The teenagers and techies have been posting and tweeting about the new Google+ for a while now. I’ve become curious enough to sort through the hype and opinions to try and determine what it may mean for those in realestate.
Google+ is Google’s answer to Facebook. In Facebook we have “friends” and “likes”. In Google+ we will have “circles”, “sparks”, “hangouts”, and “huddles”. Google+ is designed to give us more control over how we categorize and interact with people.
The Google+ “Circle” allows you to customize your friends list. For instance, in real estate you might have categories such as clients, new leads, agents, staff, etc. You can even add your sports buddies or card club because you get to choose what is shared with which circles.
The Google+ “Sparks” is a type of search that allows you to find things of interest from across the web to easily share with your circles or individual contacts. In a seminar I attended on writing blogs for real estate this week, the presenter, who is one of the early testers of Google+, said that she was impressed with Sparks and already was using it to find current topics of interest in the field. A writer on Poynter.com makes the statement that Google+ Sparks may reshape the way that we find and share news and other online content. Social media strategies will change depending on how Google+ Sparks evolves. Sparks may not only assist real estate agents in finding information, but it may affect how real estate agents market online.
Google+ “Hangouts” is basically a live multi-person video chat. You can “virtually” hangout with a group of people. I know that teenagers will love this one! However, I can visualize some useful applications for you in real estate. Maybe a quick staff update while you are on the road, or a meeting with other agents, or a video chat with a homebuyer who also wants his daughter, in another state, to be in on the conversation.
The Google+ “Huddle” is a group messaging feature that allows you to chat within a specific circle. This could be useful for sending a text message to one of your specific circles and engaging in a group “text discussion”.
Google+ will sync with your mobile devices, and there is an option to upload photos from your mobile device as you are taking them. What a help that could be in taking photos of homes for online listings or specific photos for a potential buyer needing more information.
Google+ is still in the beta stage and interested persons must be invited to use it at this point. You can request to be on the waiting list here. It certainly is worth watching and starting to consider ways that it can benefit you.
If you prefer to let someone else do the “watching” and sorting out the best social media approaches for your real estate success, set up a call with SteveKantor, president of BestAgentBusiness. He has teams of social media marketing experts who stay on top of the latest news whether it is Google+ or other avenues of online marketing for you.
Blog submitted by Beverly – Associate, Best Agent Business
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