There is a new market that investors have to learn to stay competitive in this market and that’s the internet. More specifically it is Web 2.0 and social networking.
Since the dot-com days of Web 1.0 investors have been hesitant around investing too much time into any given online strategy. Free electronic mail and online efaxing have been the only concepts to really stick around since the early two thousands.
All of these new strategies have given so much power back to the individual. One person can bring down an entire organization by posting a less than positive review about a company. Funny thing is, most people trust a Joe Shmoe review over a multi-million dollar public relations campaign. Who can blame them with the amount of fraud and deceit that is perpetrated by large corporations each year.
Are you clear about Web 2.0 and what it is?
Many of you I’m sure are not exactly sure what Web 2.0 is. Well, it is basically an overall term covering the internet sites that have brought us new technology that allows for more control and manipulation of content.
Users communicating directly with other users enables a rapid distribution of content never seen before. When a major news event happens in this generation, CNN watches Twitter for second by second eye witness reports and YouTube for cell phone videos that have been uploaded in the past few minutes. There is no longer a need to put a news crew on a supersonic jet to get the first scoop. Better yet, a few clicks of the mouse and you have CNN’s live reports coming into your website. This allows you to build followers verses strictly the big news or information sites. Your take becomes your business model.
Many, many strategies and sites fit the Web 2.0 description but the basic necessities are creating a personal blog and having profiles on the various social networks like MySpace, Facebook and Real-Estate-Investing.com. You can also do social bookmarking, article writing like the one you are reading now, download mobile phone applications and so much more.
How can one use Web 2.0 techniques when doing real estate investing? One obvious way is the sheer number of people you will be able to contact. If you have good things to say, you will be amazed how many people will pick up your blog and post it directly on their website.
You want to establish yourself as an authority or expert in your particular niche of the investing world. The more exposure you can get for yourself and your business, the more opportunities will flow your direction. Web 2.0 levels the playing field so you now once again have a chance to be the first in the mind of your potential sellers. The trick is you have to figure out where they are and what they are doing online. Then put your marketing information dead in their tracks. By building a reputation ahead of time people can Google your trust factor before they trust you with their most valued possession.
So how much does all of this cost? That’s the greatest part, almost all of it is free. While this might not be so good for the companies providing all these free services, it is definitely great for you and your expanding business. Now people like yourself can express their opinions where they might have never been heard before. You will have to invest a little bit of time but anything worth while usually takes a bit of that. A few hours per week or a few minutes a day, either way it is still not a great deal of time.
Spend a few months creating content for your websites and I’m sure you will become more efficient and find it to be no trouble at all. Best of all, once you create the content one time it remains on the internet for years to come. Careful though, this can be a double-edged sword. Make sure you are comfortable with the entire world reading whatever you write.
Since the real estate bubble burst people have been searching for a new way to approach the market. While deals and cash to buy them are not wholly plentiful right now, take this time to build your reputation for the next roller coaster market climb.