Where do you link to get leads/sales?

milano stazione centrale ferrovie - milan train station / italia, italy / hdr by paolo margari on Flickr

I get asked that questions all the time now since the real estate market had slowed down. I meet a lot of people who are not working as much as it used to be, or just plain desperate for work.

Frankly, that’s like asking me “What bar do you go to to find a husband?“ or “What diet do you do to lose weight?“ There are just no magic bullets in any types of networking, whether it is online or in person. What works is persistence, consistency, and being geniunely caring to your sphere and friends. It never hurts to have a bigger sphere, in real estate (or small busienss for that matter), you never know where your next referral will come from or if you will meet a potential business partner.

There are tricks to get you there quicker:

1. Increase your exposure: by riding on the coat tail of social networks (like Facebook, Active Rain, etc.), these networks already have high searchability and rich keywords that search engines like Google love.
2. Show off your expertise on the net: one of the great way is posting articles, uploading your portfolio on photo sites, or blogging (or guest blog), these will help you find new audiences, establish expertise and make search engines happy. When I was first starting out as a newbie stager, Active Rain was a great tool. Not only I could voice my expertise, establish trust with potential leads (which later turned into referrals and actual paying work), I also got invaluable advices, resources and support by befriending people on their blogs.
3. Be active: participate in communities. Like face-to-face marketing and networking, there are only so many others in the day that allow you to go to network events. It’s the same with social networks. People are not going to get involved with you if you don’t contribute positively and actively. Like networking events, you have to show up and make your presence known.

There are no guarantee that just because you signedup for an account on Twitter or Facebook and filed out a profile you will get referral calls. But you gotta plant some seeds first so they will grow.