It used to be a bad thing when someone called you a "twit." Now it means you're a part of their community. In fact, head on over to Twitter and follow me, I'll be happy to call you a twit :) So, what the heck is Twitter? It's a cool social media platform that's a bit hard-to-explain. Basically it's a social media micro-blogging platform. You have 140 characters to get your message across to the community (how's that for tight copy?) I was a hold out on it for a long time; thought it a waste and inconsequential but as I experimented with it I saw it for what it really is... transparent marketing. The more transparent you are, the more appealing you become. The "why" is simple... we want to do business with folks that are genuine, appealing, and real... not some emotionless corporate entity. *blech* Let's face it, this is why social marketing is so powerful. That's the transparent part, so what about the other business and marketing aspects? Here are 7 ways for you to start using Twitter for your real estate business: 1. Personal Branding. A great way to develop your personal brand of being an approachable expert. 2. Drive Traffic. Use ...

Once of the most profitable assets you can build for yourself as a real estate agent is a database of prospects and clients. With a database of interested folks you can easily and effortlessly stay in communication and maintain top-of-mind awareness with these lovely folks. That's one of the beauties of marketing real estate online... it's easy to build this list of targeted subscribers and even easier to communicate with them through email marketing. Have a new listing you want them to know about? New legislation that affects your home owning clients? Want to teach folks the benefits of 1031 through a short email course... and invite them to see your presentation live? All of this, and more, can easily be done online through email. Now, there's good news and bad news in regards to email marketing. If you’re at all like me I prefer to get the bad news out of the way first (makes me feel more proactive). So, here’s the short and not-so-sweet: when there’s a mountain of unread email staring at them from their inbox, chances are at least one of those emails is from mom or a friend, your subscriber is not the least bit interested in opening your email. In fact, ...

Search Engine Optimization (also known as SEO) is one of the many sources of traffic generation. In fact, it's the big daddy since this isn't traffic you have to pay for. Anytime we can keep money in our pockets, it's a good thing. Problem is, SEO has always been seen as some kind of mystic mojo in the realm of online marketing. So let's go ahead and demystify search engine optimization and make some sense of what it's really about. First off, SEO is really a collection of best practices that center around three elements. 1) Deciding what your page is all about. This is your strategy piece, one where most everyone skips over... which is why they drown at the bottom of search engine rankings. Knowing what your page is about helps you target your market and the search engines - targeted traffic, yeah! In future articles I'll be showing you how to really target a page for your visitors and for the search engines. The next two elements of search engine optimization are the implementation pieces. 2) Making it extremely easy for the Search Engines to read, index and understand what your site is all about. This is typically referred to as "internal SEO" or "on-page SEO." In ...

When you're face-to-face with a prospect or client and they voice an objection, you counter and overcome it, right? Your real estate website needs to be able to do the same thing. In fact, you're about to learn the importance of designing your website around your market and their needs. The truth is, it's your website's form and content that will determine if a visitor will stay a visitor or turn into your next home buyer or seller. You want clients, right? Good, then follow me... First off, you want to make sure your site is focused on one thing, not a gazillion. It needs to be one that is easy to build, maintenance-free, low-cost, credible, and a powerful traffic-builder and client-converter (all good things, so far). See, your website is an integral part of your marketing... for both your online and offline activities. Having industry experience or even a hot market aren't necessarily enough to insure the success of your website. There are many factors to be considered, ones that often get overlooked by business owners... even those that sell website packages "in a box". Build It for Speed It's a fact of modern life - people are in a hurry. This means that you ...

Postcards are a real estate marketing staple. Truth be told, they can be about as agonizing as an actual staple in the back of the hand. Let's face it, response rates are on a decline while postal rates are climbing higher. And you never really know how effective they are... well, until now. Check out this video about a very simply tool that will boost the response rates from your postcard campaigns. Once you try this, you will never mail postcards the "old" way again... You can also use this with your emails too. Check this out:

If you've seen the movie The Nutty Professor with Eddie Murphy you probably shot your soda out your nose you were laughing so hard during this scene. The family is sitting around the dinner table and the young boy ravenously eats his dinner. Gramma is excited and proud of him, "Look at him. He's growing up." Then she starts chanting "Hercules, Hercules, Hercules" and clapping her hands for him. I think I just demonstrated that I'm no comedic genius when it comes to storytelling, but I can't help but compare that scene with the current real estate industry and the strides it's made on the internet. While the real estate industry is by no means an infant, it's taken some time to grab hold of technology unlike other industries who have jumped in barrels blazing. But that's changed, hasn't it? All grown up (actually there's definitely room for more growth!), online real estate is a Hercules player that's largely been driven by consumer demand. Smart savvy companies were quick to move and are reaping the rewards of being early adopters. In fact, the rewards are there for the taking for you, too. Despite the benefits and rewards of marketing real estate online, you won't have to ...