Did you check-in today on Foursquare? How about Facebook Places? Gowalla?

For me, “checking in” is a part of pretty much my daily routine. I love seeing where my friends and colleagues are checking into, I love all the “badges” and gaming aspect of it, and of course I love the specials that may places are now (finally) offering for those of us who check-in.

Checking in is becoming more and more popular. The latest ComScore report, released a few days ago revealed that nearly 1 in 5 smartphone owners access check-in services via their mobile device.

I was pretty amazed by that statistic. I remember just a little over a year ago – January 2010, sitting backstage at Real Estate Connect NYC and hearing Dennis Crowley explain Foursquare. At the time I had heard of it, had even downloaded the app onto my phone, but really didn’t “get it.” Fast-forward 14 months later, and now I’m a bit “check-in obsessed!”

Here are a few interesting facts from the report:

• 70 percent of mobile users are “checking-in” from an Android or Apple phone
• 16.7 million U.S. mobile subscribers used location-based “check-in” services on their phones in March 2011, representing 7.1 percent of the entire mobile population. 1
• 2.7 million check-in users did so on a smartphone, representing 17.6 percent of the smartphone population.

“Although still in their relative infancy, location-based mobile check-in services are seeing rather impressive adoption among smartphone users,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile. “The ability to interact with consumers on this micro-local level through special offers, deals and other incentives provides brands with the real-time opportunity to engage consumers through their mobile device.”

So who exactly is checking in? I sadly do not fall into this demographic anymore , but according to the report, 18-34 year-olds account for nearly 60% of check-in service user.

So how exactly does this affect real estate? Well, we are starting to see brokerages adopting creative social media strategies, like the ‘Race for the Home’ event that Prudential Georgia Realty is doing. They are a real estate brokerage based in metro Atlanta, and have teamed up with property search site HomeFinder.com and mobile gaming platform SCVNGR to offer some 500 prospective homebuyers the chance to compete for a $15,000 down payment on a home purchase. We’ve also see The Corcoran Group embrace Foursquare and is now a major brand on Foursquare. Foursquare fits beautifully into Corcoran’s core brand ideas in that the process of searching for a home is just as much about what’s outside of the 4 walls than it is inside.

Beyond checking in – I think there is a greater lesson here: mobile check-in service users display strong propensity for mobile media usage.

According to the report, more than 95 percent of check-in service users used their mobile browser or applications. Nearly 62 percent accessed news. Check-in user behavior was also consistent with that of traditional early adopters, with 40.3 percent of users accessing tech news and 28.2 percent owning a media tablet, both significantly higher than average.

Still wondering where I am going with this? Here’s my point – if 1 in 5 people who have a smartphone are “checking in” around town AND 60% of 18-34 year olds are checking in – then that means a huge portion of your clientele (or perhaps your clientele’s adult children who are also potential clients) are using mobile devices when searching for property.

Contrary to popular belief, a mobile version of your site is not just a smaller version of your site on a tiny screen! A mobile optimized version of your site is a site that displays information accurately and in an easy to read format on a smartphone. If your website is not mobile optimized – you are missing a HUGE portion of your audience. Do you get clients who talk to you about listings they saw on Realtor.com, Zillow or Trulia instead of your site or your broker site? Why do you think that is? This could be a whole other blog post in and of itself – but a possible reason is all of those sites are mobile optimized AND they all have awesome apps that make searching for homes for sale super easy.

What is really exciting is that optimizing your site for mobile is probably easier than most people would think. There are tons of qualified web designers out there that can do this for you and/or create an app for your site. Not sure where to start? Ask your colleagues? Post a note on Facebook that you are looking for local recomendations.

Creating a real estate app with MLS data is also easier than you think. Boopsie and Smarter Agent are two excellent real estate choices I would recommend.

What do you think is the future of the check-in and location based marketing? Is your site mobile optimized or do you have an app your clients can use to search for homes? I would really like to have a discussion about this and get your thoughts – please leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Social Media Director, Inman News, @katielance

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This past Saturday (4/16/11) was Foursquare Day and on that day they had a record-breaking number of checkins – over 3 million!! I know I checked in – did you?

Check out the tweet announcing this monumental occasion from founder Dennis Crowley:

I know personally, I feel like I have seen a resurgence in Foursquare recently just among my inner circle of friends. Not only that, but it really pleases me to see so many companies on board with offering Foursquare specials. Last week I was in Chicago, found a great restaurant through Urbanspoon, and then checked in on Foursquare. Once I checked in, I was given a code to show my server to give me 15% off our tab!

Just last week we ran a blog post about The Corcoran Group and some of the really innovative ways they are integrating Foursquare into their social media marketing plan. Recently, Foursquare surpassed 8 million users.

I really would love to hear from other agents, brokers or other real estate professionals to see how you are using Foursquare.

Here are three easy and fun ideas to get started on Foursquare if you are a real estate agent:

1. What are your top 5 local restaurants? What local attractions or parks are your favorite? Visit those and post tips there regularly. When others check into those locations they will see your tips!
2. Check-in at your open house. Post a sign at the open house that the first 20 people to check in receives a $5 Starbucks card. You could advertise this special offer on your Facebook business page, on your emails promoting the open house and on Twitter.
3. When you are at your local favorite places – check in and push your post to Facebook or Twitter. Make sure to post a photo or leave a message – this will broadcast out to your network where you are and continue to brand you as the “local” expert.

What are some other great ways you’ve seen people use Foursquare? Leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Social Media Director, Inman News, @katielance

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I first became enamored with Foursquare in December 2009 at Real Estate Connect in NYC. I was listening to our keynote speaker Dennis Crowley, and literally had an “aha” moment. Up until that point I had heard of Foursquare and even had the app on my phone, but didn’t really see the correlation to real estate. This was in late 2009 before Foursquare exploded onto the geolocation marketing scene.

Since then, Foursquare has been written up and featured on just about every major publication for the ground-breaking work they are doing. I love their concept of “check in, find your friends, explore your city.”

For a Realtor, I think Foursquare could be a great way to market themselves as the “local expert.” Who knows more about the local deli, or the best place for a cocktail, or a great family park better than a local real estate agent, right?

This year at Real Estate Connect NYC, one year after my Foursquare realization, I had the pleasure of meeting Matthew Shadbolt, Director of Interactive Product & Marketing at The Corcoran Group (@corcoran_group) in person. I had chatted with Matthew for sometime online, but had never met in real life. One of the things that really impressed me was what Matthew said about what they were doing at with Foursquare. Ironically, at Connect the year before, Matthew also had an “aha” moment with Foursquare and took that one idea and since then have been doing some truly amazing things with Foursquare. On a side note – that “one idea” completely epitomizes what Connect is all about – all it takes is one great idea to completely revolutionize your business.

The Corcoran Group now holds a coveted brand spot on Foursquare and to date they have over 1200 tips and almost 7000 followers!

I asked Matthew how Foursquare fits into their overall marketing, and he shared with me five ways that it does:

1. Foursquare is a natural extension of what we’ve been doing elsewhere in mobile for location-based marketing. Putting local Corcoran expertise into people’s hands in a venue and time-specific way is an incredibly powerful form of social marketing for us.

2. One of our core brand ideas is that the process of searching for a home is just as much about what’s outside of the 4 walls than it is inside. We believe that the idea of communicating ‘what’s nearby’ is a very powerful way of understanding a neighborhood, and sharing that information within Foursquare has been an exciting way to grow our brand’s presence within mobile platforms.

3. We don’t believe in selling within Foursquare. We do not post open houses or listings, and think that there are ethical issues in posting people’s homes as venues within the service.

4. Unfortunately, we also don’t ‘play’ Foursquare now that we’ve become a brand – for the first 12 months of using Foursquare, we were earning badges and mayorships like regular users, but since we’ve become a ‘brand’ within Foursquare, that part of the platform is no longer available. We’re still able to check in and post photos, but it’s always been about the venue tips for us, not badges or mayorships. Providing helpful information using Foursquare is our focus.

5. One thing we often get asked is why we’re not doing this on Yelp, given Yelp’s much larger user base. The main reason is that in order to post tips within Yelp, you have to be an individual, you can’t do it as a ‘brand’, so it’s tough to replicate our goals in using tip-based location apps if we can’t speak as the brokerage. I’ve seen individual agents have a lot of success within Yelp doing this as themselves though, we just don’t do it as an organization for that reason.

In addition, Foursquare is included in Corcoran’s overall social media agent education programs, and all new agents who join Corcoran are made aware of these initiatives as part of their ongoing efforts to help agents understand how mobile, social and video are part of their digital marketing arsenal.

Here is a video of Matthew explaining what they do with Foursquare at Corcoran:

(Can’t see the video, click here)

Are you using Foursquare? I’d love to get your opinion and feedback – please leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Social Media Director, Inman News, @katielance

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Today’s ‘Fun Friday’ blog post is dedicated to some of the coolest and most interesting articles (in my opinion) that I came across this week.  Interesting to note – all of these stories were stories that came through my Twitter feed this week.

I am constantly inspired by the amount of knowledge that I see day in and day out throughout social media and industry blogs. As a real estate agent – I hope you find one or two great nuggets of info that will help you and your business!

Social Media

Social Media Use on the Rise in TV Newsrooms
‘What Social Media Will Look Like in 2012′
Foursquare’s New Policy On Fake Check-ins: Shoot To Kill

Twitter/ Facebook

Explaining Twitter to Those Who Don’t Get It
How To: Find Killer Twitter Content To Tweet
50 Clever, Hilarious and Geeky Twitter T-Shirts
4 Facebook Apps Add Professionalism to Your Profile

Gen X/Gen Y

10 Things Generation Y will not pay for
Adapting to Gen X, Y clients – Today’s agents must drop the ‘expert’ approach

Mobile

Twitter CEO (Evan Williams) Explains Twitter’s Move Into Mobile Apps
Apple To Help Early iPad Adopters Kick Start Campaign

Blogging (disclosure: these 2 links below are my blog posts – but thought they would be good to add to this list in case you missed them this week!)

25 Killer Resources – Blog Content for Realtors
5 Elements to a Successful Real Estate Agent Blog

Google/Online Search

10 Simple Google Search Tricks
5 Ways to Leverage Real Time Search in Your Online Marketing Mix

Would love your feedback – leave me a comment below!

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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This was my first time being “behind the scenes” with Inman News at Real Estate Connect NYC.  Having worked directly with agents and brokers prior to coming to Inman, this time at Connect I listened with a new set of eyes.

I kept thinking, “If I was a Realtor, what would be my big take-away from Connect?”

At opening session, Brad Inman talked about 2 things that caught my attention:
1.    The world is changing – real time search, location, news, comments, reviews, auctions and collaboration, and of course real estate.
2.    In this age of “digital addiction” take time to “look up” and connect with people face to face.

So taking those two things into consideration, if I was a Realtor – here would be the 2 big things I would implement ASAP into my business:

1.    Mobile technology. If I was a Realtor I would make sure that I had a mobile strategy in place. In his opening message, Brad Inman, Publisher, Inman News said, “One of the biggest shifts we are seeing is the increase in real time data.” Tools like mobile applications, Twitter and Facebook, are impacting how quickly information is distributed. Inman predicts that one of the big trends in 2010 will be mobile apps that are able to filter and organize this data. Real time search, real time location, real time agent feedback, and real time real estate listing information will be major trends we will see in 2010. “Those agents that adopt technology will close more transactions because they will be more efficient,” say Inman.

If I were a Realtor I would make sure I looked at things like:

• Does my brokerage have a mobile app? What about my MLS?
• Is it worth me investing in my own mobile app?  iSites, a new service launching today, allows you to take your website’s RSS feed and data and quickly transform it into a full-fledged iPhone app. It was created by Genwi, a service that combines aspects of RSS reader, social network and news filter. For just $25, iSites will create a customized iPhone and Android app for you.
• What type of local data can I have right at my fingertips on my mobile phone? Yelp is a great place to start. Foursquare is another great local app that is getting a ton of attention, especially after Dennis Crowley spoke at Connect – and we all had an “a-ha” moment!

Mike Mangino, Owner & President, Elevated Rails talked about some of the key apps to have on your mobile phone to help you do your business better:

• Navigation tool
• Access to your CRM tool
• A simple mortgage calculator app you can use with clients
• Social Media apps: TweetDeck, Tweetie 2 or Hootsuite, Facebook and Linked-In apps
• I’m adding to this list – Wordpress app – a must if your blog is hosted on WP.

2.    Connect with people face to face. One of the biggest challenges Realtors face is meeting new potential clients face-to-face. Now is the time to ‘look up!’

Scott Heiferman, co-founder and CEO of meetup.com was one of the final keynote speakers at Connect and talked about the power of connecting with people live and face to face. People are creating their own self organized groups.

There are 5.7 million Meetup.com members in nearly 59,000 local groups in more than 11,000 cities, according to the company’s site.

Agents can not only join a meetup for local real estate professionals, but they can connect with local real estate buyers groups and sponsor non-real-estate-related groups.

I love this concept – especially for an agent trying to break into a new market niche or community, or just for an agent trying to expand their sphere of influence, this is the perfect opportunity for them.

The message is: be the catalyst for community in your business – online and offline in 2010.

Stay tuned for more about Connect. Inman News will be publishing a comprehensive report next week. Also check out inman.com this week – videos are available for Inman Premium Members. Not a member? Sign up by this Friday, January 22nd and get a special rate of only $99 (reg. price $149)

Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News

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