Hi everyone, we have a guest post by Christian Russell @christiantjr, a real estate expert who is also into social media. You may have seen some of his very insightful comments left at a couple of our blog posts here and I highly recommend that you visit his blog at http://www.myonehundredthings.com for more of his thoughts not only in the real estate world but also his experiences in life as a real person.
…and not only that, I find that he’s a very intelligent and friendly person. Just Top Notch. Let’s hear how Christian is leveraging the use of Twitter and intergrating it into the field of property.
Reasons why to listen to Christian
#1 in sales out of a sales force of 1500
#1 sales trainer in US for sales volume
#2 sales trainer in North America for sales volume
#1 real estate agent in residential real estate sales for both sales units and sales volume.
Guest Blogger: Christian Russell
Website: myonehundredthings.com
People are losing money. They’re losing money in their 401(k) and IRA portfolios. Many business people and salespeople (including tons of real estate professionals like myself) are being forced to find new ways to grow their businesses in the midst of an economy that is shrinking their marketing budgets. How can Twitter possibly help with this?
I get these questions all the time…
- How can you justify “wasting so much time on the internet”?
- How do you make money blogging?
- I don’t “get” Twitter. Why do you use that site? It’s so boring!
(actual message I got a few days ago)
Obviously, Twitter doesn’t make sense to a lot of people! Compared to many blogs, my blog gets only very modest traffic, but I have found that using a blog, Facebook and Twitter to grow my network has enabled
me to help a lot more people, and it has truly transformed what I do. Twitter has been a big part of that.
Here’s how I make money with Twitter:
- I connect with people who are interested in real estate and social media.
- I talk with them (revolutionary, I know!), and then I tell them about new articles I write on my blog.
- They visit, they engage with me in conversation on my blog, and we occasionally do business.
- They’ll either ask me how they can use their 401(k) money to buy investment real estate, and I’ll help them out. Or they’ll ask me to build a blog for them. Or they’ll hire me for a coaching session. Or they’ll ask me to refer them to a friend of mine who can show them an investment property in their town.
Before I got into social media, I was a one trick pony…I sold houses. And I sold a lot of them…made good money. Now, the economy is on it’s ear, and my business is improving, while others are losing their
shirts. Old school media is ineffective and costly. Twitter is personal, engaging…and FREE.
Ask me again why I use Twitter ;)
While Twitter doesn’t make sense to a lot of people, to me it makes perfect sense! Why would you spend thousands on an ad in your local newspaper, when you can connect and talk directly with people who are
interested in what you do on Twitter?
Twitter forces you to change the way you think about selling and your business overall. But it creates value for your customers and clients, it improves your connection with people, and it enables you to drastically decrease your costs. Sound good? My blog is about “building a business and a life that rocks…” It’s not even focused exclusively on real estate, yet it improves my real estate business. Funny how that works :) While the economy is down (and I honestly believe it will stay down for a while) there is HUGE opportunity in learning how to use new tools…FREE tools, to grow your business.
Christian’s Favorite Sales Story
My favorite sales story is about how I sold a $1500 vacuum, for cash, to a drug dealer, while his partner pointed a gun at me from behind a door in the next room. Opportunity can be found anywhere. I believe that. I believe sales is a way for anyone to become wealthy, and without sales, no one becomes wealthy. I believe in living well and rocking hard. That’s what I want to make this blog about.If you like this story, you are going to love the great stuff he writes on his blog. Do give him a visit at
http://www.myonehundredthings.com
Photo by mugley
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
LOL a salesperson who can make a $1500 sale while someone’s holding a gun to his back has earned my respect, THERE!
What you said in your last two paragraphs made a lot of sense. People are still stuck with the traditional advertising mentality. Twitter sounds childish and they often don’t get the whole “use social media for my business” concept. I’ve found Twitter to be one of the most interested communities out there. I’ve use it to stay in touch with a lot of people.
And it’s funny what you said about your blog. Writing articles about creating a life that rocks. Which is what my blog was slowly become(I used to write way more about programming and web dev, and I still do, but less).
Anyways, great guest post:)! I look forward to connecting with you on Twitter.:)
Clinton
Clinton Skakun’s last blog post..The advantages of being your own web coder!
Eric – thanks for the kind words and for posting an article of mine on your site. You’re very gracious!
Clinton – thanks for the positive feedback, and I’ll look for you on Twitter!
Christian’s last blog post..The Ingredients of Wealth: How Many do You Have?
I read and enjoy your blog. I wanted to suggest a site to check out, which might be good for a post on online tools for real estate agents and sellers. It’s called TweetLister (http://www.tweetlister.com) and it just launched last week. TweetLister allows you to post, schedule and manage real estate listings on Twitter, and collect and download contacts you get through those listings. It’s a free service. We’ve already gotten a good amount of buzz, and I would love to read your take on it.
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