Get Online....It's Time!

Twitter, Digg, FaceBook, LinkedIn and YouTube are quickly becoming the new sites to be on in real estate marketing. If you aren't familiar with these sites then it's time to get online and do some research. Social Networking online is a great opportunity for you to learn about real estate trends as well as get more exposure for your business.

I gathered some very basic tips from Straight Talk's E-Newsletter that will help you get on your way when starting out online:

Blog - A blog is simply a web-based journal. It's where you can post information about your firm, position yourself as an expert, and drive traffic to your web site.Go to www.blogger.com to get started.

Jump In - Learn as you go by signing up at Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Each site has easy-to-follow directions. Google "social media" and identify sites that cater to your customers and industry groups.

Listen - Social media allows you to connect directly to your customer to learn their likes and dislikes and discover what they think about your company. It's the best and cheapest market research available.

Be subtle - The best way to alienate a social media user is to blatantly market your company. Remember that social media is about relationship building and social norms apply.

Be Active - Give your customers a reason to return to your blog or Facebook profile. Post regularly. Be creative. Research topics and educate your readers. It takes time and effort, but the payback is tremendous.

Now let's get out there and start networking!

Enhance Listings on Realtor.com

Have you enhanced your listings and your profile on Realtor.com?

Take advantage of the fact that Realtor.com is the #1 consumer destination for any real estate related information with more than 6 million monthly unique users and you have the ability to enhance your listings because you are a part of CENTURY 21 Sweyer & Associates.

Based on data gathered, visits to Century21Sweyer.com have increased in October & November after the listings on Realtor.com were enhanced by the agents.

Visits September = 29

Visits October = 310

Visits November YTD = 265

What that tells us is that having enhanced listings on Realtor.com truly does drive traffic. If you have not enhanced your listings yet, you need to do so ASAP. More traffic, means more leads, which means more business for you!

Your future clients

Generation Y, the largest U.S. age group since the baby boom will make an unmistakable mark on the housing market. It is comprised of people born between 1977 and the mid 1990s.

To get a better feel for Generation Y, here are some quick facts:

• They’re big. Experts say Gen Y ranges in size from 72 million to 78 million people nationwide and 2 billion worldwide. Factor in the young immigrant population, and the group grows even larger.
• They’re diverse. According to a 2005 study by RMG Connect, an international specialist in relationship marketing, one in three echo boomers is non-Caucasian, one in four is from a single-parent home, and three in four have working mothers.
• The Web is their playground. They track down their friends on MySpace, they download their songs from iTunes, and they send e-mails from their phones while waiting in line at Starbucks. And you had better pay attention to their e-mails, because they expect a fast response.
• They buy young. On average, Gen Yers buy homes at age 26, three years earlier than most Generation Xers, according to a Century 21 Real Estate study in 2006. “Gen Y is not just some kid out of college,” says Adam Lee, 28, a salesperson for Abe Lee Realty LLC in Honolulu. “He’s a kid with parents who want to see him get off to the right start and is willing to put 10 percent down on a house and have the kid pay the mortgage every month.”
• They have hectic schedules. “Their lives are a lot busier than their parents were at their age,” says boomer Elaine VonCannon, ABR®, SRES, a RE/MAX real estate agent in Williamsburg, Va., who has been tracking and writing about Gen Y for the past decade. “They’re always moving. They need an all-inclusive agent. So if they’re going to invest, for example, they want someone who can help them manage the property after the sale.”
• They do their research. Don’t try to pull one over on an echo boomer. “You’d better know what you’re talking about, because they will have done the research,” VonCannon says.

To read the full article go to Realtor.org a great resource for real estate professionals.