By Joe Sesso
This year Homes.com will be at the 2012 NorCal Real Estate EXPO on May 24th 2012, at the Sacramento Convention Center! This year, Homes.com will be sharing with attendees the importance of preserving their online reputation as a real estate professional. How much do you value your reputation online? Most agents would say they greatly value their reputation, but what can Real Estate Pros do when a bad review is posted of your service?
It’s a common trend, that people are more likely to post bad reviews when they are unhappy with the service/product they were provided. The same goes for Real Estate Professionals. If you do a great job, people will refer you, but will they go out of their way to Yelp about you? Probably not. On the flip side, what if they were upset with your service. Do you think they might post bad reviews on every site they can find? Maybe.
Online reputation management is a serious business that can make or break an agent or firm. Now the question is, what can you do to maximize your profile online and minimize bad reviews? A new product by Homes.com just may be able to help. It’s called Search Impact, and it has a proven, three-step process to maximizing your visibility online while minimizing the effects of negative reviews. Here is an overview of what Search Impact can do for you:
Step 1: Reputation Management: Your reputation is everything in the real estate business. If you’re labeled as a bad or unethical agent, it will cause serious damage to your business, growth and reputation. Here are some statistics from the National Association of Realtors:
- 70% of consumers trust online recommendations and business reviews
- 87% of buyers would probably recommend their agent to friends
- Reputation was the 2nd most important factor when choosing an agent
How do you build your online reputation? First, be found! You need to have a business profile on Yahoo, Google and Bing, so consumers can find you in a search. You then need to be on the popular review sites with reviews from clients. Examples like Yelp, Google Places, and Openlist are places where consumers search for reviews. Remember, 70% of consumers trust online business reviews. Remember, most of your happy clients will not go out of there way to post reviews. Search Impact has a great system for encouraging clients participate in reviews quickly and easily.
