All of us use Google Search all the time, but Search is only one of dozens of tools in Google’s online arsenal.  Here’s a rundown of 9 Google tools—many available to real estate professionals at no charge—that can help you market homes and build business.

1. YouTube.  Yes, we’re starting with the one you probably know best.  There are real estate professionals who use YouTube to show off properties, but it can be used in many creative ways—market information reports, homeowner how-to videos, behind-the-scenes portraits of your brokerage. There are so many possibilities.
2. Google Voice. With Google Voice you never have to miss another call and you don’t have to widely distribute your cell phone number.  That’s because this service lets you choose a phone number that will ring on your cell phone, your home phone, your office phone, or all three simultaneously, depending on the settings you choose. It can screen your calls, transcribe your voicemail messages and even allow you to set up different outgoing voicemail messages, depending on who’s calling.  You can port your existing cell number and use it as your Google Voice number or your can choose a new, separate number to keep from having to publicize your cell number indiscriminately.
3. Google Apps for Business. What if your brokerage didn’t have to buy software or servers?  What if you didn’t have to hire an IT consultant or fiddle around with upgrades, yet you and your team could have up-to-date software, customized e-mail, shared calendars, and cool collaboration tools? That’s what Google Apps for Business is all about.  For a modest monthly fee, you access the software and the business tools you need online.  Spend your time working rather than worrying about technology.
4. Google Calendar. Google Calendar helps you stay organized by offering you a desktop calendar that syncs automatically with the calendar on your smartphone.  You can make your calendar available to business partners and family members, and you can receive event reminders as e-mail or text messages.   It syncs with Outlook on Windows and iCal on the Mac so everyone can use it.
5. Google Places. When someone searches on Google for you—or another real estate company—Google pulls whatever it can find on the web and presents it to the searcher.  But you can take control of what Google displays by registering for Google Places.  Google Places lets you personalize what the searcher sees.  It’s like a Yellow Pages ad but better because you can include photos, information about how you market homes, or whatever else might be relevant to your customers.  It’s got great backend tools too, that let you analyze who’s searching for you.  And like so many of Google’s products, it’s free.
6. Google Alerts.  With Google Alerts, you can know what bloggers, the press, or the general public is saying about you or your brokerage.  Enter a search term in Google Alerts.  Whenever a news story, blog post, or video is added to the Internet that would appear among the top ten search results, Google alerts you.  Use it to find out what people are saying about you, to find out what your competitors are doing, or to keep abreast of changes in the industry.
7. Adwords. Write an ad. Choose the Google search terms (also know as “keywords”) that best suit your brokerage. Have your ad appear alongside Google search results when someone searches for your chosen keywords.  Pay only when someone clicks on your ad up to your budgeted amount.  It’s simple to use and has the potential to drive lots of new visitors to your site.
8. Gmail Canned Responses. If you frequently send the same information to people who e-mail you, you might want to try Gmail Canned Responses.  Canned Responses lets you compose a message, save it, and send it over and over again as needed.  For example, if you frequently send the same e-mail response to prospects asking about a home you’re marketing, you could put that information in a Canned Response and send it out as needed with just a few keystrokes. It’s even possible to set up Gmail filters so that a Canned Response goes out automatically in response to certain e-mail messages.  What could be easier?
9. Google Docs. Google Docs lets you store documents in the cloud and access them wherever you happen to be from any computer.  No need to carry files around on a flash drive or move them around from one computer to another.  Instead, upload your PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, or forms to Google Docs and access them whenever you need them. Google Docs also lets you give share your stored files with others and work on them together in real time.

So, what’s your favorite Google tool?

The Internet gives anyone the opportunity to comment on companies, people, or current events, and the comments are not always favorable.  How a company handles negative comments says a great deal about it, its perceived openness, and its commitment to customers.

Consider, for example, how Apple handled negative comments about its iPhone 4 released earlier this year.  Customers’ comments were removed from the Apple Forum when those customers tried to write about a poor review the iPhone had received in Consumer Reports.  When word got out that Forum comments had been censored, the resulting clamor was perhaps worse than the iPhone problem people were commenting on.  Apple was quick to find a fix for the not-working-so-well iPhones, but it’s handling of the PR problem left something to be desired.

In a day and age when anyone can post a comment about almost anything for all the world to see, it’s good to have a plan—or at least give some thought—to how you would handle a disgruntled customer who left a negative comment on your blog or Facebook Page.  Would you ignore it?  Would you delete it?  Would you respond to it?  If so, what would you say?

For an example of what it looks like when a company responds to its online critics, drop by AT&T’s Facebook Page.  People love to gripe about their cell phone service, and there is no shortage of such comments on the AT&T Facebook Page.  Yet amazingly, AT&T staffers wade in and respond to customer complaints.  True enough, AT&T probably has an entire staff devoted to monitoring its Facebook Page and responding to critics, something most real estate agents and brokerages can’t possibly have.  Yet, its willingness to respond online to customers and to try to find solutions provides a model for all businesses—even real estate.

What would you do if a would-be client left an unflattering comment about you on your Facebook Page?

Ning is the do-it-yourself social network application that allows anyone to create a social network centered around any topic or concept.  There are Ning networks focusing on neighborhoods and communities, Ning networks for fans of individual artists or entertainers, Ning networks that support causes and social issues. In fact, millions of Ning networks have been established, and until recently they were free to create and free to maintain.  But that’s about to change.

Recently, the creators of Ning made the decision to start charging for Ning networks in return for providing more features and more support.  The change will take place starting in July.  That means if you created a social network using Ning, you’ve got to decide whether to keep your group and start paying, or dissolve it.  And that can be a tough decision if you have a vibrant group with many members and lots of activity.

If you’re a WordPress users have a third option.  You can use BuddyPress, a free WordPress plug-in that lets you transform a WordPress blog into a social network site.  Then you can use a Ning to BuddyPress importer to migrate your users to your BuddyPress-created social network.

BuddyPress is completely customizable so that it can have the look and feel you want.  It gives network members an activity stream that lets them follow the actions of their friends à la Facebook; it also allows them to create profiles and set up blogs.  It has groups, forums, private messaging and a growing number of plug-ins that extend its capabilities.

It has the potential for a number of really great real estate applications and—better than Ning or Facebook—you own the content, you set the terms of service, and the members and their information belong to you.  What could be better than that?

If you have network built on Ning, take a look at what  BuddyPress can do.

Facebook’s changes and “unchanges” in recent weeks should be a reminder to us all that it’s probably not safe to pin our marketing hopes on something we can’t control.  And while you probably shouldn’t cancel your Facebook account just yet, you probably should re-evaluate the relative importance of your blog, your Facebook page, and any other social media you’re using.

In fact, your blog turns out to be one of the most valuable Internet marketing resources you have.  Here’s why:

1. You don’t own your Facebook account, and therefore, you have no say over what changes Facebook might implement.
2. You don’t own the content on your Facebook page so that if it were shut down for some reason—or if some change in Facebook policy were to go too far and you decided to close your account—your content would be lost.
3. You like to think of them as “your” followers, but you can’t control how Facebook chooses to use the private information of people who like your page.
4. Your content (and that of millions of other people, of course) is what makes Facebook successful.  Your effort enriches Facebook.  Are you getting back as much as you give?
5. Your blog, on the other hand, is yours. You set it up, you make the decisions, and you own the content.
6. Your blog enriches only you, your brokerage, or whomever you chose to write about.
7. Your readers are your readers and your subscribers are your subscribers.  As long as you put out good content and treat them well, they’ll stay with you.   (You don’t have to worry that changes someone else makes might erode your readership.)
8. Other than occasional upgrades to the blogging software, there will be no changes that you don’t authorize.

The Internet and the social media tools we all use will no doubt continue to change and evolve as the big players try to find ways to gain market share and turn a profit.   That means we’ll frequently need to review our Internet strategy and the usefulness of the tools we’re using.  In the mean time, don’t ignore your blog.  It’s one of the best tools you have.

Crowsourcing is the process of arriving at the best solution by aggregating information from a large number of sources.  Crowdsourcing works because, apparently, human beings are smarter as a group than any one of us is individually.

The Internet is an excellent medium for crowdsourcing because it can accept input from so many people.  One local real estate board is making use of the Internet’s crowdsourcing capabilities to raise the bar professionally.

The Houston Association of Realtors® (HAR) has created a Client Experience Rating system, which uses information from the “crowd” to assess the performance of real estate professionals.  At the conclusion of each transaction, buyers and sellers are invited to rate their agent.  Clients are asked to rate their agents on competency, on the agent’s knowledge of the market, on how well the agent communicated with the client during the process, and on the client’s overall experience.  Clients area also allowed write free-form comments about their agent, and about their buying or selling experience.

HAR complies these surveys and gives each agent a score (e.g., 4.8 stars out of 5).  Agent’s scores are then posted in a number of places on the HAR website, including on the agent’s web page and alongside his or her MLS listings.  Prospective clients can see the agent’s score, and can know many transactions that agent has completed before hiring him or her.  At some point, the Houston Association of Realtors® plans to allow clients to search for agents by score, which will, no doubt, reward better agents over time and weed out weaker ones.

Crowdsourcing has allowed Wikipedia to become a bigger, more vibrant encyclopedia than any paper reference book could ever be.  Crowdsourcing has the potential to raise the stakes for the real estate profession as well.

In a recent article, we reminded you that in the Internet age, there’s no excuse for prospects not being able to find you.  Start a blog, establish a Facebook page, create a profile on LinkedIn:  these are the minimum requirements for creating an Internet presence so a colleague or potential client can use Google to find you.

But “starting” isn’t enough.  It’s just as important to stay active.  The more active you are on the Internet, the easier it becomes for someone to find you; your name pops up more times when searched, prospects can see and learn more about you, your credibility grows.  So, the real key to Internet visibility is to stay active online.

An important part of staying active is posting regularly to your blog.  But there’s more you can do. Here are three additional activities you can undertake on a regular basis to increase your visibility on the Internet:

• Comment on other people’s blogs. Add thoughtful ideas or follow-up suggestions to the comment sections of the blogs you read (You do read other people’s blogs, don’t you?)  The keyword here is thoughtful. Be positive and respectful; make sure your comments add value.  Comments on Active Rain are great, but for maximum visibility step outside the box and comment on blogs beyond real estate.
• Write articles for online magazines. These can be rewrites of your best blog posts that you think will have universal appeal. (Don’t just copy and paste, but actually reword your magazine article to get it recognized properly by search engines.  The best known online magazines are www.ezinearticles.com and www.goarticles.com.  Both give you a space at the end of the article to tell more about yourself and to include a link back to your blog or website.
• Submit press releases. When newspapers, magazines, and online publications need material or someone to interview, they read press releases to get ideas. Often journalists copy press releases word for word into their own publications.  That puts information about you in front of more people.  Anyone can submit a press release about themselves and the Internet makes it easy to do.  Visit www.prlog.org to get started.

These activities have the added benefit of helping move your website closer to the top of the search result when someone googles your name.  So stay active and do a little bit each day.

Recently, Chicago real estate professional Andrea Geller wrote about her frustration at trying to find the contact information of an agent in another state to whom she was referring one of her clients.   She wanted to learn something about that agent and maybe even talk to them before passing her client along.  But that out-of-state agent couldn’t be found on Google.   In fact, it took Andrea a good bit of work to find a direct link to that agent on the Internet.

What if a consumer or another agent were trying to find you?  What would they get if they googled your name? How much searching would they have to do on the Internet before they found your contact information?  And if someone did contact you based on an Internet search, how long would it take you to answer?

Here are the five minimum things you should do to make sure prospects and colleagues can find you with ease:

1. Have a LinkedIn profile.  Your LinkedIn profile serves as an online résumé that will come up whenever anybody googles you name.
2. Have a Google profile. Google also lets you create a profile, in which you can write a description of yourself, upload photos, and provide links to other applications you use on the Web.
3. Be on Facebook. A Facebook Fan Page is ideal because it lets you keep your friends and family separate from your professional image, and because the person looking for you wouldn’t have to have a Facebook account to find you.
4. Check Your Broker’s Site. Make sure your contact information is easy to find and up to date on your broker’s website.  If you can’t control what’s on your broker’s site, get your own website.
5. Have Your Own Website.  Even if you do have input regarding what appears on your broker’s site, you should have your own website.  On your own website, you can express our individuality, show your professionalism, and demonstrate how you differ from your colleagues.  A blog is even better than a static website because it allows you to easily update the site’s content.

There is more you can do.  But if you can’t find yourself when you google your name, start with these.

A recently-released report by a California-based security company revealed that millions of computer users are selecting passwords that make it easy for hackers to gain access to their accounts.  Are you one of those people?

The company, Imperva, analyzed 32 million passwords in December 2009, and discovered that:

• 30% of all computer users select passwords of 6 characters or less.  The shorter the password, the easier it for a hacker to guess.
• Nearly half of all computer users create easy to remember (and therefore easy to guess) passwords, using slang words, dictionary words, or familiar number combination.  The most common password, for example, is “123456”.  Among the top 5 passwords are:  “12345”, “123456789” and “password”.
• Half of all computer users use the same password for all the websites they visit. This means that once a hacker figures out a victim’s password at one site, it’s easy to invade that person’s accounts on other sites.
• Almost 60% of users create passwords from a limited number of characters.  Passwords should not spell out a recognizable word and should contain upper and lower case letters along with numbers and special characters such as “!@#$%%^”.

If you’ve made any of these mistakes, you should take the time to review and change your passwords. Choose strong passwords and use these techniques to help remember them.

Google continues its relentless effort to catalog all of the world’s data and make it available to be searched.   Part of that effort involves real estate, as Google continually adds new features to allow consumers to find properties for sale.

For example, did you know that you can do a real estate search on Google Maps?

1. Click the drop down menu that’s labeled “More” and check the box that says “Real Estate”.
2. Enter an address or a zip code in the search field.
3. Refine the search by price, number of bedrooms and number of bedrooms.

The result is a list of properties for sale—certainly not the entire MLS right now but enough to get a consumer started.  And you can be sure Google will add more features as time goes on, and improve the search so it draws from more sources.

Currently the listings on Google show multiple photos, property descriptions, maps, public transit information, and a button that makes it easy to e-mail the listing to someone else. If the property has been listed multiple times, data from each of the listings—including the listing broker, listing agent, and list price—may also show.

It’s interesting to note that properties offered by brokers are shown right along side properties listed on Buy Owner.

So, will Google someday replace the local MLS?

A recent incident at the website of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch offers an excellent reminder for real estate professionals.

First, the background story:  ReadWriteWeb reports that an employee at a St. Louis area school lost his job for repeatedly posting vulgar comments on the newspaper’s website.  The employee assumed his comments were posted anonymously.  Meanwhile, the social media director at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch traced the IP address of the poster to a local school and contact the school’s administrator, assuming the comments had been posted by a student.  Not so.  The commenter was an adult employee at the school who was immediately fired.

People posting on the Internet often get confused and think that no one will ever know who they are.  Or, even when their identity is well known—as when they’re posting on their own blogs—they think only a handful of their closest associates will ever see their comments.  Neither of these things is necessarily true.  Therefore, whenever you post something to the Internet, it’s important to use good judgment.

For real estate professionals that means:

1. Be Kind to People You’re Working With.  Never write in an unflattering way about a client, another agent, another agent’s client, or anyone else involved in a transaction.
2. Be Kind to People You Don’t Know. Never make fun of a seller or a property you’ve seen, no matter how ridiculous the offer or the property seems to you.
3. Be Aware of Your Duty to Maintain Confidentiality.  Never disclose any details about a transaction.
4. Think Before You Type.  Never put anything in a blog post, in a comment, in an e-mail, or in any other electronic format that you might regret later.  Once you hit the enter button, you can’t really ever take it back.
5. Remember that the Internet Never Forgets. Deleting or removing a post doesn’t necessarily get rid of it.  Websites are often cached or archived so that deleted comments can still be searched and found.
6. Assume That What You’re Writing Will Be Read by Millions. Always write as if your words will be seen by people beyond your intended audience.  Readers can link to your comments or forward them to others.  Search engines can often find what you’ve written.  Comments posted to sites like Twitter can be seen by everyone everywhere.
7. Know that You’re Not Really Anonymous. Few people are really anonymous on the Internet.  Comments and e-mails can be traced by people who know how.