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We’ve spent a lot of time since the launch of Trulia Voices speaking with agents, monitoring Voices content and learning about how to turn online relationships into offline relationships. Given what we’ve observed and gathered, we came up with a top 10 list of Agent Best Practices to help you make the most of your time on Trulia Voices.

10. Complete your profile
Consumers go to your profile to learn who you are, see what content you have created, and get in touch with you. Upload a picture, fill out the “about me” section and make sure you click the box to enable member to member communication. This is your (free) marketing page on Trulia and you should use it!

9. Stay relevant
If a consumer asks about the market in Florida, don’t answer about the market in Arizona and provide a link to Arizona homes (?!). If the same consumer was asking you a question when you ran into her in a grocery store, what would you do? And use your comment to add new insight, not repeat what five other people just said.

8. Plagarizing isn’t cool
It’s a great practice to refer questioners to a relevant third party source, but you MUST give credit to the source. Remember your fourth grade book report? The same rules apply.

7. Validate yourself
If your comment comes from personal experience, provide context to your answer – I grew up in this area, I’ve lived here for the last 3 years, my friend’s sister used to live here, etc. Help the consumer understand why your opinion matters and he will be more likely to trust your opinion and more interested in learning more about you.

6. The hard sell doesn’t work
We all know that consumers don’t like to feel they are being sold to these days—whether they are buying toothpaste or a home. Consumers value candor and openness over what sounds like a canned sales pitch.

5. No fishing for leads or referral fees
It’s not only a bad practice, but also against the Trulia Voices Community Guidelines to post direct solicitations of business. Please flag questions and answers that do not answer the question and are posted for the sole purpose of generating leads or reselling leads. We’ll remove them asap. Hint: just writing something like “Call me or email me and I’ll give you the answer” in response to an answer counts as a direct solicitation.

4. Remember the NAR Code of Ethics & Fair Housing laws
We are all trying to provide realistic, honest answers, but it’s very important for agents to adhere to the NAR Code of Ethics and Fair Housing laws when you are online, exactly as you would in your daily practices offline.

3. Answer other people’s questions, not your own!
This might fall into the “it goes without saying” camp, but it’s not going to inspire a consumer to contact you if you seem to be talking to yourself.

2. Laugh a little
Having a sense of humor is helpful. It’s okay to lighten up and show some of your personality.

Drum roll please…

1. Focus on the consumer
If you spend the bulk of your time asking and answering questions focused on other real estate agents, then you are not likely to build offline consumer relationships. We’re continuing to gain steam and Trulia Voices is starting to get coverage in the media–we’ll continue to see more consumers on Trulia Voices and all you have to do is share your knowledge with them!

Thanks to Keith Sorem for his input on the Agent Best Practices Top 10 List, and all the agents that have given us feedback along the way. I hope this list was helpful. Think its missing something? Let us know in the comments and thanks for being such a strong Voice!

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