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If you have not yet heard of the popular app Foursquare, you are sure to hear of it soon. With all the talk of security and privacy on the internet, it is hard to believe that an app that is all about letting people know where you are would have such a meteoric rise, but it has. And as the old real estate cliché says, it is all about location, location, location.

Foursquare lets users check-in at various locations, giving them the opportunity to win prizes and compete with other users to become the most frequent patrons. Foursquare users relish gaining high status as frequent visitors and like to brag about becoming "mayor" of certain venues, especially if they have ousted someone else they know to become mayor. Businesses like restaurants and museums register on Foursquare and take advantage of the fact that it is a great promotional tool. Every mention a business gets each time a Foursquare user checks in is great publicity.

Did you know that real estate professionals can also use Foursquare to their advantage? While it is true that users may not want to stop by your office so many times that they become "mayor," you can still make your business a possible venue on the site and offer discounts.

Individual real estate agents can join Foursquare to reward current clients and promote themselves. Your brokerage can even register listings and offer prizes to people who check in when they attend an open house or visit with an agent.

Although Foursquare is location-based, this does not mean that only people in a user's general area get the message when they check into a location. Many Foursquare users broadcast their Foursquare posts on Facebook and Twitter. People all over the country and all over the world see these posts. Those who are planning to buy real estate in your area might look you up after learning about you through Foursquare.

It didn't start with Facebook, but Facebook caused the paradigm shift. Before Facebook, people communicated over the Internet via email. Some, particularly the younger crowd, used IM (Instant Messenger) to chat. The tech-savvy experimented with My Space; but it was Facebook that brought social media into the mainstream and changed the way we communicate. Thanks to the comfort level we have developed with Facebook, people now turn first to the Web to interact with each other and obtain information. Facebook wove social media into the fabric of our daily lives and in so doing changed the way we communicate.

The paradigm shift isn't limited to personal communication; it cuts across commercial and retail interactions and is changing the way real estate agents and brokers communicate with home buyers and home sellers. Improvements in technology and social media make it possible for a real estate agent to generate real estate leads, contact potential home buyers, conduct virtual property tours, answer questions and provide additional information instantaneously, bargain with sellers, forward financing calculators and information -- in effect, we do everything except sign the contract via the Internet, and the day when that is possible is quickly approaching.

In the not so distant future real estate agents and brokers are likely to deal with home buyers and sellers almost exclusively via the Internet. In fact, an amazing amount of realtor-client contact already occurs over the Internet. Most leads and communication with potential clients occur via email. Open house videos and virtual property tours can be downloaded on any smart phone, iPad or computer. Interactive maps allow you to provide buyers with neighborhood snapshots. Smart phones already offer mortgage calculators and other helpful real estate apps. The only thing lacking is the bundling of all these different social media nuggets into one cohesive, easy to access package.

The day of the virtual realtor is quickly approaching. People are comfortable communicating at a distance and on the go. The combination of social media and mobile applications is driving consumer expectations for instant communication. Savvy realtors will harness social media applications and create their own custom social media packages to respond to consumer demand for more info NOW!

How do you feel about the future of real estate?

Real estate professionals use social media for outreach and new applications to help you manage your social media and marketing output are rolling out all the time. If you are adventurous and do not mind switching things around now and them, you can try social media tools until you find the one or ones that work best for you.

If you find that you have a hard time keeping track of contacts, you might want to try Flowtown. This application does digging for you and presents you with the results. If you have someone's e-mail address, Flowtown can tell you their name, age, gender, location and the social networks they use.

Users get a separate profile page for all of their contacts once the service had combed the web for this information. Of course, if you feel like this is snooping, then this service is not for you. If you do not mind this kind of information gathering, then you can let Flowtown help you keep up with your clients. You can leverage this information as you wish, with the idea being that you use it to personalize your communication.

Follr helps organize your presence on multiple social media platforms using a virtual Social Card. The Social Card is kind of like a business card for the internet age--it combines your social media and online activity. And especially for real estate professionals, Follr offers an Enhanced Real Estate Social Card that promises to link your property-search sites and others with the Social Card. It is also helpful for anyone who manages a team of real estate professionals because there is a Team Platform. Employers can use it to monitor the social card activities of multiple employees. Follr aims to be your a one stop shop and users are encouraged to give out their follr social card address rather than information on their e-mail address, blog URL.  Facebook page and LinkedIn,Twitter, Tumblr and Youtube accounts

Is Your Real Estate Blog Doing Its Job?

When was the last time your real estate blog generated a useful lead that you were able to turn into a sale? If your answer isn't "yesterday," maybe it's time to take a good, hard look at your real estate blog. Blogging requires a significant investment of time and effort. If you approach blogging solely as an altruistic service provided to potential real estate clients, you're missing the point. While good blogging certainly provides potential home buyers and sellers with useful tips and information, it's really just the bait on the end of the hook. The core purpose of real estate blogging is to generate leads. If you've got a dynamic blog that enjoys a lot of traffic but produces few leads, it's time to shake things up.

Blogging is a good traffic creator. It's valuable as a tool to lure potential home buyers and sellers to your real estate website. But your blog is just the bait. Attracting potential clients isn't the end game; you have to reel them in to generate client leads. Leads are generated when a visitor is motivated to respond to a post, access or request a service or information, join a group or community, sign up for a seminar or class, obtain a newsletter or coupon, or participate in a survey or poll. If you want your real estate blog to generate useful leads, you have to create opportunities for site visitors to take that next step and make contact. You want to motivate casual blog readers to give you their contact information. Contact info = leads!

The most successful way to generate sales leads from your real estate blog is to peg every information offer to a request for contact information. Even if a newsletter sign up box just asks for email addresses, you'll start building an email list that you can use for Internet advertising, promotions, listing notices, coupons and more. Generally, the more valuable the information, the more willing visitors are to provide extensive contact information. Match information requests to the value of the content provided. For example, a potential home buyer is more likely to provide his current address and phone to receive a Home Buyer's Guide or access to local real estate listings than a copy of your newsletter.

If you feel like it is time to change your online presence, you can go ahead and start the process for a complete overhaul...or you can tweak a few things about your website. While it is good to get expert advice and do thorough research, sometimes you should just attempt something new on your own. You may find that you enjoy it and no matter what the results, you will learn something. You may find that minor changes can make a major difference.

We have a few suggestions, some of which may seem contradictory, but the point is to get you to try something new. What works for one real estate professional, may not work for another. None of these changes have to be implemented on a permanent basis. You can even have a message on your website that states you are trying out some new things to better serve the public and ask people to drop you a line to tell you what they think.

Page color and font

Ask clients or friends (especially those who work in marketing) for feedback about the color and font on your website. Change the color and see what people think.

While you will not be able to pick a color that appeals to everyone, you can get people's opinion on whether the main colors used on your website are distracting in any way.

Registration

Do you require internet users to register on your website to get to certain pieces of information? If it seems like this is a barrier to connecting with internet users, try removing the requirement to see if you get a better response.

On the other hand, if you do not require registration, but really want to know more about the people who visit your website, you can start to require registration.

Video and photos

If you have absolutely no videos of the properties on your site, try to shoot and edit a brief video on your own to post it to your site.

Those of you that have regular photos on your website can try to use panorama shots instead. If you only take shots from faraway, try some close-ups.

And if you have always kept up with all of your leads on your own, why not free yourself to try new things by using lead management and lead communication tools from GoPro Systems?

Some of the social media sites we mentioned on Tuesday and that we have mentioned in the past (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) are well known and have received plenty of national media attention. There are many other online networking sites for you to join that may not be as well known, but can still do a lot to boost your business.

Some of the best social networking sites that are used by many real estate professionals have a local focus and can really assist you in connecting with more people in your immediate area. As you probably already know, you need to get in touch with potential clients near and far.

Here are more ways to network with locals:

Meetup-These groups meet for a variety of reasons (to socialize, to network, to learn a new skill) and can rely on the centralized Meetup website to organize events and get the word out. You can meet people by going to events or you may want to start your own Meetup group to get together with other professionals.

Localism-This can help you connect with people who live in or want to live in your area. Contributors provide area-specific information and real estate professionals post listings. The more active you are, the more you are likely to get noticed.

Trulia- The site has blogs and guides about real estate. People go to this site looking for information, so if you can provide useful information, users will see you as a competent resource.

While Meetup groups rely on you showing up in person to participate, online networking sites like Localism and Trulia give you the opportunity to write well-thought out text that will remain online and can be found be people immediately or weeks or months from now. Whether you are meeting people in person or via an online forum, you have to find a way to make a good impression and work to forge some lasting connections.

Go Pro Systems wants to help you organize and keep track of the connections you make, be they online or in person and we have the technological tools to assist you in making the most of these relationships. Visit our Testimonials page where real estate professional we've connected with will tell you about our tools helped them grow their businesses.

If you are going to use social media to your advantage, you want to invest some time into it...but not too much time. The point of using social media as a real estate professional is to get your name out there, get your message out to many and interact with leads and other professionals with whom you really feel a connection.

There is no shame in repeating yourself across social networking venues and you can tweak your message a little bit to make it fit different sites. If you think that the copy on your website it really great, why not use it again? Many people will only find you on one social media site and anyone who follows you on more than one social media site is a true fan. Those people will be savvy enough to know that you cannot reinvent the wheel over and over again, so if they see the same copy they will not think less of you.

Here are some tips to help you make the most of your website copy-

• Shorten it to use it as your bio or in the "About Me" section on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
• Use bio points as posts on LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter to connect with people who share your background (e.g. I'm a U of I alum. Anyone else happy to see the U of I team win last night?)
• You can also use sentences from your bio as posts (e.g. I've been selling real estate in the [city] area for the past 12 years.)
• Post information about homes you have for sale, as long as only do so occasionally and not constantly.
• Post general information from your website about the area (e.g. The Dockside area has homes that suit families and retirees.)

You do not want to feel as if using social media is a burden. Set your own parameters-determine to post some new information once a day or once a week. The most important thing is that you have an online presence to promote your business.

GoPro Systems also have tools that can save you time and help you grow your business, including lead generation and lead management systems.

Realtors understand the importance of staging a house to promote a fast sale and ensure a good selling price. Hooking the buyer's interest is all about appearance. A house that impresses buyers from the moment they arrive at the curb through a tour of the bedrooms and inspection of the kitchen is one that is guaranteed to sell quickly. "Curb appeal" is equally important when real estate agents design their website. A well-designed website home page invites the visitor to stop and explore in much the same way that an attractive front porch invites a home buyer to come inside and look around. Easy-to-read typeface, attractive use of graphics and white space, pleasing eye flow and a well-organized and easily accessible index of website content work together to make a good first impression on website visitors and encourage them to stay and explore.

However, just as a home that looks attractive on the outside must have what the buyer is looking for inside to generate an offer, your real estate website must offer value-driven content geared to engage and maintain the interest of site visitors if you want potential clients to interact with and return to your website. Interior web pages that provide original content that is useful to home buyers and sellers will attract potential clients. Buying and selling how-to tips and checklists, home financing options and links to loan sites, community statistics, school district information, local recreational opportunities and shopping venues will promote return visits to your website as home buyers research different neighborhoods. Linking area real estate listings to your website ensures that home buyers will keep returning to check new listings.

Designing an effective real estate website is a combination of art and science. Considerable research has gone into the study of how website viewers look at a web page, how the human eye moves around a page, what attracts a viewer's attention and what causes him to lose interest. Well-designed professional web page templates use this information to place content and visual elements in optimal locations. Offering home buyers and sellers "one-stop shopping" through interior web page content and outside links to professional partners (loan officers, real estate attorneys, title companies, moving firms, home organizers, decorators, etc.) helps turn casual leads into paying clients.

Those who think that social media is getting in the way of face-to-face interactions may have a valid point in reference to personal relationships. However, when it comes to marketing and sales, the explosion of social networking tools has been helpful, not harmful. 

When it comes to getting the word out about homes you are selling, the more people you talk to, the better...even if you do not actually speak to them yourself. Perhaps we should say, the more people you are in communication with, the better. As a real estate professional, it is your job to get the word out, not only by tapping into your own network, but by making efforts to reach out to networks of people you who are not so familiar with as well.

There really isn't one social networking tool that people use for personal interactions that cannot be used for business too.

For example, we recently heard a great story about how a real estate agent used a number of different social media outlets to make a sale when things were looking rather bleak.

An agent who is about to sell a home that is priced to move via a bank-approved short sale might be feeling good, right? The agent we heard about was until the bank hesitated and the buyer balked. Then after bank's stalling caused the buyer to back out, the bank decided that it wanted to put the home into foreclosure.

The real estate agent decided to take matters into his own hands...literally. He used his own flip camera to make a video of the home and uploaded it to YouTube...and the story does not end there. This real estate agent really decided to go the extra mile.

After posting the video online, he used his website, blog, FriendFeed and Facebook to publicize the video and the sale. After getting a good number of views on YouTube, he was able to get his client 4 offers to consider.

Once you are using social media to boost your business and generate leads, you will need help managing this information and that is where you can turn to Go Pro Systems. Our Go Pro Systems Lead Builder 3.0 technology is the most advanced lead generation system ever created.