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Ever wonder, “How Can I Best use Trulia Voices?”

You’re not alone. Many are thinking the same thing. With so many cool things to do on Trulia, it can be daunting trying to figure out where to start. So, we wanted to share a road map of sorts on where to begin and how to best participate. It’s just an outline so feel free to jump around and start with the things you’re most immediately comfortable with.

1. Complete your Trulia Voices Profile - Real Estate Resume

When a real estate agent or other real estate professional creates their profile on Trulia, they’re essentially creating their Real Estate Resume. It’s so important to all the pro’s reading this to make sure that you complete all the fields of your profile. You wouldn’t go into a job interview with a piece of paper that only had your name and contact information on it - would you? That just wouldn’t help you land that dream job you’ve been searching for - in this case, that dream client. The same holds true for your Trulia profile - please give consumers all the pertinent information about yourself as you can so they can make better informed decisions when picking their next real estate pro to work with.

Your Trulia Profile offers Personalization and great long term SEO Benefits:

• Your Name = Profile Page Title - Include your name and primary keywords that you would like to be found for within the search engines and on Trulia
• Headline Section - This is the meta description for your profile -  list some of your primary keywords there too
• Location - Add multiple primary geographic locations where you work or are an expert in such as City & State or Zip code. The 1st location in the list appears in your page Title so choose it wisely
• Website Links - You get to add 5 dofollow links with custom anchor text - point them to any site or blog of your choice. Controlling the anchor text allows you to have your link say “Miami Beach Real Estate” instead of “Website”
• Custom Profile Vanity URL -  Customize your URL so it looks like this - http://www.trulia.com/profile/social_media_guru/  -rather than this -  http://www.trulia.com/voices/profile/Real_Estate_Pro-12345-123456/ - It makes it easy to share and remember. See more details here
• About Me Section - People want to know who they are dealing with. Share some insight into who you are are, what you’re good at and what you have accomplished. Use your keywords here too - always in moderation.
• Client Testimonials - Add up to 10 testimonials from your past or current clients. Consumers want to work with someone who others trust - this can help give them a glimpse into who you are from someone else’s perspective. Again, in moderation, use your market keywords here like the City & State, Town, Neighborhood, Zip Code, Community, Building name etc…..
• Specialties - List what you are an expert in
• Experience - Share your past real estate and non-real estate work experience - maybe a potential client worked for the same company or industry in the past too - that can be the spark that can help you make a better connection.
• Certifications and Awards - It’s ok to share your designations and achievements - it shows that you are proactive and motivated
• Interests - Are you an avid golfer? Love to fly fish? Do you sail? Ski down double diamonds in Park City, Utah? If so, let people know this little bit of personal info. They may like what you do too which can once again, help you make a successful connection with a potential client.
• Claim your listings on Trulia - To claim your listing on Trulia, go to the “My Listing” link within your profile and search for your listings by - Property address, MLS ID, or your email address. After you do this, those claimed listings will display on your profile, your contact info and photo will appear on those listings and the listings on your profile will become dofollow links.If we get your listings via a feed, remember that your listings are associated with your corporate email address, so be sure to use that same email address for your Trulia profile. Then, your listings will automatically appear on Trulia.
• Grow your Google Page Rank - The more active you are within our Trulia Voices community, the more it will help your profile grow it’s page rank over time. We have seen some Trulia profiles as high as a PR4.
• Fresh Content - Your Own Real Estate Knowledge Base - All answers, questions and blog posts are displayed on your profile which helps in keeping your profile active with fresh content which search engines like Google love. It’s also easy for consumers to skim through all your content in one place.

2. Outline your Objectives

Now that you created your awesome detailed real estate resume, it’s time to sit back and outline some reasons you’re on Trulia Voices. Having a focus will help you become more successful.

Some reasons may be:

• To Sell your clients listings - Getting them maximum exposure in front of a targeted audience is a great reason to be on Trulia.
• To Market yourself and your business - Establish yourself as a local expert in our real estate community
• To Meet Home Buyers and Sellers - Establish trust and clients for life
• To learn - Gain knowledge and insight from others in the community
• To educate - Share your expertise and knowledge
• To make friends - Real estate is social by nature - our community is a great place to meet other like minded people
• To network and get/send Referrals - Build your pipeline and grow your sphere of influence locally and nationwide

3. Understand why Consumers are coming to Trulia

Trulia Voices is a very vibrant and powerful real estate social networking community. Consumers are coming to Trulia for a variety of reasons. Understanding things from their perspective can help you better communicate and connect with them.

• They’re doing market research - Stats, trends, heat maps, guides, demographics etc…Consumers want to know as much as they can about the properties, neighborhoods and communities as possible.
• They’re looking to find their dream home - Consumers can search over 3.5 Million homes for sale on Trulia and growing
• They’re looking for an Agent - With over 360,000 real estate professionals on Trulia, consumers have lot’s of great people to research
• Q&A - They’re asking Questions & looking for Answers from agents they can trust
• Personal Experiences - They’re sharing their stories both good and bad.

4. Observe - Be a Fly on the Wall and Read

Every community or group whether it’s online or offline has a unique culture. It’s best to observe and learn what those are before jumping into a conversation.

• Visit Trulia Voices Q&A and Trulia Blogs
• Find Questions & Blog posts in your Local area by City, State, Zip, Neighborhood or Keyword - see what’s happening in your neck of the woods. You may notice people who have either good or bad online etiquette -  Think about how you would ask or answer that question yourself and how others may perceive your answer.
• Sign Up for Email Alerts -   Select a category and location and then get notified every time a question is asked, and be the first to answer. Also, get notified when new real estate blog posts are published.

5. Become a Proactive Trulia Voices Community Contributor

Writing your thoughts and opinions online for the world to read can be a scary proposition. Don’t worry, I felt that way too. When you’re ready and feel comfortable, it’s time to dive in and become a participant rather than just a spectator or lurker as some like to call it.

• Answer Consumers Questions - Find Questions & Blog posts in your Local area by City, State, Zip, Neighborhood or Keyword and join the conversation. If you think you can add value to the conversation - go for it. Don’t just leave a comment to leave a comment. Remember, people are reading from all over. What you say today can effect you and your business today and years from now. Answer thoughtfully and within the law and your local code of ethics.
• Ask Your own Questions - Got a question yourself? Need help? Go for it. Ask away. It’s a two way street. The community is there to help.
• Blog - Blog about the real estate topics you know best. Talk about things that home buyers and sellers want to know about.
• Call or email other agents - Be proactive. Reach out to other agents in other markets within your state or nationwide. Build your referral network up. You never know when you’ll need or have a referral.
• Share your content - On Mybloglog, Share on Facebook, Twitter, Digg etc…
• Search Popular categories - See what’s hot on Trulia! This can help you learn about what people are talking about the most and can help you get ideas on what to write about yourself
• Top Trulia Contributors - See the Top Trulia Contributors of All Time, Last Week or by Last Month and see who has the Most Answers, Most Liked Answers and the Best Answers
• Get showcased on the Trulia Voices Homepage - Now that you’re being proactive on Trulia, we want you to stand out within the community. Learn how to do that here.
• Find a Pro Trulia Directory - Get Found by Consumers. The more details you add to your Trulia profile, the easier it will be for consumers to find you on Trulia
• See All Professionals on Trulia - Search by Best Match, Most Activity and Featured

So there you have it. We’re constantly adding new things to Trulia to better enhance your experience. So expect to see the site and all of it’s features get tweaked from time to time. Your feedback is invaluable in this process so please feel free to share your thoughts, comments, concerns and ideas with us at anytime. Leave a comment here or email me at rudy at trulia.com.

See you on Trulia Voices!

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