This week on Social Juice, I’ll cover some big LinkedIn news, rumored features on the new MacBook Air and I will reflect on video chat’s importance in real estate. Continue reading for more!
Are You LinkedIn?
According to Hubspot, LinkedIn is now the 2nd most popular social network out there-according to monthly traffic numbers. The social network’s traffic had 33.9 million unique users in June, an increase by half a million from the month before. This shows it is growing faster than former second place holder, MySpace (MySpace had second place??? Jaw dropping, I know). Facebook is still in first place by a longshot, achieving 160.8 million unique visits in June…yep Facebook is still king of the social media jungle.
What’s the point in me telling you all this? Well, it’s safe to say that many realtors understand that having a social media presence, at least on Facebook, should be an integral part of their marketing strategy. But, some of you may not think you need to expand your social media presence. I think the above mentioned stats say otherwise. LinkedIn is fast becoming a go to spot for community building, brand management and lead development. And ever since the network went public (trading at 107.15 at the time this post was written), there’s been even greater buzz surrounding the network’s marketing potential.
The thing about LinkedIn that is super appealing to realtors? It’s more conservative and “less social” feel. In my opinion, LinkedIn does not pose as much of a privacy fear to realtors, as there is less focus on multimedia sharing and more focus on connecting with people who are important to you and help you build a network. In fact, I’m sure many of you have a profile, but may not be using it actively. Now is the time.
Check out LinkedIn’s Groups section, participate in conversations, and link your blog to your profile. The possibilities are endless. Start exploring LinkedIn today!
New MacBook Air
For all Mac enthusiasts (myself included here!), the new MacBook Air is slated to be released next week. One of the coolest new features will be a backlit keyboard, something that was missing from the 2010 version. Also of note, the new Air is rumored to feature Intel’s latest and greatest Sandy Bridge Processors (they first came on the market earlier this year). The notebook could also offer 128GB of flash hard-drive rather than the normal 64GB.
If you’re a MacBook Air fan, these potential updates are a welcome change to update efficiency of use. Hopefully they will all be included!
Move Aside, It’s Video Chat’s Time to Shine
I want to take a few paragraphs to reflect on video chat. While this technology is by no means a newcomer-Bell Labs built the world’s first video phone in 1956 called Picturephone this obviously further evolved in the decades to come- it sure feels like video chat has gobbled up a whole lot of media attention in the past few weeks. And that’s probably because two of the biggest giants in the online universe-yes, Google and Facebook-both released video chat functions within striking distance time of eachother.
Google+ , released on June 28th, promises to bring change to some of the tried and true methods of social interaction. I received my invite last week and am still familiarizing myself with the network…but it certainly shows potential. Perhaps most intriguing are the 10-person “hangouts”-essentially video chat with 10 of your friends.
Google+ barely made its debut, when Facebook announced its new video chat function in partnership with skype.
I can go into detail on pros and cons for both of these video-sharing capabilities, but for now I’d just like to briefly talk about applications to real estate. With so many ways to connect with clients online, it’s tough to decide which to tackle first. I believe video chat is as close to face-to face interaction as we can get with digital aid, so it cannot be overlooked. Google+ and Facebook’s video chat have offered new ways for realtors to connect with and cultivate leads. Review new listings with clients, on video chat. Talk about important market data, on video chat. Give a home tour, on video chat. And I could go on and on.
How do you think video chat will impact real estate?