If you’re keen to build or strengthen your online presence, it’s time to make LinkedIn a priority. Known as the ‘professional network’, this is the social media channel of choice for white collar workers and boasts the highest percentage of home owners.

Here are five important reasons to get onboard.

1 – To raise your profile and increase your digital presence

LinkedIn is basically a free online-marketing tool. If you’re a real estate agent trying to grow your personal brand, how can you pass by this ‘professionals network’? Your profile and any business pages set up for your agency should be up-to-date, consummately professional, well-written, and compelling. What you say about yourself and your business on LinkedIn has the potential to attract clients.

2 – To showcase your expertise and knowledge

LinkedIn is the perfect platform for demonstrating your industry prowess. You want your clients and potential clients to see that you’re an expert both in real estate and in your local real estate market.

Just like on Facebook, you can achieve this by sharing links within LinkedIn’s feed to pertinent articles you’ve read relating to the property industry. You should also share updates from your connections that serve your local area, such as mortgage brokers, conveyancers, home stylists, and the like. Forming a local business alliance so you can cross-share each other’s content is a great way to extend your brand’s visibility to a broader network.

You want to differentiate yourself with your knowledge and experience so that vendors will be inclined to work with you versus your competitors. Give them good reason to feel confident that you know what you’re talking about and what you’re doing.

3 – To start your own blog

Sharing your knowledge and expertise through content is critical to raising your personal brand and building stronger relationships with your connections. So create content through published articles that are compelling to your target audience – be it a blog post, a market update, or a video series.

To achieve this, you can publish and share insightful content on your LinkedIn page through LinkedIn’s Pulse publishing tool. This content should be relevant and valuable to your LinkedIn audience, namely past or potential clients. Share your knowledge by answering those questions that every new client asks to highlight your technical know-how and real estate experience.

LinkedIn’s published posts are searchable in Google, and you can also share your pages across the other social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ to further promote your brand and extend your content’s reach.

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4 – To build connections and engage with people from your suburbs

It’s one thing to connect with people; it’s another to truly engage with and develop those relationships so that they work both for you and for your connections. There are several ways you can build deeper LinkedIn connections:

  • Reach out to people with a personalised message or share some advice with them through LinkedIn articles. This is a great way not only to differentiate yourself but also to start an ongoing dialogue and remain front of mind.
  • Take advantage of LinkedIn’s built-in analytics. You can track elements such as the number of people viewing your posts, their profiles, and their interests. You can change your settings to receive notifications when someone likes or comments on your posts. When they do, this is a valuable opportunity to respond to them and forge a closer relationship!

LinkedIn is an untapped lead-generation opportunity for real estate agents; in fact, Inbound-marketing software company Hubspot recently found that LinkedIn is 277% more effective for lead generation than either Facebook or Twitter.

Use LinkedIn’s Advanced Search to find contacts within your existing database with whom to connect. The Advanced Search feature helps you find additional information on your existing leads so that you can build a much better picture of who they are and what their current situation or stage of life is.

5 – To let others tout your talents

LinkedIn’s Recommendations section lets potential clients read directly about other clients’ experiences working with you. Reach out to past and existing clients and ask them to use LinkedIn’s Recommendations function. These testimonials can prove invaluable for referrals and other leads.

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Your peers are already there, so don’t delay

LinkedIn is built on the foundation of professional peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. It’s also where your own industry peers are hanging out and sharing valuable information with their target demographic. So, you need to grasp the concept and be in on this lucrative channel, too.

With LinkedIn, you can:

  • Invite people you’ve met in person to connect
  • Use LinkedIn’s InMail to personally reach out to people you’ve not yet met
  • Join real estate-related LinkedIn Groups
  • Follow highly successful agents to learn their secrets, prominent real estate coaches, industry magazines, and the tech organisations that help simplify our industry.

Through these connections, you’ll quickly:

  • Learn about the latest industry trends and best practices
  • See what your counterparts, competitors, and industry gurus are doing
  • Take inspiration from others’ victories
  • Gain helpful insights on how you can be more successful in your own property transactions
  • Build relationships by participating in groups and conversations and, in turn, strengthen your online presence.

So don’t delay! Make use of the LinkedIn network today.

Want help perfecting your LinkedIn account? The Hoole.co team are on hand to write and optimise your profile, and we can also photograph you for your profile image – contact us for assistance.

 

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Written by Melanie Hoole

My team and I specialise in helping real estate and property professionals perfect their personal brand, build a first-class digital profile and implement inbound marketing activities to attract leads. If you are unsure which direction to take with your digital marketing contact me for help.

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