At the REBarCamp prior to Inman Connect this summer in San Francisco, one of the topics was "What are the 5-7 sites where real estate professionals absolutely must have a presence?" Lane Bailey's post summarized the discussion which lead to naming these sites: ActiveRain/Localism, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Flickr.
While many agents focus on one or two of these sites, there is a benefit to having an active presence on all five. Each new social networking site adds a new layer of contacts to your online sphere, and sometimes those connections develop into valuable real-life relationships.
Your social networking footprint is the total of all of your online participation. To keep it simple, I'll just include the five sites mentioned above. Here's mine:
- ActiveRain -- 225 Associations; 179 Subscribers
- Facebook -- 810 Friends
- LinkedIn -- 587 Connections
- Twitter -- 804 Following; 981 Followers
- Flickr -- 50 Contacts
There are no 'good' or 'bad' numbers; this is just a starting point. Knowing the competitiveness of real estate agents, I invite you to share your numbers in the comments. For some, it will be motivation to build their online network. It will also tap into the collaborative nature of the Rain, as it will identify others who are passionate about social networking, and encourage dialogue on how we can leverage these sites.
Over the next few months I'll be writing about tips and ideas on social networking and how I'm implementing it in my business. If you'd like to follow along, join the Social Networks group and subscribe to my blog. It's going to be a great journey!
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