The new real estate widget allows MRED members to share real estate listing domains on Facebook, Twitter and other supported social media sites. The widget also enables the creation of embedded links to connect listings to real estate blogs, Facebook business pages, and real estate websites. According to MRED, since the first of the year the widget has generated 175,000 web hits from potential clients in 387 Illinois cities, all 50 states and 101 countries worldwide.

Realtors and real estate brokers that want to quickly expand their social medial reach might check with their local MLS provider to see whether a similar widget is available in their area. However, there’s no need to wait on your local MLS provider to tap the full power of social media. Properties Online has developed powerful social media widgets that allow real estate agents and brokers to expand into social media immediately. Easy to use, real estate agents can expect quick results when they add our Facebook app and Twitter widget to their real estate listing services on Properties Online.

• Our Facebook app makes it easy to post all your listings to your Facebook business page. Our Facebook app automatically creates links from Facebook postings to your website or listing domains and updates your Facebook tab whenever listings are updated. One-click publishing makes it easy to publish new listings to your wall.
• Our Twitter widget makes it easy for you to have a “conversation” with clients. Twitter is an excellent real estate tool for answering client questions and notifying them of new listings.

Data Sharing Widgets Expand Realtors’ Social Media Reach is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Building strong networks is the key to success in the real estate industry; and, today, Facebook is the key to building strong networks. The rise of social media combined with the shift of real estate marketing online has made Facebook the premier application for real estate network creation. Other social medial such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus offer similar network-building opportunities that should not be ignored; but virtue of volume and ease of use, Facebook deserves your focus.

According to the Facebook website, more than 160 million Americans use Facebook. More than 50% log on each day, and the average Facebook user has 130 friends. If you can entice even a fraction of the people in your area to visit your Facebook page and click the “like” button, you can quickly build your network of potential clients. The fastest way to do this is by using Facebook to build a network of real estate industry professionals and service providers, including fellow real estate agents, mortgage brokers, title companies, insurance agents, building inspectors, repair services, etc.

According to a Postling.com infographic posted on Mashable Business, 84% of real estate professionals use social media and 79% use Facebook. By building reciprocal links between your site and the sites of other industry providers, you earn consumer trust by association with providers already known to the consumer. Heavy Facebook use by the real estate industry provides you with a prelaid groundwork on which to build your network.

Use Facebook Referrals to Build Your Real Estate Network is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Video chat allows real estate agents and clients to see each other in real time while they are talking, creating a more intimate and personal communication experience. Video chat makes it possible for real estate agents to develop a personal relationship with home buyers that do not live in the area, as well as with local buyers who have extremely limited availability.

The stress of finding and purchasing a home can be particularly grueling for long-distance home buyers who, by virtue of their absence, are forced to be more dependent on their Realtor than local buyers for reliable information about local schools, community services, neighborhood ambience and other issues that are important to home buyers. The ability to actually see their Realtor while discussing their housing needs and potentially suitable real estate listings can provide the extra bit of comfort and reassurance that many long-distance home buyers need.

Beyond its use as a highly effective client communication tool, video chat also offers real estate firms a viable video conferencing alternative. Video chat provides the benefits of video conferencing without the need for a video conferencing system. There’s no complicated set up, specialized equipment, lag time or expense. Video chat allows real estate firms to connect agents or multiple offices in real time for weekly briefings, training sessions or idea exchanges. Video chat allows real estate companies to create an anytime anywhere virtual conference room via computer or smartphone, a considerable advantage in our highly mobile world.

Make sure you’re reaping the full benefits of new real estate technology; contact Properties Online today.

Video Chat Offers Realtors New Communication Tool is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Real estate agents can forge connections with potential home buyers and sellers by adding QR codes to business cards, flyers, newspaper ads, direct mail, online property listings and lawn signs, using different QR codes to direct consumers to different sites or information. Different QR codes can be imbedded in different marketing vehicles to help track their effectiveness. QR codes are also proving effective in building social media relationships between real estate agents and potential clients. QR codes are still novel enough to generate excitement and curiosity. People can’t seem to resist scanning QR codes when they appear in Facebook posts and Twitter tweets. Their popularity and convenience are making real estate QR codes the preferred method of linking to detailed information and video tours of new property listings.

As smartphone become the new communication standard and consumer interaction becomes increasingly mobile, QR codes are expected to become the go-to method of imparting information to real estate consumers. PropertiesOnline.com can help you add this powerful mobile marketing tool to your real estate tool bag. Free real estate QR code generation is included with all Properties Online website products.

Use Real Estate QR Codes to Boost Website Traffic is a post from: Properties Online Blog

In an analysis of actual Twitter usage posted to his blog, Zarrella found that broadcast tweets generated a higher re-tweet rate than conversation tweets. Zarrella equated higher re-tweet rates with superior ability to spread information and disseminate marketing messages. In his study, Zarrella discovered two interesting correlations that real estate agents should be considered Twitter Best Practices:

1. Tweets that contain links have a noticeably higher re-tweet rate. Zarrella found that Twitter feeds with a 60% to 80% link percentage resulted in the highest re-tweet rates.
2. Tweets that generate few replies also enjoy high re-tweet rates. Zarrella discovered that Twitter feeds with 0% to 10% reply rates enjoyed the highest re-tweet percentages.

Zarrella’s take-away: Broadcasting interesting and information-rich content is a more effective use of Twitter than conversation.

Twitter “conversations” appear to be a fad that is nearing the end of its 15 minutes of fame as Americans tire of the glut of trivial tweets that clog Twitter feeds. The ascendency of far more versatile smartphones as the nation’s go-to communication device has ensured the eventual demise of Twitter as a conversation medium. However, Twitter’s broadcast value still makes it an effective real estate tool. Sending out 2 to 3 information-rich tweets per day can help you build your brand and expand your client base.

For information on how Properties Online can help you optimize the use of social media to grow your real estate business, visit our website.

Twitter Best Practices for Real Estate Agents is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Need another reason to check out question and answer sites? If you create content for a real estate blog, question and answer sites can be a hotbed of potential topic ideas. One review of the top questions and answers can help your mind come up with great article ideas that could last you weeks or even months into your editorial calendar.

So what are the best question and answer sites for real estate professionals to take advantage of? Here are the top networks you should check out, follow, and participate in.

LinkedIn Answers

LinkedIn is the top social network for professionals, so if you aren’t already on LinkedIn, you should be! If you are on LinkedIn, then you can participate in the LinkedIn Answers section. Here, professionals come to get advice from others about topics ranging from administration to technology. For real estate professionals, there are categories for both Personal Real Estate and Commercial Real Estate

To answer questions, simply browse the open questions for each section, click on the bright yellow Answer button, and submit the best answer possible. You will also be able to include relevant website links with your answer. If you have a blog post or article on your website that further supports your answer, feel free to add the link to it in the Web Resources box.

The best part is the Experts section. Whenever someone visits these categories on LinkedIn Answers, anyone who has been voted to give the best answers will be listed as experts in that category.

This is definitely somewhere you will want your name to be!

Quora

The next stop for professional question and answer networks is Quora. You can create a profile simply by signing in with Facebook or Twitter. Then you can start following topics that fit your business, including the following real estate topics.

• Real Estate
• Commercial Rel Estate
• Real Estate Agents
• Real Estate Investing
• Online Real Estate
• Real Estate Loans
• Real Estate Technology
• Buying a Home

Quora allows you to add links to your answers. If you are including a link to an article on your own blog or website, be sure that you have sufficiently answered the question and offer the link only as support.

Also, be sure to completely fill out your profile, including a link to your website in the bio information. Also, after you’ve followed applicable topics, go to the topics section of your profile and add a biography for each topic. This can be your professional title or your website URL. It is important because it will show up next to your name when you answer a question. Just be sure that it is less than 35 characters long, as the rest will be truncated.

Yahoo Answers

While Yahoo Answers is probably the most popular question and answer site, it is also the one where you might encounter the least professional content. Nonetheless, they have a section on Renting & Real Estate.

You will need to create a Yahoo account, or sign in using your Yahoo account to begin. In order to include live links with your answers, you will need to accrue at least 250 points on the Yahoo Answers network. These points can be earned through answering questions, signing in to the network daily,and getting voted as the best answer to someone’s question.

Zillow Advice

In addition to searching for homes for sale in the US, Zillow offers their own question and answer site called Zillow Advice. Here, you can find questions on topics including Home Buying, Home Selling, Mortgages, and more.

Before you start to answer questions, you will need to register with their site if you do not have a profile there already. If you do, be sure to complete your profile, including a photo plus links to your website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, and other social profiles (which might require a paid account).

Do you participate on question and answer websites to build your professional brand? What other sites do you use, and what have been your experiences? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

Build Your Professional Brand Through Question & Answer Sites is a post from: Properties Online Blog

We love technology and believe it can greatly help real estate agents. One noteworthy example is the use of QR codes for real estate. A QR (Quick Response) Code is a barcode that is readable via a smart phone. The idea is that users scan a barcode using their phone, and are then directed to a specific landing page. In real estate, we see QR codes used in several ways.

QR Codes Embedded into Print Advertising

This can definitely be useful, as it enables a prospect who looks at a print ad to scan the code and use their phone to get to the property site or to the agent website, where they can learn a lot more about the property.

QR Codes Embedded into Agent Sites

This seems to us like more hype than a useful feature. Why would anyone whip out a camera and take a picture of a QR code to bring them to a website on their mobile phone, when they could just click a link on their computer that takes them to the page?

QR Codes on For Sale Sign Riders

This is another useful tool for Agents. However, not everyone has a smart phone (yet) so Property Address Domains are much better and easier for the consumer because they can simply enter the url and go to the website, either in front of the home, or later in front of a computer.

Another issue with focusing too much on QR codes is that this marketing method pretty much eliminates anyone who doesn’t own a smart phone with internet access, and there are still plenty of those!

It will be interesting to see what new programs and platforms that utilize QR codes pop into the real estate tech field in the near future. I for one am looking forward to that!

QR Codes for Real Estate is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Adding video to your agent site also allows you to reach out and connect with more potential clients. While a text-rich website is important from an SEO point of view, adding video to your site enhances the user experience, which is an important factor in the success of any website.

Real estate websites are sometimes “dry,” even a little boring. By adding video to your site you can add an entertainment factor that your visitors would appreciate. As a result, your website will be more “sticky” and visitors will stay around longer, browsing.

Since we believe video can greatly enhance realtor websites, our real estate websites are equipped with a YouTube plug-in that enables you to easily place a YouTube video on any page of your website. Our built-in YouTube player allows you to add video to your website either in the media panel or in the body of any website page.

Adding video to your website using our YouTube plugin is easy, and it makes your website interactive and fun for your visitors. Take advantage of this free tool – it’s a great way to improve your agent website.

Agents – Engage your Visitors with Video is a post from: Properties Online Blog

Ever wonder where your property website traffic is coming from? Over the past 6 months we have compiled analytics on over 1,400,000 visitors to approximately 15,000 single property websites and created this infographic to showcase our findings. Our study shows that having a top level domain name is clearly an advantage for both SEO and direct traffic.

Some of the highlights:

• Facebook has overcome Realtor.com, Trulia and Zillow to become the #2 top referring website behind the King of all referrers – craigslist
• Mobile traffic is up 600% over the past 18 months
• Single Property Website can drive 55% more traffic to your listing than virtual tours or online flyers
• Google generates 80% off all search engine traffic

Single Property Websites – Traffic Report is a post from: Properties Online Blog

If your like most real estate professional, you like the idea of social networking but finding the time can be daunting. When it comes to social networking, remember quality is better than quantity. You don’t have to spend all day on facebook or twitter to be a good social marketer. Here is a fabulous infograph brought to you by KissMetrics that highlights a few key concepts when it comes to social media. This graph will tell you when to post and how often. Here are the highlights:

• “The best time to tweet is 5PM ET”
• “1 to 4 tweets per hour is ideal”
• “The best days to tweet are midweek and on the weekends”
• “80% of the US population is in the Central and East time zones”

Are you using HootSuite? Armed with this information and hootsuite,  you can now schedule your tweets and facebook posts to go out during the times you are most likely to get seen, liked or retweeted.

View a larger version

Best time for Real Estate Professionals to Social Network is a post from: Properties Online Blog