Prosper in Any Market through Social Networking

By Scott Newman, Newman Realty

If you’re new to the business or haven’t closed a lot of deals, you still have the most important thing that consumers want--information. Try sharing your knowledge about the industry with your Facebook friends. Revamp your page with your company logo, Web site, and contact information. Make a point to create a group for your business, post interesting articles, have a question & answer section, post current mortgage rates, and information about what is going on in the Chicagoland markets. Once you’ve established yourself as an accurate, dependable source of information, people in the community will seek you out because they trust you as a local expert.

This doesn’t just apply to social networking sites, but to the internet as a whole. Blogs, discussion boards, and other sites that allow the open exchange of information or free networking all are prime places to find clients for the near and distant future so that you start to establish a consistent pipeline.

As an example, I just listed a property for a client who saw me on Facebook, Twitter, Trulia, and Zillow, and eventually contacted me by clicking my banner ad on Realtor.com. By the time she decided to contact me, she was no longer looking for a REALTOR; she was looking for me specifically because, after seeing me volunteer my help in so many places, she wanted my particular brand of experience and expertise, and that is the power of creating a strong internet presence.

The next time you think there is nothing more you can do, you’re wrong. There are tens of thousands of people in Chicagoland combing the internet right now, searching for someone who is reaching out to them and giving them the answers and guidance they are seeking. So get involved, sign up, sign on, connect, and prosper in any market!

Scott Newman is Chicago REALTOR Magazine's "Agent in Action" for the upcoming February/March 2009, hitting your mailbox in early February! To learn more about Scott, visit his Web site http://www.newmanrealtyillinois.com/.