You've probably been expecting something on this topic for some time now, so let's lift up the kimono... Facebook has taken over the world. It won't be long before Mark Zuckerberg runs for president and wins the election easily by solely using Facebook to campaign. Future generations of voters will only know who's running for office based on Facebook fan pages and status updates from friends. People who never meet in person will be getting married on Facebook and little Facebook children will be born. Soon people will no longer verbally communicate but talk to each other only by wall writing Ok, Ok....maybe that's a bit overboard. Maybe not. Whatever your opinion of social media is (Facebook just being the big dog right now, there are many others), you can't deny that people take this stuff very seriously. Anything that has people's attention for more than 1 second should be evaluated as a marketing medium by any savvy business owner. This goes for real estate investors looking to raise private money. You should not ignore social media as a way to get your message in front of people who may be ready, willing and able to invest money with you. HOWEVER... Let's begin with the caveats of using social media for private money. Numero Uno being that you still have to be compliant with SEC laws. If you don't have your ducks lined up right, you can be considered in violation for wanton posts about your great biz opportunity. So be careful there. Now, on to the next thing. You should know that the best marketing comes from specific targeting. If you put up some great posts on FB or Tweet some good stuff it won't mean anything unless the right people are paying attention to you. Tweeting something like "hey I need $550k for a RE deel, PM me ASAP" is probably not going to get you far unless you are Steve Jobs or Warren Buffett. The best way that I have coached investors to use social media is to keep people in the loop about their business. To prime the pump for reaching somebody offline or through another means. If you put up pictures of your deals or some really nice (relevant) and interesting insights about what's going on the market, you can stack up some credibility that will come in handy when drumming up cash. Try not to have a 2 second time horizon for raising private money using social media and please, please, please try not to only rely on social media for your private money marketing. This has to be part of a multi-pronged attack at getting your opportunity out there in front of the right people. One thing to consider is even if people with money or people you know who know (say that 5 times fast!) people with money to invest are spending time and/or lend any credence to social media communications. This requires you to take a hard look at who's in your circle of influence and try to expand that circle of influence as necessary for better results. The reason I'm calling this Part 1 is that there's a lot more to say on this subject. Probably an entire book's worth of info...but I'm gonna end it here for today and let everything I said above marinate for a while. Bottom line: social media is too powerful right now to ignore in your business - you must make it a part of your business and private money marketing. Do it in a well-thought out way, as part of a plan and sequence. Happy Investing.
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