Mathias Bergendahl's Marketing Blog

Getting started with social media marketing can be a bit intimidating: so many networks, so little time. In the classes I teach I make the recommendation to start off by using three social media platforms, in addition to your website, and then expand with others when those three are established.

First, I suggest building a blog. Next, I recommend creating a FaceBook profile. The third platform I consider essential for any professional working to create an online presence is LinkedIn. While the first two have been covered quite extensively in this blog before, today I thought I’d focus on the benefits of having a LinkedIn account and profile.

First, let’s take a look at the setup process. James Kimmons of About.com offers an excellent gallery of images showing you, step-by-step, how to set up your real estate-specific profile. Click here to go to Setting Up A Successful LinkedIn Real Estate Profile, This Business Network Can Bring You Huge Business In The Future.

Once you have your profile ready it’s time define exactly how you can use it for business purposes. Earlier today I came across the article Effective Marketing on LinkedIn by Helen Overland, a text I consider an excellent overview of what exactly LinkedIn offers from a marketing perspective.

Next, many ask how you can attract buyers and sellers. Here are a few great tips by Jim Lillig in her text How to Promote Your Offline Business using LinkedIn and by Jim Gilbert in 5 Tips for Using LinkedIn as a Business Tool by Jim Gilbert.

Finally, by now you have your very own WordPress blog if you’ve been part of my social media marketing classes. In my opinion the very best feature of LinkedIn is the possibility of integrating your WordPress blog directly into your LinkedIn profile. If you click here you can see what my profile looks like, with my WordPress (which I use in my social media marketing classes) blog feeding every post automatically onto the LinkedIn profile.