What Real Estate Agents Need to Know
About Online Networking With
You may have wondered about the increasing buzz surrounding online networks. You may have a sense that something important is going on, but you can't quite get a handle on what it is. I've been there too, but being the online nerd that I am, I couldn't help myself from hanging in there till I figured it out. This crash course primer distills about 500 hours of investigation into three of the most important online networks for real estate agents. Spend a few minutes here and learn why online networking will be a significant part of every successful real estate agent's future.
How Traditional Networks Benefit Real Estate Agents
To better appreciate the value and advantages of online networks its helpful to start by looking at traditional networks.
What are traditional networks?
- Family
- Work
- Friends
- Church
- Associations
How do people use their networks? To get:
- Advice
- Business
- Feedback
- Friendship
- Information
- Jobs
- Referrals
- Social Interaction
- Support
What sustains traditional networks?
- Natural Affinities
- Frequent Contact
- Openness
- Sharing
- Giving
- Effectiveness
Successful real estate agents have always been using traditional networks to meet new prospects, maintain relationships with clients, and generate referrals.
The time has come to take your networking to the next level.
10 Powerful New Advantages of Online Networks
1.They supplement traditional networks
- Online networks don't replace any of the traditional networks, they supplement them.
- Online networks are new, additional opportunities to make targeted connections with people.
- Online networks can facilitate your ability to penetrate traditional networks.
- Online networks offer instant easy access to large, targeted networks
- Joining online networks is typically very easy. They are usually free to start, and often free to continue. Payments only come into play if you want to use the more advanced features. (Caution, once you understand their value, you're likely to want the more advanced features.)
2. Time Independent Communication
- You can interact with online networks whenever it's best for you. There are very few schedules involved. You participate when you can.
- Be aware, however, that natural relationship rules still apply. If you create expectations in people, you'd better meet them, or suffer the consequences.
3. Geography Independent Communication
- Since the network meeting places are online, there's no special place you have to be in order to participate. Any computer with an Internet connection will get you there.
4. Communication Speed and Ease
- The communication tools provided in online networks (usually email and blog like posting areas) make it easy to instantly respond to others; just type and submit.
5. Detailed Member Profiles
- Online networks typically provide substantial spaces for members to share information about themselves and what they do.
6. Interaction Opportunities
- The value of membership in online networks increases with participation and interaction. To facilitate and stimulate participation and interaction online networks typically implement blogs, question and answer areas, and special interest groups.
- Blogs & Comments
- Blogs are simply areas where someone can post an article of some sort, and the readers are able to leave their comments. Depending on the topic of the blog, the knowledge and skill of the writer, and the involvement of its readers; blogs have the potential to be quite stimulating, informative, entertaining and even addicting.
- Nevertheless, these online discussions can be a very effective way to see and be seen by many other people. This visibility can lead to the development of some very productive online network relationships.
- Question & Answer Areas
- These spaces provide opportunities for members to ask for what they need, and for other members to demonstrate their expertise by providing answers.
- Over time substantial libraries of questions and answers are built that keep on providing value to future readers.
- Consequently online discussions can also be a very effective way to see and be seen by many other people. This visibility can lead to the development of some very productive online network relationships.
- Special Interest Groups
- Natural leaders have opportunities in online communities to create special interest groups. Many of these groups strike chords with large groups of members. Interactions within these groups increase visibility and facilitate the creation of new relationships.
7. Search Capabilities
- Between member profiles, blogs, Q&A areas and special interest groups; a great deal of information winds up being posted online. To increase the value of this information online networks implement powerful search utilities within their own communities.
- Imagine being able to search within an online community by:
- People's names
- Company names
- School names
- Hobbies
- Affiliations
- Job titles
- Locations
- Dates
- Areas of expertise
- Blog writings
- Blog comments
- Questions asked
- Questions answered
- Special Interest Groups Joined
- Special Interest Group Activities
- Plus virtually any other search word you can think of
8. Discover Commonalities
- Online network communities typically create ways for members to visibly link with each other. This feature makes it easy to search for both existing and potential new relationship connections.
9.Discover Other People's Networks
- All three of these online networks contain features that enable you to see each contact's own personal network. This greatly facilitates the concept of "six degrees of separation"
("Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one "step" away from each person he or she knows and two "steps" away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is no more than six "steps" away from each person on Earth. Several studies, such as Milgram's small world experiment have been conducted to empirically measure this connectedness. While the exact number of links between people differs depending on the population measured, it is generally found to be relatively small. Hence, six degrees of separation is somewhat synonymous with the idea of the "small world" phenomenon." Wikipedia)
10. Search Engine Affinity
- Search engines like Google favor Web sites with lots of frequently changing and growing content. The richer and more sophisticated the content, the better. And clearly, online networks have massive amounts of rich, growing and frequently changing content.
- Consequently postings made in online networks show up much higher and faster in search engines than if you posted the same information on your own Web site.
- Smart online networkers always leverage their postings by including links back to their own Web sites and blogs; that way their personal Web sites and blogs get pulled higher and faster in the search engines too.
Three Important Online Networks for Real Estate Agents
We've discussed above the benefits of traditional networking; and we've described the features that make online networks powerful new supplements. Now let's take a look at three online networks that are definitely worth a real estate agent's time.
As I'm writing this I checked to see the current membership status; 31,019 members, 870 online now.
The ActiveRain membership is almost entirely agents, brokers, assistants, lenders, escrow workers, title reps and other real estate community vendors.
This is a very sophisticated and active community of real estate people from all over the world (though most are in the U.S.).
ActiveRain is a good place for real estate agents to get their feet wet in the world of online networking. Roam around. See what people are doing; how they are making themselves visible and connecting with others. Learn how to generate involvement. Then get visible yourself.
To learn more about ActiveRain follow this link.
LinkedIn is big; more than 10 million members. It has a very high percentage of mid to senior level professionals from many of the best companies in the world. At this point recruiters and job searchers seem to be getting the most benefit from the database and the format LinkedIn provides for network facilitation. But there is plenty here that real estate agents can use.
When people join (for free) they create a Profile that includes detailed education and work histories. These Profiles help members find each other. Members are encouraged to invite their personal contacts to also join LinkedIn.
Each Member builds her or his own personal three level network. Level one is people who have accepted your own invitation to link. Level two are all the people who are level one connections to your level one connections. Level three are all the people who are level one connections to your level two connections.
Most LinkedIn members are pretty casual about their membership. They only invite a handful of people they know; and, in-turn, those people only invite a handful of people as well. Consequently casual members’ personal networks do not grow very large, or very quickly. Casual networkers subscribe to the networking philosophy that true, deep personal connections are the only ones of value; the rest are just so many names on a list.
On the other hand, some LinkedIn members are power networkers. They are much more open to linking with anyone they can respect. They seek to build large level one networks. Many have more than 500 level one links. The top power networkers have more than 25,000 level one links.
I think the most effective networking philosophy is a combination of the these two extremes. Yes, bottom-line, it's only real, personal relationships that are productive. One way or another you've got to take your networking down to the personal level to make it work.
However, if you only link with existing personal contacts, and the rest of the people in your three level personal network do the same, your overall network isn't likely to grow very large. Since LinkedIn's format limits a lot of the searching and contacting features to people within your own three level network, it's very difficult to tap into much of that 10 million member database.
To get the most out of LinkedIn it's best to bring in all your existing contacts and to be open to linking to new people of worth even before a personal relationship is established. When you need to develop a relationship down the road with one of these new contacts, LinkedIn's profiles, network links and your own creativity will show you a way to make it happen.
To learn more about LinkedIn follow this link.
Ecademy is an international business/social online network with over 150,000 profiles. As a model for online networking, it is the most sophisticated, feature rich, and mature. If you want to learn how the most successful online networkers in the world operate; you will find them here.
You can join Ecademy for free and gain access to most of its features. As with other online networks, pay a little and you'll gain access to more of its power features.
Ecademy has over 3,000 special interest Clubs. If you don't see what you're looking for; start your own. It also has over 65,000 Blog titles, with comments and links to profiles of commenters. These Clubs and Blog/Comment areas are great ways to meet and build relationships with interesting new people.
To learn more about Ecademy follow this link.
A Powerful Demonstration of How These Networks Can Benefit Real Estate Agents
- Find out from your local Chamber of Commerce and City Government what large companies are coming to, or leaving, your area.
- Search for Human Resource and other executives from those companies in LinkedIn.
- Develop valuable, easy-to-say-yes-to information offers to entice these executives to respond to you.
- Use your LinkedIn network to gain introductions to those target executives so you can make your offers.
- Search ActiveRain to find compatible real estate agents for referral trades in the relocation cities.
- Also search Ecademy for both executives and agents.
- Use the information you discover in the Profiles, Questions and Answers, Blogs, Clubs, Groups and Comments to help you refine your relationship building strategies.
- Use the link information about each of your new contacts (from all three services) to reach even further into each of their networks.
Jump Start Your Own Online Network by Linking to My Personal LinkedIn Network
I have been very fortunate to have linked directly with many of the most powerful networkers on LinkedIn, and I'm linking with more of them all the time.
You can gain immediate access to thousands of these contacts by linking to me.
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