ACTIVE RAIN

Active Rain is a great unique way to expand your brand image.  Being “seen” on the internet is a sign of credibility. Agents can use this to their advantage to increase sales. You can use it to demonstrate to potential listing clients that you're up to date on technology.  It’s also free.

Active Rain Introduction

ActiveRain awards “points” to members for building a profile, blog entries and comments, and for inviting new members. The more points a member accumulates, the higher they are listed in the “featured members” sections. That is the premise of the community.
 
First off you have your profile, in your profile you are able to write a brief description, an “About Us” section, an “Areas of Expertise” section, and list some testimonials. This profile is the page that most visitors will end up finding so make sure to take a little time when filling it out. Link to your main site to help visitors find what they are looking for and increase your Google Rank.

Next there is a blog for each member. The main advantage of  blogging is you have a chance to build some links to your site. Point visitors to important pages in your site as many times blog posts will show up in the search engines and can drive some traffic for you.

Networking

Then there is the networking part of the site. You can add other members as “Associates” and they are then linked from your profile. You can add agents that you know, referral sources, a loan officer, and more. While two-thirds of the network is made up of real estate agents, members also include loan officers, title companies, real estate trainers and coaches, virtual assistants, lawyers and more. Anyone connected to the real estate industry is welcome to join and participate in the network.  For example I’m part of the network on more of the online marketing end of things. 

Search Engine Benefits

Besides the entertainment and educational value on ActiveRain, there are business benefits to be gained.  Members profiles are indexed in Google and you can pick up some great one-way links to your main website and blog. Links are crucial in the development of a solid presence on Google. Interlinking your websites with blogs and communities can be a great way to boost your search engine rankings.  This is where I see the value of using active rain.  Every agent should have an Active Rain profile just so that it will show up on Google when your name is put into Google. 

Real Estate Referrals

Search engine benefits are just the beginning. Like other social networks, it’s easy to “meet” people and the blogging platform provides a unique insight into members business practices and personalities. Much of the real estate business is built on referrals, and the members of ActiveRain have a unique place to go when searching for another real estate professional to refer business to.
 
This is my profile page and it has a Page Rank of 3 (Mind the pic!).  Page rank is a general number that tells you the quality of incoming links to that page. Think of it as a fairly good sign of Google quality. 

Sign Up Here: http://activerain.com/action/referrals/century21pei
Add Me Here: http://activerain.com/century21pei