Leading Agent Real Estate Marketing Tools

Do you track results from your postcard marketing efforts? My guess is “no”

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Chris Leo

Now before you go getting yourself in a huff, and shout at your computer, “OF COURSE I TRACK MY POSTCARD MARKETING EFFORTS!!!”, take a breath and think about it. Do you really track your postcard marketing efforts?

What exactly do I mean by this? If your answer is “yes, I track my results”, but your way of tracking is by noting when you get a phone call from a mailing, or a listing appointment off a mailing, then you really aren’t tracking your results. At least not in an effective way that is going to allow you to hone and refine your marketing efforts, to yield the greatest results possible.

In the fifteen years I’ve been running Status 5 Studio, I am constantly amazed by how few Realtors® actually have a plan for tracking the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. It’s just a widely accepted norm, for the most part. Postcard campaigns seem to be the worst offender in this camp. The reason I find this amazing is because the Real Estate industry is the ONLY industry I can find that operates this way.

Even though we specialize in the Real Estate industry, we do a fair amount of marketing projects for high tech corporations as well. These corporations range from .com start ups, to established, Fortune 500 companies. If I were to pitch a project to one of these companies, and they were receptive to the idea, the very first question they would ask would be either a) how do we track results?, or b) how do we track our return on investment? If I didn’t have an answer to those questions, I would most likely get thrown out of the conference room and they would move on to the next marketing agency.

Everything you do in life has some sort of tracking. You join a gym to get in shape. Your overall change in physique and number the scale tells you are two ways you can track your progress. If you are training to run a half marathon, the amount of time it takes you to run that distance, from the day you start training, until the day of the race, tell you how well you have prepared. You have investment accounts with your financial adviser. The rate of return you get on those investments are detailed on monthly statements that are sent to you. You get my point. Everything in life has some sort of tracking. So why is it that your postcard marketing does not?

Why is tracking this stuff important anyways?

An effective way to track the response rates and results for your postcard mailings is important because:
• You can find out if your messages are being well received or falling on deaf ears
• You can do A&B testing of messages (to see what the most effective message is)
• You can pinpoint the issues most important to your prospects (thus further increasing your future response rates and the success of your business)
• Knowing that geographic farming takes some time to start generating results, at bare minimum, knowing “some people” are reading and/or responding to your message, will keep you from getting frustrated

Okay, so you believe me. Now, what do you do about it?

Okay, now, as I step down from my soap box, I am happy to tell you that there are many ways you can track the effectiveness of your postcard marketing campaigns. Some are very high tech, clean and easy. Others are low tech, and require elbow grease to pull off. Because we are a Real Estate Marketing agency that focuses on the tech side of the equation, I am going to discuss one way to track this, that is a high tech way. That is through the use of variable data printing and postcard capture code technology.

Our Leading Agent CRM and Marketing Tools come equipped with this technology, by default. Even if you don’t use our systems, there are two or three other companies in the Real Estate Marketing Industry that utilize some flavor of this technology. Here is how it works:

1) You send a postcard out to your farm area(s) that has a call to action on it.

2) The homeowner gets a postcard in the mail and it has instructions to go to your website and punch in offer code “xxxxx”, to get up to the minute market information for their specific neighborhood.

3) At your website, the homeowner punches in their offer code AND their email address. When they do so, they are directed to a map of THEIR neighborhood and a real-time listing of all the homes on the market in their neighborhood.

So you are giving something of value to the homeowners in your geo farm area. You are able to track the results of your postcard mailing campaigns, in real-time (thus giving you trackable metrics for this portion of your marketing efforts). Everybody wins.

Now don’t get me wrong. I know that “response rate” is simply the number of people that got your card and were willing to go to your website, and NOT the number of people that gave you actual business. But think of the power of this type of a set up:

-You are organically growing your email database (homeowners are supplying you with their email address when they punch in the offer code)

-You get peace of mind that your messages are being received

-Because the system uses variable data printing, you can segment your mailing list and easily try a few different calls to action, across your database, giving you a true idea of the messages and topics that are most important to your farm area(s), thus giving you a leg up on the competition

-If your back end system is anything like our Leading Agent CRM System, you’ll have access to a wealth of drip follow up campaigns that will give you more opportunities to communicate with homeowners, cultivate your relationships, and further test the messages and content that is most important to them.

These days, marketing is more science than art. The beautiful thing about the time we are living in, is that there are MANY affordable ways to leverage this “science” and benefit from it, in ways that were never before possible. As with all things, there is a little bit of a learning and planning curve. But, if you aren’t doing these things, I can guarantee that someone in your marketplace is. And one day, if you continue to ignore this stuff, they will eat your lunch. We don’t want that, do we?

If you want to learn more, ask questions, or find out about other great ways you can track the results of your postcard marketing campaigns, contact me. If you like my posts and want to learn more about Real Estate Marketing, our Leading Agent Marketing System, and how we might be able to help you get to the next level, subscribe to our blog, below:

Posted in Leading Agent Smart Marketing, Marketing 101 | Tagged geographic farming, leading agent smart marekting, postcard capture codes, postcard farming, postcard marketing, postcard return on investment, Real Estate, Real Estate Marketing | Leave a comment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Leading Agent To Launch Real Estate 3.0

Posted on February 20, 2012 by admin

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Sunnyvale, CA February 20, 2012: – Status 5 Studio Incorporated and their Leading Agent Real Estate Marketing Team today announced they are gearing up to launch a currently top secret offering called Real Estate 3.0. Though they were unable to comment on what exactly the new offering would bring to the Real Estate Industry, they were able to explain that the offering will solve many of the industry’s most pressing problems, primarily that of being able to effectively get in front of prospects, grab their attention and retain that attention.

President and CEO of Status 5 Studio, Christopher Leo stated, “This is a game changer. Realtors are having more and more trouble getting in front of and keeping the attention of their perspective clients. This stands to reason, due to mass media, the Zillows and Movoto’s of the world, and the vast array of free information that is available to homeowners, without the need to involve a Realtor®”.

Leo went on to note, “This is a critical time for Realtors® and the Real Estate Industry as a whole. Our offering makes a pivot, putting the Realtor® back in the driver seat again, and allowing them to interact with prospective clients, in a way that is currently just not possible.”

When pressed for elaboration of what exactly the offering includes, Leo declined to offer any more information, other than, “This is a game changer”.

Real Estate 3.0 is slated to launch in the beginning part of the 2nd quarter, 2012. In the meantime, you can rest assured that the Status 5 Studio marketing team will be peppering everyone with compelling teaser videos and highlights of what’s to come.

Here is one of their latest videos, that was just uploaded to their YouTube Channel this past weekend:

About Status 5 Studio, Incorporated and the Leading Agent Real Estate Marketing Suite:
Status 5 Studio’s Leading Agent Real Estate Marketing Suite combines the best in both new and traditional media. Our one of a kind marketing, Website, CRM, Real Estate Business Practice Management, and Social Media Management systems help agents pinpoint leads, build relationships and effectively close more business than ever before. Our systems are effective, measurable, and generate results.

Posted in Leading Agent Smart Marketing, Press Releases | Tagged geographic farming, Leading Agent, postcards, real estate marekting, real estate marketing plans, realtors, smart marketing, websites | Leave a comment

3 Features EVERY Realtor® should have on their website

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Chris Leo

Do you have a website for your Real Estate practice? You most certainly do, right? But do you really have a website?

What do I mean by this? Simple. What I mean is, is your website an interactive destination that gives clients and perspective clients a reason to come back to your site frequently? Does your site have lots of useful content that search engines will index? OR, is your site nothing more than an “online brochure” that includes MLS Search?

When we have a new, perspective client drop into our office, or schedule a webinar for a consultation, we’re finding that more often than not, Realtors® simply have a glorified “online brochure” and NOT a Real Estate website.

“What could be wrong with simply giving the general public information about yourself, and an easy to use MLS search”, you ask? Technically nothing. But, the truth is that a website such as that offers nothing unique that will make you stand out from the rest of the crowd and certainly gives nothing to a prospect that they can’t easily find on one of hundreds of websites (including your local MLS’ website).

If you have one of these websites, fear not! We have a few tips how you can turn your “online brochure” around and make it the destination of choice for homeowners that are interested in buying or selling property in your marketplace.

1) Ineractivity Is The Name Of The Game
We’ve been designing Real Estate Websites for quite some time. One thing that we consistently see in a perspective client’s existing web solution is a surprising lack of interactivity. What do I mean by this? The agent may have a contact page that details their phone number and email address, but that’s about it. There are no capture forms anywhere to be found on the site, no compelling calls to action to collect a perspective client’s information, and no tools that allow website visitors to easily share content on the site with their friends that might be interested in an agent’s services.

So basically the agent has no way to track who has been to their website, and has no hope of generating any leads from their website. This is tantamount to meeting a prospect when you are out in the field, and then handing them a business card that doesn’t have any of your contact information. You would never do that, right? Then why would you have a website that doesn’t allow people to interact with you?

Ask them for their information
There are many ways you can make your site more interactive and make it generate leads for you. Some are easy and some are more complex. The first, and perhaps easiest interactive element to your website is what is called a “web to lead form”. These forms should be placed throughout your website. The idea is to ask a visitor for their information, with the promise of giving them something in return. For instance, perhaps a free home evaluation, a free report, or even something like a listing alert sign up form. These forms should be different from page to page, specifically targeting the opportunity to give a visitor more information about whatever that specific page is related to. With the use of hidden fields in the form, you can pass information through that will tell you specifically what page the visitor was on, when they submitted their web to lead form.

Remember: Web surfers are impatient
One interactive feature we put into many of the websites we design for Realtors® is the ability for the website visitor to get in touch with the Realtor® immediately. The truth is that while web to lead forms are helpful, in all reality, you have about two (2) minutes to get in touch with the visitor, before they leave your site and move on to another agent’s site, in pursuit of getting the information they desire. This is the human nature of a web surfer.

By installing click to call, or click to chat features in a Realtor’s® website, we can vastly change the game, and keep that web visitor on the site and engaged. For instance, take the click to chat feature. A visitor can type a question to the Realtor® and, and the Realtor® is instantly notified that someone wants to speak with them. We set things up so there is a desktop client that works on the Realtor’s® computer, when they are in the office working, AND also a smartphone application that works while they are out in the field. The notifications pop up, just like a text message, and the Realtor® can converse with the website visitor in “real time”.

Does a feature like this work? You bet it does. I can actually speak from experience. We just finished a very lucrative project for a Real Estate team in Delaware, that is going to include a ton of ongoing work as well. My offices are based in California. The broker that found our services on the web, did so at 8AM or so, Eastern time. When she called our office (5AM in California), of course nobody was there to answer the phone. Rather than move onto the next guy, she happened to notice that we had “click to chat” capabilities on our website, and because I was up and getting ready to go to the gym, I had already activated it, stating we were online to help people.

I got the notification, got her info and set up a webinar to demonstrate our services, for later that morning, when I got in the office. A perfect example of how interactivity can work in your favor.

Help people help others, and therefore help yourself
It is important to remember that some visitors to your website, are not visiting for themselves, but for others. This is especially true when inventory is low and competition is high for listings. For instance, maybe your son or daughter is looking for a home and having no luck. In the evenings, while watching TV, perhaps you go online and look for homes in areas they want to move to, to help them out.

By putting sharing buttons on your site, visitors can easily take pages, listings or blog posts they find interesting, and share them with those they are helping, or even on their social media walls. By making things easy for people to share, you set yourself up for extra opportunities to get business.

Even more, with a little creative web programming, and the use of a social media management panel, such as our Status 5 Social Media Management tool, hootsuite, or many other offerings, you can tag those sharing links to track specifically who is sharing those things on your site and who they are sharing them with, giving you extra opportunities to communicate with prospects.

2) Get Hyper Local
Another common problem we see with Realtor’s® websites is that they are not tailored to their specific marketplace. If your website is deemed by potential clients as “not pertinent to their marketplace”, they are going to immediately leave your site and move on to another one that suits their needs. You do not want this.

One easy way to avoid this problem is with the use of Neighborhood Guides. Neighborhood guides can be a fantastic way to demonstrate your marketplace knowledge, and keep people on your website, investigating areas they may be interested in moving to. Even more, you can make them interactive. Many of the sites we design for agents include things like interactive neighborhood maps that are tied to MLS Maps with listings, school maps, walk score maps, etc. All these features will make your site hyper local, making any visitor stop to review your site and hopefully contact you for your services.

An added bonus to neighborhood guides is the fact that they make your website “sticky”. Search engines love content. Content specific pages (e.g. pages devoted to specific neighborhoods throughout the cities you serve), get crawled and indexed by search engines, such as Google, making your site appear in the top rankings.

3) Don’t Abandon Your Website
Perhaps the biggest mistake we find in Realtor’s® websites is the fact that they create it, leave it online and simply forget about it. If a prospect knows that nothing on your site is ever updated and there will never be any new information for them, they will not visit your site more than once or twice.

Even worse, if a search engine, like Google crawls your site, and then the next time they do so, find that there is no new content, they are going to extend the amount of time, before they crawl it again. This hurts your page ranking and the possibility of you showing up in a web search.

Things like blogs, news feeds related to the market(s) you serve, and enhanced featured listing pages (served on your website, NOT the virtual tour company’s site, that feature photos, video and listing info), will keep people coming back to your site often, increasing the possibility of you capturing that person as a client.

These are just three, attainable things you can do to improve your website. Sound interesting? Need help implementing these things? Did you like these three tips and want to learn more? Contact Us Today for a Free, no obligation consultation and we’d be more than happy to discuss your options.

Posted in Real Estate Websites | Tagged custom real estate websites, Leading Agent, listing alert, MLS Search, neighborhood guides, online brochures, Real Estate Marketing, real estate websites, realtor websites, Reatlor | Leave a comment

3 Reasons You CANNOT Ignore Postcard Marketing To Your Geographic Farms

Posted on February 6, 2012 by admin

One of the things I find fascinating about working with Realtors® is the way that their world is full of absolutes. One of the most interesting ones I frequently see is when a Realtor® tells us, “I’m going to stop doing xxx in my marketing and instead do xxx”.

These days, perhaps the most common one is, “I’m cutting my postcard marketing and going to do email marketing instead”.

Given the state of the economy, and considering that many Realtors® have had to cut back on their marketing budgets, this is somewhat understandable. Things like email marketing and social media are new and attractive. One of the things that makes them even more attractive is the fact that these initiatives are VERY inexpensive and in some cases free.

That said though, I suggest that Realtors® should take a stance of “in combination with”, rather than “in place of”, when selecting marketing vehicles. I state this for three reasons:

#1 You Should Use Your Print Marketing To Organically Grow Your Electronic Marketing Database

Unless you have purchased an email list to market to (and if you’ve done this, STOP IT. It’s illegal and ineffective), you need to find ways to grow your email list. One great way to do this is through postcard marketing.

To do this simply use variable data printed capture codes on your postcards. There are a few Real Estate Marketing Print providers, including our Leading Agent Real Estate Marketing system that offer this type of service. How it works is this:

-The homeowner gets a postcard in the mail and it has instructions to go to your website and punch in offer code “xxxxx”, to get up to the minute market information for their specific neighborhood.

-At your website, the homeowner punches in their offer code AND their email address. When they do so, they are directed to a map of THEIR neighborhood and a real-time listing of all the homes on the market in their neighborhood.

So you are giving something of value to the homeowners in your geo farm area, AND you are organically growing your email database, thus expanding your reach. A side bonus to this is also that you are able to track the results of your postcard mailing campaigns, in real-time (thus giving you trackable metrics for this portion of your marketing efforts).

#2 People Respond To Different Types Of Things At Different Times Of Day

Social media email marketing is “interactive marketing”. Postcard marketing on the other hand is “reactive marketing”. Both types of marketing are important, because there is no “one size fits all” type of marketing solution that reaches everyone.

For instance, I might be at work all day, dealing with email, looking at social media, etc. BUT, when I get home, I might want to just plop down on the couch, read my mail, a magazine, or watch some TV. If I’m that type of person, and you are trying to reach me at my home, without a postcard campaign, you would never get to me.

#3 Print Is Still Important Because It Directs People To Your Online Efforts

One thing that you should always keep in mind is that the internet is MASSIVE. While your SEO efforts and your social media efforts will help people find you online, postcards are also a perfect vehicle to point people in the right direction, where they can go online and learn more about you and your services.

If you ask me today if postcards are always going to be around and if Realtor’s® will always be farming geographic neighborhoods with them, I suppose I’d have to say eventually everything changes. Just look at the newspaper industry and how turbulent and troublesome it’s been for those guys.

That fact though is that the saying, “Everything in Moderation” applies here. There is no “one size fits all” solution for your marketing efforts. Being successful in Real Estate requires doing many things, CONSISTENTLY, and working hard. This is one of the reasons that Real Estate is hard. If it were easy, and there was just one single thing you had to do, to be successful, everyone would become Realtors®.

Posted in Leading Agent Smart Marketing, Marketing 101 | Tagged email marketing, geographic farming, postcard mailings, postcard marketing, postcards, Real Estate Marketing, Realtor, Realtor Marketing, social media marketing | Leave a comment

ATTN Realtors: Stop Ignoring LinkedIn – 3 AMAZING Tips To Maximize your LinkedIn Presence

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Chris Leo

I know it sounds funny right? After all, if you go to LinkedIn and do a search for Real Estate , at the time I’m writing this post, you’ll get back 1,515,181 results. So it’s safe to say that Realtors aren’t ignoring LinkedIn, right? Okay, you caught me there.

But, what I can say is that with that many results, by and large, Realtors® are missing the boat when it comes to LinkedIn and it’s potential. We took a turn through about 100 Realtor’s ® LinkedIn pages, before deciding to write this article. While of course we aren’t going to give you screenshots and call out any one Realtor® in particular, as that would be unethical (yeah, we think it sucks too But we have to be professional about things), we will give you some things to avoid, and also some tips on things to definitely strive to achieve.

RULE #1: If you are going to have a LinkedIn page, DON’T ignore it

This seems pretty basic, right? Well, you wouldn’t believe how many Realtor’s® pages we came across that either weren’t set up all the way, or had been dormant for months. People, even though LinkedIn is a “business networking” site, it’s still social media. Even if you don’t ever pay any attention to LinkedIn and think it doesn’t matter, if you have an account on LinkedIn, people that do think it matters are going to visit your page. If they see you haven’t finished your profile, or they see you haven’t logged in, or posted anything recently, they are not going to take you seriously.

Can you really afford to have people think you aren’t serious about your Real Estate Practice?

Rule #2: Get Involved

This one isn’t so much things we’ve seen people do wrong, as much as things people are constantly asking us about. Every time we do a consultation with a potential client, part of the Leading Agent Marketing System we present is social media management. Everybody has heard of linkedIn, but short of networking with their colleagues, most Realtors® we meet with have no idea how to use LinkedIn as a tool that can help them get more business.

The number one thing you can do, to derive more leads and potential business, is to get involved. There are two ways to do this and both involve LinkedIn groups.

Way #1: Join groups that have members that are your potential clients. Think about your niche. Who do you represent? Are you a relo agent that deals mostly with High Tech people? Are you an agent that works with a major university, helping faculty and staff buy homes? Or are you an agent that seems to always be working with an entrepreneur? No matter what type of agent you are, I would venture to say that there is a group that has your potential client base as members.

Once you join these groups, get involved. Remember, this IS social media, so you get what you put into it. Spend a few minutes every day, reviewing the posts and looking for people that need your advice. I guarantee something will come up. When you see it, respond to the person, as detailed as you can, with any free advice you have to offer. Remember this: Givers Gain. If you help them out with whatever question they have, they WILL remember you, and will think of you when the time comes to buy or sell property.

Way #2: Start your own LinkedIn group. This one does require work, but the benefits far outweigh the potential downfalls. Let’s say for instance that you are a Realtor® that specializes in the Silicon Valley and primarily deals with high tech executives. Start a group that focuses on the Silicon Valley Real Estate Market. You can post statistics, market trends, and give your synopsis of the market. Basically, post those things that you think your followers will most like. After all, most high tech executives are very analytical people, and stats and market reviews will be right up their alley.

This sounds like work, BUT there is a huge pay out. That pay out is this: If you are the moderator for a LinkedIn group, you get to send one email message to EVERY member of your group, per week, and it’s guaranteed that it will be 100% deliverable. That is FREE online marketing. That is priceless.

The more helpful you are to people, giving them content they want, the more your group will grow and the further your reach will go. Not bad for a free tool.

Rule #3: Improve Your Search Ranking

Obviously everyone these days is wildly aware of SEO and making sure their website is following the greatest number of rules possible, to guarantee top placement on search engines. What we find though are many Realtors® who don’t know that LinkedIn kind of works the same way.

The best part though is that it is so much easier to optimize your LinkedIn profile, compared to your website. You only need to focus on three key areas:

1) Edit Your Professional Headline to have Keywords: If you put into headline, your main keywords, things that describe your services, focus, or abilities, this will help you when people search LinkedIn.

The fact is that when someone is looking for someone to help them with their need, if they are a LinkedIn member, before they go to Google, they are going to go to LinkedIn. After all, the results they get off a LinkedIn search allow them to find out how they are connected to the person in the search result, read about their professional profile, and even read reviews of the person and their services. All nice and tidy in one clean spot.

2) Put your keyword competencies in your Profile Summary: This basically is necessary for the same reasons as I listed in item #1. If you put them here, it will help get you better rankings in the LinkedIn searches.

3) If possible, put your key competencies in your current, as well as your past job experience listings: Again, for the same reasons as above. This again will help bolster your search results.

Does this really work? Yes it does. I know you all know us for our Leading Agent Real Estate Marketing services, but what many of you don’t know is that we also do marketing for restaurants. It’s a newer offering, compared to the Real Estate stuff, so I figured it would be great to use a relatively “unknown offering” as a test case.

Today, the day I am writing this article, I decided to test this keyword process. Specifically, the terms Restaurant Rewards and Marketing. I put the necessary key words into all the sections I described above and immediately did a search on LinkedIn for Restaurant Marketing. As you will see, we come up second on the search list.

While second listing is amazing, I think it’s important to note that the result happened IMMEDIATELY, after I made the changes to my profile, and not after months, like many SEO changes require to develop on search engines. LinkedIn gives you the ability to “tweak” your profile and gauge the results in “real time”. That is very powerful.

So I think you get the point. For this article, I chose just the three biggest things I thought I could help you with. The truth is there are many more that will get you where you need to be and help you gain in ways you never imagined possible. Want to see more tips? Keep an eye out on the Leading Agent Blog for future updates. Too impatient for new posts? Contact us today, and we would be more than happy to chat with you, give you a free, no obligation consultation, and get you on your way.

May the force be with you!

Posted in Marketing 101, Social Media Marketing | Tagged Leading Agent, linkedin, LinkedIn Groups, LinkedIn Ranking, real estate marekting, Realtor LinkedIn Pages, seo, social media management, Status 5 Studio | Leave a comment

Five Tips For Making Your Real Estate Practice More Social

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Chris Leo

What message does your Real Estate practice convey to your fans and prospects that are socially engaged?

Agent’s can no longer choose to use “planned or scripted” messages such as “I’m the top 1%”, or “Neighborhood “x” Real Estate Specialist”. They also cannot choose to simply ignore social media all together. Socially engaged prospects want you to effectively demonstrate to them what you are all about, while interacting with them across social media.

What does your message really say? Is it consistent, compelling and confident? To market effectively in the social realm, you have to have to have a consistent brand voice. Here are five ways to share your message comfortably and confidently:

1) Determine Your Brand Personality
Virtually every agent we have worked with has grown their Real Estate practice, one client at a time, over a long period of time. Over this time, they have gained a reputation for how they conduct their business and what a potential client can expect by working with them.

Identifying your distinctive traits and the reasons prospects choose to use you as their Realtor® is key to determining your brand voice. Are you a serious professional? Do you specialize in first time buyers? Are you a quirky Realtor® known for dealing with hard to sell properties?

One good way to determine your brand personality is to compare yourself and your Real Estate practice to a major corporation. Are you a Land Rover, or a Prius? A Fairmont Hotel, or a Holiday Inn?

Defining your character in this exercise will help you speak with greater conviction.

#2 Identify Your True Audience
One of the problems with social media is that there are SO MANY people interacting with each other, if you don’t identify your audience, your message risks falling on deaf ears, and your social media efforts will fail.

Make sure you know your audience. For example, do you primarily do relocation for professors of a medical school or law school of a major University? Or, do you focus on young couples, buying a home for the first time?

Pinpointing your audience will help you pick the right channels to speak to your perspective clients. The relocation agent, for instance might focus their campaign on LinkedIn, while the first time home buyer agent may focus their campaign on platforms like Facebook and Google+.

3) Develop A Consistent Tone
With any brand or marketing channel, consistency is king. You MUST be sure to convey a familiar tone when you communicate across your social media channels. There is no right or wrong way to speak. Just be yourself and be congruent.

It would seem strange if you spoke very authoritatively on your LinedIn page, then posted Anne Frank quotes on your Twitter page and uploaded CollegeHumor.com video clips on your YouTube channel. This “multiple personality” style of brand management WILL NOT work.

If you have an assistant, or colleague that is helping you manage your social media, make sure you both have a firm understanding of your brand personality and write from that point of view.

#4 Timing Is Everything
Knowing when to speak is crucial to yourself being seen as “an influencer” in your marketplace. Commenting on things too soon, or waiting too long can make you seem out of touch with social media.

There are many tools that can help you with this. Setting Google Alerts on key subjects that are important to your marketplace can help you remain informed and on top of issues. There are also social media management tools, such as our Social.Status5 brand management/social media console that can help you with this as well.

No matter what you choose to monitor things, having this material on hand, in a timely fashion will allow you to participate regularly with prospects in your marketplace, without seeming like you are under, or over communicating.

Timely and regular contributions to your social media channels demonstrate that you are actually “in business”. If your last blog post or social media update was six months ago, that speaks volumes to potential clients.

#5 Practice Makes Perfect
Nothing builds confidence faster and better than practice. The fortunate thing for you is that the internet provides many opportunities to fine tune and perfect your brand voice. Don’t get overwhelmed. Start with one channel (e.g. your blog, or facebook fan page), begin building it out, showing your voice and marketplace expertise, and then move on to the next channel, expanding your brand reach.

As they say, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, and neither will your brand reach. Knowing your brand personality and audience though, and speaking consistently, at the right times, while constantly honing your message will improve your brand voice and strengthen your identity. By following these five simple guidelines, you’ll feel more at ease, speaking more congruently to your prospects, in “their language”, that they can understand.