One of the most important skills one has to master in order to survive the ever growing real estate industry is the art of networking.  Online Networking is both a competency and a process that you need to hone in order to be successful.

Knowing how to network effectively is essential if you want to be successful in real estate. Half your work is done if you have an extensive pool of potential clients because you will always know where to look for your next deal. You probably already know how crucial networking is for your business, but if you’re still struggling with leads, it’s possible that you’re not utilizing networking possibilities to its maximum potential. To be your lifesaver, Real Estate IQ puts the pieces of tips and suggestions together that, if done correctly, will propel your career to greater heights.

1. Build Your Brand

This entails the art of standing out in a sea of options. There are so many businesses online, so you need your business to be distinct and unique in comparison to your competitors. To make this possible, you need to build your brand. Building your brand will allow others to easily remember what is your business’s expertise and capabilities. Optimize your branding by graphics design and consistent branding color.

• Brand Logo – Make sure that your logo is relevant to your business. Making business taglines is an important strategy as well to help distinguish your brand and make a statement.
• Design Aesthetics – Consumers and clients are visual human beings. Your business can be easily recognized by the uniqueness of its design. The key component for that is to choose the right colors. You can use 2-3 color palettes to make it simple, just make sure to use the right colors that can easily be printed in black/white colors. Think about how Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram utilize the color of their logos in just 2-3 colors.
• Brand Strategy – This is the core of your brand. As mentioned earlier, you must stick to a single brand to help your business be recognizable because just like in any industry, consistency is a major key to winning. . Your brand strategy should also have its own core values, target audience, and brand attribute to help you easily establish your brand.

2. Utilize Social Networking Sites

Social media has become a powerful tool to connect with your clients; it also creates a great opportunity to share your knowledge and expertise with your clients in an easily sharable format. Regarding social media, respond to all inquiries, emails, and messages across all channels smoothly. Interact with users, share good press, and promote your properties.  Make yourself easy to contact and be an active user on multiple channels.

Creating a social networking site for your business is just the start of building your network. It’s not all about getting followers, it’s all about keeping it updated. To utilize your social networking site, it is highly recommended to create useful content for your followers. Share news articles, create blogs, and promote products or events which are relevant to your market and brand. By utilizing your social networking sites and keeping it active, it can be very easy to reach a wider audience from your target market.

3. Learn How to STALK Professionally

As creepy as it may sound but stalking works effectively well. To help your network grow, it is very important to connect with people that you want to network with. To do this effectively, you should learn more about your target person, try to check their social network engagements, and know the business that they are engaging with.

Are you a people magnet or you tend to push people away?  What are you projecting outwardly?  Make sure others see you as a positive, warm and friendly person they would like to interact with.  Make sure your positive personality and outlook is attracting relationships and not pushing them away. From this point, it can be very easy to start a conversation and layout your interests from this person. The principle behind this is to make them interested in you by letting them know that you researched them, let it be obvious through your conversation.

4. Build a Support Group

Having a team that is composed of competent and trustworthy people is critical to the success of any real estate business. As a real estate professional, you are only as good as the people who surround you. Aside from professionals you work with and collaborate internally, you may also rely on relationships built with individuals and firms in your community. Establishing connections with complementary businesses — real estate industry vendors with whom you don’t directly compete — is an essential networking tool. Make it your goal to identify and meet a network of vendors to whom you can refer clients, and vice versa. It will do magic for your professional network…things you may never have imagined.

To thrive your network, you need professionals that will help you get meaningful insights and various perspectives. Building a support group is one effective way to do this, from various people, you can learn more about different fields. You may learn about operations, marketing, finance, and other fields. The key to making this effective is to have a diverse network of people from different backgrounds.

5. Pay it Forward

Your network can grow by making value for your brand. Making educational content or giving ideas to help your network build their business and makes it easier to connect. Your goal behind this is to let them see your business as a reliable network source. By paying forward your network through various methods, you are also creating a greater value for your brand in the long run.

It’s easy to network online, you just have to make sure that you know the rules and your vision is clear from the very beginning. Stay focused on your branding and how you can make it grow. Connect with a lot of people and make your business a valuable one. By following this item, you can make sure that you have a strong online network compared to your competitors.

 It is essential for you to have some sense of direction so that you will be guided on how far you have been, how far you are coming and how far you still have to go. You may find adversities or little bumps along the way but it should not stop you from trailblazing your online networking, you just got to continue doing it the RIGHT way.

 Join our network of investors at REIQ Community and let us learn together!

SPEAKER: Steve Liang is the co-founder and CEO of Real Estate IQ, the market leader in Real Estate Intelligence Augmentation. Steve is a national speaker, and he is on the real estate advisory board of North Lake College.

Steve also co-founded the Real Estate Deal Finders Meetup, which hosts over 20 monthly real estate networking and deal finding training in Texas. His goal is to help real estate entrepreneurs reach their potential and achieve more than they can imagine.

Steve enjoys learning and experimenting on new things, and he is a voracious reader. On his off days, Steve enjoys experiencing different cultures through traveling and food.

He has spent most of his career practicing leadership, management, marketing, strategy, and execution.

Disclaimer
The blog articles are intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in the content is intended as legal or financial advice.