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Active Rain VS TWITTER

By
Mortgage and Lending with Financial Access Incorporated

No there isn't a battle a brewin' but certainly we need to pay attention to what is going on and how to keep up and actually get your name and brand out on the net. The internet is the best tool to use to brand your product, package it up and put it in front of the largest audience possible, bar none. It is the media of choice of all major corporations for promoting their products and getting recognition that leaves those that don't participate in the dust. Our last President may have been selected by a savvy campaign that had the internet as it's primary target. Unless you're putting up a Super Bowl ad most people will not even know you. You must expand your presence on the web. How do you do that? Good question. Make yourself visible on as many social networks that you can keep up with. Don't do any of them half way. Active rain gives a person the opportunity to post blogs and get input from others in our industry. I'm able to connect and possibly find an agent in another part of the state that can help my client re-locate or visa-versa. Where Active rain falls short I've found great success with TWITTER. I know it sounds like a small tree or something but it is the most viral social network out there. Realtors are using it with great success. Check out my friend @blogboy2 . He utilizes the many free applications that are available. Some are for your twitter grade, some are for deleting followers that aren't following you and still others can put posts up for you while you're away from your computer. With all this convenience twitter has become an internet sensation. One coffee shop owner actually started taking orders for his coffee over tweeter, can you imagine that? His business increased 3-fold. Not only was it hip and fit perfectly with his audience but it created a convenience that could not be paralleled anywhere else. So what is TWITTER? You sign up and post a 140 charachter message. Mike is constantly putting information up about the Real estate market or a new listing link. The limit is only by what you can imagine. My success has come by following high profile TWITTER's and posting information about rates and market conditions. You are encouraged to Re-tweet information and promote your followers. You may have noticed that it comes along with it's own language. Phrases like "twitter love" getting people to follow someone or "twitteraholics" someone that is on twitter all the time. Now don't throw out your Active Rain. This blog is certainly over 140 characters. We also have a nearly exclusive community here. We can bump ideas off of each other and try out new techniques. Active Rain actually is keeping up by having a way to link your posts directly to TWITTER. So the title up to 140 characters will post on twitter with a link to the whole blog. Cool huh? So here is the bottom line. Active Rain has it's purpose but can't keep up with the technology of a social network like TWITTER. TWITTER while it isn't able to keep up so far, it is where we can connect at a deeper level. I'll give TWITTER 8*'s and Active Rain 6*'s out of 10. TWEET-on!

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Kay Raber
Keller Williams Integrity First Realty - Mesa, AZ

Thanks for the insight.  With so much information to follow and so many web sites available, it does get a bit confusing.  Especially when I'm not a computer guru to begin with.  Twitter it is, I'll start working on it this weekend!  May you have a very prosperous New Year!

Jan 30, 2009 10:11 AM
Anonymous
Bob Wilson

Thanks! It isn't easy keeping up with all of the new stuff but in the long run it really does pay off. Follow me @accesssonora . Tweet ya soon!!

Jan 30, 2009 11:46 AM
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