As social networking continues to gain momentum, I thought I’d take a moment to feature some of the top mortgage/real estate based on-line communities…

Active Rain - Giant Blog for Real Estate Industry. Earn points to be the “featured” agent/broker/company in your city/county/state. I recently joined this forum and have to say that, at the moment, it’s my favorite destination. I really like it because it provides direct access to real estate agents across the country. If you are willing to participate in the discussion, this is by far the best place I have found to build a network of realtor referrals. Join ActiveRain Here

Broker Outpost - The Big Daddy of Mortgage communities. The Outpost is simple and efficient. There are only 4 public message boards with the main one simply titled ” The Outpost recently passed 30,000 members, so, there’s good chance that if you’ve found this blog, you’re already familiar with the Outpost. if you become a “Premium Member” for $10 a month, you will receive access to a private forum along with the ability to participate in an collaborate marketing effort. There are lo’s and brokers there who rely almost solely on this system to generate their leads. Also, premium members frequently give away leads that they aren’t licensed to handle.Broker Universe’s “Mortgage Grapevine” - In all honesty, I haven’t really spent any time at all on this site. It’s a bit too chaotic for my tastes but I know a number of people who visit it frequently and find it to be a great resource.

Wanna Network - I just signed up for this one today. So far, I’d classify it as the MySpace for Real Estate, within moments of joining you’ll have people asking you to join their networks. They have a discussion forum as well as member profiles. I glanced over them and they seem to have some good information.

It can be very easy to get lost in the wealth of information contained in these forums and on these networks. But the best feature by far is the ability to connect with others. If you really want to get the most of any of these communities, you need to be prepared to be a participating member. “Lurking” can be quite informative but those who participate are the ones that reap the true rewards.

I’m working to put together a piece on using more mainstream social networks (Friendster, MySpace, YouTube) to grow your business. Other than watching the occasional video or checking out a MySpace profile here and there, I really don’t use/visit these sites all that often. But, from my initial research, there are quite a few real estate and mortgage professionals that have had some great success via these platforms.

I’d love to hear from people who are currently using these sites as marketing tools. Leave a comment or join my mortgage marketing newsletter list and shoot me an email if you have had success generating business via on-line social marketing!

Now get out there and network! Just be sure you make time to get offline now and then and do some actual work!

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