The purpose of the TechShorties curriculum is to show you how to build a dynamic, interactive and valuable online presence that will establish you as a local real estate expert in your county, your town or even in your own neighborhood, depending on where you want your focus to be.

So what exactly is an online presence? Think of an online presence just like you would a real world presence. If you have been in real estate for a while, you have probably already built up your real world presence. You have handed out business cards, mailed postcards, introduced yourself to your neighbors, and joined various social or civic groups in order to reach out to your community, grow your sphere and establish your identity as a trusted real estate professional in your area.

Building an online sphere – or presence – is just like that, but instead of using traditional marketing methods like phone calls, door knocking and mailings to reach out to potential clients, you will be using online tools.

If you have an email account, you are already using one of the most basic online tools and have established the most basic form of online presence – in this case, a means of communicating with others by sending messages via the internet. There are many other ways to communicate and interact with other people online: websites, blogs, and social sites like Facebook, Linked In and Twitter. Each of these tools offer unique ways to reach out not only to your personal sphere, but also (and especially) to people you may have never been able to reach otherwise.

We will explain each of these online tools — and we will also explore the most effective ways in which to use each of them — in upcoming lessons at http://www.techshorties.com. Stay tuned!  If you aren’t already signed up to receive updates and more, click here.

Exercise: Make a list of all the neighborhoods, towns or counties in which you currently work and consider yourself knowledgeable. In which of these areas do you already have a real world presence? In which of them would you like to establish an online presence. Why?

*A note here about the exercises: each of our lessons is paired with an exercise to help ground you in the key points taught. There is a process and a method to our lessons and each builds on the other. We recommend you create a TechShorties file and keep your exercises there for easy reference. TechShorties Members receive an instructional guide for navigating the lessons and tips on making best use of the material, specific to your own starting knowledge base.