The number of people who are using their mobile devices for browsing the internet is growing rapidly and it only looks like continuing to increase dramatically into the future.

Most CRM systems for the real estate industry now include Bulk SMS functionality and many agents are now using this service quite effectively to keep in touch with their database en masse via bulk text messaging out to their customers’ mobile device.

However, I’ve also noticed that some of the trainers and/or suppliers of CRM’s don’t seem to embrace the user functionality that now comes as almost a standard within mobile phone technology and embrace the fact that the internet is now accessible via the iPhone, Android, Smart Phones, etc.

One of the reasons why I say this is that so far within the standard SMS templates that I have seen uploaded within these systems, I haven’t come across anyone who has suggested that the SMS message should contain a website URL within the body of the text message.

This seems unusual because when you send an SMS which includes the full URL of a website, the link normally becomes hyperlinked on the mobile device which makes it very easy for people to press their finger onto the hyperlink on their screen and visit the website via the mobile internet browser within their hand-held device.

It helps to build your profile and reinforce your branding.

Doing this could not only help to drive lots more traffic to your website, but it could also help to remind the people of who you are and help keep your company branding message top of mind.

Providing a link also makes it easy for the customer to visit your site and identify who you are and maybe read more about you and your company while they are out and about.

To create a link to a URL within a text message is really easy, you simply include the website address within the body of the text.

But it’s important to note that whenever you insert a URL into an SMS make sure you insert the full website address, including the http:// or www. prefix. If you don’t then the mobile device wont identify it as a website address and won’t hyperlink the URL.

If you don’t include the full website address and the URL doesn’t become hyperlinked, the SMS recipient would then need to write down the URL and type it into their browser, which will then reduce your click-thru rate dramatically.

Use a short URL within your text message.

The only real issue with inserting a URL is the length of the domain name. Most mobile providers only allow 160 characters per SMS and the last thing you want to do is send out 2 separated text messages, because it will increase your unsubscribe rate.

Some agents will want to send people across to one of their latest listings or a property that they have just sold, but normally the website address for these listings can often be coded in such a way that the URL is actually longer than the 160 characters allowed.

So the solution is to either use a URL shortening service like TinyURL.com, bit.ly or alternatively you could insert the website address of an Individual Property Website (eg. www.888AnySt.com).

To demonstrate the difference in the URL’s, here’s a live example of a property.

The URL on realestate.com.au is http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-toowong-106773148

The URL on raywhite.com is http://www.raywhite.com/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=106773148&f=0&p=10&t=res&ty=&header=&c=59175371&cc=au&s=qld&tm=1282795825&cu=fn-raywhite

The URL via HomeWebsites.com.au is www.18ivyst.com

So, for instance in the www.18IvySt.com example, if the agent wants to send out an SMS about the property, the web address has only 15 characters (less than 10% of the characters allowed within an SMS message) which leaves plenty of room within the SMS for the rest of the message.

Sending out an SMS about your Individual Property Websites will not only help you to drive more visitors to your listings, but it will also show prospective clients the unique way that you can now showcase their home ‘exclusively’ over the internet, which could be just the innovation that helps you to win their listing over the competition.

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can easily and affordably create an Individual Property Website for your clients, visit www.HomeWebsites.com.au – its where a HOME gets a WEBSITE of its own.

Note: I have included the link to the ‘Live’ example listing appearing on realestate.com.au only as a reference. I don’t recommend sending links out that direct traffic across to your listings appearing on the major portals because it can lead to sending potential clients across to your competitors listings.

Last week I was interviewed by real estate trainer Barry Liddle on a webinar about ‘How To Avoid The Top 10 Mistakes Agents Are Making Using Social Media.’ The response to this interview has been simply amazing.For those agents who weren’t able to attend the Webinar it has been recorded and has now been made available for FREE to view as part of the ‘exclusive’ Underground Real Estate Breakthrough series.

Social Media has become such an important part of the real estate industry with almost 1 out of every 2 Australians 18 years of age and above now on Facebook.

This is one of the most extensive interviews I have ever conducted where I share some of the tools that I currently use to streamline and automate my own Social Media marketing strategies. And now you can too.

Make sure that you check it out by Clicking Here Right Now.

Behind the scenes I’ve been doing some work with Barry Liddle to help him with the ‘exclusive’ Underground Real Estate Breakthrough series and preparing something extra special for those agents who really want to put their foot on the accelerator and increase their market share.

Not only will you be able to access the video of the Social Media webinar, but you’ll also discover a series of videos PLUS a Blueprint for real estate success. To check it out Click Here Now.

I recently discovered SoundCloud.com and feel that it could provide a great opportunity for agents and real estate trainers to share some of their podcasts over the web.

For example, here is a sample of how a podcast can be embedded into an article using SoundCloud.

This is an interview I conducted with Kevin Turner from REUNCUT about results from the Future Of Agents Commission 2010 Survey.

Greg Vincent - Future Of Agents Commission Survey 2010 - Results by Greg Vincent

Once you set up a free user account within SoundCloud you can start sharing podcasts and music and/or use their service to send audio files. People listening in can also comment on your podcasts and SoundCloud has it’s own community within their site which is designed to help you with sharing podcasts or music with your friends.

You can also measure visitor stats and easily share your podcasts via Social Media networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc and/or embed the audio player into blog posts like I have done above.

Here’s a quick video to demonstrate a bit more about how it works…

SoundCloud: The Tour from SoundCloud on Vimeo.

Is podcasting something you’re doing as an agent or is it still something that you’re not really sure about how it could work for you?

Every day I am blown away by how effective Social Media is for connecting with some of the best people within the real estate industry and/or any industry for that matter.

The leverage that real estate agents can get from using Social Networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and blogs is enormous, if they use them the right way.

It’s a shame to see so many people within the real estate industry sitting back & waiting to see what this Social Media thing is all about and/or if it’s just a fad.

If it’s ROI they’re worried about then they should check out this video about Social Media ROI by Erik Qualman

As McDonalds said in this video “Our head of Social Media is the customer”, Real Estate customers are already all over this Social Media space and many have been for years, and some of them aren’t saying the nicest things about agents either.

Yet with customers posting such online comments & even though Social Media marketing is an ideal marketplace for agents to engage in, many have simply sat on the sidelines.

There is so much opportunity within Social Media for a real estate agent to generate business, but understanding how it works & seeing it as a marketing opportunity rather than a playground seems to be one of the biggest issues holding agents back.

I’ve even heard of companies that shut down computer access to facebook & Twitter, but neglect to think that the staff will only switch across to their mobile phones to access these sites anyway.

Rather than blocking it out totally, they should be looking at how they could actually leverage their marketing message via Social Media.

In fact, I read a story about one employer who actually paid his staff bonuses to send out marketing messages about his company out to his 1,000+ followers on Twitter. Lets face it, the staff member had an audience or access to an additional database of people that the company wasn’t marketing to previously.

Now in saying this, I don’t recommend that you get your receptionist to post out every listing to their friends via facebook, because not only will your receptionist start to lose their friends but you could also end up losing them as your receptionist in the process because the last thing they will want to do is start spamming their friends.

But, you could always get them to share out your company newsletter or latest blog post if it’s a good article & they feel that it may provide some value to their social network.

Whether your receptionist agrees to share your articles with their friends or not could actually be a very good barometer for whether you are providing the right sort of content for real estate Social Media marketing or not.

If they are prepared to share it with their friends, chances are that others will find your information interesting too and could be more inclined to share it with their friends too.

If you have any questions or comments with regards to Social Media please feel welcome to contact me personally or post your thoughts in the comments section below.