After a very successful interview I asked Justin Williams to guest post here about Active Rain. So here we are, this is the 3rd installment of our quest for the top Social Media sites for Loan Officers! This is his follow-up post!
If you are new to blogging or new to the whole social networking concept, ActiveRain is a great place to start down your digital path to success as a Real Estate or Mortgage Professional.
Activerain is a Real Estate Social Network Site for Real Estate Professionals. They have a public consumer site called Localism. We are able to post blogs which can be syndicated to the Activerain Community as well as the Localism Community.
Below are 6 tips to start gaining free online exposure and networking relationships once you have signed up and made a profile on the site.
Introduce yourself - Now that you have made your profile, write your 1st blog post. Don’t worry about what to write just yet, if you can’t think of anything to write about, introduce yourself. Write a post about who you are; that you are new to the community.
Activerain has such a great community of friendly members. Before you know it you will have a lot of comments on your 1st post. You have now completed the most important part of getting your name out there.
Join Groups - Start joining as many groups as you can that you relate to your business and also the business of your target referral partners whether they are Realtors, Builders, Stagers, or Title Companies. The whole idea behind groups is: once you start blogging you can post your blogs to up to 5 groups for each post.
Groups can vary from off topic stuff, newbies, Realtors, Loan Officers etc. These are your target audience for your posts.
Research -The best way that I learned on how to maximize my blogging experience with Activerain is to read other blogger posts. Read the most active, and/or the bloggers with the most points. Discover what they are doing to attract readers and how they gained success.
Activerain is a huge center of information for success stories, tips/suggestions, and industry trends. You will be amazed at how much you can pick up just by reading blog posts from other members! Learn from what works and make it your own.
What to blog about? - This shouldn’t be too hard because mainly you want to write about being a Mortgage Expert in your area. Write about the latest trends in your market, market reports, new loan programs, guideline changes, etc. Your main topics should be focused on Mortgage financing but don’t make it bland, put some soul and personality in your posts!
Mortgage related topics have a bad rep for being the most boring topics to read. Don’t just copy and paste stats! Create a story, analogy, or metaphor; anything to grab the reader’s attention. Also don’t just limit your topics to Finance, write about what’s going on in your community. Establish yourself as the local Mortgage Expert. Write about your hobbies and interest. Whatever you do, stand out from the rest. People buy things from people they trust and like.
I write mainly about 3 things, Mortgages, Technology, and Personal/Local Events. Write topic ideas down! You will start getting a lot of great ideas but, maybe not have the time to write the entire blog post. Jot all your ideas and topics down for future use.
Reaching out - If you want to network, start reading other peoples blogs and comment on them. Start sharing ideas and success tips The bottom line in doing so is to get your name out to the community; if they see that you are an active and helpful member you have increased your chance of getting a contact from them. Success can come very quick or may take a while, either way you are planting seeds for the future. Keep getting your name out there in the online world, just like in the real world, success will surely follow.
Keep blogging - Write 1 blog a week, even if it’s just a success story! You will want to keep your online presence active and always growing. Blogging doesn’t have to take up all your time. Even 1-3 paragraph blogs can make powerful statements that help build your track record. This will assist you in getting more exposure.
In conclusion, these are just starter tips to help you gain success from Activerain. The best way to learn is to actually start doing it and engaging the community.
Social Media is becoming increasingly popular and many success stories have arisen from this avenue. Start taking advantage of the new era and start building your online presence before you are left in the dust with your competition.
We are in the process of updating Mad Mortgage World to create a more interactive and community based website. You might experience some issues with accessing content off and on, if you receive a login prompt, refresh and ignore it. Our email server is having issues. Once a new feature is released we will make a formal announcement on the homepage. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this might cause, however please trust us when we say the benefits and features being added completely outweigh the tiny issues you may experience now.
Interview with Nicole Nicolay
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