Social media marketing is passive prospecting

Don't let the fear of rejection stop you from asking for business

BY DAVID FLETCHER, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2012 Inman News®

Boy fishing image via Shutterstock.

I'm getting so many "tips" on how to use social media, I am getting a truth ache.

Our salaried friends can become addicted to social media, have fun with it, build their lives around it. Try every tip or trick in the book, because it doesn't affect their household income. As commission-only real estate agents, we don't have that luxury.

We need to understand that social media marketing is an important but passiveprospecting tool. Social media is a "hope so, think so, maybe so" prospecting tool. It can be effective, but it calls for focused discernment on our part.

Websites that depend on agent dollars are doomed | Realtor Notebook

BY TERESA BOARDMAN, THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2012 Inman News®

Dinosaur image via Shutterstock.

A couple of months ago I was contacted by the editor for a local news website. They syndicate some of my real estate content and we have had an ongoing relationship for many years.

They wanted to talk about having neighborhood pages with real estate listings on their website, and they wanted to get local agents to pay to sponsor the pages and to pay to advertise real estate listings on them.

Take your photo strategy beyond listings | Realtor Notebook

BY TERESA BOARDMAN Inman News®

St. Paul, Minn. Victorian home photo credit Teresa Boardman.

Home buying and selling activity started picking up a few months ago and is still going strong. But for me, it is also photography season.

I have an endless, inexhaustible need for photographs for blog posts and for advertising, and everything seems to look better in June. Some of the photographs I will take in the next two months will be sold next winter, and others will bring me clients.