Realtors and Google+

Joan and her daughter

When I first got my Google+ page, I was a little hesitant about putting people that I had never met into my "circles".  And I'm not going to lie, if they did not follow me back I was a little disappointed.  Okay...I was a lot disappointed.  BUT everything I read said that having a page would help me.

I thought it was all about search results at first.  I had taken the time to use "authorship" and was pretty excited when my profile picture showed up on some of the search results.  And "by Joan Connelly" was proudly displayed by some of my website pages.  

And then it happened.  I had been on Google+ for about three months and they got rid of authorship.  Bye Bye "By Joan Connelly".  

WHAT!  Had I been wasting my time?  Should I just give up my account?

Thankfully I calmed down and I realized that my account wasn't just about authorship.  I had actually gotten to know other Realtors....well, I had gotten to know about them and felt like I knew them.  And many of them had gotten to know about me.  

I had also started blogging a lot more than I ever thought I could and most of the blogs were just about my life in Steamboat Springs or real estate tips.  This is how other real estate agents learned about me.  After I wrote a blog (and re-read it about 100 times), I would post it on Google+.  By the way, these posts still have my profile picture and "by Joan Connelly" in the search results that can be seen by people that have me in their circles.

Then, I realized that I could share more than blogs.  I could share my real estate listings.  And if I had made smart circles, this could help me sell homes or condos or land or any real estate listing.  I wish that I could say that I thought of this by myself but really it was because I saw other real estate agents sharing their MLS listings.

I also made connections with other KW real estate agents that would be helpful if I had a referral in there town.  And hopefully, some of these same connections would use me if they needed a Keller Williams referral agent in Steamboat Springs.

So I kept my account and I kept adding to my circles.  My only complaint is that you can only follow so many people a day.  And I have heard there is a limit but I have not reached it...YET.

If you are a real estate agent that has been hesitant about creating your account, I hope you will give it a try.  And I also hope that you will add me to one of your circles!

And here's a little something I learned just recently.  If you want to make your cover photo stand out you can make a GIF and upload it as your cover photo.  I made a simple one by going to http://picasion.com/ and using a few pictures. I made sure the pictures were 480 pixels wide x 270 pixels tall.  I uploaded them using size "advanced" and 480.  I saved my GIF on my computer.  Then, I uploaded it to Google+ as my cover photo.  You can look at it on my page.  JOAN'S GOOGLE+ PAGE.  A little of the left side of your photos will not show up, so you might want to think about that when choosing your pictures. I'm sure there are lots of ways to do this, but this was an easy way that I thought worked really well.

Joan Connelly is a Realtor® at Keller Williams Steamboat Realty.   You can view Joan's Steamboat Springs Realtor Website by clicking HERE.