MySpace alone will not get you very good results unless you are on there a lot and you are active in finding new friends and posting comments on their page. I think it can be part of a good strategy if you include other sites like Facebook and LinkedIn and are somewhat active in all of them.

I have been doing some stuff with my social networks growing my presence and I agree that myspace is not where it is at. It is great to seeing my friends latest antics at the bars, but as far professional, it is not.

I have been playing around with that social network site, realestate.konnects.com I found and I really like it. They have a cool method of joining different communities, so I am a part of the Real Estate community and part of the Las Vegas community.

The fact that Konnects is business focused means that you won't get your profile deleted like myspace.

You do have to put in the time to make your social networking work. As others have said it is a social thing, you have to be social.

Face book is a great or have you tried http://www.trulia.com/

I would have to agree with the need to being active on social networks. After all, that's probably why the word "social" is in social networks :). I know of someone who pretty much just went around getting friend requests and rarely sent out a comment or message to a couple of people. In short, his account got banned. Now if it was because of the lack of socializing or something else, I don't know. I'm just saying that not communicating with others probably set a red flag off in enough people's minds to flag the account as spam.

Exactly. I have a plumber "friend" who doesn't do anything except send out bi-monthly bulletin advertisements. Screw that - he's off my friends list today and off my referral list cuz he's obviously clueless and selfish.

If, OTOH, he had sent out informational/helpful bulletins that are related to plumbing or home maintenance, that'd be fine with me - shows that he's knowledgeable, willing to share free advice and he cares. I do that - send out market reports and such - I occasionally close with a little Buffini thang at the end. But most times it's videos, surveys and funny pictures/jokes.

Being subtle is key. Be a friend, act like a friend and give them non-spammy gentle reminders that you're available to help.

YESSSS

I would choose facebook though, facebook lets you have extra pages for business purposes, myspace does not, join facebook put heeps of valuable content and tips on your page and then join every real estate group under the sun

It all depends on your targeted customer base. If you are attracting retires (as Hernando County is mostly) then it may not be very effective. But you never know when the kids or grandkids are going to research for a property for Mom or Grandma.

Of course if you going after first-time homebuyers in their 20s. You MUST go where this generation spends its time.

You should check out http://activerain.com/ Its a social site that can get you network with other real estate agents across the country. From what I see so far it does very good in the search engines as well. You can also have a blog and talk about the area that you work.

Good Luck!

Jason Ryback

Linking to your site on myspace will do NOTHING for your page rank. The reason is that when you put a link on your myspace page, they (myspace) converts your link (EX: http://www.RealPro.info) to a redirect script with an encrypted hash for the URL (ex: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOiQcm8uaW5mbw== this will not work as it only accepts traffic directly from myspace.com)

I have tried using myspace, I think the only way you can benefit is if you spend hours and hours chatting and someone remembers that your a realtor. Your return on investment is really poor.

Myspace is one of many social networking websites out there that you could use to market your services, how you go about it is another story. You could customize your profile and use it as your own website, or you could send out links to all of your listings on random profiles of unsuspecting 'friends'.

A new trend referred to as industry specific social networking or vertical search is something you may be interested in. It allows you to network with people interested in a specific topic, as opposed to Myspace which is 'everything'.

You may want to check out websites such as Realtown.com, Propertyqube.com. You can also get a free profile on Trulia.com which would likely be more useful than on MySpace, or you can get a free real estate webpage on GoGlobe.org in Fall '08.

Realestate.Konnects.com is a good way to connect with other realtors but it seems to be very poorly subscribed to. Although, filling out your profile there with drops like "Orange County Real Estate Agent" or using a list of specific zip codes and the term "buy homes in <insert zip code list here>" as well as listing specific cities you make sales in will certainly not hurt your SEO efforts. These types of social networking listings do score well in Search Engines so it is a good thing to play around with adding as many keywords as possible to your profile.

Hope this is helpful.

Jim Lillig
www.jimlillig.com

MySpace can work if you guys have your pages set up properly. Remember that it is a social networking site. People go there to socialize, not to buy or sell a home. Please don't go on there and start spamming everyone about your business. I wouldn't load the page up with company logo's either or listings. You need to use the "My Story Marketing" technique. Let people get to know "YOU". Yes it does take time but I've gotten leads off MySpace. You can't rely totally on MySpace to generata you leads. You have to join various sites in combination with blogging and V-Logging too.

Honestly, I don’t think promoting your site on myspace is a waste of time. Even if you only get 1 response, it’s 1 response more than if you hadn’t done it. Especially if that 1 response pays out with a huge commission. ;)

IF you have a good network (lots of friends and family), open up a group and get them to join. It'll get larger and you don't even need to spend much time with it. Great way to get started in Myspace Marketing