Your business is based on generating and converting leads.  The best of the best of the best (Sir!) will tell you without leads is without business.  The intended result with all prospecting online or off is to be in mind when anyone you ‘touch’ thinks of buying or selling real estate.  If using the internet and social media (smart) is part of the plan, keep reading.  If not, keep reading anyway – chances are you’ll have a change of heart soon.  So here it is, my picks of the best recommendations from the 2008 NAR Conference in Orlando. Remember, these sites are intended to socialize with others.  Lose the fear.  It’s just like going to a new social event, you may not know the people but if you engage chances are you’ll develop new meaningful relationships.

Join meetup.com, search for local groups, and request to join the ones of interest.  Tread lightly.  Don’t go stomping around any new site saying how you REALTOR® this and you REALTOR® that.  They won’t welcome you.  OBSERVE how people communicate and remember it’s more important to be interested than interesting¹.

Participate in yelp.com.  Get into your local neighborhood’s section and write reviews.  You need to get a login, add all the information they allow and start reviewing local “stuff”.  You can connect with others that are writing local reviews.  When participating in social sites like this, compare it to offline social gatherings² and act accordingly.  When you show up at an in-person social event do you stand on a chair and shout the fact that you are a REALTOR® and if any one needs to buy or sell they can call you?  No.  Treat all these online sites the same as you would treat an offline gathering.

Use search.twitter.com to find people talking about things that interest you – whether it’s your hobbies, neighborhoods, or local events.  Join the discussions.  If you find a void, fill it.  You need a twitter account for this.  Sign-up, follow some local people, make sure you say hello, and observe how the conversation happens.  Don’t be scared to tell people you’re learning – chances are they’ll offer to help.  Twitter is an excellent website to develop your internet voice².  You can only write short comments, so you learn to make your point quickly.  Again, tread lightly.

Flickr.com (a photo sharing website) is an excellent tool to showoff your community.  Take pictures at the fair, of local landmarks, or beautiful scenery.  Post the pictures, title them, add them to local groups.  Ines Hegedus-Garcia from Miami has created a local group and she encourages people from her community to add pictures of Miami.  She then highlights the best picture of the week in a blog post.  Of course the photographer whose picture is selected is thrilled and tells all their friends to check it out.  Brilliant.  Photography may be your passion and something you really enjoy.  Teresa Boardman from St. Paul MN uses flickr to post pictures from around her town.  If you look at enough of her pictures you’ll want to move there too.  But it’s not soley for relocation, the locals regularly check out her photos, and some of them ask permission to reprint them on their own marketing materials.  These are both great ways to use the tool.  Whatever you do, DO NOT just upload your listing photos – no one will return – ever.

These four sites can be used hyper-locally.  Use them to control the web presence of yourself and your neighborhood.  To repeat, the best way for beginners to learn is to OBSERVE.  If you have questions, ask.  Have fun!  If you get more joy out of creating newsletters – stick with it.  You have to enjoy what you do.

¹ Dustin Luther‘s Mom aka “The Blog-Grandmother”

² Jeff “Next-Level” Turner