Advanced Access Blog

What can you tell me about buying or selling a home in your area? What is the right thing to do? How much will I save? How much will I lose? Do you have any ideas to save me from foreclosure?

These are just some of the many burning questions I have seen on social networks today. Can you answer any of these questions?

One of the best places I’ve found for asking questions such as these is Yahoo Answers. Yahoo Answers is a place where anyone with a Yahoo ID (which is free to obtain) can post a question about anything. Anyone with a Yahoo ID can join Yahoo Answers and answer questions. You can earn points for asking, answering, and for having your answer voted as the “best” to resolve a question. The more “best answers”, the more of an authority you are.

Questions are broken down into categories and sub-categories. You can become a trusted resource on a particular subject matter by simply telling people what you already know. Why in the world would you care to participate in something like this? I have listed a few reasons to get the gears turning:

1. Market Research – It’s never a bad thing to understand what the general public wants to know about real estate.

2. Content Ideas – Questions being asked, and the answers that follow are full of topics that need elaboration. If you are not sure what pages you might need to create on your real estate website, this is an effective way to do some research.

3. Networking for Business – Categories can be further broken down by location. You can find questions from people in your service area and become a trusted source for those who have the potential to become a client. Should you only answer questions from your area? Not in my opinion. I suggest branching out to gain “points” and become an authority.

Take a look at this example of a common real estate question which was posted on Yahoo Answers today:

How could it be a good time to be a first time home buyer?

With the mess that bankers and lenders have created how in the world can you know who to trust to help purchase a home for the first time?

This sort of interaction is part of the “Web 2.0″ concept many of you have heard about. It’s no longer just about having static information in one place. It’s not even just about a blog. It’s about having these interactive resources where you can actually talk to people about what they need and what they want.

Your real estate website and your blog are equally important for participation in these networks. On each network, such as Yahoo Answers, you will have a profile. On your profile you will list your website address, name, biography, etc. This is a tool to get more people to your site, engaging them with content and lead generation forms.

What else can you do to build your business for the future? Times will not always be this tough. Even if buyers aren’t buying right now, or sellers aren’t selling in your area, they will someday; get their business now so their someday is your someday.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 3:58 pm and is filed under Weekly Marketing Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.