“Your net worth is proportional to your network” – Jeffrey CombsIn real estate your contacts are everything. You don’t know need to know everyone, but make sure you know the people that know everyone! This will help you grow your business... Enter LinkedIn.
So what is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn define themselves as “the world’s largest professional network with over 120 million members and growing rapidly.” Think of LinkedIn as the Facebook to professionals.LinkedIn allows you to connect to your trusted contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals.LinkedIn enables you to connect with like minded people which in returns allow you to grow your business network and contacts.As a member, you can create a personal profile with information about you and your agency. You are able to mention your professional accomplishments and even have people leave “recommendations” for you.
How to set up and use LinkedIn
If you take a look at this page, you will find the instructions on how to set up a LinkedIn account, both for yourself and for your company. In terms of using LinkedIn – head over to LinkedIn’s user tutorial and go through the links on the left hand side of the page under the heading “Site Features” – there are some great articles by the people at LinkedIn on how to use the site!So does LinkedIn offer me?LinkedIn can offer a number of benefits to real estate agents and agencies. I’ll just touch on a couple of them now, as they are the most important for real estate agents and agencies:
Build your Network
Referring back to the quote that I started this blog with – “Your net worth is proportional to your network” – what better way to network with others in your industry than with a social network specifically set up for that?! LinkedIn allows you to connect with other professionals in the real estate industry. This doesn’t necessarily mean your competitors, but other leading agents, trainers, service providers etc. Remember, you don’t need to know everyone; you just need to know the people who do!When you build your network, you are increasing your visibility which in turn increases the likelihood people will see your profile or your agency’s profile when they are search for a real estate agent/agency to do business with.
Improve your search engine results
LinkedIn is also very good for increasing your visibility in search engine results because LinkedIn pages rank highly. To put it simply – go to Google, type in my name “Peter Bongiorni” and you will find that my LinkedIn profile is the first search result. Having a LinkedIn profile gives you a degree of control of what appears when people Google your name or your agency’s name! How many of your prospective vendors do you think will be doing the same search for your name?
What can I do on LinkedIn that will help build my brand and profile?
There are a number of different features of LinkedIn you can use to build your brand and profile:
LinkedIn Answers
LinkedIn Answers is a great place to get advice and share business knowledge. You can ask questions and the premise is that you get highly quality answers from industry leaders and experts.The flip side to LinkedIn Answers is to position yourself as an expert and answer questions other people post. If you consistently answer questions other LinkedIn users post and your answers are clear, concise and relevant, you will be seen as an expert in the industry, and you will be building your brand and your network.The more questions you answer, the more “Expertise points” you will get, which will allow you to become the real estate expert people are looking to deal with. Vendors are more likely to choose an agent that is considered an expert in what they do, than an agent who isn’t!The great thing about LinkedIn Answers is that it gives you the opportunity to interact with many people that are not in your LinkedIn network, which is a great way to make new connections and grow your network. Remember – the bigger your network, the bigger your net worth!This article explains how to make LinkedIn Answers part of your daily routine easily.
LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups allows you to join any group that you want. Groups are a great place to meet great people, both within the real estate industry and out of it, and they allow you to keep in touch with past and prospective clients and business partners.When you join a group, make sure that you are contributing to each group you join. If you are regularly posting awesome content, you will be building you brand and generating leads.Take a look at this quick video about LinkedIn Groups:
LinkedIn Services
LinkedIn Services is like the “Yellow Pages” of professionals on LinkedIn. The catch is, only credible service providers who have been recommended by other LinkedIn users are in the services directory.A recommendation on LinkedIn is, in this day and age where social media is ingrained in people’s daily lives, the new way to get a testimonial. Not all of your clients will currently have a LinkedIn profile, but you should be connecting with any and all of your clients who do, and then be asking them for a recommendation as soon as you have sold their property. A LinkedIn recommendation is digital gold for you and your agency.Prospective vendors today are researching their agents, and if they can see your digital testimonials, you are going to be leaps and bounds ahead of agents who have no idea what LinkedIn is!
LinkedIn Jobs
Many companies, large and small, are now hiring and recruiting staff on LinkedIn. As an employer, you have the ability to look through the digital resume of prospective candidates, see their recommendations – from both happy vendors and happy bosses!LinkedIn Jobs allows you to find active and passive job candidates for every job you post. As soon as you post your job ad, LinkedIn can instantly recommend the best candidates for the role you have posted and you can contact them directly – or you can sit back and wait for people to reach out to you.Check out this video about LinkedIn Jobs:As a real estate professional, you may find yourself in a postiton where you a looking for a new job and you can find your dream job through LinkedIn. Even if you’re not looking for a job, if someone posts a job that matches your current profile, they may contact you and offer you a job you can refuse!This short video introduces the job seeker functionality of LinkedIn:Next week on the Rex Blog...I’ll be back next week with some more great information on social media in real estate.. Stay tuned :)
