Howdy Moguls!
Welcome to Part 2 in our Tech Tips on using LinkedIn to help you be more successful in real estate investing. In Part 1, we showed you how to tweak your LinkedIn profile to make it look more professional and help you network.
Today, we’ll be talking about how to reach out to find others who can help you become more profitable. LinkedIn has a lot of great ways to build your brand. If you spend some time reaching out, you will soon establish yourself as a go-to person for real estate investing.
Remember, as you’re reaching out, figure out what you can do for the other person... That’s at the heart of networking.
Groupies Make the Best Leaders
LinkedIn runs an enormous number of groups for people with similar interests. (No, I’m not talking about the one for adults who still sleep with stuffed animals.)
Every member of LinkedIn can create their own group, so the possibilities are endless. Spend some time looking for groups that are interested in whatever portion of real estate you do, like:
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Apartment Owners
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House Flippers
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Wholesalers
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Distressed Properties
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Foreclosures
Once you find the group, provide value. How? Post articles, guides, or snippets on how to do something that could be useful to others in the group. Doing this:
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Establishes you as an experienced and serious investor.
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Keeps your name current with other members of the group.
This is particularly useful if you are trying to wholesale to a group of house flippers that could be your potential buyers. Or maybe you are a realtor who joined a group of landlords in your ‘farm’ area.
Groups with your potential customers will appreciate that you are trying to give them value, rather than you just joining and trying to sell to them. Of course you can intersperse the advice with some offers.
Don’t forget to comment on the discussions of other people in the group. People go back to their comments and contributions (articles, posts, etc.) to see what the reaction is. If they see thoughtful comments from you that don’t suck, they are likely to click on your profile page and learn more about you…
You can answer questions that people have, direct them to resources that will help them to be more profitable or just sympathize with them. That could be the beginning of a beautiful real estate relationship.
Can’t Find a Group? Create!
That’s right – create your own.
Wholesalers could create ‘Podunk, Iowa House Flippers’ (if you think Podunk is big enough). Or maybe you like to fix up industrial buildings. Make a group for that! The point is, you can create any group you want in order to develop new relationships, help other group members and prosper from it all.
Being the investor who starts the group gives you some power over who joins the group and gives you name recognition to all members of the group.
But just like rock-an- roll groupies who don’t fall for every band that has a half-way decent hit, don’t jump into 50 bajillion groups and try to keep up with them. People will forget you very quickly as your contributions to all the groups dry up.
Regardless of whether you join groups or start your own, concentrate on 2 or 3 groups and really contribute to them. Become one of the leaders of the groups and you’ll have a much better chance to establish solid, profitable connections than if you just joined every real estate group you could find.
Another feature LinkedIn provides in their groups is an online poll. You can set up a poll with up to 5 questions that people can fill out…
Say you want to buy apartment buildings. You can go to a commercial real estate brokers group and ask them about their preferences on buyers and who they like to work with most. Being a broker’s favorite buyer means the best deals are funneled to you. These polls are a great way to do research and adjust your real estate investing.
Show me Your Friends and I’ll Show you… Your Future
In addition to groups, you can find other successful people on LinkedIn and reach out to them to help you…
One great way to do this is to use the Open Profile function. Unless you have the Premium Membership or are in a group with someone, you cannot send them messages unless you already have a first-degree connection.
A lot of the truly successful real estate investors do have Premium Accounts to help with networking. They can make it possible for others to send them messages even if they don’t have that connection. If you search around on LinkedIn for those successful people, you can message them directly – out of the blue – and start networking with them. You might not want to start with ‘The Donald’ but…
Back on your profile, spend a few minutes regularly on your ‘Network Updates’ page. This is like a newsfeed for other social media sites and can quickly tell you if there are any new developments in your real estate network.
Also, go on the ‘Profile’ dropdown menu and check out “Who Viewed Your Profile.” You may see a great new connection that you can track down… But you can’t make this connection unless you first make yourself identifiable for others to see you.
To do that, go into your profile settings and click on ‘Select what others see when you've viewed their profile.’ Make sure you uncheck ‘Your name and headline (Recommended).’
Here is a helpful video on the latest features contained within the ‘Who’s viewed your profile’ function.
Ending with a Bang
LinkedIn also allows you to easily export your connections. Go to ‘Network’ in your profile’s navigation bar, click on Contacts, click the settings gear icon on the top right, and then click Export LinkedIn Connections under Advanced Settings on the right...
You'll have the option of either exporting as a .CSV or .VCF file. You can then use these files and drop the contacts intp a networking system you likely already have set up that helps you stay in touch with people.
And that my friends, is how LinkedIn has the goods on helping your REI business link you to success.
Holla at us
Do you have other LinkedIn tips that can help others in the REI business? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.
Check Out LinkedIn’s Features – Do some research and see how you can use LinkedIn’s features to best connect with your network.
Put Yourself Out There – Real estate is all about connections. Use LinkedIn to help you connect virtually.
Utilize Other Social Media – LinkedIn should just be one tool in your social media arsenal. Learn to use them all to your advantage, or find a VA that knows how to.
Keep It Updated – Don’t be a one-hit wonder. The really great deals come to those who follow up. Once you have set up a presence on LinkedIn or other sites, update everything on a regular basis and stay with it. Don’t let it lapse, or so will your relationships.