There are great examples for other types of local businesses, but what really caught my eye is a tool Nathan mentioned called TwitHawk. Maybe I’ll do a more in-depth post on using it later (after I play with it for a while), but check out the full post. Twit Hawk looks like it has a lot of potential for you to find local people discussing

• how tired they are of their apartment
• considering looking for a home
• recent job transfer/new job in your area
• needing more space
• etc.

Now remember, you are not going to see positive results if you jump in and try to sell them on using you as a Realtor®. At best, they’ll ignore you, and at worst they might block you, or even tell their friends. BUT, if you have some tips for them (maybe in the form of a blog post, free ebook, etc.), it would be acceptable to say something like “Hi @twitterperson, I have a blog post at www.myblogposthere.com with some good info for first-time homebuyers – feel free to check it out.” Low pressure contact like this is acceptable, or you could even just give them a warm welcome to the area, or recommend a listing you just listed that sounds perfect (but make sure it really does!).

So check out the post, see what you think of TwitHawk, and I’d love to hear how it helps your biz!

Read the full post to get the full picture of how Yelp has grown by creating an iPhone app.

You may not have thought about trying to get clients to provide a review of you as a real estate agent on sites Yelp, Google and Yahoo, but why not? It gives you more credibility if they’re doing a simple search for real estate agents. It gives you more spots to be found in the search engines. And since these are public review, you can probably take them and use them on your site if you like (haven’t checked into the legality of this, so don’t hold me to it, but if they left you a good review, they’d probably be happy to have you use it on your site, so just ask).

Here are a few ideas:

• Put together a list of local contractors (carpenters, plumbers, landscapers, interior decorators, etc.) you know and trust, and who are fairly priced. Send to your list (works even better if you can get coupons from your contractors, who will appreciate the business) with a note about wanting to help keep a few extra dollars in their budget.

• Collect a yearly calendar of fun, free events in your community. Your note can mention that having fun and making memories does not always require money to be spent.

• Create a page on your website with a bunch of YouTube videos showing easy, DIY projects they can do around their home to improve home value, and send the link out via email.

• On the business end of things, think about professional contacts you know that would benefit by being introduced. Then pick up the phone or jump on your email and introduce them. They’ll appreciate it, and remember you for it.

A lot of these might be things they could do on their own, but they’ll appreciate that you took the time to put them all together in one easy place. It shows that you’re thinking of them, and care about them beyond just “making the commission”.

1. It’s a VERY good thing to have your listings dynamically updating straight from your MLS, as it keeps the property search on your site fresh and up to date without you having to manually input your listings onto your site all the time.
2. From what I’ve seen, IDX has been somewhat hard to implement on Wordpress, especially if you don’t have a tech person.

But Diverse Solutions, a provider of IDX services, has just launched a new plugin for Wordpress users. Very cool!  Jay over at the Geek Estate Blog goes into lots of detail, and it looks like they’ve really got things figured out (especially for SEO purposes). So if you’ve been wanting to add a real-time property search to your site, head on over and read the full post. And if you’re already using Diverse Solutions and Wordpress, run (don’t walk) and grab that plugin! It looks like it will make your life a lot easier and your site a lot more Google friendly.