How to Make These Internet Tools Work in Your Business

Desiree Whalen spends about an hour a day writing short, informational blogs, linking them to her firm’s Facebook, ActiveRain, and Twitter presences and updating some or all of those social networking sites. As the broker for Representing Buyers Only, Inc., in Wilmington, Whalen has been using Facebook actively for well more than a year now.” and is pleased with the results of her efforts.

“It’s another way for me to stay in front of past and current clients,” says Whalen, who focuses on cultivating relationships that at some point may parlay into a sale or a referral. “I see it as another advertising avenue for our real estate business.” As part of that campaign Whalen posts frequent blogs about the Wilmington real estate market and the surrounding coastal southeastern North Carolina region.

The blogs let Whalen’s followers – many of whom look to her for guidance and community information – know what she’s up to. If Whalen is eating at a new restaurant and enjoying the food and atmosphere, for example, she’ll upload a quick post about the experience to her Facebook page. “It lets people know that I’m active in their communities,” says Whalen. “Buyers like to see that and tend to lean towards those Realtors who are active in their regions.”

By cultivating relationships on social media and using the tool to position herself as a “go to” REALTOR® in her area, Whalen has been able to cultivate both sales and referrals. “It builds rapport and strengthens relationships,” she says. “Over time that definitely translates into sales.”

Your Marketing Toolkit

It’s no secret the REALTORS® are using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and ActiveRain to network and interact online, but the debate remains over whether these activities produce a true return on investment (ROI) for agents.

Calling social media marketing as an isolated exercise “very inefficient,” Patrick Kitano, managing principal of Domus Consulting Group in San Francisco, says talking up real estate listings and deals on a site like Twitter or Facebook doesn’t typically result in new client acquisition and/or closed transactions. “It’s akin to meeting someone in the grocery line and hoping that they become your client,” says Kitano.

Kitano, who coined the term “social discovery,” (the building of name recognition through a social presence), says REALTORS® who use social media outlets to create personas outside of real estate can overcome the inefficiencies. “One of the best ways to use social media is to become a local media star,” says Kitano. “That entails talking to the community, giving it information that it wants to hear.”

Putting that information out on social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter is one thing, but how does a REALTOR® ensure that he or she is getting the best return for the time spent on such activities? Matthew Dollinger, vice president of strategic development at @properties in Chicago, for example, says the first step is to figure out exactly what you’re attempting to measure. Is it new contacts made through social media? New listings? Closed transactions? Commission dollars?

“ROI for one agent could be completely different for someone else,” says Dollinger, who points to closed volume transactions – actually monetary revenue – as a common measure that agents have traditionally used.

Unfortunately, the nebulous nature of social media doesn’t always yield such hard numbers. “In most cases, social media serves as a way to further the overall client relationship through one-to-one communication and keeping your name in front of people,” says Dollinger. “It’s pretty difficult to measure the ROI associated with those activities.”

Drilling Down

The ROI in social media becomes more measurable when a REALTOR® establishes a niche-oriented website and supports it with a Facebook and Twitter presence devoted to that specific niche. “If you create a page for ‘Carolina Village,’ and then hammer on it by posting information about events, the neighborhoods, and related activities, and then direct the traffic to a website devoted to that area,” says Dollinger, “then the ROI becomes more apparent.”

Agents who are struggling with the whole concept of social media – and how to parlay it into real ROI – should avoid marketing their listings on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and ActiveRain, and instead focus on starting up conversations with current and future clients along with referral sources. The hard sell doesn’t work in the social networking environment, but relationship building – something that REALTORS® are naturally good at – does.

“For social media to produce returns, it has to be focused on engagement,” says Whalen. “If people see the value in what you’re doing, the business will come.” v

A Sampling of Measuring Tools

Agents looking to squeeze maximum ROI from their social media activities can use one or more of the following tools to help track progress and allocate their energy and time in the most effective manner:

BACKTYPE www.backtype.com

What it is/does: Helps companies to understand the real business impact of activity through social media.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS www.google.com/analytics

What it is/does: Lets you measure your advertising ROI as well as track your Flash, video, and social networking sites and applications.

ICEROCKET www.icerocket.com

What it is/does: A blog search engine that allows you to monitor across blogs comprehensively to see where you’re being mentioned.

KLOUT www.klout.com

What it is/does: Provides social media analytics that measure a user’s influence across his or her social network.

TOPSY http://analytics.topsy.com/

What it is/does: A Twitter analytic tool that provides insights into the level of conversation surrounding certain keywords on the social media site. Topsy Twitter analytics allow you to track mentions of your domain name, Twitter name, or any keyword on Twitter.

TWEETSTATS www.tweetstats.com

What it is/does: A handy tool for measuring Twitter activity.

TWITTER COUNTER www.twittercounter.com

What it is/does: A service that tracks activity on Twitter.

YOUTUBE INSIGHT www.youtube.com/t/advertising_insight

What it is/does: A self-service analytics and reporting tool that enables anyone with a YouTube account to view detailed statistics.

BY GREG KUNKLEMAN WISHART NORRIS HENNINGER & PITTMAN