Hey Everyone,
So I've promised many of you some tips and tricks for really getting the most out of your Showcase Listings. Well... here we go. My goal by the end of this post is to make sure that none of my agents ever has a listing without their online "yard sign."
All of these edits are going to be made in the Realtor.com Solution Center. If you don't know what that is, then reading this post isn't going to help you all that much. If you just need some directions to the place, you can click on the following link:
Realtor.com Solution Center. If you don't have your login and password, you can request it from me here:
Password Request.
That said, now we can actually talk about your yard sign.
What goes on a yard sign anyway? Your name? Check. Phone number? Check. You probably also have your
website address and maybe even a snazzy photo. All of this is important for a yard sign. So why don't many realtor's have this information on their Realtor.com listings? The answer is pretty obvious, they simply don't know.
If you don't know what your listings look like on Realtor.com, just go to our homepage and do an
advanced search by the MLS number of one of your listings. Once you pull up your listing, click into it, look to the right and... there's your sign! How do you look? If the answer is, "not as good as I thought, Brian," try some of the following tips.
- Make sure your name is ordered and spelled correctly. Nobody will call you if your own name isn't right. How do you pronounce Jhon anyway?
- On second thought, better spellcheck everything.
- Have a flattering photo taken of yourself to upload to your sign. We're not talking "Glamour Shots" here people, just something simple and preferably taken within the last decade. Two might be pushing it a little.
- Only list phone numbers that come directly to you. Your broker's number is already on the listing, and as thankful as they will be for the extra exposure, I would prefer that you get the business from your advertising.
- If you have a slogan, make sure that it fits into our 50 character limit. If you don't, try something like "Click my photo to visit my website."
- If don't have a website, get one. It's the 21st century for cryin' out loud. In the meantime, link to your page on your company website. If your company doesn't have a website, you may want to change companies.
With all of that information on your yard sign, you're off to a great start. You're almost ready to enhance your individual listings. But first, I'd like to point out one more important part of your account information section in Solution Center. Did you know that the "Areas you specialize in" section actually provides the information for our Find a Realtor Directory? The section is provided for you to enter
city names so that you will appear in those searches when consumers are looking to find a realtor. The zip code section is not relevant to the search, so you can leave that field with your primary zip code.
The last point I would like to make about Account Information is this: Get it right the first time. Make sure that you stay under all character limits for each field on the page before you save your changes at the bottom. I didn't write this post for you to do all of this and then
break your computer in a fit of rage when it doesn't work.
Questions? That's what comments are for. Just do it.
Stay tuned for part 2.
;)
Links;)
Tags (Tag Cloud);)
Archives
Brian,
I stopped showcasing on realtor.com a few years ago. It just simply got too expensive. Out of 504 realtors in my mls, I think on 6 or less have showcase sites. So....any suggestions to get back in the game.
Linda