(This is directed to those of you just learning about social media, especially as it pertains to real estate. If you're already a kool-aid drinker, you probably know this stuff, but feel free to comment nevertheless. As always, I welcome countering points of view.)

I promised this yesterday, but got sidetracked by the announcement that NAR is looking for a social media manager. (See my post at Conversational Media Marketing.)

I believe for Realtors in the early stages just learning how to use the tools of social media, there are three very important social network/social media sites in which to participate:

• Active Rain
  
• Trulia
• Zillow

Because I'm a handyman, I know when experts need to be called upon. In this case, I asked Brad Andersohn and Rich Jacobson, community managers at Active Rain, Frances Flynn Thorsen, community manager, and Rudy Bachraty, social media manager with Trulia, and Drew Meyers, business development specialist with Zillow to share their thoughts on what their respective sites have to offer. Because I have some experience with Active Rain, I include my own thoughts there as well.

Due to the length of the post, it's broken into three parts. First, we'll discuss Active Rain, then Trulia and Zillow in subsequent posts later in the week.

The Advantages to Using Active Rain

Paul: In my opinion, AR is a training ground where agents and others related to the real estate industry can learn blogging and social media marketing ropes in a safe environment (as opposed to blogging on your own that is). I know a number of Realtors who cut their teeth here and have moved on to develop their own highly effective blogs.

Part of the attraction is the fact that, almost without fail, your posts are guaranteed to be read and commented on. It's not unusual to see comments show up within minutes of a post being written. It's also not unusual to see them numbering into the scores. For a new blogger that can be very encouraging (even a bit heady) and serve to stoke the fire leading to increased posting activity.

One Realtor for whom this was the case is Ines Hegedus-Garcia. Ines has become a social media maven and runs a very successful blogsite at Miamism.com. But she got her start here, becoming somewhat of a beloved celebrity.

Brad and Rich: In terms of using Active Rain to generate awareness by consumers and garner leads, the platform offers several advantages.

Localism.com - Designed to be consumer-centric, Localism enables the Realtor to assign a given Active Rain post to their specific geographic location, even designating the post as a listing when appropriate. Not only that, Realtors can sponsor their local community, which increases their visibility even more.

Blog design options - The latest iteration of the platform includes a "blog customizer" which allows participates to personalize their blog with a custom header, background image and color scheme. Rather than blogs being generic, tied to the AR look/feel, each can have its own personality and style.

Outside blogs - This is a further extension of the platform which enables the Realtor to create what appears to be an idigenous, self-standing blog containing no reference to Active Rain. Options even include assigning a top level domain (www.yoursitename.com) to make it appear even more your own. Similar to Localism, the Realtor only has to write one post which can then be assigned to the outside blog.

SEO value - Active Rain has a high level of authority with Google and other search engines. It's not unusual to see the Realtor's Active Rain profile show up on front page search returns, depending on the keywords used in the serach. (That's also why it's important to keyword-optimize your profile btw. Paul)

Paul: I feel so strongly about the advantages of using Active Rain as a "bootcamp" for learning about blogging and new media that, anytime a Realtor asks where they should start, I point them here by default. It's an environment extremely conducive to learning and a mileau that breeds success. 

Thanks to Brad and Rich for your input. In the next post we'll hear from Rudy and Fran about what Trulia has to offer followed by Drew from Zillow.