Some real estate professionals have found it to be nearly impossible to take a break during the holidays. Here are some great ways to simultaneously feed your need, accomplish something in real estate, and spread some holiday cheer. Check out these real estate inspired ideas for sharing the holiday spirit, and perhaps even expanding your reach in a given market:
1. LinkedIn Recommendations: Take some time to be generous in giving LinkedIn recommendations. If you’ve got any decent number of connections on LinkedIn, you should have some contacts that really deserve a recommendation. You’d probably appreciate it if someone took the time to leave you some. Don’t be afraid to lead the way. If you don’t have enough connections, take some time this holiday season to break the 500+ threshold.
2. LinkedIn Endorsements: If you don’t have time to write out thoughtful recommendations, give endorsements. In just 15 minutes, you should be able to give dozens of LinkedIn endorsements. People will certainly appreciate your thought, and perhaps reciprocate your generosity. Is there any easier way to generate brand awareness?
3. Retweet: How frustrated do you get when nobody retweets your real estate tweets? It’s hard to find the time, but if you don’t have a social media manager handling it, use the down time during the holidays to share some love online, and don’t just like people’s tweets, retweet them.
4. Send Thank You Cards: Send out thank you or holiday cards to past clients, vendors, business partners, and prospective clients. There is a lot of talk about doing it, but few follow through. Stand out and be the one who does. Don’t just send a postcard like all of the other real estate marketing; send an actual card.
5. Send an Annual Email: If you really can’t pull off a physical card, or have a list heavily weighted towards email contacts, consider sending an annual email. Use this piece to really reflect your brand, your values, what you are about, and to stand out. This can be a short and sweet personal message, or pages of information covering the past year.
6. Share the Emails You Receive: When was the last time you shared a good email message? It’s hard to find the time to check all the messages you get. But you will probably receive some great ones this season. Honor the effort that went into creating them by taking a few milliseconds to share them with others.
7. Host a Get-Together: If you’d rather be mingling and engaging in person rather than being at your desk, host a meetup. This could be a lunch, dinner, happy hour event, or even a getaway. It could be with past clients, prospective clients, potential capital sources, mentors, local business leaders, or even strategic partners. Thank them for their business and referrals in 2015, and highlight opportunities for working together in 2016.
8. Donate on Their Behalf: If you are torn between gifts to clients, consider donating on their behalf. There are some great nonprofits out there that will allow you to do it, and then will send regular email updates to them on the progress being made. Sometimes this can have the greatest impact.
9. Collaborate on a New Non-Profit Idea: If you’ve been wanting to do more for charity, consider adding an initiative to your brand. Find others with similar goals, and find ways to work together towards one goal.
10. Offer Good Sales: For those that want to do something nice, but don’t want to get off track or don’t have cash to give; consider offering some good deals this season. This can be on a home for sale, apartments for rent, and other offline real estate services.
11. Share Your Real Estate Education: One of the most valuable assets you have is your real estate education and experience. Share that. It’s a great gift. Blog about it, write a book, host free Google Hangouts, host a local class, or create a YouTube video series.
12. Shop Good Businesses: One of the best ways to give and support others is simply to shop with them. Shop with those that have really put their heart and passion into what they do. Supporting the best vendors will keep them around.
13. Crowdfund a Community Real Estate Project: Lead the way in pioneering the crowdfunding of a local community project. Unite the people around a new park, community building, library, affordable housing, or shelter and accomplish more for the community and local economy.
