Here are the 4 best ways to find new clients and customers on Google Plus. Each video is just a few minutes long and includes a live demonstration.

Don’t forget to sign up right here for SMMCamp 12 – Google Plus for Real Estate on Thursday December 8 at 12 Noon Eastern.

1 – Use Google Plus Search

2 – Use Google Search

3 – Mimic and Follow Local Influencers and Personalities

4 – Use Local Search Tools

Right now it is easier to find and connect with local prospects on Google Plus than Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter – but it won’t be long before the window of opportunity closes. So what are you waiting for?

About Ross Hair

Connect with Ross on Google Plus by clicking here.

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Another easy way to find locals on Google Plus is to use Google Search. Google Plus is part of the Google family and Google Search is the foundation of the Google empire.

The key is to use a few “secret” short codes to refine your search.

If you like this video please share it and add me to your circle on Google Plus.

About Ross Hair

Ross Hair is bald and a huge fan of real estate social media (especially Google Plus).

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A powerful way to find locals on Google Plus is to use free Google Plus search tools created by third party developers. The advantage is that there are more refined and advanced search options, like employee or location based search, compared to the regular Google Plus search.

If you like this power tip please share it and add me to your Google Plus circle.

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This is my favorite way to find locals on Google Plus. I call it “mimic and follow” and all you need to do is find a popular local personality, influencer or page and follow all the locals who follow that person or page.

If you like the tip please share it and add me to your circle on Google Plus.

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Here’s a power tip to help local business owners find local residents on Google Plus. Enjoy the short video and add me to your circle on Google Plus.

About Ross Hair

Ross Hair is bald and a huge fan of Google Plus.

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To help you get in front of the real estate video curve I’ve created the Video Marketing for Real Estate Guide.

And it’s free!

It’s packed full of information about the best video tools, technology and tactics you need to effective use video to market and sell homes.

And you can download it for free by clicking on this link to the Video Marketing for Real Estate Guide.

About Ross Hair

Ross Hair is bald and has a face for radio. That didn’t stop him taking the best ideas from all the top real estate video marketers and condensing them into the industry leading Video Marketing for Real Estate Guide.

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I listened to all the past speakers at SMMCamp and wrote down their best blogging strategies, tactics and tips in a Blogging for Real Estate Planner.

I now use the planner to manage the creation and content production for all my real estate blogs. I’d be lost without it as it gives my blogs the focus and planning they need to zero in on my exact target market … and earn their business.

You can download a copy of my Blogging for Real Estate Planner right here ===>>> - My Blogging Plan

About Ross Hair

Ross Hair is bald, a Realtor and Investor and founder of Social Media Advocate, the free real estate social media guide.

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If you’re in the real estate industry and you love social media then you need to follow the five best real estate social media blogs. Like the name suggests the blogs are all about how you use social media to grow your real estate business.

Here’s the list:

Shameless Honorary Mention

Ross Hair

I’m not allowed to vote for myself so I added my blog at http://rosshair.com to the list under the honorary mention category. This also meets the FTC requirements that mandate the inclusion of at least one bald guy with an ironic yet iconic last name in all lists that have anything to do with real estate social media.

inman Next

Before moving to Inman Next as the Chief Evangelist, Chris Smith was the Tech Savvy Agent and a regular speaker at Social Media Marketing Camp. Chris has a cult like following derived from his countless speaking engagements all over the nation and his charming boy band good looks. Inman Next has an exceptional team of writers who share the latest real estate social media news and trends (not to mention the one and only Katie Lance as editor).

But most of all you get the latest news and reviews on critical social media and real estate tools and resources that will help you grow your real estate business.

My Tech Opinion

Nicole Nicolay is another popular national speaker and keynote presenter at Social Media Marketing Camp. I love reading her borderline genius blog posts or reports on how social media and technology can put you ahead of the real estate sales curve and generate an endless pipeline of buyers and sellers.

You can catch up with Nicole at My Tech Opinion, a blog she writes with her partners Reggie Nicolay and Chad Johnson.

Real Tech Guy

Jonathan Rivera is the Real Tech Guy and founder of the Real Estate Referral Group on Facebook with over 54,000 fans.

Jonathan and I disagree on everything except that his blog and weekly podcasts provide cutting edge social media and technology tips for real estate professionals

The MLS App

Jimmy Mackin (he writes his name as Jimmy but answers the phone as James) has burst onto the social media scene with The MLS App. The MLS app really is an app that allows you to add the MLS to Facebook but it’s also the best place to find detailed “how to” reports on using Facebook to find more clients for your real estate business.

Are We Connected

Mike Mueller is a real estate social media pioneer who provides the pots and pans for many of the social media gold miners. In between speaking at every conference ever, Mike writes for his blog at Are We Connected, creates fan pages and consults to real estate professionals looking to leverage social media to take their real estate business to the next level.

Bonus Mention

The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

Jay Thompson is the Phoenix Real Estate Guy. Jay doesn’t share how he publishes his blog so you need to work it out for yourself or listen to one of his seminars. But his blog is uber successful so you should probably follow it and start to copy, reverse engineer and steal his best ideas.

General Social Media Blogs

I read and recommend the following social media blogs:

Mashable – http://mashable.com

Social Media Examiner – http://socialmediaexaminer.com

All Facebook – http://allfacebook.com

Real Estate Social Media Community

If you want to hang out and connect with other real estate social media fans then you must join Social Media Advocate. It’s packed with free eBooks and videos showing you how to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Activerain.

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Here’s a Press Release from a Fortune 500 company about getting Facebook fans for your Page that really caught my eye.

In the Press Release the company claims to have set a Guinness World record for the most Facebook fans in a day – 1,571,161.

WOW – I’m impressed!

And the name of the company?

Frito Lay.

So how did they do it and what lessons can you use in your real estate business?

The campaign was launched by providing fans with an inside look at the creation of a new flavor of chips in the Flavor Kitchen. This gave fans a behind the scenes look at the creation process. It was then backed up with the give away of 24,000 bags of chips (value $3.99 each) to the first 24,000 fans who liked the Page and registered at a custom tab.

That’s a great way to build a fan base and a mailing list.

But that doesn’t explain why the campaign went viral and collected more than a whopping 1.5 million fans.

The key is that whenever someone liked the Page, posted a comment or interacted with the Page it resulted in a post to that fan’s news feed. That’s a minimum of 1,571,161 news feed mentions plus an untold number of wall posts and comments.

But that’s not all, folks.

Frito Lay has extended the campaign by offering discount coupons in your Sunday newspaper.

So how can you incorporate a campaign like this into your business (especially with your budget – I mean with no budget)?

The first observation is to recognize that rewards work. People didn’t flock to Frito Lay’s Page because they have an insatiable love for their potato chips. They were attracted by the reward.

So what reward can you give (and how do you deliver it)?

• You could give everyone a bag of potato chips. It worked for Frito Lay so why not for you.
• You could negotiate a discounted product from a local vendor (like a 99 cent ice cream cone that you get for 25 cents). You do a deal with the ice cream parlor whereby they discount the price to cost and you promise new customers.
• Keeping with the food theme you could do it with other popular foods like tacos, burgers or coffee.

In each case you would require that the person likes your fan page and opts in to a mailing list. When they enter their email address you can send the discount coupon.

From a tech perspective you will need to create a custom landing tab for your facebook Page with a “fan gate” and email capture form.

You can set a budget by limiting the number of coupons and you can re-inforce brand recognition by including a codeword or phrase that will make people think of you. I’m bald and my last name is Hair so I always use a code that includes the word bald. I also use code phrases like “bald is beautiful” or “the baldest man in real estate” . I do this to make sure people associate me with something good like a discount coupon.

About Ross Hair

Ross Hair is bald, a huge fan of real estate social media and the founder of Social Media Marketing Camp

P.S. – In case you’re curious here’s the Press Release:

“PLANO, Texas, April 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay division today announced that its rapidly growing Facebook community set the Guinness World Records® title for “Most Fans on Facebook in 24 Hours,” garnering 1,571,161 new “likes” (i.e., fans) on April 11, 2011. As a thank you for setting this groundbreaking 24-hour record, Frito-Lay will reward its fans by giving away 24,000 bags of chips made with all natural ingredients.

Beginning April 29, 2011 at 2 p.m. CDT, the first 24,000 consumers that have “liked” the Frito-Lay Facebook page www.facebook.com/fritolay and registered on a special product giveaway tab will receive a coupon for a free bag of chips valued at $3.99. For more information and complete details about the product giveaway, please visit www.fritolay.com or www.facebook.com/fritolay.

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Has Facebook killed the real estate blog?

I got caught up in a conversation with Jay Thompson, the Phoenix Real Estate Guy, about the role of Facebook in real estate marketing. Two things we debated were if it was advisable to add listings to your Facebook Page and whether new agents would start using Facebook as their primary website instead of a blog.

On the subject of adding listings to your Facebook Page (and by Page I mean your Fan Page and not your Personal Profile) I’m 100% certain that you must add listings. Jay is not so sure.

I like the idea that you can show listings (even of no one looks at them). It demonstrates your commitment to marketing real estate and your search box acts as an indirect contact capture form where you can convert your visitors into contacts. I also think that your clients will expect you to market on Facebook and we all know that perception is just as important as reality when it comes to closing a listing contract.

Jay doesn’t think Facebook is meant for listing real estate. It’s a social medium where people want to connect and communicate with each other and not look at listings. Besides, there are already so many better real estate search and listing sites.

What we both agree on is that we have no idea if adding listings to your Facebook Page will actually sell real estate.

This conversation gave rise to a larger conversation.

Is it possible that many new agents will forego the “traditional” real estate blog in favor of a real estate Page on Facebook?

Will Facebook kill the real estate blog?

It’s an idea that I’ve been playing around with for the last year.

The reason it interests me is because it is my experience that 90% of the real estate industry bump into a huge technology hurdles when it comes to online marketing. The primary hurdle is the lack of a credible and effective online presence. Most real estate professionals have some kind of online presence but this is normally limited to a page or sub-directory on their company website.

Few agents have their own blog, IDX search site or website.

It’s not that they don’t want all the online tools but they just can’t afford to hire a developer or subscribe to a service and they don’t have the technical skills to build them.

So they settle for a page or a branded sub-directory on their company website.

If that’s the case then why not settle for a Page on Facebook?

Facebook has more traffic than you can shake a stick at (600 million users), it’s free, it’s easy to set up, it’s easy to manage and it supports applications that allow you to brand and customize your Page,  add blog posts, contact forms and real estate search to your Page.

But more importantly you don’t need any technical skills and you don’t need to hire a developer.

And did I mention that it is an incredibly sophisticated viral communication platform designed to help you connect and engage with friends and fans?

This is where Jay gets very serious about his convictions.

“There’s no way that a Facebook Page can even begin to compare with hosting your own real estate blog and packing it with search friendly hyper local content.

With your own blog you control the look, feel and architecture of the blog. You own it. You own the content. You own the SEO and Google Juice, you own the conversation”.

All valid points! All really good reasons to host your own real estate blog!

Now you need to put some of this is context.

Jay Thompson is The Real Estate Guy, not just the Phoenix Real Estate Guy. He travels the nation talking about blogging and how it propelled his business from a small husband and wife team to a vibrant and successful real estate office with around 30 agents (and growing). Jay dominates local real estate search for the Phoenix area and can track dozens of closed real estate transactions (and closing checks) straight back to his blog.

Jay knows that hyper local blogging works so he spends a great deal of time and money making sure that he turns out a top quality product.

But I think that’s really the point about this article.

Jay and I don’t disagree about whether or not having your own real estate blog works and, if done correctly, will greatly improve your real estate business. If you have the budget or technical skills it is absolutely a no-brainer for you to create a local real estate blog.

However, if you don’t have the budget or technical skills what do you do? If you’re an agent who hasn’t yet invested in your own website and blog can you just use a Facebook Page?

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Open an account on Facebook at www.Facebook.com
2. Create a Page for your business from your Personal Profile  or by going to www.facebook.com/pages
3. Name the Page the same as the name of your business and get a unique username (you first need to beg, borrow and steal to get 25 people to like your Page)
4. Pimp your Page with your branding, contact details and personal information
5. Add the Notes application to your Page. You can add blog posts to the Notes application.
6. Add the MailChimp application to your Page. You can add an online email capture form using Mailchimp which is free up to 2,000 subscribers or 12,000 emails
7. If you’re a Realtor add the Realtor.com See My Listings application to your Page, or
8. Add the Roost Listings application to your Page, or
9. Add the Static HTML application to your Page and insert an image of your company real estate search box or IDX search box into the Page. Make sure the image links back to your company or IDX search box.
10. Send out 20 friend invitations a day through your Personal Profile and then invite your new friends to become fans of your Page.

It’s a simple formula and I think it will work. Not as well as your own real estate blog but better than just a silly page on your Company website.

About Ross Hair

Ross Hair is completely bald, a full time real estate investor and broker and founder of Social Media Marketing Camp.

About Jay Thompson

Jay Thompson is a nationally recognized awesome guy and real estate blogger aka the Phoenix Real Estate Guy.

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