Pinterest and real estate seem to be a natural fit. Pinterest has proven to be a great resource for those looking to design their dream kitchen, find DIY home improvement projects and browse boards for other inspirational ideas for interior decorating. And because Pinterest visits increased 4,000% in just six months landing them in the top 10 most visited social sites in Nov. 2011, this is one site you need to get on board with (no pun intended).

The above image is an example of how one member is using this social platform to their advantage. For more info check out Reinhart Realtors on Pinterest! They’ve done a great job inspiring their followers with pins ranging from restaurants in their area to housewarming gifts to master bathroom ideas and more.

A  Few Benefits Pinterest Provides to Real Estate Professionals Include:

Social Engagement: This social site is gaining substantial momentum and gives you another great opportunity to connect with potential home buyers and sellers. Users are sharing their likes, styles and favorite items with one another, giving you the opportunity to stay up-to-date on the latest trends as they relate to your audience.

Become a Local Resource: Pinterest is a great way to provide helpful insight into the home buying process. If you’re a seller, what decorating tips or renovation projects will increase the value of your home? If you’ve recently purchased a home, how are you going to decorate your new master bedroom? Keep in mind; these are commonly-asked questions and interests of most homeowners. So even if they’re not in the market for a new home right now, you’re increasing the chances they’ll come to you when they’re ready to buy or sell a home in the future (it’s that whole top-of-mind awareness thing people are always talking about!)

SEO Link Building: We definitely cannot forget about the SEO love this site provides! Each pin links to a specific site where users can go for more information. If you’re linking to an Individual Property Website with an image of a new property for sale, every time that particular pin is “re-pinned”, the link will direct others back to your site as well.

These are all great reasons for real estate professionals to join Pinterest today. However, remember there is more to it than just sharing your listings. Be sure to provide value to your customers in addition to spotlighting featured homes on your site. Think about other factors that influence the buying or selling of a home. Buying a home is an emotional experience and often times lifestyle choices play an important role in the decision-making process. Include photos of the local community, things to do in the area, school information and more. Over time, you’ll have another factor helping you become the resource for your region. (Tweet this article!)

By Amanda Stephan

(Tweet this article!) It’s resolution time! And despite the sudden irritation you feel from your gym being over crowded by all the “resolutioners,” there is something special about the idea of starting fresh. It’s empowering! This month SEO Juice will dive into 2012 SEO resolutions: Getting organized, getting fit and making new friends in order to improve your SEO.

After all, just as it is so with every holiday season, it’s far more important what you choose to do between New Years and Christmas than it is between Christmas and New Years. So let’s start the year off right!

Getting Organized:

It’s on just about every New Year resolution list. In 2012, with the mix of social media, content creation, content promotion, relationship building and staying on top of the changing industry, being organized can seem overwhelming. With search becoming more and more social, it’s no mystery that blogging and engaging in social media can be one of the most valuable tools to improve your SEO and develop a stronger brand.

So how do we make getting organized less overwhelming?

Create a Content Calendar – A content calendar can be created in an hour or two and can ease the stress in the long run. Make a plan for when you will post articles to your blog or have an article ready for a guest post. Take into account all the different holidays or events on the horizon and be thinking of how you will capitalize on them with your content.

Social Media Plan – Write down your social media goals, how you want to engage with your fans and what types of links/articles you want to share with them. Create guidelines for the types of statuses and links you want to post, keeping them in line with your goals. But remember, your social profiles need to be more than virtual paperweights. Give your fans a reason to come back to your fan page and click through to your website again and again. Be engaging! Ask their opinions and answer their questions. This is the key to building their trust, building links and becoming an authority online.

Contact List – Keep a running spreadsheet of your opportunities online and your contacts to get your content published. Jot down their information and the types of articles a particular website publishes. As this list builds up, you’ll be much more organized and ready when it comes time to guest post.

Getting Fit:

When it comes to content we’ve all heard the saying “content is king,” and likewise, “quality is better than quantity”. Strengthening your content and adding muscle to your pages is still going to be one of the best SEO resolutions you could make. But like all fitness regimes, it’s important to vary your strategies.

Lose the dead weight- Getting SEO fit in 2012 is going to take losing the dead weight content and/or pages and adding the muscle! Go over your old, outdated content or blog posts and revise (or do away with). If your blog tends to have recurring topics, be mindful of duplicate or repetitive content.

Go Fresh - Naturally, search engines won’t be able to keep their hands (crawlers) off you if you’re posting fresh content! Try something new this year. Get a team together and brainstorm some “fresh” ideas for a blog series.

Vary your routine – Your SEO fitness routine should be well-balanced and varied between strategies. Include everything from updating your websites old content, researching new keywords, guest posting, expanding social networks and link building. The mix of strategies will make the difference.

Making New Friends:

Building relationships online can be a very powerful New Year’s SEO resolution. When it comes to building your brand, networking within your industry can provide valuable links, opportunities and expand your knowledge base.

Guest Posting – I scratch your back, you scratch mine. Guest posting is a great way to expand your audience and influence online. Not only is the article a valuable link for you site, but by guest posting you are also establishing yourself as an authority for the topic. What are the benefits of allowing someone to guest post on your blog? Well, it’s free, fresh content for your site, which will only increase traffic coming to your site from search engines.

Get out there – If you want to make yourself known in your industry, you need to get out there! Whether you’re building relationships with potential clients on social networks or contributing to discussions on forums or blog posts with other professionals in your industry, branding yourself online starts online! So are you there?

Next Week on SEO Juice: Stay tuned next week for a deeper discussion on 2012 SEO Resolution #1: Getting Organized. (Tweet this article!)

By Katelyn Wheaton

Google+ pages are not that different from Facebook brand pages and have similar functionality (You can display information about your brand, contact information, upload photos and videos, start discussions, etc). The pages also look very similar to Google+ profiles and allow users to add the brand to their circles (increasing the brand’s follower count), share the brand’s page and +1 the brand. These features are pretty typical, but we have outlined some of the differentiators below.

Hangouts

Video Hangouts allow you to chat with users face-to-face. We see this feature as a huge opportunity for The Active Enterprise Network as it gives us the opportunity to engage with other brokerages in The Network, host live forums, discuss best practices, train members, etc.

Circles

The circles functionality lets your brand group followers of your page into smaller audiences. By placing your followers into specific circles, you’re able to choose what circles you want to share relevant information with so only those interested will receive it.

Google Search Integration

Google has taken a few steps towards integrating Google+ pages into their search. The first attempt is through the +1 button. By linking your site to your Google+ page, all of your +1s from your brand’s page, website and search results will be added together. This single total will then be shown to users on your page, website and search results.

With the launch of the Google+ pages, you will be able to add pages to circles directly from Google search as well. The first step includes showing Google+ pages in their search results.  Another feature, called Direct Connect, is scheduled to be released soon and will allow users to find a brand on Google+ by typing “+” in Google search, followed by the brand or business they want to follow. Google is currently testing this feature, but say it will roll out to brands in the near future.

Coming Soon: Google+ Badge

Of course this is not the end of the Google+ updates. In the next few days, they will be releasing Google+ badge that you can add to your website, allowing customers to add your Google+ page to their circles without leaving your site. Members, be sure to talk with your Project Manager about getting a Google+ badge incorporated on your site.

Get Started

Create your own Google+ Page at plus.google.com/pages/create and don’t forget to add The Active Enterprise Network to your circles. Let’s have fun and start hangouts with other members!

More on this topic:

• Grow your audience with Google+
• Google+ Pages: connect with all the things you care about
• Google Direct Connect Hooks Search and Google+ Pages Together

Before people started home searching online, they would first go to their realtor to help them find homes based on criteria other than the number of beds and baths, price range, etc. Customers would discuss what was important to their lifestyle and the realtor would then be able to help them find homes that matched all of their needs.

However, since more and more buyers are starting their search online before talking to an agent, we need to provide better tools that mimic the experience they would have with an agent. Through search, mobile and social networking, we can achieve this goal.

Search
Our latest search releases strive to bring the personalization that customers have come to expect online to the home search process. We have expanded the search parameters that customers can search by and built new technology that lets them find homes close to work or school. We also developed a lifestyle search engine that helps customers find communities that match their lifestyle. Our next step in search is natural language search which will allow customers to search for homes using natural language.

Mobile
The advent of SmartPhones has made the world more mobile. It has also given us greater opportunities to interact with customers who are on-the-go. We already offer members mobile-enabled sites and soon we will be adding a mobile app. The goal of this mobile app is to personalize the experience even further by giving our customers the opportunity to find homes based off of their current location through augmented reality and much more. Be sure to check back with us in a few weeks when we announce the launch of our new mobile app.

Social Networking
We have already taken the first step in integrating customers’ social networks into their home searching process. One Click Login was implemented earlier this year, allowing customers to sign-up for a home alert account using their existing Google or Facebook login information. As a result, we have been given access to more customer information that can help us further personalize the search process in the future.

Related Posts:

• Major Trends in the Real Estate Industry: Search, Mobile and Social

• Active Enterprise Network Hosts Annual Conference

Why is Google so obsessed with the social space?
We have seen Google make quite a few attempts at breaking into the social space without success. With the recent launch of Google+, you might be wondering why they’re so persistent following so many failed attempts (Google Wave, Buzz, Dodgeball, etc.). The reason is that both spaces are slowly converging into one. A good search engine provides quick and accurate results (weeding out the masses of clutter, spam and “black hat” sites). Social interaction plays a very interesting role in the “accuracy” of results.

In the earlier days of search engines, very few factors were considered outside of the terms you were searching for. Since then, search has evolved to take into account as much external data as it can gather. For example, once Google realized it can decipher your geographic location, they started basing results on sites that may be more relevant to your search based on your location.

The same is now true for social sites. As social platforms evolved, the search industry realized that not only could you acquire all the same data about users via these sites, but that other important data can be captured including users’ opinions, taste and circles of influence. A dynamic profile for every user (and other entities) exists with all their personal details and interests. Search engines can now factor a searcher’s likes and preferences as well as their friends’ opinions when delivering results. This makes personal data extremely valuable and a significant motivator for investing so heavily in social platforms.

Seeing that most of the valuable data relates to opinions and taste, one of the most important features of a social network is the “like” button. Google realized this and has recently released the Google “+1” button. It’s really quite surprising that it took so long for Google to realize the importance of the “like” feature. For years Google has placed significant weight to the quality and number of domains linking to a specific site when determining its rank for a specific term. These inbound links are in effect acting as a “like” feature.

What can we expect for the future?
New social networks try and make their way online regularly, each offering a new spin/angle for their network (e.g. Twitter allows you to follow users’ short comments, LinkedIn focuses around business, etc.).

While some users make use of multiple networks, the majority stick to a favorite. This is often determined by a mix of the best functionality/fit for their needs as well as the platform most used by their real life connections.

To acquire significant market share, Google will have to get a substantial and fast adoption rate. They will also need those users to stick and recommend to peers. With over 10 million users already on the platform, it seems Google is on the right track. It also seems that this time round that Google really thought this through. They analyzed Facebook’s list of features and realized areas in which they lack. As a result, Google upgraded their platform to include such things as peer circles, multi-way video chatting and much more in the hopes of bridging the functionality users are missing from Facebook and allowing them to use their platform in multiple different formats (e.g. separating your business circles from your personal circles and thus merging LinkedIn, Facebook and others into one malleable platform).

The question is, will this be enough to convert the masses? The good news for Google is that they went about marketing this new platform the right way this time. Following in the footsteps of Facebook’s success, they made the initial entry point by invite only. As expected a tremendous amount of users lined up for this invite only registration. These users quickly invited many of their friends, ironically some of which happened via Facebook posts.

Another factor that favors Google is all the free services they offer including emails, search, analytics and all the apps in between. If both platforms matched in everything else, Google could better integrate it into other aspects of daily life. For example, imagine your social analytics tied into Google Analytics seamlessly and with as much detail as analytics typically offers. Imagine the search we are already so used to (Google Search) factoring our likes, and weighting our friends’ likes based on recent posts and interactions.

One decision I am not so fond of is Google’s naming for this project. “Google+” just doesn’t seem right. I would focus on the major strength they have over all other networks currently, “Google Circles”. More than that, the “+1” is even worse. As mentioned above, it is the most important portion of a social network from a data gathering perspective, but the naming is just not catchy. “I +1’d you” doesn’t sound as great as “I LIKED you”. I would think “I G’d you” could end up as popular as “I Googled you”.

My prediction is that one of these two giants will take a major percentage of this space, while the other takes a far second, leaving the smaller networks of today (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) a very distant third. Who will take the top spot will very much depend on how fast they can make moves right now. If I was Zuckerberg, I would be taking apart the Google platform and making sure Facebook has every new feature covered and then some. While Google leads the search industry, Facebook has the current social loyalty of the masses; it’s their immediate war to lose.

How does this impact our industry?
New social networks appear regularly, the difference is not many of them are powered by a giant and likely to make major ripples. Gaining more exposure via these new mediums is important. Wasting your time making sure your voice is heard on each and every network might be overkill, but focusing on networks with your target demographics and any that have a substantial user-base are worth the effort.

The great thing is that this is not cost prohibitive like placing ads on older mediums like TV, newspapers, etc. Using a handful of apps, you can repeat your message and increase your exposure very inexpensively to a multitude of popular networks.

Bottom line, if Google succeeds this time around with breaking into the social space, we will all likely be preaching our messages through both (and some of the smaller) networks. We will also see the “+1” button appear on more of our sites, allowing users to “plus one” our sites and content.

By Ido Zucker

With the increase of users on social sites, many businesses have started focusing part of their marketing initiatives on social media. It has given businesses a new way to communicate with their customers who are using social networks every day. Many businesses have adapted quickly to these platforms while others are still slow to make the transition.

However, whether you like it or not, social media is here to stay as more people are jumping on board every day. I recently saw an interesting infographic, from Postling and Mashable, which depicted the Real Estate Industry’s adaptation to social media.

The following infographic proves that more real estate professionals are now using social media effectively, but that there is still room for growth in this arena. Keeping these statistics in mind can help you best utilize your social media efforts and remain competitive.

By Dyana Gutierrez

The new Social Search feature will be personalized to you and is based on relevant, publicly visible data found through your contacts’ social activity. The search is powered by your social connections through your Gmail contacts, Google Talk friends list, Google Buzz followers as well as your Gmail contacts on Twitter, Flickr, Blogger and other social media outlets.

In the past, you may have noticed the “Results from people in your social circle” at the bottom of the page that was a similar feature to Social Search. However, after making a few tweaks, this new roll out plans to further integrate Social Search by combining it with organic search results and allowing you to see the name and picture of the person you know who shared relevant content.

According to Google, here are some types of content you might see:

• Websites, blogs and other content that’s shared by or created by your friends
• Images that are shared by your social circle
• Relevant articles from your Google Reader subscriptions
• Web content that has been recommended or shared by others using the +1 button.

For more information on Google’s Social Search, be sure to check out the following video:

This announcement is another reminder of the need to have an effective social media strategy in place. Social Search will soon become mainstream and it’s important we’re prepared when it happens. Social media is more important to your business now that they’re ranked in the search engines.

Creating a social conversation online may help your brokerage show up within your connections’ search results. For example, if an acquaintance (and potential customer) is looking for information on a property and enter the address into Google’s search field and you’ve tweeted or blogged about the property, that result may show up higher in their results.

Google’s Social Search is revolutionizing the way we find information online. Relevance is not just an SEO term anymore, it’s also about relationships, and content shared by people you know is sometimes more relevant and meaningful than the random articles you find online. By taking yet another step towards personalization, Google’s Social Search allows you to get information from people you know and trust.

By Amanda Stephan

The +1 button, similar to the Facebook “Like” button, will allow users to recommend Google search results with friends and other web browsers. Users that click the +1 button give their “stamp of approval” for a webpage or ad they found useful. They will then be associated with that link “in search results, on ads and across the web,” according to Google.

A Google account is required to use this new feature and allows users to share their recommendations through Gmail, Google Chat, Google Reader and Buzz. Currently, the button is only available on the search results page, but in the future Google has plans to provide this button to companies so users can +1 their site without ever having to leave the page.

To see more details about the +1 button, Google has released this video highlighting the new feature:

So what is the potential impact of Google’s +1 button?

For businesses, this button could directly influence their Google search rankings in the near future as acquiring recommendations may soon be more important than acquiring inbound links. As peer recommendations become more and more mainstream, brands will be held more accountable and will be expected to maintain higher standards of quality. This feature will likely reduce the number of content farms that appear in search results as well since people are less likely to recommend those sites.

“When someone recommends something, that’s a pretty good indicator of quality,” said Matt Cutts, Google’s principle search engineer. “We are strongly looking at using this in our rankings.”

Maintaining a commitment to quality, The Enterprise Network integrated a login for Google or Facebook last year through our One Click Login feature which allows customers to login or create a Property Alerts account without having to remember another username or password. As the +1 button gains in popularity, it will add further value to members through One Click Login by providing additional user data. With this data, members can provide customers with customized information that fits their specific needs and interests.

While it’s too soon to tell whether or not this feature will have a lasting impact, we’re excited about the potential the +1 button can have on social marketing and personalized search.

Early adaptors wanting to try out this new social search feature can do so by joining the +1 button experiment . (In the future, this will be available to everyone whether you opt in or not.)

Related Posts:

+1’s: the right recommendations right when you want them – in your search results

By Amanda Stephan

The 90 minute session aims to equip real estate and relocation professionals around the country with the knowledge needed to establish an online presence and increase their digital footprint through social media. As we all know, the internet is evolving the way we do business. By exploring new social media tools and using them efficiently, the session will provide insight for creating an effective social media strategy.

Prior to this event, the Active Website team asked a group of 13 individuals to implement a multi-tiered social media plan involving Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp and blogging strategies in order to test our hypothesis: implementing a well thought out social media plan can increase our digital footprint and personal brand. Through this test group, we hoped to discover effective ways for managing our online image while creating a content distribution plan to increase our page one rankings on Google.

By closely monitoring and tracking our participants’ involvement in the social media strategy, we were able to see an increase in page rank over the 13 week period. And while participation amongst the group varied, we were happy to see impressive results. At the end of the study, the group received a 22% increase in visibility on page one of Google, collectively.

During the session, John will present the details of this study, our methodology for tracking the progress and what we learned. To aid in the discussion, a panel of three test group participants will share their trials and tribulations as they worked their way through the plan. Panelists include Tonya Hamilton from Prudential Woodmont Realty, Bob Carbonell from Relocation Management Resources and Ronald Huiskamp from Dwellworks, LLC.

At this time, we’d like to extend a big thank you to everyone who dedicated their time to this social media experiment. For conference attendees interested in receiving a copy of the 13 week plan, share your feedback from the session in the comment section below. If you do, we’ll be sure to email you the plan so you can learn how to increase your digital footprint and personal brand as well.

This afternoon at 2:45PM EST, John Sable, Managing Partner at Active Website, will be participating in the session Social Media Networking – What’s the Point? and taking an in depth look at how to create an effective social media strategy for your business. Along with John D’Ambrogio from Baird & Warner and Jenn Reichenbacher from Mobility Services Internation,  the group will discuss the advantages and pitfalls of social media, how to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media platforms for recruitment and identify the resources needed to establish a solid foundation.

If you’re interested in exploring how social media can work for you, make sure to stop by and discover how successful real estate and relocation professionals  are using social media to increase their revenue and gain exposure. For more information, visit our Facebook events page at www.facebook.com/EnterpriseNetwork.