Advanced Access Blog

The answer: A way to connect with potential clients and gain an understanding of what your consumer wants.

The question: What are Q&A sites?

Last week we talked of the use of social media sites and the value of creating conversation and building community.  One facet of this that I mentioned was the use of question and answer (Q&A) sections of sites like Trulia, Zillow, and ActiveRain.  These sections allow real estate professionals a platform to answer questions asked by the general public about real estate.  These can be questions about anything from where to find a list of foreclosure listings in an area to questions about specific listings in an area.  Regardless they are a great opportunity to get your name out there and help someone in your community.  Let’s face it, if they are asking on one of these sites they probably don’t have an agent yet.  If you can assist them during the curiosity stage you may be able to nab them as a potential client in the long run. With that said I want to take this week to explore the subject of Q&A sites a bit further and also make mention of a few other Q&A websites that aren’t niche specific that you may be interested in exploring.

I recently had a chance to talk with one of my fellow website marketing specialists, John Jones, who recently used Trulia Voices to assist him with his recent real estate venture.  In my last post I mentioned the value of making an impact with potential buyers and sellers even if they aren’t currently in the market.  During my talk with John this theme held true even for him.

…what I found was that the Realtors were mostly suggesting that I talk to anyone but them.  I was told to talk to a real estate tax consultant, real estate lawyer, County Clerk’s office and so on.  Out of a dozen questions asked I only had one or two Realtors answer completely without passing the buck. 

For those Realtors who simply passed the buck instead of going the extra mile I’d suggest they re-examine their efforts and try a little harder.  I may not have been an interested buyer now but I may be a seller and a buyer in the future.

Two particular questions I asked were answered by two different Realtors in great detail without passing the buck.  Not only was their knowledge exactly what I was looking for but they went above and beyond.  One Realtor was local to me and they will be remembered over everyone else local to me that answered half heartedly.

From John’s experience there is an important lesson to be learned.  If you join a Q&A site and plan to interact with people, go the extra mile.  Remember, if they’re asking around on these sites they may not be working with an agent yet, but if you give them they kind of service they are looking for you may well be the one they go to when the time comes.

In John’s case, a house was gifted to him, so many of the questions were tax related. It’s possible that many agents simply didn’t have enough knowledge to provide him with the answer.  My suggestion in this case would be taking a little extra time to seek the answer if you are unsure of the correct information.  You have a number of resources at your fingertips that the general public doesn’t.  If you can’t give a valuable answer, don’t bother answering.  The goal, just like in any social network, is to provide something of value to those you interact with.

Another great thing about Q&A sites is that more than one person can answer.  Even if another agent has already answered, feel free to add to the information or add your own little twist or insight to the information provided.  One of the things John mentioned was, “I’d actually prefer to ask a bunch of professionals a question and have them guide me in the right direction then mindlessly spend my time trying to figure out what it is I need to search on Google.”  Each Realtor has his or her own insight and experience. By providing your insight, you might be giving just enough information to solve whatever puzzle consumers like John are trying to piece together.

Think You’re Up To The Task?

In these last two marketing tips we’ve talked about niche specific Q&A sites from Trulia, Zillow, and ActiveRain. There are also a handful of other sites that you could get involved with that might also help you in your venture to drive more visitors to your site, and hopefully give you the upper hand as an expert in your market.  The nice thing about these sites is that because they’re not real estate specific the Realtor competition may be slightly lower.

Yahoo Answers is one of the more mainstream Q&A sites out there and they have a Real Estate and Renting section where you can go in and answer questions.  However it is again important to remember that this is a general Q&A site and though the category is Real Estate and Renting they may not always be the kind of questions you want to bother with answering.  Another fun perk of Yahoo Answers is if you answer a question about your area and you have a page on your site with more information about the topic you can always plug your link in as a resource.

AnswerBag, another great Q&A site, offers an extensive Real Estate Q&A section with 21 different real estate related categories to choose from.  Again, you have an advantage here because you can leave links in your answer as a source so if you can answer the question and then provide more info on your site, share away.

Finally, one of the newer contenders in Q&A sites is Mahalo Answers.  An extension of the human powered search engine Mahalo; Mahalo Answers works like pretty much any other Q&A site, the difference here is that people can offer ‘tips’ for your answer.  Meaning if people like your answer you can get paid for it.  Once you reach 40 Mahalo dollars you can request to get paid.  Currently Mahalo dollars are the equivalent to $0.75 at the time of this writing, meaning if you answer enough questions and people like your answer you can make a small chunk of change on the side.  Mahalo Answers has a Real Estate and Renting Q&A section which also includes Mortgages and Refinancing categories.

Wherever your Q&A ventures take you, remember the rule: Q&A sites are a facet of social media so the goal here is conversation not conversion.  Recall John’s case; you are looking to make an impact on someone, not turn them into a buyer or seller.  By having an impact on the person you will most likely be considered for future real estate ventures.  So if you answer their question don’t try and sell them on your services at the same time.  Social Media is a way to draw people to you; when they’re ready for you, they’ll let you know.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Real Estate 'Biz', Social Media, 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.