Brokers, join us online
Realtor Notebook
By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, November 13, 2008.
Brokers and managers, it's 10 p.m. Do you know where your agents are? That is a silly question -- most of us are independent contractors and it isn't any of your business. But you might want to join us online.
Realtors have been the industry leaders on the Internet, especially when it comes to Web 2.0. People like me started blogging years ago, before our brokerages even knew what a blog was. Then we moved onto networks like ActiveRain. I joined the month that company started up.
Then came twitter and Trulia Voices and too many social networks to list. As Web 2.0-savvy Realtors we share information with our peers, teach classes, speak at conferences, and we invent, create and innovate daily as we share enormous amounts of information and knowledge with our peers and the general public.
Where does this leave the broker-manager and the real estate company? If I owned or managed a brokerage and had agents, there are some things I would do.
The first thing would be to set up a Google Alert with the name of my brokerage and my own name. I would want to keep track of what was being said on the Internet about my company. As I have learned, if I don't control my own message someone else will do it for me. No one uses my name or the name of my blog on the Internet without my knowing what they wrote, and it doesn't even have to be spelled correctly.
I would set up a profile and a blog on ActiveRain. ActiveRain bloggers write about real estate, but they also network, gossip, share tips and tell jokes, and are a very social group. In some cases a broker will have more contact with his or her agents through ActiveRain than in the office.
Becoming a member of Trulia and participating in Trulia Voices can also be a positive step for a broker-manager. Some of your agents are making remarks that are in violation of fair housing laws. They may not even realize it and it isn't my job to give them the 4-1-1 on this all important topic. There are other things that agents write on Trulia Voices that lead me to believe they need more education.
Then there is the ever-popular Twitter. Personally, I can't live without it. I have met people from all over the country and at home through Twitter. We are like a huge tribe. There are leaders and followers, and I am both. If none of your agents are on Twitter, send them an invite. It is a great leadership opportunity.
I have noticed that some of the larger real estate companies have managers or brokers who are required to spend time in the office so they can interact with the agents. Agents like me are online and rarely go into the office. Some of us wouldn't mind having a little more contact with the company while remaining at work in our home offices or on the road. If my broker were online right now I would strike up a conversation.
If I were recruiting agents I would do it online. I wouldn't use the hard sell but I would do it the same way that I sell my own services. I would get to know local agents and start a conversation with them and give them tips and tools they can use.
Larger brokerages might want to consider having a social media manager, someone who has the job of managing the message, promoting the brokerage, networking with the agents and recruiting more agents. The opportunity for broker-managers to lead and educate their agents is now. Joining the Inman News community would be a great place to start. If your agents have blogs pay them a visit and leave a nice comment. They will love it, I promise.
Teresa Boardman is a broker in St. Paul, Minn., and founder of the St. Paul Real Estate blog.
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Submitted by Marc Rasmussen - Sarasota FL Real Estate on November 13, 2008 - 3:55am.
Great tips Teresa. Blogging and using social websites are a great way to get your voice out there and promote your real estate business. The percentage of people who start their real estate search on the internet continues to grow. I don't see that changing.
Real Estate Webmasters is also another place to blog socially.
Marc Rasmussen
Sarasota, FL real estate
Submitted by Dru Bloomfield on November 13, 2008 - 4:46am.
Your post is so timely. We are having an inaugural meeting today with a group of agents in our brokerage that are most involved in blogging and social media. Our advocate in the brokerage (@psexton) has been our technology / social media explorer, experimenting with ways to incorporate these new communication tools to engage agents and clients. We'll be talking about incorporating video, and maybe even a twitter-like tool for our in-house network. It's definitely a work in progress!
Dru Bloomfield
John Hall & Associates
Blog: www.AtHomeInScottsdale.com
Submitted by Anne Hensel on November 13, 2008 - 5:44am.
Who would have thought about this 3 years ago?
Great post. A lot of people, Brokers, Realtors and Real Estate agents have not realized how much the times have changed.
I already live all your tips but I have to say that very few brokers or agents in the Saint Petersburg area do this. My guess is maybe less than 10% participate in blog or social networks sites. I sometimes wonder when they will wake up and catch up, if there is such a thing as catching up on the internet. I believe that standing still in real estate is actually moving backwards.
It will be very interesting to see where the industry is in 3 years from now and who will survive.
Anne Hensel
Broker, ABR, E-PRO, C-CREC, ASR, AHS, TRC, RECS
South Beaches Real Estate Professionals
727 409 8706 www.Southbeaches.info
Submitted by Emily Medvec on November 13, 2008 - 6:46am.
Thank you for your article and push to move brokerages and managers closer to the social media reality. Those of us who have been active participants online could certainly benefit with a wider adoption of the tools as will our customers and clients. I recently launched yammer.com within our company to take advantage of their free intranet and social media platform to help give our brokers more practice microblogging and at the same time build a knowledge base within the company. This was a non-management initiative that was supported by our forward looking company. Now we are in the process of launching our own company blogs for our Realtors as we move ahead in our local market beyond typical real estate sites.
Emily Medvec, Realtor
Prudential Santa Fe Real Estate
Best Anytime Cell 505.660.4541
www.emilymedvec.com
www.twitter.com/EmilyMedvec
Submitted by Chris Adams on November 13, 2008 - 6:55am.
Teresa, and all-
Brokers have their own networks and relationships-their legacy-to pass on.
What better way to do it than through social media.
The number of different ways and means to approach this will provide Brokers all the latitude required to capture future realtionships and business from Retireds, Boomers, Gen X and Y and Millenials.
As Capt. Picard would say:
"Engage."
Steven Stearns
www.obeo.com
http://obeoman.blogspot.com
262-325-8687
Submitted by Phil Sexton on November 13, 2008 - 7:15am.
Teresa, I like the fact you laid out simple steps on how to start. I feel with the social media conversation, so much is said on the fact you need to do it, but the how to do it is usually overwhelming. Although I will say I'm surprised you didn't add flickr to the list, given the fact that you use it the best out of anybody! (I'm pretty sure those were Jeff Turner's exact words.)
The successful brokerages have and will always learn from their agents. Agents that are in the trenches and active in local markets are the most valuable source of information we as a brokerage can have. If more of them are talking online instead of in the office, seems like a no brainer.
Dru - Thanks for the link to this article!
Steven - Nice use of Jean-Luc!
Phil Sexton - Agent Support
John Hall & Associates - Phoenix, AZ
Submitted by Catherine Read on November 13, 2008 - 9:16am.
I am on break here in Salisbury, MD, where I am teaching a class of Long & Foster real estate agents exactly the things you have covered here. I have a Regional Vice President and several Sales Managers here as well. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to teach these agents social media technologies. They see the future of real estate marketing and they see where they need to be in that future. I find it very exciting to share these things, and it is a goal of mine to inspire the decision makers at the very highest level of this particular brokerage to see how critically important these things are. Thanks for putting it out there the way you do Teresa! I love reading your columns.
Catherine S. Read
Creative Read, Inc.
Submitted by Teresa Boardman on November 13, 2008 - 9:38am.
Phil - I show flickr in the graphic. From what I see on the MLS not many in our industry can take pictures. My thought was for people to start with the basic stuff and then add on to it
Submitted by KeyCanada.ca on November 13, 2008 - 9:54am.
Excellent points. I agree that brokerages need to take advantage of the internet, however, it is still very hard to measure exactly how effective internet marketing has become and until we can it will always be a hard sell to the brokerages.
KeyCanada.ca
Submitted by Susie Blackmon on November 14, 2008 - 1:23am.
Right now I am seeing the 'big box' reaction to 'noticing' social media - - one in particular has set up a new blog that is nothing but blatant advertising in a fairly elegant form. One more step toward extinction.
One more brilliant post from T.
Susie Blackmon
http://www.BuckingtheRealEstateTrend.com
Submitted by Teresa Boardman on November 14, 2008 - 5:00am.
Susie - why am not at at all surprised? In our industry there is only one accepted way to sell and the real estate companies pound it into us.