We have all heard the saying “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”

Yeah I know sometimes knowing the right person can trump your knowledge.

While that is not false, it’s not the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

We all have interacted with businesses that had a family member employed and frankly they were not the best choice for the position.

So really it’s not who you know, but who knows you. Don’t you agree?

Ashton Kutcher has over 9 million twitter followers. They read his tweets, but he doesn’t know them. How many people does he refer to his friends and family?

It is better to have a 100 well branded well positioned people in your list, database, sphere of influence, center of influence or whatever the latest term is. Then to have thousands that don’t know who you are nor could care less.

I attended a Young Professionals Network Function the other day and it was really good. The topic was of all things networking and there was a panel that was well networked. They pretty much all sang the same tune.

It’s not about networking with as many people as humanly possible. Rather networking with the right people and in a quality manner.

Are you someone that people want to send referrals too? If not. Why not? It’s not their fault they don’t!

You have to get to know people and contribute to their life. If you are not contributing then you are taking.

So who would would you refer? Why? Would you refer the person that marketed to you always asking for an order or someone that helped you when you needed it, even if it was trivial?

So now here’s the catch. It seems that if you are about contributing and not about taking and if networking is an attempt to get business. How does it work?

So here’s a strategy, first write a missing persons report. I want you to identify and describe the perfect person you want to network with. Once you have figured out who they are, join a networking group that that person(s) would belong to and then go contribute.

Another real issue is the time it takes for results. It’s challenging for sales people to do activities that may not produce immediate results, Squirrel!!!  But once you create serious allies then you are in pretty good shape.

Everyone knows there is all kinds talking and conversations taking place on Facebook. People share all kinds of things that business owners would want to know.

For example how about someone announcing they are moving to a certain area. Or how about someone saying they want to refinance their house, fix their credit, thinking about buying a car, talking about their insurance.

But with 800 Million users how do you find those?

Here’s the cool part it is actual simple, it is a few little steps but it is so cool.

First you must use quotation marks for searching. “refinance my loan” moving to cleveland” Even if the results show zero click on See results for ”refinance my loan”

Then once you are there on the left side bar there are search filters.

I recommend you choose public post. Pages will get you businesses, which is OK if that is what you are looking for.

See image below.

If you get too many what appears to be people selling, adjust your search as if you were saying it to someone else. For example “fix my credit” opposed to “fix your credit”

Now the cool part is you do not have to be their friend to send them a message. Some people are buttoned down pretty tight, but for the most part just click on their name and send them a message.

Now for Pete’s sake don’t try and sell them in the email, be helpful. How about something like, here’s some useful information you might be able to use. If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

One more thing, you can book mark. As long as you are logged into Facebook the bookmarks will work.

Here is a video from Shahar and Nashlah of BuzzBooster.tv These guys are the perfect example of how to use the tools that are available to us all fairly inexpensively. They are walking the walk, if you want some help with your business get a hold of them.

Enjoy

Old School and New Toys

Here are my thoughts

This was originally posted on Nov 23rd 2009

The number of sold listings for Media One in the previous 12 months as of June 9th 2010 is 66. Again that is real good for an agent or two but not for a company.

Enjoy the video!

Don’t Forget to use the “Full Screen Option” down on the bottom right hand corner.

A few months ago, WellcomeMat conducted a survey in an effort to better understand both the challenges and benefits of using video marketing within the real estate vertical. Between the results of the survey and our own internal data collected over the course of 2006-2009, we’ve created the industry’s first formal report on video marketing. We are pleased to offer you a copy of this free report. In it, you will find numbers that we have kept very private since the beginning of WellcomeMat’s history (2006 through Q2, 2009). The Real Estate Video Report tackles hard questions that you might have including:

• Property Tours, Neighborhood/City Guides, News/Market Update Videos: What are the best types of videos to create?
• Should we hire professionals to produce videos, offer agents DIY (do-it-yourself) tools or both?
• How much is real estate video growing? Is video the new photo in real estate marketing?
• How is the game changing now that agents can upload videos straight from their mobile phones?

Ian Watt talking about using Social Media and how applies to real estate.

Here is Gary Vaynerchuk from Inman Connect

In case you were wondering if the web thing or social media is a real thing, check out the table below. Pretty cool. You can click on the “Now” button and reset to zero and check results based on a given time period.