YOU DONT CHOOSE!!! You need ALL 3!
Seriously. A website (whether personal or company based) is simply vital in today's market. In fact many agents have numerous websites. Our company has www.chaparralrealtygroup.com, www.meritcommercialgroup.com, www.southernoregonhomeinfo.com, www.southernoregonshortsales.com, and even more!
Why, because websites are modern day yellow pages ads. In fact, just ask the phone directory companies just how much sales they've lost in the last three years. Chaparral Realty Group brought me on board to assist with their marketing procedures, office procedures, touch campaigns, database management, and more...but what they quickly discovered is that we get more bang for the buck via our websites.
We have websites that focus on our listings, commercial division, short sales, new constructions, and information for those looking to relocate. But we didn't stop there!
We also have five blogs, and seven social networking websites - all of which we keep updated. How? Well, by simply connecting them together.
The act of choosing between websites, blogs, and social networks is a fools undertaking. You need each one to feed the other. For example. You can use your blog to drive traffic to your website. By writing articles about your website or asking people what they think about it, you can quickly get more traffic coming in. But, the question begs: How do you notify people about your blog?
You plug your new blog on your website. Or, even better - You plug both of them at the same time through your social networking websites.
Most folks initially balked at doing the Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1387302782&ref=mf) or MySpace (www.myspace.com/chaparralrealtygroup) thing. But the idea of connecting with everyone you've ever worked with, chatted with through a friend, or even went to school with - quickly became a nifty way to get the word out about a person's real estate career. Even better, by adding links to our profiles there that point back to our website - we have the potential to have at least 30% of all our "friends" visit our website.
Next, we start a blog about our website and our business (or in our case we started five). This draws in our website visitors and gives them an inside look at our company and our philosophy. This adds credibility and clout to our experience, and again draws traffic back to our website.
However, by blogging about our social networks - we get clients and website visitors to add us as "friends".
Next thing you know, every time we make a move, release a market statement, or even reduce a listing price, we have a massive network of people who see it. This translates into FREE advertising.
Sure it takes a little time (a few hours a week) to keep it all going, but spending those hours ends up being much cheaper than the traditional yellow pages advertisement.
The bottom line is: Websites, Blogging, and Social Networks are simply the future of real estate networking. They are good for the environment (paperless), free to read for clients and inquirers, and they keep us connected with our clients.
Oh yeah, we also get TONS of leads and referrals because of it...
So the next time you're deciding which one you will do, slap yourself silly and bask in the reality check - you need to do them all if you want to compete.
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