Social Media Marketing Camp 5 is set for Thursday September 9 from 10am to 1pm Mountain.

SMMCamp features a number of real estate social media experts who will share their insights and advice on how to market and sell homes on Facebook.

As usual, the event is online and free and you can sign up at the SMMCamp website.

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In 2010 real estate social media stormed to the forefront of online real estate marketing so I thought it would be a good time to share the top 7 real estate sites and blogs.

Social Media Advocate

Social Media Advocate is a community blog and network packed with thousands of real estate professionals, free education and social media resources. You can view how to videos and step-by-step workbooks on how to do things like customize a Fan Page or build a community site for your local town on Facebook.

Tech Savvy Agent

The Tech Savvy Agent won the 2010 Inman Most innovative Blogger award and features the latest and greatest real estate tech tools. As the name suggests there’s a strong tech focus but the articles are easy to read and very practical.

Agent Genius

Agent Genius is a community blog featuring contributions from over 70 top real estate agents. There’s much more to the site than just social media marketing as many of the contributors are niche experts with unique and interesting perspectives on the future of real estate marketing.

Future of Real Estate Marketing

The Future of Real Estate Marketing is an Inman News site that blends social media with news and trends in real estate marketing. You get great real estate news (as you would expect from Inman), a showcase for up and coming technology (mainly reviews of vendors) and social network tips.

My Tech Opinion

I saved one of the best for last – My Tech Opinion.

My Tech opinion has cutting edge insights into blogging, social networking and mobile real estate marketing. It’s the best place for information on how to incorporate your iPhone or iPad into your real estate business and is always ahead of the curve with new technology reviews.

About Ross Hair

Ross Hair is Bald, a full time a real estate broker and and fan huge fan of real estate social media marketing.

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Here’s the one common characteristic of most successful businesses – they found a solution to a seemingly insurmountable problem. They ran into an obstacle that stopped every competitor dead in their tracks and found a way to overcome the obstacle.

Put in other words – the opportunity always lies in the obstacle.

Let’s take online real estate marketing as an example.

I’ve taught thousands of real estate professionals how to use social media marketing to generate new business and an unlimited pipeline of motivated buyer and seller leads.

While they all “get it” when it comes to connecting with prospects on social networks, almost every single person got stuck with the technology needed to create an online presence and convert social network friends into clients.

Now the technology I’m talking about isn’t rocket science stuff. I’m talking about publishing effective blogs, squeeze pages and websites that fulfill one main function – converting visitors into contacts and clients. After all what good is a visitor to your website if you have no way to contact them to market your services.

The obstacle is the technology.

The solution is to find a way to get the technology.

There’s two ways to solve the technology obstacle:

1. Build it yourself, or
2. Hire someone to build it for you.

The first option (build it yourself) requires advanced technical knowledge. If you’re a techno geek you have a huge advantage in the modern real estate industry. I haven’t failed to notice that the top producing agents in most offices all use the internet to generate a seemingly endless flow of buyer and seller leads and almost always seem to be at a closing.

The second option (hire someone) is risky and expensive.

It’s risky because you might hire the wrong technical vendor or end up with a product that simply doesn’t do what it’s meant to do. I hate that!

It’s expensive because the technical skill required is in short supply and we all know the cost associated with the law of supply and demand.

Very few people have the technical knowledge to build it, so that leaves option 2.

Option 2 requires that you hire someone to build the technology.

In the next few weeks I’ll add a number of posts that review and recommend real estate software and technology that you can use in your real estate business. If you can’t wait you can start by checking out Tech Savvy Agent.

So here’s my advice. Take a few steps back and work out why most agents fail as online real estate marketers. Then identify the tools you can use to be successful and find a way to incorporate them into your business.

Find the obstacle and apply the solution.

About Ross Hair

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

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The one piece of real estate social media software that I simply can’t do without is HootSuite.

HootSuite is a third party application that allows you to view all your social media accounts on a single dashboard, connect all your accounts so that you can syndicate posts and automatically upload RSS feeds from any website (including your blog) to all the social networks.

And did I mention that it’s free!

I use HootSuite extensively to post to multiple groups, fan pages and accounts. It’s really simple to use and includes a URL shortener to help with your Twitter posts.

But the thing I do most with HootSuite is “listen” to the conversation by tracking keywords on Twitter. It’s an awesome way to find active home buyers and sellers in your local area and to keep an eye on local news.

It’s my favorite social media tool and I highly recommend that you open a free acount on HootSuite right now.

About Ross Hair

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

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Congratulations to Krisstina Wise and the Goodlife Team for winning the Inman 2010 Most Innovative Brokerage award.

Krisstina runs a boutique real estate brokerage in Austin Texas and makes great use of video, neighborhood and market reports on the brokerage website.

The site has a simple, cool and clean design and immediately answers the main question on a homeowner’s mind (what’s my home worth) and addresses a buyer’s top priority (good, fast sticky search).

Take a look at the Goodlife Team website and stack it up against your site.

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After going through three developers I finally found a solution that delivers a quick, professional and free real estate blog – (see below).

It’s the perfect solution to the number one problem faced by most real estate professionals – lack of technical expertise.

So if you want a real estate blog, with a professional theme, social media icons and SEO ready with all the right plug-ins, you can get one at Free Realty Blog.

Note that hosting is not included but is available for as little as $5 a month.

Plus you also have the option of adding a Blog and Social Media Graphics package. I’m not sure if the package will be available when you order your blog but grab it if it is still under a hundred dollars.

Here’s the link again.

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I’m always amazed by how many real estate websites don’t do the one thing that they’re meant to do – convert visitors into clients.

Most real estate blogs and websites are nothing more than online brochures. They’re full of pretty images and links to local resources but they don’t have any compelling reason for a visitor to give up their contact details.

The only real exception to this is IDX or property search sites that promise instant access to listing inventory.

I’ve had this conversation with a number of internet marketers who shook their heads in disbelief when they viewed a number of real estate sites. Internet marketers understand that a visitor to your site is a complete waste if he or she moves on without contacting you.

But most real estate professionals don’t “get it” or are limited by the technical hurdles associated with publishing email capture forms, feeds and other interactive tools.

I’ve written a few articles on the subject but defer to Greg Clement, one of the best online real estate marketers, who wrote a great report on the subject.

You can download the report right here.

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Here’s one of my favorite online real estate marketing tools.

It’s a syndication tool that allows you to syndicate your listings and homes for sale to all the major real estate listing sites, including Zillow, Trulia, Vast, Hot Pads and dozens more.

It doesn’t include Craigslist (a pity) but it does the next best thing by creating the html code that you can copy and paste into Craigslist.

It normally costs $97 a month but it’s free (download now) as part of a promotion by Greg Clement (Greg spoke at SMMCamp 4).

You will need to provide your email address and Greg will send you a few promo emails about his new online marketing system.

I use the product and highly recommend it.

About Ross Hair

Ross Hair is the Real Estate Advocate and a the founder of Social Media Marketing Camp.

Disclosure – The tool is free but if you later buy Greg’s new online marketing system I will earn a commission.

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Can you use Facebook to list real estate and actually sell a home?

It’s an interesting idea and I’m having a great deal of fun trying to find out if Facebook is an effective real estate listing platform.

Here’s the basic strategy:

1. Create a new Fan Page on Facebook for each new home for sale. Think of the Fan Page as equivalent to a “Single Property Website” with it’s own unique URL on Facebook.
2. Co-opt the owner to invite their sphere to view and “like” the Fan Page.
3. Co-opt all the other Realtors in your office to view and “like” the Fan Page.
4. Do a direct mail campaign to all the neighbors and invite them to view and “like” the Fan Page. At the same time ask the neighbors to write a nice comment on the Fan Page wall and invite their friends to view the listing. Make sure you mention that the value of their home is tied into the quick full price sale of this home. This should encourage positive feedback and stop the guy next door who hates everyone from trashing your listing online.
5. Use Facebook Ads to target hyper local prospects.
6. Host a huge open house and promote it as an “Event” on Facebook and link it to your Fan page. This allows you to invite your entire contact list of clients, past clients and prospects to the event.

This real estate social media marketing strategy has the advantage that even if the house doesn’t sell you have made contact with all the neighbors and can canvass them for their business. It will also be a useful tool when you go back to your client and recommend a price reduction.

I’ll keep you updated on the progress of our first listings using this strategy.

You can also sign up for Social Media Marketing Camp (SMMCamp) on May 27 when we will present a session on using Facebook Fan Pages to sell a home.

Go to www.smmcamp.com to register for this and 4 other sessions on how to use Facebook and Linked In to find more real estate business.

About Ross Hair

Ross Hair is the baldest man in real estate and a huge fan of real estate social media marketing.

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The Real Estate Social Media Guide is here and can be downloaded at the free real estate site Social Media Advocate.

It’s a 142-page guide that shows you how to set up your social media marketing plan in just 10 days.

The best part is that it cuts through all the hype and fluff and gives you an easy to follow checklist and a step-by-step plan.

About Ross Hair

Ross Hair is the Social Media Advocate and author of the Real Estate Social Media Guide.

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