Metro Detroit Real Estate Homes For Sale

Finally embracing Twitter (part 1) there is a Following to be built.  With a lot of ways to find people and businesses, first you have to decide on WHY you want to Twitter.  For me it started as being about business.  Always looking for ways to promote my business, it was about promoting listings, local communities and to encourage people to choose me to assist them with their Real Estate needs.  I have found it is that and so much more.

Following people from ActiveRain was the first step.  I listened to RainRadio(already knew about @bradandersohn) and heard about @kimwood, @pchaney and @myrtlebeachblog.  Once they followed me back, I could see the Twitter names of those they follow.  I started clicking on their addresses, looked at the mini profile and some of their posts and started following many of them.  And it grows from there.  Their followers would do the same when they happened to catch my updates and follow me and I, in turn, follow them.  This in itself gets you started. 

Bill Gassett just posted about Twellowhoodwhich is a good place to find local people.  After all, we want to engage in a local conversation.  I have heard reference to "Tweetups" where someone tweet about getting together and invite Tweeters to show up - what a great way to meet new friends and network.  While Twellowhood is for top locals, Twellow is for top Twitters in categories of interest to you. 

Their are so many twitter tools out there for almost anything.  So here are a couple to find the Top/Elite/Popular people on Twitter - locally or nationally.  Mr. Tweet is your assistant and will search your extended network and recommend who you should be following and who of your follows should you follow back.  Another is Twittergrader.  I ran across this early when my score was like 4 and now I am considered a TwitterElite for Metro Detroit--great surprise.  The cool thing is that I clicked on the Elite button after my name and found I was #5 and a list of all others in my Metro Detroit area and followed some.  As you scroll down there is a lot more information on the page - didn't notice before as there was none as a beginner.  There are Tabs at the top of the TwitterGrader for other searches:  TwitterElite and Search (for terms) and TwitSnip where it will not only shorten a URL but shorten a post in what is called "twitabulary"-twitter short vocabulary.  You can also check the status of others you know on Twitter.  Also check out another post about Twitter alerts.

This should create a lot of Twitter people to follow and don't forget to Follow Me on Twitter--I'll follow back.

Royal Oak Realtor selling Real Estate in Southeastern Michigan.  TishHouse sells Houses - selling Oakland County Real Estate with RE/MAX Showcase Homes in Birmingham, Michigan. Helping People in a challenging market by specializing in Short Sales. See what my clients have to say about my extraordinary customer service

Facebook has been great for me with keeping up with my family and friends.  I have a niece in Korea - teaching English without having to know Korean - and she shares videos, pictures and so much more with all of us.  It wouldn't be possible for her to keep up with so many of us without it.  I have found people I used to work with and see that they have had babies etc.  I can keep up with so many people - including friends I have found on ActiveRain.  But what really took it to the next level is finding past clients. 

Thanks to reading a post from Brian Brady, I was introduced to the idea of using my Outlook contacts to find former clients and see if they are on Facebook.  I sent an e-mail asking how to do this (he is now a friend on Facebook) and he called to personally tell me how.  This is not a post about how great everyone is on ActiveRain but I was surprised and touched that he took the time to do that - and so quickly after I sent the request.  When I was home at Thanksgiving, I coached my brother and sister-in-law (who own their own Tishhouse Electric business in Kalamazoo) how to do it and they found clients as well.  It is very easy;  In the top menu, find the Tab "Friends" and click.  It opens to "Invite Friends" and click on this option.  On the right hand side, click the "Import Email addresses".  Here you will see two choices under Email Applications and click the first button for "Automatically import my contacts from Outlook" and click "Find Friends".  It doesn't download anything but checks to see which e-mail address are in the Facebook data base and then creates a list of all matches and gives you the opportunity to invite all of them.  It can take a while depending on how many addresses you have in Outlook.

I downloaded my Outlook contacts and found at least 12 former clients who are on Facebook and accepted me as a "friend".  I found out that one of them is having their first baby and I was able to stop in and congratulate them.  I will be able to find out when he/she is born and pictures I am sure.  Then I can follow up with a card etc.  Another client had their wedding pictures posted.  We had talked about seeing them once and I never did-so I stopped by and commented as well.  The list goes on. . .  I know I often feel a certain withdrawal from my clients after working with them so much to find the right home.  When it is over, I don't always know how they are doing.  I send cards, periodic e-mails etc. but peeking in on what they want to share with those of us that they have accepted as friends is awesome. 

Many of you may know this already - but our blogs from ActiveRain can be automatically posted and all our friends can keep up on what we are saying as well.  I just joined Twitter and Twitter feeds on "what are you doing now" can be linked into Facebook as well-I can catch up on both simultaneously.  Social Media - I love it.

Royal Oak Realtor selling Real Estate in Southeastern Michigan.  TishHouse sells Houses - selling Oakland County Real Estate with RE/MAX Showcase Homes in Birmingham, Michigan. Helping People in a challenging market by specializing in Short Sales. See what my clients have to say about my extraordinary customer service. 

While creating myself as a local expert for a couple of areas near Birmingham Michigan, I have been posting a lot on Localism and joining/posting on other sites like Topix, YourStreet and Associated Content.   I ran across another website called Eventful.  On this site, you can create a profile, back links to your website and/or blog and post events for your local market--and it has a page rank of 6. 

I have been creating videos for a particular business in Rochester and created a venue on Eventful and have two posts attached to that business/venue - I also told this business about it so they can post there as well.  I now network with businesses while providing something of value--a video and good placement in several high ranking sites.  I just created a venue for Downtown Rochester Michigan.  They are known as the City of Lights for Christmas and I posted the date of the official lighting and a link to the post about it on Localism.

When community sponsorships on Localism were introduced on ActiveRain, I started appreciating the vision of what it offers.  Now I am seeing more and more sites that are taking things very local--and the opportunity to get out and talk to the local businesses in a powerful way to network.  Another site I found is ShowMeLocal.  It has page ranking - not as high as the others - but is another place to create a back link to your sites and promote your business.

Rochester Hills Realtor selling Real Estate in Southeastern Michigan.  TishHouse sells Houses - selling Oakland County Real Estate with RE/MAX Showcase Homes in Birmingham, Michigan. Helping People in a challenging market by specializing in Short Sales. See what my clients have to say about my extraordinary customer service.