The AgentMapIt Blog

Within days we will be launching beta testing of a new blogging program we are calling “BlogEasy”.

BlogEasy is meant to do just what the name implies: make it easy to create and post to a blog. Apart from a lack of traffic, the biggest problem with having a blog is creating and posting content. That is what BlogEasy is meant to (at least partially) solve.

We will be providing blog content in various categories – real estate related categories to begin with. These will be short articles – approximately 250-300 words – focusing on specific key words relevant to your area of interest.

The system will “spin” various components in each article so each downloaded version contains unique wording. Articles will also contain “location variables” so they will reinforce the local relevance of the article to your local area.

Subscribers will have access to approximately 20 unique articles a month drawn from our article library. The library will grow each month as new articles are added.

Current AgentMapIt members will be able to sign up for the beta program which will give them free membership for some time period between 3 and 6 months (depending on demand). Interested members can sign up by leaving a comment here.

More and more real estate agents are using social networking as a way of driving people to their websites or blogs, introducing themselves to new people, and generating actual leads. One of the hottest social networks right now is Twitter.

If you’re thinking of using Twitter to promote your real estate business, one of the first things you should be doing is finding local Twitter users. After all, if you primarily deal with local people, then there’s not much point in using Twitter to communicate with people on the other side of the continent.

(Actually, Twitter is also a good tool for getting to know other real estate agents across the country and continent, but we’ll leave that aside for the moment.)

One place to start looking for local Twitter users is to use Twitter’s advanced search tool and specify a “place”. Frankly I find this method a bit rough around the edges.

A more useful website is Twellowhood which shows the location of registered users by state or province and city. This is actually the place I would start if I was looking for local users.

Another interesting application for monitoring location-specific tweets is called Twitter Local. This is an application you can download that runs on your desktop. You can enter a location and it will monitor tweets as they are made by people within a designated distance of the specified location. This shows you active tweeple in your area, and gives you an easy way to follow them or communicate with them.

There are other ways to find local Twitter users – here is a good overview provided by Mashable.

Getting traffic from the search engines has always been the rationale for spending time, energy and money on search engine optimization.

But if you have a website promoting local services (such as a local real estate site) it is difficult to compete with search engine optimization experts who have built sites targeting your most important keywords. These “experts” have no interest in serving your market with useful information. What they want is to gain local ranking so Google will send searchers to click on their pay per click ads.

It’s a free world, so people can do whatever they want with their websites. But it’s too bad Google has to reward website owners who play the game this way.

Is Google really changing things?

Recently, Google has indicated they intend to change the rules. For instance, according to this post about changes in Google rankings, we will soon see more emphasis placed on the quality of a site’s traffic, and the use of rich content such as video. We will also begin to see the gradual introduction of personalized search results based on user patterns and interests.

This is good because it could potentially reduce the influence of bogus SEO tactics, and give local websites a better chance at higher rankings based on the quality of their content and their efforts at generating legitimate traffic from sources other than the search engines themselves.

In other words, if a local site owner can tap into the local market and drum up more “natural” traffic from sources other than the search engines, that will actually enhance that site’s rankings in the SEs.

So, for example, if you own a limousine service in New Jersey, Google will give your site more credit (and better rankings) if it contains content that actually attracts traffic. Google will know where your traffic comes from because if you are serious about impressing Google you will have enrolled in a tracking service such as Google Analytics.

That means relying less on the search engines as a primary means of attracting traffic, and more on things like email marketing, social networking, blogging, videos, article writing, and whatever else you can think of as a way of getting attention from your primary target market.

Incidentally, that is exactly why we have developed the Blog and Mail program: to go directly after the people who have the most obvious interest in what you have to offer: your contacts, prospects, former customers – the people looking for the kind of information and services you provide.

There are two types of networking: passive networking and active networking.

Passive networking is much like old fashioned advertising. You run an ad and you expect people to respond to it. With passive networking you join networks like AgentMapIt, ActiveRain, or Facebook and while you may make a contribution from time to time, you don’t actually get to know anyone.

With passive networking you don’t shake hands or rub shoulders with real people. It’s like being a candidate for political office where you go to the all the public rallies and all candidates meetings. You make the speeches and sit in on the panel discussions and debates, but you don’t stick around after to meet the actual voters.

Active networking is really an old fashioned concept. It is what real estate agents do when they go to community meetings, hold open houses or coach minor sports teams.

Active networking happens when you rub shoulders with real people, take an interest in what they are doing, and participate in the same activities they are involved in.

In last week’s post we briefly touched on the importance of creating as large and as active a network of referral agents as possible. This week we want to make some suggestions for “working” your network.

By “working” your network we mean staying in touch with your network partners, putting your face in front of them, reminding them on a regular basis that you’re still around and still looking forward to sharing information and doing business with them.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Create a Network Partner List – Build a “formal” list that includes the name, postal address, telephone number, email address and other relevant information for each network partner. By a “formal” list I mean something written down or stored in your computer somewhere.

Most agents have access to all kinds of “contact” software. Many of these programs are overkill for this purpose, and force you to spend more time figuring out the software than actually using it. Whatever you do, don’t get caught up in the “system” at the expense of actually corresponding with your network partners.

A good place to start looking for referral network partners is right here at AgentMapIt. To use AgentMapIt as a source for building a network list you should look through as many member profiles as possible, and then make a list of the ones you want to contact. Then you might try sending an introductory email something like this:

Hello Alice,

All the best,
Renaldo Realtor

2. Contact Method and Frequency – Decide how you’re going to contact your network partners, and how often. If you like using the telephone, probably a call every couple of months is sufficient. Or if you prefer email, a regular email every two or three weeks is probably not too often.

Either way, try to have something interesting to say. If you have a blog it is always effective to refer to a recent post in your email messages. Blog posts don’t have to be long and involved – perhaps something of interest about the real estate market in your city, recent trends or sales figures, or an interesting video you stumbled onto. Remember, one of your objectives is to demonstrate that you are an expert when it comes to your local market.

3. Other Networking Websites – As you probably know, there are many social networking websites you can take advantage of to stay in touch with different groups of people. Some like ActiveRain and AgentMapIt are specifically for real estate agents. Others like Linkedin are for more general business and professional networking. Still others like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are not specifically for business networking, although many people claim they can effectively be used for business.

None of these sites will be effective networking tools for you if you don’t put some effort into them. As I have said elsewhere, “As with all other social networking sites (Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), the benefit you derive from them is completely dependent on the effort you put into them.”

And personally, although I am a member of many different social networking sites (Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, ActiveRain, to name a few) I find it impossible to spend enough time “networking” in this way to get any real benefit from these sites.

In other words, don’t bother with sites like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and ActiveRain unless you intend to spend some time working on each of them. You won’t get anything out of them unless you put quite a bit of time and energy into them.

I have come to the conclusion that the best way to use social networking sites is to choose one (or maybe two) and concentrate on that one alone. That means you should take a close look at the objectives you want to accomplish, the people you want to “network” with, and the opportunities for exposure within each of these sites.

That is one important reason why we have designed AgentMapIt to have a very narrow focus. AgentMapIt is primarily meant for networking with other agents for the purposes of generating referrals. So if that is something you think you should be focusing on, then AgentMapIt is the ideal place to help you build and “work” your network.

Developing your own referral network

In the previous post I suggested three steps for developing a strategy for generating referrals from other agents. These three steps were

1. Develop a referral network with agents in other cities.
2. Work the network.
3. Send outbound referrals to your network partners as often as possible.

Here are a few thoughts on the first step – Developing a referral network.

First, some agents care about agent-to-agent referrals and some don’t. Sure, everybody talks about it, but only a select few actually are prepared to actively “work” this method of getting business. Look for agents who care about referrals. AgentMapIt is a good place to start.

Second, some agents in your network will “take” much more than they “give”. This is a common complaint about professional networks – some members just sit back and take, take, take, without every contributing anything.

This is not nearly as great an issue in an agent-to-agent network as it is in, say, a local network of different types of professionals. If a fellow member of your agent-to-agent network just “takes” your referrals and never returns any, that is still OK. You still get the referral commission. But obviously that is not as good as having your network partners send you referrals in return.

You can head off this problem by picking and choosing your preferred partners. At AgentMapIt we encourage members to promote themselves as “relocation experts” and focus on generating outbound referrals rather than inbound ones. If you start actively sending referrals, you can be sure you will receive more than your share.

So that is a good place to start. Look for other agents who emphasize their eagerness to send their relocating clients your way. That is one way to be sure they will not just be “takers”.

Third, build as large a network as possible. The more agents you “network” with, the more likely you are to get results. Look for network partners in regional cities that are relatively close by, and in cities across the country and the continent. If you specialize in niche markets such as vacation properties or military relocations, you especially want to find reliable partners in relevant cities and areas.

Fourth, set up a “system” for staying in touch with your partners. This sounds obvious, but most of us simply do not make this a priority and we rely on a “hit and miss” method of keeping in touch.

By far the easiest is an email system. Create an email list and send an update to your partners at least once a month. This should be right up there in importance with sending regular emails to your client and contact base. You do that, right?

Finally, don’t expect instant results. Generating referrals is a long term project. Be concerned with building your profile as a “relocation expert”, not with generating immediate results.

As an agent you need a game plan for getting referrals, and this series of short articles presents some suggestions for developing one.

First, be aware that we are not talking about “regular” referrals here – for example, where a satisfied client recommends you to a neighbor, family member, friend or associate. “Regular” referrals like this are extremely important, and every agent needs a strategy for generating those referrals too. But developing that type of strategy is not what this article is about – at least not directly.

As an agent you obviously know what is meant by “agent-to-agent referrals”. But it might be useful to be a little more precise in defining what we might call…

The Two Sides of Agent Referrals

A typical scenario is where a long-standing client of yours is moving to another city and has no idea who to contact in that city to help them find a home. Should they call around in their new city to find an agent? Should they contact a relocation company? Or should they talk to you – someone they have come to know and trust in real estate matters?

If they do come to you and ask you to make a recommendation this will very likely result in what I like to call an “outbound” referral. Your client comes to you to sell their home. They also ask you for advice on finding a home in their new city.

You say, “No problem. I can set you up with one of my associates…” You phone around, or contact one of your established associates in another city, make an arrangement with the other agent, and eventually you are paid a commission by the receiving agent.

Using similar terminology I will refer to the other side of an agent-to-agent referral as an “inbound” referral. In this case you are on the receiving end of the referral. An agent in another city sends you a client and you take care of helping them find a new home. You get the selling commission, and you give the referring agent a percentage – usually about 25%.

All agent-to-agent referrals have these two sides. It is outbound for the referring agent, and inbound for the receiving agent. It is a good deal for both agents. The receiving agent has a new client dropped in his or her lap, and the referring agent gets a handsome commission for making a few phone calls.

Developing a Strategy

So what kind of strategy can you use to get referrals like this? In a word, it all comes down to “networking”. Networking means first, developing a network of contacts in as many other cities as possible.

Second, it means “working” your network to raise your profile.

Third, it means doing business with your network partners as often as possible – helping them out and sending them new clients. That means sending outbound referrals at least as often as receiving inbound referrals.

But that is only the beginning of an effective strategy. I will expand on each of these points in the next few articles in this series.

The purpose of AgentMapIt is to give member agents a way to increase referral traffic going back and forth between each other.

What do we mean by “referral traffic”?

We mean referrals business that goes two ways:

Incoming referrals – referrals from other agents
Outgoing referrals – referrals sent to other agents

My general impression is that most agents understand the importance of incoming referrals. But they generally do not see the importance of outgoing referrals. Or if they do it is not usually reflected in the conversations I have with them.

Most agents go out of their way to present themselves as trustworthy, competent, knowledgeable and experienced so that other agents will feel comfortable in sending clients their way.

But they spend much less effort trying to generate outgoing referrals. Very few – at least as far as I can tell – actually go out and look for this kind of business.

But agents who only go after incoming referrals are missing an important opportunity.

Why?

First, they are leaving a lot of money on the table. As most agents know, sending outgoing referrals to other agents is easy money – much easier than actually handling the sale.

Second, if all you ever do is talk about the referrals you would like to receive, you are breaking one of the cardinal rules of marketing. The best way to impress your customers, clients and associates is to tell them how you can help them – what you can do for them.

What other agents really want to hear is how many referrals you are going to send to them. As far as I can tell, this is seldom used as a networking strategy to forge relationships with other agents.

But just think about it for a minute. When you network with other agents which do you think is more effective:

“I’m looking for network partners who will send me referrals.”

or

“I’m looking for network partners where I can send referrals.”

The second, right?

So to all those people (and there have been a few) who have said “I don’t really get into referrals much,” my response is “Why not?” Isn’t that a service you should be offering your clients and their families? Wouldn’t they appreciate it if you could help them with relocation when they require it?

As an agent do you just sell houses, or do you do more than that? Don’t you try to build an ongoing rapport with your regular clientele, provide information when they need it, and make recommendations when you can?

In other words “referral networking” is something you can do with your established clients rather than just with other agents. In fact it gives you something very valuable to say to them – a reason to contact them. Your message can be something like:

“I not only help clients buy and sell homes, but I am a relocation expert. The next time anyone in your circle of family and friends needs relocation advice, don’t hesitate to give me a call.”

From what I can tell there aren’t many agents using this approach. That means there is a service vacuum in your community. And you are the perfect person to fill it.

Question: What do Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and AgentMapIt have in common?

Answer: They are all social networking sites.

OK, So what? What does that actually mean?

Social networking sites are places where you can find new “friends” and build relationships. That makes them potentially important marketing resources. So if relationship-building is important to your business, then you really should not ignore the potential of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and AgentMapIt.

Waste of Time?
Of course many people think online social networking is a complete waste of time. As a real estate agent, for example, you might say “I prefer to do my social networking with real people rather than ‘virtual’ people on the internet.”

There is a lot of truth to that. Much of the activity that takes place on social network websites is completely self-serving. There is a lot of navel-gazing and self-promotion going on, there’s no doubt about that.

But on the other hand, you can meet a lot of people very quickly, and if you have something to offer then you can very quickly put your offer out there and see what kind of people respond.

That is exactly what AgentMapIt is about – putting your profile in front of a lot of people who are looking for agents to “network” with and who are interested in sharing referrals. In fact, with AgentMapIt this is such a painless process that it is difficult to know why you would NOT want to do it.

No Effort, No Results

Many people think these sites (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube) are just alternatives to magazines or newspapers, and they are disappointed that you cannot just place an ad and sit back and collect the results.

As with all other social networking sites (Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), the benefit you derive from them is completely dependent on the effort you put into them. People who are really good at making these resources work for them – not as entertainment, but as business/marketing tools – are unanimous that you have to work at building relationships online just as you do offline.

What does that mean?

It means you have to really “network” with people by staying in touch with them. And not just by sending out ads or promos to them (although that’s OK from time to time).

Just as in the offline world, the best online relationship-building techniques involve sharing information and expertise, expressing an interest in what others are doing, helping people with their problems and concerns – especially when there is no immediate payback.

Sometimes all that means is just saying “Hi. I just wanted to touch base with you. How are things going in your neck of the woods?”

BTW – You can join the new AgentMapIt Facebook Group – and you don’t have to be a member of AgentMapIt.