7 Phone Apps To Make You A More Productive Agent
Looking to get the most out of your day? These real estate apps can help you become a more productive agent.
One of the most empowering perks of becoming a real estate agent is being your own boss and having the ability to make your own schedule. Chances are that your day-to-day is rarely the same and you spend much of your time running between appointments, viewings, errands and refueling at Starbucks in between.
The simple fact is, real estate agents are BUSY people! One thing we can always depend on when on the go is our trusty smartphone. At any point along your way you can stay connected to your clients and network, but are you using your phone efficiently?
Today I’ve compiled a list of diverse apps that will help take your business to the next level all while simplifying your life and efforts while you’re out and about. Get ready to increase value, productivity, and your marketing efforts with these must-have apps.
Glympse is an incredibly useful app for client work. It’s a free GPS tracking app and allows you to instantly share your location with others. This way, you can let folks know when you’ll arrive for your meeting or appointment. There’s no sign up required and your sharing is completely private, so only those you send you location to can view it.
You can also let your clients know about this app so they too can share their ETA with you on the off chance that they are running late. Plus, if they get lost you’ll be able to see where they are to point them in the exact right direction and get them back on track quickly.
Here’s how it works:
Download it here:
No matter where you are, maintaining your social channels must remain a priority and the easiest way to do this is to get in the habit of planning and scheduling your posts. Now, posting in real-time is also very important, but in order to ensure that you’re regularly publishing valuable content, you’re going to need a super solid management tool.
Hootsuite and Buffer are both great choices for this and the one you start to use will be based on your personal and professional preferences and workflow. These two apps serve the same purpose, but let’s see how the two compare and what key aspects set them apart from one another.
Let’s start with Hootsuite. This platform allows you to manage your social media channels and is a nice option for teams as you can assign tasks to other users. The following networks are supported by Hootsuite: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and WordPress. Additionally, you can add Youtube, Tumblr, Instagram and more from the Hootsuite app directory.
Buffer works similarly and was designed as a publishing platform for content. Buffer supports Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and just added Pinterest as well.
Buffer may be the more flexible option when it comes to automation because of the IFTTT tool. Both apps allow you to post content to your channels in real-time, though Buffer’s main purpose is to schedule content in advance. You can also cross-post content to multiple social media channels at once, which can be super handy if you need to post an update on all of your pages.
A key difference here is your or ability to interact with your content after it’s posted. On Hootesuite you can respond to content, but Buffer is really only for publishing with the exception of retweets.
I won’t say that one of these apps is “better” than the other, but one might definitely be a better fit for your brand.
Buffer is a simple tool and effective way for you to schedule and publish content and will also easily integrate with your other tools. However, if you’re looking for a way to fully manage your social media channels and perhaps your marketing team, give Hootsuite a try.
I’d also invite you to do your own research and further compare and contrast these apps based on your marketing needs.
For storage and sharing, you may already be happy with your current app–such as Dropbox or Google Drive, but Infinit has some impressive features that are worth mentioning. And this app might make it easier to handle moving your real estate photos between devices.
Infinit offers unlimited file sharing and there are no restrictions on file sizes, so you can transfer multigigabyte files for free. It’s incredibly fast and will allow you to swap photos, videos, PDFs and word docs, just to name a few, between your smartphone and PC, or with your team or clients.
While basic access to Dropbox is free, you’d need to upgrade to a paid Dropbox for Business subscription to be able to share files like you can on Infinit. Plus, even if the file recipient doesn’t have the app, they’ll still receive a link to the file and be able to access it instantly.
You may recall reading about Evernote in this blog post, but it’s definitely worth mentioning again. We love Evernote! And it’s long been referred to as the best productivity tool on the market. With Evernote you can save everything–receipts, plane tickets, you name it.
You can write yourself notes and it cross-syncs on the cloud so all of your devices stay current with the same information. You can keep project to-do lists as you think of them, you never know when inspiration might strike! And your notes will always be accessible and easy to find. Organization your business and your life with Evernote.
If you’re an Android user, then you might already be familiar with Google’s Photo Sphere that is built right into the camera app. It’s also now available for iOS as well!
With this feature you can take an immersive, 360-degree panoramic image that will help bring your photos to life. I mean really, what’s more important it real estate advertising than killer photos?
You’ll be able to create Google Maps-style views for free and you can also easily embed these images in your blog posts to make them even more engaging.
Here’s an example of the cool photos you can create with it:
I hope you’re ready for this. Magisto is totally going to change the way you think about video production. This web and mobile app automates video editing and was specifically created with businesses in mind.
There’s no question that video editing can be complicated and time-consuming, but these concerns go right out the window with Magisto, where you can edit videos in just a click.
Imagine taking a video of a house or neighborhood to promote on Youtube and only spending 5 minutes on video editing, when usually this is where the majority of your efforts would be spent.
Magisto lets you put your attention back on providing value to your audience and takes so much of the headache out of the editing process.
Here’s an example of a neighborhood video made with this app…
Download it here:
Yes, you read that right. The social app all the kids are talking about is on the rise for real estate pros just like us.
What you need to know about Snapchat is that its main function is storytelling. Sure, this may be a far reach from the storytelling mediums we grew up on, but stick with me here.
It’s so easy to create content on Snapchat and the app has higher social engagement than other social network that currently exists.
You can feature aspects of the neighborhoods you’re working in and show properties in seconds. You’ll definitely want to keep an eye on this network and I encourage you to consider joining today.
As technology continues to evolve, our marketing efforts need to follow and it’s always better to be ahead of the curve than to wait for everyone else to jump on and be left trying to catch up.
Download it here:
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What apps are you using? Share them in the comments and tell us how they work for you so we can try them out!
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