Interesting Applications of Social Media for Real Estate Brokers.

For a long time real estate brokerage had been a sector that has struggled with finding a way to utilize social media as a marketing tool. Though today, it seems as if many technologically inclined realtors are finding plenty of great ways to make use of such platforms as Facebook, Twitter, and even Pinterest and Foursquare. The picture below shows the most popular social media platforms among realtors. This post will provide a run down of a number of different tools and social media platforms and discuss how they can be utilized in the world of real estate brokerage.

http://mashable.com/2011/04/06/real-estate-social-media-infographic/

In addition to the usual suspects shown above, realtors are finding some very useful tools to use in tandem with these platforms or by themselves. 

Twellow.com

Twellow is meant to be a kind of Yellow pages for Twitter (hence the name). It sorts Twitter users by geographic area and areas of interest by analyzing key words and phrases used in their Tweets. This can be useful to realtors in finding prospects because it allows realtors to locate people on twitter in their area who are talking about real estate. Such users make good potential clients. It helps realtor's Twitter efforts to be more targeted and less like shouting from a roof top.

Pinterest.com

Pinterest, as you are likely aware, is a place to organize and display photos and ideas. This can be particularly useful to realtors who specialize in residential real estate. Realtors can use this site to post photos of new listings, decorating ideas for homes they have on the market, and more. Because a feature of Pinterest is its ability to allow users to "repin" posts, this gives each post the capacity to go viral, and gain views from millions of people which can have a dramatically positive effect on a realtor's business.

Foursquare

Foursquare is a website and application which allows users to broadcast where they are on their social networks. This can be used to a realtors advantage in a number of ways. Realtors can add their listings to the Foursquare map and check in each time they are there, which alerts their social networks to the existence of the listing. They can also encourage visitors of an open house to check in on Foursquare, thereby broadcasting to their social networks for the same effect as well as providing the realtor with useful information about the identities of the visitors for follow up purposes. 

Linkedin.com

Linkedin is useful for commercial and residential realtors alike. This is because it caters heavily towards those who fit into many realtor's target markets. About 64% of Linkedin users make more than $60K per year. This means that the population on Linkedin is heavily skewed towards people who are likely capable of buying or selling property. Here, realtors can join or start a Linkedin group related to their area of expertise, and can use this as a platform to provide advice and engage with people who could become potential clients. Linkedin also has a number of Apps that are useful to realtors 

Real.io

Real.io is a social media dashboard app which is meant to help manage a users activity across many social media platforms and it was made with realtors in mind. Though it is very new to the social media landscape, it claims that it can help realtors manage their social media campaigns, schedule posts, post new listings, measure the success of their campaigns, as well as identify potential new clients by geographic selection. Real.io is still in its beta stages, but it is something to watch for any realtors who would like a leg up in their forays to social media marketing.

Sources:

Ellison, D (Nov, 22, 2010) Find Real Estate Investors for Twitter Using Twellow. Retrieved Apr 19, 2013 from http://www.onlinemediadesigns.com/blog/item/71-find-real-estate-investors-for-twitter-using-twellow.html

Powerup (Jan 2^nd 2013) Creating New Business on Linkedin for Realtors. Retrieved March 3^rd, 2013 from http://powerupsocialmedia.com/creating-new-business-on-linkedin-for-realtors#

Powerup (Dec 12^th 2012) How to Incentivize People to Come to Your Open House Using Foursquare. Retrieved March 3^rd, 2013 from http://powerupsocialmedia.com/how-to-use-foursquare-to-incentivize-people-to-come-to-your-open-house#

Powerup (June 22^nd 2012) How to use Pinterest for Real Estate. Retrieved March 3^rd, 2013 from http://powerupsocialmedia.com/how-to-use-pintrest-for-real-estate#

Swallow, E. (Apr 6, 2011) How the Real Estate Industry is Using Social Media. Retrieved March 3^rd 2013http://mashable.com/2011/04/06/real-estate-social-media-infographic/

Trewe, M (Feb, 01, 2013) Real.io Social Media Dashboard for Real Estate Pros Retrieved Apr 19, 2013 from  http://agbeat.com/social-media/real-io-social-media-dashboard-for-real-estate-pros/