By now, I hope you're fully engaged with LinkedIn.  You've completed your profile; started building your network; begun posting recommendations for people you've worked with; and reached out to your network requesting recommendations for yourself.  Now there's another LinkedIn tool that will help you take full advantage of this popular online networking site.

LinkedIn Answers allows LinkedIn users to pose questions to everyone in their network, including people who are very indirectly "related."  All of those people then have the opportunity to answer the questions.  If you begin answering questions that are related to your areas of expertise (i.e. buying and selling a home, practicing real estate, running a small business, managing employees, etc.), you will establish yourself as an expert -- not only with the person who asked the question, but with everyone in your entire network. 

I'll use myself as an example to put that into perspective.  I have 249 "trusted friends and colleagues" in my network.  Through them, I am connected to more than 4.2 million LinkedIn users.  That means my total LinkedIn network has more than 4.2 million people... and it's growing every day!  Since July 29, nearly 47,000 people have been added to my network without my doing anything.  That's a lot of people!

Get started today:

1) Log on to your LinkedIn profile and go to the LinkedIn Answers section.

2) If you scroll down, you will see questions that have recently been asked by your network ("New Questions From Your Network."). Similarly, your LinkedIn home page will display recent questions related to your profession.  You can either visit these pages frequently looking for questions to answer, or you can set up a feed to your RSS Reader or Google or Yahoo Home Page. Much more convenient!

3) First, figure out which categories you're going to target. The top level categories are listed on the right hand side of the page under "Browse." Click on each category to get a full list of sub-categories.

4) You'll go through the following process for each of your targets:

a. Click on "Personal Finance." Then click on the "Personal Real Estate" link on the right hand side of the screen.

b. Once the new page opens, you'll see a little orange square (the RSS icon) under the header "Subscribe to new questions in." Click on "Personal Real Estate."

c. Now you'll see a list of options. I personally use my Google home page to keep track of LinkedIn Answers, as well as all my blog feeds. Use whichever option is right for you.

d. Voila! Any time someone in your network asks a question related to your profession, your home page or feed reader will be automatically updated.

5) When you're answering questions, please remember that your answers can be seen by everyone in your network and they will be connected to your LinkedIn profile. Take your time. Be professional. And please don't be overly sales-y! Don't try to sell your services. If you present yourself as an intelligent, well spoken real estate professional, your expertise will sell itself.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

And don't forget to check out Trulia Voices.  They have a similar application that is solely related to real estate.

My landlord slipped a note through my mail slot today and I immediately saw the potential for real estate pros.  In addition to some tips about protecting your home when you go on vacation (you know I love tip sheets!), there was a little contest.  Tenants can enter to win a professional cleaning service from Prestige Cleaning, which uses biodegradable cleaning products. 

Why not host a similar contest in your area?  Who wouldn't love to have someone else clean their home?  You can probably get a house cleaning service and/or a carpet cleaning service to donate a session.  After all, you will be advertising their services to all of your customers.  Or maybe they can offer those who don't win some sort of discount. 

Make a postcard or flyer that includes your logo and contact information, details about the contest, including a deadline for entering, and a form for them to fill out.  Let them know where they should send or drop off the entry.  Or you can help everyone save on postage by asking them to send you an e-mail to enter the contest.  Make sure you tell them to include their phone number so you can let them know if they win.

Print up the flyer, put on your tennis shoes and walk the neighborhoods you're targeting.  Put the contest flyer on each front door step with a market update.  It's a great opportunity to get in front of your potential customers.  Make sure you send the contest details to your past clients -- a nice excuse for getting back in touch!

Good luck!  Let me know how it goes.  And wish me luck... I want to win that cleaning session!

I was at my parents' house recently and started flipping through the Costco magazine.  When I came across an article about Martha Stewart-branded hams I said something like, "Seems like she's diluting her brand."  In response, my dad asked, "Why do you care?"  At first I wasn't sure where he was going but then I realized it was a fair question.  He wanted to know why public relations cares about branding.

Branding is critically important to any marketing function, including public relations.  If I don't know what the company I'm representing stands for at its core, how can I communicate its value? 

Using Assist-2-Sell as an example... I'm out there telling people that Assist-2-Sell stands for experienced real estate professionals providing quality, full-service to home buyers and home sellers for less money.  Suppose corporate comes to me and says that Assist-2-Sell is going to start selling knick knacks to tourists, and they want me to announce the launch of the new stores.  I wouldn't know what to do with that information!  That announcement doesn't jive with what that company stands for -- or at least what I think the company stands for.    

That's obviously an exaggeration but I wanted to demonstrate that your brand = who you are at the core.  (There's more to it but successful brands know what they stand for and they know what they want to stand for in the hearts and minds of their customers.)  When you move away from who you are at the core, you make it even more difficult to communicate your value.  More importantly, you make it more difficult for people to recognize why you're valuable.  If you move wherever the wind blows, how will anyone know where to find you?

This is something you should consider when thinking about the larger brand you represent (i.e. Assist-2-Sell) and also your local brand -- your real estate business and you, the real estate broker and agent.  If the three don't mesh, you're in trouble.

An article in this weekend's The Wall Street Journal offers a few lessons for Assist-2-Sell franchisees who are looking for publicity opportunities.  This particular story takes place halfway around the world but it's interesting, colorful and, more importantly, can be translated locally.

Reporter Rosamaria Mancini writes about home buyers who are traveling to a small town in Italy to buy old, run down, cone-roofed, round huts known as trulli.  It's a great trend piece that includes interviews, local history, remodeling trends, and background on how trulli even came to be fixer uppers.  So, what can you learn from this article?

1) Find something truly unique about your community and market it to home buyers outside of the area. This trend never would have happened if some enterprising real estate companies hadn't started pitching trulli as "unique country-homes."

2) Pay attention to local home buying and remodeling trends and alert the media. Trends are happening all around us. We just have to spot them and point them out to the right people.

3) Let the media know when you list a unique home. Is the homeowner well known? Does the home have an interesting history? Is there something distinctive about the architecture of the home?

4) Paint a picture of your community. Be colorful, descriptive, engaging and attract people to you and your listings.

If you can't find a reporter to write about the trends you've discovered, don't despair.  Start a blog on A2S Talk and start writing.  If you're consistent and provide as much detail and color as Mancini, you'll attract the right kind of attention. 

And don't forget, I'm here to help.  If you think you have a unique trend that should be in the news, let me know.

(I included a link to the trulli video so you could see the potential.  Post videos of your unique listing or local real estate trend on your Web site and include links in any press releases, blog posts, articles and e-mails.  As you can see, your videos don't have to be professional to be effective.)

It seems every day there's something new I can't live without.  Today that something new is Yelp.  I don't know how I decided on a place to eat before Yelp, much less found a new hair stylist.  And apparently I'm not alone.  According to Nielsen Online, Yelp.com attracts two million visitors a month.  I'm not one of those people who review hundreds and hundreds of businesses, but I definitely appreciate the people who take the time to post recommendations on Yelp.

So why am I going on and on about Yelp?  Because you need to get over to Yelp.com and take care of a few things:

1) Look up your Assist-2-Sell office and make sure all of the information is complete. It's free and it's simple. Just click "Edit Business Info" and fill in the blanks. Make sure you select the real estate categories so people can find you.

2) If you're missing from the business directory, click "Add Business."

3) Complete your member profile. It's relatively painless. You don't want to be anonymous so add a photo and tell people a little about yourself.

4) Spend some time reviewing your favorite neighborhood haunts and the professionals you can't live without: restaurants, florists, barber shops, book stores, dry cleaners, coffee shops, nail salons, grocery stores, etc.  Benefits: If you take the time to review local businesses, locals will feel more inclined to recommend you.  And people looking for a REALTOR will see that you're truly a local expert who's part of the community.

5) Invite your family, friends and customers to be friends. You can even invite me: Erin C., Carlsbad, CA. Let people know that you're Yelping and they'll naturally want to write a review about you.

6) I know Assist-2-Sell has a lot of happy customers. I've read a lot of great testimonials! Encourage your customers to write reviews about you on Yelp. Positive reviews = New customers.

Yelp is growing.  Why not benefit from its growth? 

You do want to make sure your business listing is current on as many local search sites as possible, but don't feel like you have to be a social [network] butterfly on all of them.  Pick a couple that you really like, have fun and stick with it.

Start thinking about something and suddenly you see it everywhere:

Entrepreneur Magazine, "Get Them Talking: Tired of trying to round up new customers on your own? Go online and start yelping for referrals" (March 2008) 

Fortune Magazine, "Got cash? Let the bidding wars begin" (February 9, 2008)

Washington Post, "Yelp Critiques Heard and Heeded in DC" (February 27, 2008)