of StumbleUpon as well as hash tags on Twitter. Do you have a question for Maya? Post a comment here and we’ll suggest the topic for future videos. Do these tech tips answer your questions? Watch and see!

4 Twitter Tools Your Competition Doesn’t Want You Using
On March 21st, Twitter celebrated its 5th birthday. As part of the festivities, the company shared the following fascinating statistics in their blog: Twitter users now send more than 140 million Tweets a day (which adds up to a billion Tweets every 8 days)—by comparison, it took 3 years, 2 months, and 1 day to reach the first billion Tweets. While it took about 18 months to sign up the first 500,000 accounts, the site now sees close to 500,000 accounts created every day.

Guide to Video Marketing
Video Marketing Guide I just participated in a fantastic webinar about video marketing from HubSpot – and I learned a few things. First, I don't need to be Francis Ford Coppola to be successful with online video; I just need a little creativity. Second, I need to get on board with online video marketing, because it's not going anywhere but up. Based on this exciting webinar, I'm going to share some guidelines to help you get started too.

The Science of Timing: Social Media
How many times a day or week should you tweet? Do you know what time of day is best for tweeting? What about posting on Facebook? Does it matter? The answer is simple: social media is not a haphazard activity anymore. It has evolved into a science. If you are interested in promoting yourself and your business online, it is well worth your time to invest in learning some of the research behind what social media gurus are calling the "science of timing." HubSpot social media scientist Dan Zarrella discussed his research on timing. He has conducted research on the Internet for the last 2-3 years. Of all the subjects he researches, the science of timing is the number one piece of data consumers want to know. He researches and identifies best practices. This webinar presents all the data to date that Zarrella has studied. It covers three marketing mediums businesses use for inbound marketing: social media, email, and blogging. This article focuses on social media specifically.

9 Easy Ways to Get Unfollowed on Twitter
Ever since the birth of paper.li and my obsession with aggregating all the content-sharing tweets in my Twitter stream, I have been very aware of annoying Tweeters. Why?  If I don't clean out my Twitter stream every now and then, my paper.li gets overwhelmed with stories I do not want to read about. (To view an example of a paper.li Twitter e-newspaper I manage, check out RE Technology, Inc.'s) Ironically, one of the articles I found interesting, while peeling through my RETechnologyInc Daily was on the very topic of pitfalls of Tweeting that will result in getting people to un-follow you.  In the world of social media, being un-followed is almost equivalent to being virtually told you are annoying or you like things that aren't cool.  It brings many of us back to school yard drama. Jason Yormark, social media marketer, sympathizes to a degree with people who unwittingly abuse common Twitter faux pas. In a recent post he outlines his top 9 Twitter annoyances.  I definitely agree with most. (I still un-follow people who flood my stream with nonsense, but that is due to my paper.li love as stated above.) Here are his top 9 ways to get unfollowed on Twitter:

Social Media: The Art of Building Awareness and Capture
We use social media tools for different purposes. We might use it for distribution of media, for marketing, for customer service, for promotion, for communication, and most likely, for all of the above. How you use it depends on your end goals, obviously. But most times, people are being thrust into using social media without really knowing what the goals are, and without knowing what kind of workflow should accompany the use of the tool. Instead, they swing by Facebook to see if anyone commented on the wall update, and they visit Twitter to reply to a few things, retweet a few other things, and they end up feeling like they’re not sure why they’re doing this, let alone how it’s going to serve the cause.

Fannie Mae Look-Up Tool
One way that REALTORS® can stay engaged with their clients is to constantly provide them with valuable information. Blogging, social networking, and newsletters can be great tools to do this. We recommending doing them all so you can connect with your customer or prospect they way they want.

Want to be Tech Savvy? Tune in for Weekly Videos!
Welcome to the Tech Savvy Agent webshow called the Queue, where Chris Smith of Tech Savvy Agent  takes all the real estate technology topics and recommendations from the last week and boils it into an educational video.         This is the first episode of the video series, which will be posted to RETechnology.com on Wednesdays.  This week's topics include: Inman Real Estate Connect NYC Real Estate Porn Brand Matters More than Ever Stik.com Social Bios Gift an App

Looking for a Lead Generation Tool for 50% Off?
RETechnology.com subscribers have an opportunity to purchase ReachFactor at a 50% discount this month! This is a great opportunity to start 2011 off with a new solution offered at a low cost. Haven’t heard of ReachFactor? ReachFactor helps real estate professionals reach more buyers and sellers. It is a lead generation and online marketing tool designed to help real estate professionals reach prospects in search engines and social media who are looking specifically for a real estate agent. ReachFactor's core features include a Web Survey technology that allows agents to automatically survey past clients and collect feedback, and an online syndication engine that helps the agent spread their reviews and listings across search engines, real estate portals, Craig's List, Facebook, and Twitter with just a few clicks. A search engine optimized online profile at ReachFactor.com displays all of the agent's assets and sends new customer inquiries directly to the agent. Agents using ReachFactor require no technical expertise and spend as little as 20 minutes to set up a profile.   Google Eliminates Real Estate How to Create a Facebook Fan Page Missed the Boat: Six Sad Reasons Most Agents Fail

Twitter Spoof of the Office
If the following quotes ring any bells... "I guess the atmosphere that I've tried to create here is that I'm a friend first and a boss second, and probably an entertainer third.""One word, two syllables: Demarcation." ...then you too shared the love of "Office" humor. Between Dwight's neurotic antics, Michael's unique ability to make any situation awkward and Jim's ability to remain the cool prankster and female heartthrob, the TBS show The Office rarely fails to take everyday normal and make it hilarious. HubSpot's Marketing team are also fans of The Office, as they have created a number of parody skits mirroring characters from the popular show. This week's Friday Funny showcases HubSpot's expansion into video entertainment. The topic of this episode is of course Twitter.

Proactive Propspecting in Real Estate
There are two schools of thought it seems in real estate when it comes to prospecting in social media. There is the “you can’t” camp, led by a coach who I won’t mention, and then there is the “you should” camp, which I would say most of the rest of the world fall into. I am often asked when I speak at events how I feel about prospecting, whether I do the traditional agent prospecting activities or if I only do the online activities. I do both. Social media and technology are wonderful resources for building your business, and serving your clients, but it does not replace the classic age-old tried and true methods we have all been well schooled in. You still need to call your sphere, you still need to call expired, you still need to knock on doors, you still need to market, but how and where you do that marketing has evolved.

Make Noise and Build Traffic with Twitter
What is Twitter? Twitter is a very easy-to-use, real-time messaging system for groups and friends. Another way to think of it would be text messaging (or instant messaging) from one person to many people at the same time. The length of each message is about one sentence (140 characters). Twitter is free and easy to use. Here are some positioning statements that may help you understand how you can derive benefits out of a seemingly low-grade social networking utility.

Three Traits For A Triumphant Twitter Trail
As you might guess, it's getting harder to find. There's a lot of noise out in the ether, and, as it seems, a lot more Top Ten and Top Five lists, some of which actually have value. Some which do not. With all of these Top Ten and Five Best lists, I got an itching to create my own. So here are the Top Three Traits Needed to Create a Successful Social Media Presence: 1. Simplicity 2. Investment 3. Accessibility

Grade Your Twitter Account!
Curious to find out how your Twitter account is doing, compared the other millions out there? There is now an online grading tool that generates a score and report in seconds! Twitter Grader was created by HubSpot and is a free tool that allows you to check the power of your Twitter profile compared to millions of other users that have been graded. Go to www.twitter.com/grader. Just enter your Twitter username (password not needed) and you'll get an instant grade and report. Simply knowing your score is not enough to learn how to increase that score and improve your twitterness. Currently, Twitter Grader bases their grade on the following criteria: 1.  Number of Followers 2.  Power of Followers 3.  Updates 4.  Update Recency 5.  Follower/Following Ratio 6.  Engagement Continue reading to learn more sprcifics about how this grade is determined and what you can do to increase your score, and overall Twitter influence.

Twitter… Facebook, Not Just for Kids
For anyone over 40, social media is just for kids. Social media is just the more recent form of online connecting technology. This evolution began with email, then it moved to instant messaging. Email started to connect people more quickly, then it moved to instant messaging. The first entrée into social media, and where the marketing opporuntities are, is with LinkedIn. You want to have a profile, so people can find out about you. Think of LinkedIn as the new yellow pages, with people connecting people. It’s like not having your number in the yellow pages. Marketing is moving global, people need a place to find you online. If you’re in business today, to get equal networking opportunities, you need to be online. You can automatically keep track of your contacts without going through all your business cards. It is also important to keep in mind that companies often look through your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles before they hire you. Facebook is a little more casual than LinkedIn, but it gives a lot of information about the personality/social side of a person. Twitter is like micro blogging (140 characters). Think of it as an ongoing cocktail conversation. Having a global presence for all 4 generations is important. You can link your twitter address anywhere. You have to be careful about what you say and how you say it because once it’s published, it’s online forever. It’s a safe way to connect people, but you have to be careful not to alienate people online. Continue to view an interview regarding Social Media...

Ten Tips for Using Twitter to Drive Traffic!
Real estate professionals are tapping into the marketing resources Twitter facilitates! They know it is more than a vehicle to complain about your coffee spilling in route to work. Agents and brokers know the power Social Media has to drive traffic to their company site, or blog. Social Media guru Mark Hayward, who writes for Problogger, has learned how to harness Twitter and use it to drive traffic to his blog, which drives traffic to his business. He states that Twitter is not easy to learn. So he recently shared ten tips for using Twitter to drive traffic to a blogsite. These tips, however, are just as valuable for driving traffic to property virtual tour, your single property website, technology business or brokerage. Using Twitter can take time, but these tips will help you generate traffic by making sure you do things like complete your bio or add branding to your background.  Online networking is a science, but it is worth learning. To read Mark's ten tips for using Twitter, please continue...

How to Make Use of Twitter Lists
Twitter has been rolling out their new Lists feature to tweeps over the last few weeks. If you’re still waiting, be patient (or whine about it in the public stream like I did). The feature was made available to me last week and unfortunately I was so busy I had to wait until the weekend to play with it. But now that I have, I’m excited to share my experience and suggestions with you.