Leverage Social Media and your local expertise to enhance your Internet Presence

According to the  National Association of Realtors (NAR), 82 percent of home buyers begin  their search online before contacting an agent.  Knowing that, the  importance of an active online presence is clear.   You need to show up in relevant Google search results and you need to  reach your sphere of influence (SOI) and stay top of mind without being  that person who turned their friend request on Facebook into a constant  real estate spiel.
An effective way  to have an appropriate outlet for your real estate posts and to also  enhance your search results is to host a Facebook business page.  It’s  free and it allows your sphere to subscribe to  your real estate page.
Setting up a  business page on Facebook is simple.  Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages and click “+ Create Page” in the upper right.  From the business type,  select “Local Business or Place” and then from the dropdown box select  Real Estate and fill in the name and address of the business.  Click Get  Started when you’re done.
From the next  screen upload a profile photo and enter the other pertinent info it asks  for.  Once your page is created you need to add content.  Content can  be your listings, recent sales, short testimonial  statements, congratulation posts to new homeowners, remarks about the  market and links to blog posts.  The important thing is that the content  needs to stay fresh and pertinent.  No one will pay attention to a page  that is sporadically updated with months  old content.

As a Realtor you  are an expert on your market area.  You have insights and opinions about  the neighborhoods and areas you service.  You need to make frequent  posts about your market, activity levels (remember,  just because the national or regional market is up or down doesn’t mean  that your local niche market isn’t doing something different).

If you blog (and  you absolutely should)  you can link your blog to your Facebook page in the notes section – and  you should also post a link to new articles on Twitter and your Facebook  timeline when you post new articles.

To link your  blog, go to the Notes tab on your business page.  Click on Import  Settings and enter the URL of your blog.  Check the permission box and  click “start importing” and confirm on the next screen.   Your blog posts will show up on your business page automatically going  forward.

You should put  the URL to your personal web site on your business page.  And Carpenter  Realtors agents should be taking advantage of the free personal sites  they get.  You can have custom landing pages and  jump searches set up and ready for your targeted sphere to use.  A jump  search is a pre-populated search where you can already have a search  narrowed down to neighborhood, city or areas so all your clients have to  do is enter bedroom, bath, cost, etc. into  the search to find homes.  This is a must if you are going to farm an  area.  If you have a web page specifically set up with a jump search of  Avon or Geist or Meridian Hills on a page with links and local  information and highlights of that targeted area you  are going to score a lot more points with Google’s bots and you’ll  stand a better chance of showing up on the first page when potential  clients Google “Avon homes for sale” or other targeted searches.

This is where the  Facebook business page, your blogging and fresh content and your  personal website with targeted local information all tie together to  draw in that 82 percent of buyers or sellers who hit  the Internet before contacting a live person.

Posted by: George Christodoulou

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