Social networking is increasing in popularity in the world of real estate investing. MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn get millions of visitors to their sites per month and traffic keeps increasing. Most social networks are free to join and have millions of active members. As a real estate investor you can leverage social networking tools to increase your qualified lead pool and your bottom-line revenue. Here is our list of effective tools and the advantages of each one.

MySpace.com – this social network was one of the first to hit the scene. Creating your unique page is a great way to market yourself, get buyer leads, and post your available properties for sale. You can input photos and video, article content, network with other real estate professionals and network with potential buyers online. You can also utilize relevant advertising to monetize your page as well.

Facebook.com – this site recently surpassed MySpace in popularity. You can create your profile, upload photos of properties and organize them into photo albums. If you flip properties, you can put up before and after photos. You can also link to your website as well. You can search Facebook for other real estate investors and request to add them as “friends.” Each friend that you connect with also connects you with their network, thus expanding your reach. You can network with possible buyers and sellers as well.

LinkedIn.com – This is a great professional networking tool. You create your professional profile and ask your contacts to join your network. You can post and answer real estate questions to the entire LinkedIn network increasing your visibility. This is a great way to network with other professional investors, find birddogs, possible partners to invest with, etc.

BiggerPockets.com – This is a real estate investor specific social network. You network with other investors, ask and answer questions form other investors, brainstorm ideas. Plus they have various helpful tools and calculators for investors.

REIClub.com – this is one of the oldest REI resource sites around and it has tons of great information. They also have an active forum community. You can ask and answer your real estate investing questions, talk about your current deals, find other investors to network and partner with.

Twitter.com – Once you register, users “tweet” what they are working on or planning by typing a short sentence. Other users can join to “follow” your tweets. It is a great way to get the word out on pressing real estate news, etc.

Most social networking sites allow you to link to your website which is a great way to build SEO links and build your website traffic as well.