Hello, I have been tasked with presenting the benefits of social networking to my peers at an upcoming sales meeting.  Beyond just reconnecting with old friends, colleagues and classmates; how can someone use these social networks to actually grow their business and make $$$??

I have a good understanding of what AR can do for someone.  In a nutshell, the blog creates relevant "local" content and provides good "Google juice" to help a Realtor present themselves as the local area expert on the web when people are searching for a new home.

What I'm uncertain about is how Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc can be used to promote a business, product or service.  I have some suspicions but would like to hear from the AR community.  How are you using these sites or how do you envision the model developing over time??

Thank you in advance for your input!

Here is a copy of the press release.  If you are a Broker and you are considering Search Engine Marketing, please contact me for more information.

Yellowbook, a national leader in the local search industry, announced today a content distribution agreement with YouTube^TM, the world's most popular online video community allowing millions of people to discover, watch and share originally created videos, to showcase yellowbook.com's video advertisers across YouTube's network. Yellowbook is the first publisher in its category to partner with YouTube to distribute its customers' video ads.

 The agreement supports Yellowbook's commitment to give users unprecedented access to local businesses through sound, sight and motion while expanding the reach and visibility of local businesses in the online world.

  With more and more people extending their physical communities to the online world, Yellowbook is meeting the needs of users who shop online and make buying decisions based on the information they find with video advertising capabilities.  Yellowbook offers advertisers professionally produced custom videos, photo motion montage videos, stock video ads, and the opportunity for businesses to upload preexisting videos. 

 "We're pleased to be the first internet yellow pages publisher to offer YouTube as a distribution channel for our video advertisers," said Pat Marshall, chief new media officer for Yellowbook.  "Video advertising on yellowbook.com and via YouTube distribution uniquely promotes Yellowbook's advertisers to more potential customers than ever before."

 Yellowbook.com's video products, and the expansion of its video distribution channels, are a strong reflection of demand. In 2007, online video ad spending posted the highest year-over-year increase, up 89 percent to $775 million according to a recent report published by eMarketer. And ReelSEO, an industry-leading video search optimization and online video marketing site, found more than half of small businesses expect to buy online ads featuring videos within the next two years. 

For those of you new to the world of blogging and internet marketing, you will find plenty of articles on AR that discuss how to go about improving your search results the organic way via blogging and other methods.  I would like to spend a little time here explaining the other way you can achieve those results.

SEO--Search Engine Optimization--has to do with the content of your website itself and how Google ranks your site based on the relevance to the person's search keywords.  Blogging is a great way to improve your score because you are constantly adding fresh content to your website and usually across a wide range of topics (if you take the advice of the top bloggers on AR).  This is great if you enjoy writing and want to spend a few hours a week updating your blog and connecting with your peers around the country.

SEM--Search Engine Marketing-- is essentially buying your way to the top!  I am not one to sugar coat things, that's it in a nutshell!  It is how Google became a $19 billion company.  So how do you go about getting on board with paid placement on Google??  I can help.

Yellowbook.com offers two products of particular interest to Realtors.  We consider our print yellow pages the "original search engine" and it is where people go when they have a specific need.  You can buy ads targeted to geographic areas as well as featured top positions, banner ads, videos, etc.  We can provide statistics in your local market as "proof of value" to give you an idea of how many times "Realtor" for example has been requested on Yellowbook.com in your market.  If you don't have an ad, you are missing out on those opportunities!

With WebReach, we will fully manage a Google AdWords campaign for you.  We place "bids" on relevant keywords for your targeted market and constantly review your account's performance.  All these metrics are shared with you on a regular basis.

The "bid" price on AdWords is controlled by the market; by you and your competitors.  How much are they, and you, willing to pay for a lead (click)?  The price on the same keyword will vary from market to market.  The program works like a cell phone plan with rollover minutes.  We help you set a monthly budget based on our research of the market area you wish to reach.  If your budget is spent in the middle of the month, we will review this and consider increasing your budget.  If you don't spend your budget, the excess rolls over to the next month and never expires.  Your budget is debited each time someone clicks on your link from a search result.  The idea is to get to a budget that shows your add all month long with no shortage or excess.

Just appearing on a search result page does not cost you; this is known as an impression.  You only incur a charge when someone clicks on your link from the results page.  Therefore, anyone coming to your site directly will not impact your AdWords budget.  There are also protection built in for fraudulent clicks.

If you would like a FREE evaluation and recommendation customized for your business, please contact me!

Hi and thanks for taking the time to read this post.  First off, major kudos to all of you on this site who are dedicated, passionate bloggers.  You have all boasted the success AR has brought to you as a result of the time and dedication you have committed to your postings and the great relationships you have built on here.  By no means do I intend to undermine the reason for the existance of this site, but at the same time it is a place and a format to share ideas with one another; that is my goal. 

I have met many Realtors who would like to be on the front page of search results on Google, Yahoo, etc but have no idea how to get there.  There is no shortage of posts on AR to help a Realtor get started who wants to do it "organically" via blogging, yet experience tells me that for every Realtor who is a successful blogger, there are 20 or 30 who for a variety of reasons will never be a blogger.  I hope this post will help those folks understand their options and find something that will work for them.

Instead of going in to detail on what I can do to help, I am simply going to put a pole in the water and see if there is any interest.  I will be happy to go into a detailed reply with anyone looking for more information.  I can help Realtors coast to coast, so please don't let location deter you from contacting me.  I can provide the same benefit to lenders, title folks and other affilliate members.  I look forward to hearing from you.