Realtor.com acquires new agent search tool

Last week, Realtor.com introduced SocialBios, a new and free social technology that helps Realtors® connect with local buyers and sellers through social networks including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google and FourSquare.

The new tool is being integrated into the Realtor.com HyperSocial™ group of agent search tools designed to help connect buyers, sellers, and agents, while also helping Realtors® better manage their online reputations through recommendations.

In a press release last week, Realtor.com president Errol Samuelson said, “For years Realtors® have built very successful businesses by networking within their local communities,” he wrote. “Today, approximately eight in 10 agents and brokers are in charge of marketing their listings and 56 percent consider social media important for generating connections with prospective clients.”

Realtor.com offers two new HyperSocial™ search tools:

• HyperSocial™ Agent Profile Pages. Mobile-enabled pages are viewable from desktops and most mobile devices.  These are Realtor® profiles that serve as safe places for Realtors® to direct their clients for all relevant contact information in one location.
• HyperSocial™ Agent Recommendations. A Realtor® branded URL that is an easy way for clients to share a recommendation a Realtor® has earned without any registration requirements. Recommendations are reviewed and approved for display by each Realtor® and can be manually or automatically broadcasted to their online network from one central hub. When the recommendation URL is emailed or texted, users are directed to the Realtors® HyperSocial™ Agent Profile featuring other key contact information.

“By developing our recently acquired SocialBios technology into a scalable tool to find Realtors®, millions of people can quickly find a Realtor® based on common connections, interests and groups,” said Samuelson. “Realtors® can also use our new HyperSocial™ search tools to manage their online social reputations and proudly broadcast recommendations across the web as they’re transitioning their networking talents into the online world.”

HyperSocial™ Agent Profile Pages and HyperSocial™ Agent Recommendations will be integrated into the Realtor.com Find a Realtor® (FAR) directory at the beginning of the 2012 home buying season.