The Optimized Agent

Seize the Opportunity: The Hobbyists Are Leaving

Clearly, the real estate bubble has popped and we are in the down cycle.  No surprise here, really, because everything economic always cycles up and down.  The survivors figure out how to deal with it.

This post isn't about doom and gloom.  It's about how present circumstances are creating a huge opportunity for those who seize it.  Let me explain.

The last major real estate down cycle we saw was from 1991 through 1997.  I was curious about what happened to the real estate agent force during that period, so I went to the NAR Web site to see what information they had.  Turns out they provide detailed NAR membership statistics for more than the last 30 years. 

I downloaded both national and state-by-state membership statistics into a spreadsheet, and then added some calculations to help analyze what was going on during that period, and to project what history might tell us about the future.  The chart summarizing the history and projections is right here (click it to enlarge).

First, let me orient you to the national portion of the chart. 

• The years are in row 1. 
• Total National NAR Membership, year-by-year, is in row 2. 
• The actual national agent membership loss for each year is in row 3. 
• The national percentage membership gain or loss is in row 4.
• The total percentage of national membership loss for the entire down cycle period is in cell G5.
• The projected national membership loss is in cell H6.

I did a separate analysis of the same issues for California; because I live here, it has the biggest NAR state membership, and it demonstrates what can happen in a down cycle when extraordinary factors are added in.  California's extraordinary factor during this period was the ending of the Cold War and the negative impact that had on aerospace contracts.

So now, let me orient you to the California portion of the chart.

• The years are in row 7. 
• Total California NAR Membership, year-by-year, is in row 8. 
• The actual California agent membership loss for each year is in row 9. 
• The California percentage of membership gain or loss is in row 10.
• The total percentage of California membership loss for the entire down cycle period is in cell G11.
• The projected California membership loss is in cell H13.

Observations

On a national level, the downturn really wasn't all that bad over eight years; only 12.98%.  Compare that to the increase in national NAR membership (cell H2) over the next nine years; it almost doubled! 

Oh, but California; what a shock that was.  41.06% (cell G11) left the business during the downturn.  Then, amazingly, membership way more than doubled (compare cell G8 to cell H8) in the next nine years.  Talk about a manic depressive state!  :>)

The questions to ask yourself now are:

• Are you in a location where the downturn won't be severe; or very severe?
• Are there any extraordinary market conditions locally that could make your downturn more severe?

Some would argue that the mortgage meltdown is an extraordinary circumstance that could make the real estate business much more difficult, for an extended period of time, for everyone, everywhere.  That's your call.

So Where's the Opportunity In All This?

Ironically, the bigger the membership loss is, the bigger the opportunity for surviving agents.

There are a huge number of agents in the real estate industry whom I call hobbyists.  They don't really run their business like a business (i.e. with significant planning, investment, marketing and systems).  They simply rely on their existing relationships for business (i.e. their immediate family and friends).  That clearly won't be enough to sustain them in a down market.

The Hobbyists were already finding the bar to doing business being raised beyond their reach; what with Internet marketing technologies, competitive pressures on commissions, and all.  Now that the market has turned, huge numbers of them will be forced to leave the business entirely.  History shows that that happened before; and it projects that it will happen again (maybe in even greater percentages this time).

So what does this all mean for the survivors?  It means that there is an enormous opportunity to salvage the relationships that the hobbyists would otherwise be leaving behind.  It means that the survivors who do this successfully will not only survive this current downturn in style, but will position themselves for fantastic gains when the market inevitably turns upward again.

How can a survivor agent accomplish this relationship salvage operation?  Answer:  Turn the departing hobbyists into strong referral sources.  Offer to reward them for any business generated from any email databases they share with you.  Ask them to introduce you via one of your emails. Let them notify their relationships that they are leaving the business, but leaving them in very good hands.  Nurture these databases with automated 33 Touch campaigns (ala "The Millionaire Real Estate Agent", i.e. MREA).  Invite the departed agent to continue to make posts in your emailings from time to time; this will help keep a warm connection going.

This is definitely a Win/Win proposition.  Departing agents can still monetize their relationships without having to do any real work; and you can build a much larger "Met" email database, almost over-night.  Building a very large, warm and fuzzy "Met" email database will enable you to do massive automated marketing campaigns which cost next to nothing.

Just think about the MREA model; you know; two transactions from every 12 names in your Met database per year.  Go ahead; bring some cheer to your departing agent friends; they'll welcome it. 

Tip for departing agents; only buddy up with agents who are actually prepared to take the very best care of your treasured relationships.  You'll be taking good care of those relationships, and you won't be leaving money on the table.

Lead Generation

For many real estate agents it seems that their concept of "lead generation" is something akin to playing lotto.  Place the right ad, in the right space, at just the right time, and you win the transaction.  No wonder so many of them go broke playing this game.

Its all about relationships people.  Lead generation, if you want to call it that, is all about attracting responses; then nurturing them to the point where there is sufficient trust to do business.

Trust is the natural result of repeated, escalating contacts wherein both parties recognize mutual benefit potential through communications that naturally build credibility and confidence.  That sentence is a mouthful, to be sure, but when you fully understand it, you'll be well on your way to much more effective lead generation.

What's the key to attracting responses?  Make information offers that you know your target prospects will find easy-to-say-yes-to.

What's the key to nurturing relationships?  Continue making information offers that escalate in intimacy. 

For example, your first offer might be to show current listings, without any cost, obligation or sharing of personal information; that would be an easy-to-say-yes-to offer for most buyers to accept. 

Your next offer might be to save the search profile and automatically send all future listings that fit the profile.  This would escalate the intimacy of the relationship, because in order to accept this offer the potential buyer would have to provide, at the very least, an email address.

The next series of offers might be more information about local lifestyles, schools, shopping, health care and anything else that would help the potential buyer visualize living in the community.

Or it could be a series of escalating offers about financing the home purchase; you know, online calculators, current mortgage rates, lender requirements, loan shopping, etc.

The trick is to keep inviting your prospect back to high value information that you control on your own Web site.  Over time these offers will position you in the prospect's mind as one who is very knowledgeable, skillful and a high level performer in all things real estate.  Year after year NAR surveys show that perceptions of agents' knowledge, skill and performance are the most important agent selection criteria.

When you think about lead generation in real estate; think courting.  You know, the tentative first meeting.  The awkward line of questioning until sufficient mutual interest is discovered.  The escalating series of offers; coffee, lunch, dinner, day-trip . . .etc.  The acceptance of each offer enables more time spent together, more sharing, greater intimacy. 

Do all that long enough and, well, serious and meaningful relationships will develop.  Continuing a futile search for just the right, "Hi!  Will you marry me?", kind of line is just going to get you smacked.

Want more leads?  Then set a system up to make a lot more easy-to-say-yes-to offers, to a whole lot more people, on a regular and continuing basis.  Here are a whole lot of free offers that will show you how.

Real Estate Agent Marketing Survey

Here's something you can add to your blog to increase interest.

Try taking this survey, then get your own Quibblo account; it's free.

Real Estate Agent Marketing Survey

Survey by Quibblo

Guerilla Relationship Marketing

Guerilla Strategy:  Leverage existing networks

Example: Adult Baseball League

I asked my client what he liked to do in his free time.  He explained that he enjoyed playing adult league baseball; been doing it for 15 years.  I asked about the numbers; i.e. how many on a team, how many teams in the league?  Average team:  15 players; 18 teams in the league; that's 270 players in the network.

We started brainstorming ways to get the attention of all those players.  My client suggested a special tournament, with donated  prizes.  To make it happen:

• He'd have to make contact with the owners of the largest businesses in town to solicit prizes.  Since these businesses would be getting exposure among players who are their potential customers, that wouldn't be too hard; especially if he went after car dealers and sporting goods stores.
• He'd have to have to make a live presentation and pass out flyers to each team announcing the tournament.  Of course the flyers would have his picture, logo and contact information on them.  And he'd have to spend time hanging around afterwards joking around with the players; oh, well.
• He'd have to get an email database from the league so he could communicate the standings directly with all the players.  Since he'd be running the tournament and managing the standings; that would be no problem.  Of course all the "standings" communications would have his branding on them.

Sounds like a lot of work, and it is; but here's the motivation:

• It's a great excuse to get in front of 270 like minded people on a regular basis.  There's nothing like frequent and consistent contact to help build relationships.
• It's a great way to demonstrate caring, competence and leadership; the keys to drawing people to you.
• It's a great excuse to put his name in front of 270 people for months on end; and have acquire an email database available for future marketing ideas.
• It's a great way to meet and establish relationships with other leaders in the community.
• Oh, and it would be a whole lot of fun to play in the tournament and give away prizes.

Now, let's look at what this Guerilla Relationship Building Campaign means from a real estate agent's marketing perspective:

• On average, 10% of homeowners move every year.  That means there are 27 potential listings and home purchases in this pool every year
• Everybody in the pool is related to, works with or is friends with at least 3 people who are close enough to talk about their moving plans.  That's a potential 810 referral contacts from this pool; 81 of whom are also moving every year.
• Each listing (from this pool of well over 100 potential listings) provides an opportunity to meet at least six potential buyers; many of whom do not already have agents.
• If "The Millionaire Real Estate Agent" model is correct, i.e. marketing to Mets = 2 transactions, per 12 names, per year (and my clients say the model is conservative) then maintaining close relationships with this network of people should net 45 transactions every year going forward (270/12 * 2 = 45).

To learn more about ways to automate this kind of marketing check out the posts in the ActiveRain Group:  RE Systems Integration.

Now baseball may not be your thing.  How about Chambers of Commerce, Women's groups, Ski Clubs, or Youth sports?  None of those float your boat?   Then head to the library and check out the "Encyclopedia of Associations" behind the reference desk.  You'll be amazed at the tens of thousands of associations that exist.  If you can think of it; odds are there are people already banding together to do it in associations.

Find an association that fits you, then figure out how to leverage it.  That's how to do Guerilla Relationship Marketing.

Guerilla Relationship Marketing 2

If you buy into my suggestion in my first Guerilla Relationship Marketing post (i.e. to leverage existing networks), then here's something else you should know.

When I first became an independent marketing and systems consultant (over 15 years ago) I joined my local Chamber of Commerce.  They had a dozen standing committees and numerous events each month; all great opportunities to meet new people and network.

I observed that sometimes these contacts led to fairly quick business, and other times they did not.  Being the compulsive analyzer that I am, I resolved to figure out the dynamics at play so I could make improvements.  Here is what I learned:

• If I went to a meeting and said nothing to no-one; nothing at all happened.
• If I went to a meeting and spoke to the issues of the meeting; occasionally people would catch me after the meeting to chat a little.  Once in awhile those chats even led to business.

If I went to a meeting and volunteered to help with the work of the committee a few things happened:

• More people would catch me to chat
• A few people would ask me for advice
• A few of those people would become my clients

When I created my own marketing committee, set the agenda's, and led the meetings:

• Even more people would ask for advice
• Even more became my clients

Based on this experience, observations and analysis I've boiled success in networking down to three keys:

1. Demonstrate Caring

If you're not going to speak up at a meeting, you might as well not even go.  People need to see and hear you demonstrate that you care about the same things that they do.  Speaking up breaks the ice and makes it easier for them to reach out to you.

2. Demonstrate Competence

If people can see you demonstrate competence in some minor or side activity, they conclude that you must be even more competent in your regular business.  Demonstrating competence will definitely draw more people to you.  Also, the circumstances in which you demonstrate your competence often cause you to have more interactions with those who are also demonstrating their competence.  This extra contact and shared experience  increases the relationship bonds and makes it even easier for you to talk real estate.

3. Demonstrate Leadership

If you really want to supercharge your networking, then observe some needs that you are especially well qualified to do something about; then do something about them.  Recruit helpers.  Publicize your activity.  Get results.  If you do those things you'll definitely find more people gravitating toward you and asking for your help with their real estate transactions.

So get out there, find an association that fits; and demonstrate your caring, competence and leadership.

P.S.  If you've got a story that demonstrates these principles in action, please share it here; everyone will appreciate it.

Hi! Will you marry me?

How well is this approach working for him?  Bet he gets slapped a lot. This post is about a natural and more effective way to build relationships.

Remember back to when you first started courting? You knew what you wanted, but somehow you learned not to just blurt it out upon meeting someone. You took a little time. You got to know each other first. You found common areas of interest you could relate to.

With time and repeated contacts; in person, on the phone, in notes and letters; the relationship began to grow. Eventually, the relationship reached a point where you could talk about those things that seemed too abrupt in the beginning, without much discomfort on either of your parts at all.

But for some strange reason, when it comes to business and selling, we tend to forget everything we learned about building relationships naturally and comfortably.  Instead we behave as if some different kind of relationship building process applies.

We throw out our names, proclaim how terrific we are, then immediately ask our prospects to, in effect, marry us.  Sort of like that cartoon above.

We ignore all we've learned about relationship building from our families, friendships and work relationships.  In it's place we substitute overly aggressive, impersonal and egocentric behaviors, then wonder what went wrong.

No wonder sales people deal with so much rejection!

Business relationships are really no different from any other human relationships. They all have to be built the same way.  The most effective lead generation and sales communications are designed to facilitate the following five natural relationship building elements.

The Five Natural Relationship Building Elements

1. Make Contact

You must make contact with a person, or there is no chance for a relationship to build. Invariably, more than one contact is needed. Miller and Heiman in their classic sales training book entitled, "Strategic Selling" conducted national surveys to determine that successful sales people typically sell after their fifth contact with a prospect.  They further observed that since ninety percent of all sales people give up after the first contact, it turns out that only 10% of the sales people in America generate 90% of all the sales.

Contacts can be made on the phone, on the Web, in email, in letters, in brochures, at public meetings, in seminars, in small groups or one on one.  Generally, a combination of contact types is desirable.  Remember, you had coffee, and then a movie, then lots of alone time before you felt comfortable talking about marriage.

When planning your marketing communications keep this need for an escalating series of contacts in mind. If you make each contact easy to say yes to, you'll find it easier and more natural to move your prospects along toward the client-hood.

2. Discover Mutual Interest

Remember this initial courting scenario?  Initially there was a rapid series of questions along the lines of:

• Where are you from?
• Where did you go to school?
• What do you do for a living?
• What are your hobbies?
• Who do you know that I know?
• Seen any good movies lately?
• Heard any good music lately?
• What's your favorite restaurant?

That exchange was all about finding mutual interests.  If you found them, the relationship escalated.  If you failed to find them, relationship building stopped.

In business, just because you can have contact with someone doesn't mean you'll be able to develop a relationship. There must also be recognition of mutual interests.

When someone perceives that they really need or want what you've got, they'll naturally grow closer to you.  When you perceive that someone really is a good fit for what you're selling, you'll naturally grow closer to them.

To speed up this mutuality phenomenon learn to discover needs and share solutions more quickly and effectively.

3. Establish Credibility

Even though you may have sufficient contact and perceived mutuality, these alone are still not enough to build a relationship.  Buyers and Sellers come into contact with realtors all the time; but if they think the realtor is a bozo, they're still not going to do business.

The annual NAR Buyer and Seller Profiles repeatedly show that the number one agent selection criterion is "knowledge" about every aspect of real estate.  Buyers and Sellers, more than anything else, want to believe that their agent really knows what she or he is doing in real estate.

Since knowledge is the number one selection criteria, and credibility is one of the key, natural relationship building elements; it only makes sense to have the majority of your marketing communications be about demonstrating your real estate knowledge.

4. Deepen Confidence

Contact, mutuality and credibility alone are still not enough to build relationships.  Buyers and Sellers connect with agents all the time who know what they're doing, but are flaky as croissants; so they still won't do business with them.

How can you demonstrate that you are worthy of confidence?  There are two main ways:

1. Be responsive:  Return calls and emails quickly.
2. Make lots of promises, and keep them:  "I'll find out and call you back."  Then do it quickly.  "I'll get that information for you."  Then send it, quickly.

People are always watching you perform.  Set high standards for yourself, and meet them.  Then watch people's confidence in you grow.

5. Build Trust

Trust is the natural result of multiple contacts, discovered mutual interest, established credibility and deepened confidence. To build trust, all your marketing and sales communications must seamlessly support the advancement of the previous four relationship building elements.

How much trust do real estate agents need?  Well, the amount of trust required to do business is affected by three key factors:

• Purchase Price - The higher the price, the more trust is needed.  Since home purchases are typically the most expensive things most people ever buy; agents need more trust in this regard than any other sales person.
• Complexity - The more complex the buying decision is, the more trust is required to do business.  Real estate transactions are pretty much the most complex transactions that people get into.  So the trust bar is at the top here too.
• Impact - The higher the impact of the transaction, the more trust is required.  Since buying and selling homes involved moving, shelter and happiness of both Buyers/Sellers and their families; the trust bar on this issue is just about as high as it gets.

You are not selling widgets at retail.  You are in the major leagues of selling.  You need more and deeper relationships to be successful, than sales people in most other fields.

The winners in this game know that it's all about starting, building and maintaining relationships; and that doing it naturally works much better than, "Hi! Will you marry me?"

Why all the fuss about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) anyway?

I attended a panel discussion of leading search engine companies (including Google) on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  Google acknowledged that 80% of all searchers only look at the first page of search results, and that very few venture beyond the second page of results.

Since each page usually contains 10 links; what is the value in raising your site to number 21 if almost no one will see it?  If you can't get on the first page, it doesn't really matter much where else you fall in the results.

Given the millions of pages that come up in typical searches, why do people think the odds are good that they're going to raise themselves to the first, or even second, results page; when there are thousands of search engine optimization companies and individuals all competing to do the same thing with the same few words that every other agent in your neighborhood is trying to use?

And should anyone beat all the odds, what makes them think their efforts will be any good tomorrow; given that the search engine companies constantly change their search algorithms; specifically to foil any and all attempts at SEO (except through their approved and self interested pay-per-click models)?

But let's say it could work.  Would the expense even be worth it?  Well, not if you believe the NAR surveys, or Gary Keller.  The evidence overwhelmingly shows that real estate is a relationship marketing game. 

Systems that help you start, build and maintain relationships are the best place to put your marketing creativity, time, money and energy.

Addressing The Virtual Assistant Dilemma

The concept of "Virtual Assistant" (VA) makes terrific sense for the real estate industry.  Given the volatility of agents' income, only a small percentage are able to commit to a regular, even part-time, staff.  When times are good, they need even more help than that staff can provide.  When times are bad, the ongoing payroll expense freaks them out.  VAs eliminate those problems by working only when and where they are needed.

In a moment we're going to talk about how to make the VA concept work better, but first, here's an eye-opening exercise for agents.  Ask yourself, how much money do you want to make this year?  Let's say you want $100,000.  There are two very instructive ways to look at this:

1. Divide that $100k by a years worth of 40 hour weeks and your average pay comes to $49.75/hour. 
2. Acknowledge that the only time you're really earning money is when you are making presentations or interventions to make or save deals.  Add up those hours and divide them into $100k and you'll see that you are extremely well paid for doing the things that count.  The rest of your time is simply unpaid busy work.

Either way you look at it, a successful agent's time is worth an awful lot.  Just know that if you don't actually spend your time the way that really successful agents do; then you're odds of ever becoming one are pretty slim.

So now that (hopefully) the agents are more open to the idea of getting some help, let's look at what both agents and VAs can do to help each other get together, more often.

Increase Virtual Systems and Skills

In order to be able to take advantage of VAs agents must, of course, be using Web based systems that VAs can support them on.  Systems like:

• Top Producer
• ZipForm/WINForms
• DocuSign
• Relay

Also it is important for both agents and VAs to know more about these systems:

• Agents need to better understand what the systems are capable of
• VAs need to better understand how to make the systems do their tricks.

Develop Job Descriptions

Few agents really analyze how they fritter away their most valuable time.  They assign this $50-$500/hour person (themselves) to do $25/hour jobs.  And, truth be told, many times they are not nearly good enough at the tasks to even compete for those $25/hour jobs.

If agents want to have more successful VA relationships they need to make lists of how they spend their time.  Once they have a list, they need to sort the list into similar types of activities like:

• Phone Related
• Data Entry
• Graphics
• Marketing
• Transactions
• etc.

One reason for the sorting is that it is highly unlikely to find one VA who is stellar in all those activities; but you could find several VAs who are stellar in at least one of those activities.  Since you'll be plugging and playing your VAs as you need them; why not have a star performer for each category of tasks?

Another reason for sorting is to identify the areas that are wasting the most of the agent's time, so the agent can focus on getting a VA to help with those tasks first.

A third reason for sorting is, the sorted list becomes the basic VA job description.  And that description will make it much easier to select the right VA.

Improve Selling Skills

My guess is that the majority of VAs, coming from mostly administrative backgrounds, have not been exposed to much sales training.  That's a shame because good sales training teaches people how to listen carefully for wants and needs, then effectively explain how their products and services provide benefits by addressing those wants and needs.

Without even basic sales training; many VAs find themselves in the midst of numerous opportunities, but are not able to effectively "sell" their services.

Unfortunately, some VAs react to the very idea of "selling" with disdain.  Given that VAs are, in reality, either fully independent or semi-independent entrepreneurs; they need to get over that, or be doomed to an ever-insufficient volume of work.  VAs need to learn more about how they can specifically help agents; and increase their skill and comfort in explaining their value.

VAs and real estate agents are really made for each other.  So, let the connections increase!

What Real Estate Agents Need to Know About Online Networking With LinkedIn

As you know, ActiveRain is the premier online community for the real estate industry.  It has over 30,000 members at this writing; wow.  This is great for those of us in the industry, but what about online communities that reach out into the world and can help us generate more business?

There is such an online community; it's called LinkedIn.  At this writing it has over 10,000,000 members.  That's over 333 times the size of ActiveRain.  Even better, most of its members are mid to senior level executives from many of the biggest and best companies in the country. 

There is enormous potential here for real estate agents who learn to tap into this network effectively.

You may have wondered about the increasing buzz surrounding LinkedIn.  You may have a sense that something very important is going on there, but you can't quite get a handle on what it is.

I've been there too, but being the online nerd that I am, I couldn't help myself from hanging in there till I figured it out.

This crash course primer on LinkedIn will help you understand why LinkedIn will be a significant part of every successful real estate agent's future.

How Traditional Networks Benefit Real Estate Agents

To better appreciate the value and advantages of LinkedIn its helpful to start by looking at traditional networks.

What are traditional networks?

• Family
• Work
• Friends
• Church
• Associations
• Business
• Social

How do people use their networks?  To get:

• Advice
• Business
• Feedback
• Friendship
• Information
• Jobs
• Referrals
• Social Interaction
• Support

What sustains traditional networks?

• Natural Affinities
• Openness
• Sharing
• Giving
• Effectiveness

Successful real estate agents have always been using traditional networks to meet new prospects, maintain relationships with clients, and generate referrals.

The time has come to take your networking to the next level.

What Are The Powerful New Advantages of the LinkedIn Network?

It supplements traditional networks

• It doesn't replace any of the traditional networks, it supplement them.
• It provides new, additional opportunities to make targeted connections with people.
• It can facilitate your ability to penetrate traditional networks.

Instant easy access to large, targeted networks

• Joining LinkedIn is very easy; and it's free.  Payments only come into play if you want to use the more advanced features.  (Caution, once you understand their value, you're likely to want the more advanced features.)
• You can join directly on your own, but it is much better to accept an invitation to link with anyone who has already established a substantial personal network on LinkedIn.  This actually jump starts the building of your network.  My first dozen links actually connected me to more than 1,000,000 people.  How this works will become more apparent shortly.

Time Independent Communication

• You can interact with people on LinkedIn whenever it's best for you. 
• Be aware, however, that natural relationship rules still apply.  If you create expectations in people, you'd better meet them, or suffer the consequences.

Geography Independent Communication

• Since the network meeting places are online, there's no special place you have to be in order to participate.  Any computer with an Internet connection will get you there.

Communication speed and ease

• The communication tools provided at LinkedIn (i.e. Inmail, Question & Answer areas, and special interest groups) make it easy to instantly respond to others; just type and submit.

Detailed Member Profiles

• LinkedIn Profiles are much more extensive than those typically found on ActiveRain.  This information is invaluable for developing networking and relationship building strategies.

Interaction Opportunities

• The value of membership in online networks increases with participation and interaction.  While LinkedIn doesn't provide anywhere near the robust interaction found on ActiveRain, it does provide opportunities to increase your visibility and make new connections.

Question & Answer Areas

• These spaces provide opportunities for LinkedIn members to ask for what they need, and for other members to demonstrate their expertise by providing answers.  Over time substantial libraries of questions and answers are built that keep on providing value to future readers.
• Consequently these online discussions can also be a very effective way to see and be seen by many other people.  This visibility can lead to the development of some very productive online network relationships.

Special Interest Groups

• Members, who want to learn more about the intricacies of LinkedIn, and how to use them to advantage, can join the LinkedInnovators group.
• Members who want to seriously build their networks usually find their way to the power networking group LinkedIn Lions.
• These are just two of the most popular groups.  More are being added all the time; and of course, you are free to start your own.

Search Capabilities

Between LinkedIn's Member Profiles, Q&A areas and special interest groups; a great deal of information winds up being posted online.  To increase the value of this information online LinkedIn has implemented a powerful search utility within its own network.

Imagine being able to search within LinkedIn by:

• People's names
• Company names
• School names
• Hobbies
• Affiliations
• Job titles
• Locations
• Dates
• Areas of expertise
• Blog writings
• Blog comments
• Questions asked
• Questions answered
• Special Interest Groups Joined
• Special Interest Group Activities
• Plus virtually any other search word you can think of

Discover Commonalities and Other People's Networks

"Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one "step" away from each person he or she knows and two "steps" away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is no more than six "steps" away from each person on Earth. Several studies, such as Milgram's small world experiment have been conducted to empirically measure this connectedness. While the exact number of links between people differs depending on the population measured, it is generally found to be relatively small. Hence, six degrees of separation is somewhat synonymous with the idea of the "small world" phenomenon."  Wikipedia

LinkedIn brings the "Six degrees of separation" concept to life.

Search Engine Affinity

Search engines like Google favor Web sites with lots of frequently changing and growing content; and lots of traffic.  The richer and more sophisticated the content, and the higher the volume of traffic, the better.  And clearly, LinkedIn has massive amounts of rich, growing and frequently changing content.  10 million members provide the traffic.

Consequently postings made in LinkedIn show up much higher and faster in search engines than if you posted the same information on your own Web site.

Smart online networkers always leverage their postings by including links back to their own Web sites and blogs; that way their personal Web sites and blogs get pulled higher and faster in the search engines too.

So, What Makes LinkedIn So Special?

LinkedIn is big; (Did I say that it has more than 10 million members?).  It has a very high percentage of mid to senior level professionals from many of the best companies in the world.  At this point recruiters and job searchers seem to be getting the most benefit from the database and the format LinkedIn provides for network facilitation.

When people join (for free) they create a Profile that includes detailed education and work histories.  These Profiles help members find each other.  Members are encouraged to invite their personal contacts to also join LinkedIn.

Each Member builds her or his own personal three level network.  Level one is people who have accepted your own invitation to link, or people who have invited you to link. Level two are all the people who are level one connections to your level one connections.  Level three are all the people who are level one connections to your level two connections.

Most LinkedIn members are pretty casual about their membership.  They only invite a handful of people they know; and, in-turn, those people only invite a handful of people as well.  Consequently casual member's personal networks do not grow very quickly.  Casual networkers subscribe to the networking philosophy that true, deep personal connections are the only ones of value; the rest are just so many names on a list.

On the other hand, some LinkedIn members are power networkers.  They are much more open to linking with anyone they can respect.  They seek to build large level one networks.  Many have more than 500 level one links.  The top power networkers have more than 25,000 level one links.

I think the most effective networking philosophy is a combination of these two extremes.  Yes, bottom-line, it's only real, personal connections that are productive.  One way or another you've got to take your networking down to the personal level to make it work. 

However, if you only link with existing personal contacts, and the rest of the people in your three level personal network do the same, your overall network isn't likely to grow very large.  Since LinkedIn's format limits a lot of the searching and contacting features to people within your own three level network, it's very difficult to tap into much of that 10 million member database.

To get the most out of LinkedIn it's best to bring in all your existing contacts and to be open to linking to new people of worth even before a personal relationship is established.  When you need to develop a relationship down the road with one of these new contacts, LinkedIn's profiles, network links and your own creativity will show you a way to make it happen.

A common bit of advice you'll see at LinkedIn is that it is wise to build your network before you actually need it.

To learn more about LinkedIn follow this link.

A Powerful Demonstration of How Using ActiveRain and LinkedIn Together Can Benefit Real Estate Agents

• Find out from your local Chamber of Commerce and City
• Government what large companies are coming to, or leaving, your area.
• Search for Human Resource and other executives from those companies in LinkedIn.
• Develop valuable, easy-to-say-yes-to information offers to entice these executives to respond to you.
• Use your LinkedIn network to gain introductions to those target executives so you can make your offers.
• Search ActiveRain to find compatible real estate agents for referral trades in the relocation cities.
• Use the information you discover in the Profiles, Questions & Answers, Groups and Comments to help you refine your relationship building strategies.
• Use the link information about each of your new contacts to reach even further into each of their networks.

Jump Start Your Own Online Network by Linking to My Personal LinkedIn Network

I have been very fortunate to have linked directly with many of the most powerful networkers on LinkedIn, and I'm linking with more of them all the time.

You can gain immediate access to many thousands of these contacts by linking to me.  Use this request form and I'll send you an invitation.

Announcing the "Real Estate Network Masters" Club

The response to our series of ActiveRain Blog Posts on networking has been wonderful.  Thank you all for your kind comments and support.  If you've missed any of the posts you can easily catch up at http://del.icio.us/raycobel  This post explains just one of the major benefits of our new Club and how you can  join us.

In case you haven't already heard about LinkedIn, here are some things you definitely should know:

• LinkedIn is the largest online business network in the U.S.
• It has over 11 million members
• Mid to senior level managers from all the Fortune 500 companies are included
• The majority of members have mid to high level positions and incomes

The primary use of LinkedIn is for sophisticated networking between:

• Job Seekers
• Employers
• Executive and Technical Recruiters

What is LinkedIn's value to real estate agents?

• HR Execs and Recruiters need high quality real estate agent support to help their recruits commit to moving to new jobs.
• LinkedIn facilitates targeted networking with Human Resource executives and Executive/Technical Recruiters

How can you benefit from linking with Ray Cobel on LinkedIn?

If you want to get into the middle of job driven relocations, then you need to be networking with the people who are driving the job changes.

My personal LinkedIn Network of over 2.4 million people includes the following number of Recruiters by Industry:

• Airlines/Aviation 49 out of 135
• Banking 435 out of 535+
• Biotechnology 254 out of 354+
• Broadcast Media 50 out of 80
• Computer Games 105 out of 129
• Computer Hardware 168 out of 246
• Computer Software 500 out of 600+
• Consumer Electronics 58 out of 78
• Defense and Space 219 out of 319+
• Education Management 54 out of 154+
• Electrical/Electronic Mfg. 86 out of 152
• Government Administration 35 out of 83
• Hospital/Health Care 462 out of 562+
• Insurance 250 out of 350+
• Pharmaceuticals 405 out of 505+
• Real Estate 206 out of 306+
• Wireless 156 out of 238

That's a Total of 3,492 recruiters from just the above industries; and there are many more I haven't included.

Recruiters By Company

• Microsoft 373 out of 454 total
• Amgen 30 out of 37 total
• Google 500 out of 518
• Verizon 34 out of 57
• Hewlett-Packard 30 out of 38
• Yahoo 112 out of 120
• Sony 20 out of 30
• Bank of America 66 out of 133
• Kaiser Permanente 35 out of 81
• Allstate Insurance 26 out of 38
• AT&T 500 out of 600+
• and so on. . .

What big companies are in your area?

Clearly, I can help you reach many people who would be happy to bring you valuable leads in exchange for your helping them and their clients conclude successful moves.

How To Get LinkedIn With Ray Cobel and become a Member of the "Real Estate Network Masters"

Amazingly enough there is no cost for you to join LinkedIn, nor to belong to our Club.

It's a three step process:

1. Click here to become a LinkedIn member (if you aren't one already). 
2. Once you are a LinkedIn member, simply email one of your LinkedIn Invitations to ray@cobel.com.
3. I'll send you your Membership Kit.

We are all looking forward to networking with you!