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ActiveRain Associates Widget - Promote your AR friends on your website and blog

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with RealBird Inc.

By now, there is no doubt for most of us that ActiveRain is one of the best thing that happened to the real estate social media in recent years. Just like with other successful platforms, the combination of different benefits create an overwhelming overall value for its users.

ActiveRain is a blogging system in the sense that it enables you to write articles, it lists them in chronological order, syndicates it via RSS and feeds the search engine monster for maximum exposure and clearly identifies you as the author and authority.

ActiveRain is a training ground: Many of us come to ActiveRain for advice, discussions and to learn from each other. Training each other on business, marketing etc. is what creates the loyalty and incremental benefit, and this sets ActiveRain apart from other services.

ActiveRain is an ecosystem and a team marketing platform: one participant's success depends on the success of the overall ecosystem and AR members directly and indirectly enhance each others marketing efforts. For example, there is such a deep interconnection between the 1 million+ AR pages Google knows about, that search engines pay extra attention to content published via ActiveRain and value the content as highly relevant.

ActiveRain is a unique social network: Valuable social networks are those, where the connections between the participants create a value-add, which would not exist without these connections. That is, there are 1) new and 2) valuable information born from these relationships. In other words, the relationships between ActiveRainers are as important as the content generated by individuals.

There are explicit and implicit relationships between ActiveRain users. Implicit connections are those which are created as a byproduct of user interactions: when you comment on a post, your content is interconnected. The action does not necessarily express alliance, but but it does create a connection between members nevertheless. Explicit connections on the other hand are those with which you express some sort of relationship, explicitly.

The ActiveRain Associates feature
is one of the most important explicit connection building tool. You can mark any other AR users as an associate (the explicit connection) and also endorse them with your comments. As opposed to other networks like Facebook, where a connection has to be two-way, ActiveRain is more flexible, it enables you to create a one way connection in anticipation that the favor will be returned by the other party, later. The Associates feature serves 2 purposes: it enables you to recommend other users but it also establishes an alliance and relationship between you and your associates, therefore creating a more specific and more focused sub-network within ActiveRain.

We - at RealBird- thought that creating an interactive widget - one which can be used to show this alliance between you and your AR associates, one which enables you to take your AR associate network to your other sites and blogs to market each other's listings and blog posts - would be a great benefit to all AR members.

The real estate network widget has the following features:

  • It’s your widget, your contact info is shown in the header
  • Associates tab: Shows all of your ActiveRain associates (in random order) with their photos, names and links to their own ActiveRain blogs
  • Homes: Merges all of your listings with your associates' listings published on RealBird, in chronological order
  • The Buzz: Shows all the recent posts of all your associates including yours
  • Viral marketing: Built in tool for your visitors to grab and share your widget


Benefits:


  • Team marketing using your existing ActiveRain network and RealBird listings
  • You promote your associates, and in return, they will embrace and market you
  • Take your network with you: You can place this widget practically anywhere on the web
  • The widget has viral marketing and sharing built-in for incremental exposure, your visitors can grab it and share it on their network
  • Get more ActiveRain points: The "Join ActiveRain" link at the bottom uses your referral username. You get referral points every time somebody joins through your widget


How to get your own widget:

  • Add ActiveRain members as associates: people you know on ActiveRain, co-workers, ActiveRainers you admire etc. (Note: it may take a hour for new associates to show up on your widget)
  • Login (register for free) on RealBird and on the Widgets page, enter your ActiveRain username (do NOT enter your password, it is not required)
  • Grab the widget and add it to your blog, website, other networks and even on your ActiveRain sidebar, it as easy as copying the code provided
  • Use RealBird to post your featured listings for free whenever you have a new one
  • Continue using ActiveRain and RealBird as usual, the widget will auto-populate with new content
  • Let your network know: Once you have your widget set up, make sure you let your Associates know so that they can get their own widget and return the favor by advertising you.


Disclaimer: Please note, this widget was created and made available for free by RealBird and is not endorsed by ActiveRain in any form. We do not have or claim any partnership or other business relationship with ActiveRain.

Enjoy !

-- Zoltan
RealBird.com

Comments(64)

RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Jay - You are welcome. Give it a try and let me know how you like it.

-- Zoltan

Jun 24, 2008 01:37 AM
Richard Byron Smith, NMLS #184479
Mortgage Loan Officer, Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation NMLS #2289 - Chattanooga, TN
Mortgage Loan Officer

Zoltan,

It worked. Thanks.

It is another good reason to add associates. Is the widget updated as associates are added.

And how does it look for those with hundreds of associates?

I think it may get more referrals that the regular AR link.

Richard

Jun 24, 2008 03:14 PM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Richard,

Glad to hear that it worked! I saw you logged into RealBird recently. To answer your questions:

  1. The widget is automatically updated. It caches the information for 30 minutes for performance reasons, but just simply add an associates through ActiveRain and it will update and they will show up on your widget
  2. It also works with hundreds of associates. Our own has 101 associates and it shows them randomly and one can page through the views
  3. In order to maximize the feature set, I suggest to invite your associates to RealBird as well. There is an invite link in the RealBird member area among the main navigation items. Once you get your real estate agent friends in RealBird (it's free for them to join) their listings will appear on your widget and their widget will show you

We have some new products coming along this line (team marketing) which will be even cooler :)

Thanks for checking it out.

-- Zoltan
RealBird.com

Jun 24, 2008 03:26 PM
Lee & Pamela St. Peter
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices YSU Realty: (919) 645-2522 - Raleigh, NC
Making Connections to Success in Real Estate

Hi Zoltan – as I always say it seems I’m the last to hear about things in the rain… I’m always a few months behind everyone else. BUT – thought I’d see if I could add that cute widget and presto – I did! Thanks and BTW I did share it with the community too

Raleigh Realtor – Pamela St. Peter

Aug 13, 2008 09:03 AM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Great write-up and tutorial Pamela !

Aug 13, 2008 10:15 AM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

The unique views across all the ActiveRain widget deployments are climbing nicely:

Unique views of the ActiveRain Widget across all deployments

Aug 13, 2008 10:23 AM
. .
San Diego, CA

Pretty smart thinking. Nice way to get links

Aug 26, 2008 07:20 PM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Bob - glad you like it.

Aug 27, 2008 03:31 PM
Carla Rocha - RochaTeam
United Realty Group - Sunrise, FL
Talk To Us

Just bookmarked it.  I am noew to AR and have lots to learn.  I am enjoying so much that it is part of my day now.  Having that first cup of coffee and checking the new posts.  Will probably be looking into this one of these days.

Nov 18, 2008 07:17 AM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Sounds great. Good luck with ActiveRain. You surely will find a lot of help among the AR members. It's an amazing community.

-- Zoltan

Nov 20, 2008 02:23 PM
Troy Erickson AZ Realtor (602) 295-6807
HomeSmart - Chandler, AZ
Your Chandler, Ahwatukee, and East Valley Realtor

Oh, so that's what this is.  It has taken me this long to find this post, but now that I found it I can't wait to add this widget to show my associations.

Nov 22, 2008 12:14 PM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Troy - Glad you found it :) Let us know how when you installed it.

-- Zoltan
RealBird.com

Nov 22, 2008 01:09 PM
Mobile Austin Notary
Apostille/Authentication/Embassy Legalization, Notary Public, Loan Signing Agent & Process Server Services - Austin, TX
www.mobileaustinnotary.com

You did such a great job wow.

Butterfly

Nov 28, 2008 02:46 PM
Mobile Austin Notary
Apostille/Authentication/Embassy Legalization, Notary Public, Loan Signing Agent & Process Server Services - Austin, TX
www.mobileaustinnotary.com

You did such a great job wow.

Butterfly

Nov 28, 2008 02:47 PM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Thanks Jenette. 

Jan 17, 2009 12:50 PM
Wendy Svoboda
Reno, NV

Thanks so much...I learn something new everyday! Very Helpful!

 

Wendy

www.prurealty.com/svoboda

www.twitter.com/homeisnevada

Mar 03, 2009 02:55 AM
Ginger Moore
Wilkinson & Associates Realty - Gastonia, NC

wow, great blog and widget. I am going to try and get me one now. thanks for the great info!

Jul 01, 2009 01:50 AM
Betina Foreman
WJK Realty - Austin, TX
Realtor, C.N.E., with WJK REALTY

I bookmarked you for a future attempt. Thanks!

 

Jul 22, 2009 02:21 PM
Joseph Keech
Blue Atlantic Properties - Leland, NC

thanks for sharing the widget. I'm looking for some cool ones.

Feb 13, 2010 12:10 PM
Karen L. Pietsch
Cary Property Pros - 4 Sale Realty, Inc. - Crystal Lake, IL
Cary Property Pros. Cary Property Pros Premier Real Estate

didn't find this post til now and actually found out about RealBird on my own and grabbed it.  I have all my listings on it and their system does a lot of my work for me.  I am very excited about this tool and am glad I decided to give it a try.  My visit numbers for every one of my listings has gone up and I am very pleased, so far, will all the effort I made to get it up and running as quickly as I could, for the sake of my clients.  :)

Jan 19, 2011 06:16 PM