BiggerPockets Founder's Blog

A valuable, but little known feature of BiggerPockets.com is the ability to request Professional Trade References or Testimonials from your colleagues.

As you can see from the image below, which comes from my profile (see section below my colleagues), your references are neatly displayed on your profile for all to see:



Why References & Testimonials are Helpful

Having your partners, customers, clients, or colleagues write you a reference allows other members to see that you're someone that they should also be working with. It embeds a level of trust to your profile.

BiggerPockets is a vast network of tens of thousands of real estate investors, professionals, and consumers. If someone has the opportunity to work with someone who has no positive references/testimonials or someone with many, who do you think they'll choose?

The great thing about our references is that they are NOT anonymous! You can always contact someone's references for more information about a member, and in turn, see that they are the real deal!

How Do You Get Started Building Up Your References?

1. You can request a reference from ANY member of BiggerPockets that you are colleagues with. If there is someone that you're interested in getting a reference from who is not yet a member, just invite them to join the site using the INVITE link, which is located above the search box at the top of all pages.

2. The easiest way to add a reference is to go to the profile of your colleague and select the REQUEST REFERENCE link located below their profile image. They'll get the reference request and can, at their leisure, write it for you.

Another way to go is:

3. View the list of your colleagues from the DASHBOARD, by hovering your mouse over the Networking Link in the gray horizontal bar near the top of the page and clicking on MY COLLEAGUES.

4. You can now find those colleagues that you'd like to get a reference from. Simply click the REQUEST REFERENCE link for the people you want one from and they will be notified by email and on their dashboard that they have a PENDING Reference Request.

5. When the reference is submitted, it will appear on your profile and you'll be notified.

Writing an Effective Reference
It is important to write an effective reference if someone requests one from you. Writing a brief sentence stating that someone was good to work with is a waste of everyone's time. A good reference/testimonial will include information such as your relationship with the person you're writing about, how long you've worked together, and under what circumstances. You want to be detailed enough that people who don't know the person you're writing about get the picture.

What Are You Waiting For?
Get out there and start inviting your clients, partners, customers, and colleagues to the site and have them write you outstanding references to help build up your status and sellability!

Help Build the Community - Refer a Friend to BiggerPockets!

BiggerPockets attracts somewhere between 50 and 75 new members every day. In an effort to boost that number, we're asking for your help! We're putting on a little contest to motivate you to refer your friends, colleagues, clients and customers to join the site. NOTE: When someone that you invite signs up, they instantly become your colleague.

There are many ways to invite people to join the site.

Where to find the invite links:
You'll now see an INVITE A FRIEND box on the left side of the forums, right below the FEATURED PROPERTIES box. Additionally, in the DASHBOARD, you'll see an invite link in the NETWORKING dropdown. In addition, above the search form at the top of all of our social pages, you'll see an INVITE link highlighted in yellow.

How to invite people to join BiggerPockets:

• Once you've followed the invite link, you'll see that there are three ways to invite members to sign up. The quickest way to do it is to enter the person's name and email address in the form on the invite page, and press the Send Invites link. You'll note that there is an Invite Another link below the email form, where you add as many people as you'd like.
  
• The second way to invite people is to find the Referral Link at the bottom of the invite page and email it to your contacts. Tell them about BiggerPockets and give them the link to sign up with. If they follow the link, you'll get credit for the referrals.
• The final way to invite people is to IMPORT YOUR COLLEAGUES. By using the site's import my contacts page, you can easily import any contacts from AOL, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook, or Mac Mail. Just enter your email address and password after selecting the icon (don't worry, our site does not retain any of this information) for the service you're interested in importing from, and then you can choose what contacts you'd like to invite to BiggerPockets.

Win Prizes for Being a Top Referrer

As I said earlier, we've got a big referral contest coming soon with some fantastic prizes . . . until then, we're going to be giving away some free books or t-shirts to the top 5 referrers in a mini-referral contest

Any BiggerPockets member, who refers members to the community, between now and February 23, 2009 at 5pm PST. gets an opportunity to win. Those members who invite the most people to the site will get a chance to win. Some things to note:

• Each of the new members that you refer to the site would have to activate their accounts and at least introduce themselves to the community in our New Member Introductions forum. We are looking for QUALITY members, so inviting a bunch of people who don't participate, or worse, who SPAM the site in any way, will reflect badly upon you, so be smart in your referrals.
• These members MUST come to the site via your REFERRAL LINK (found at the bottom of the INVITE PAGE), an email invite, or as IMPORTED from your AOL, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook, Entourage, or MacMail accounts. This is how we track your referrals.
• You can track your and other referrals by checking our STATS page.
• The primary purpose for having this contest is to bring new, quality members to BiggerPockets, who are interested in real estate and who will begin to participate in the community! Keep in mind, if your referrals sign up and then never come here again you will not be credited with the referral.
• The contest is not about artificially inflating your invite count with SPAM accounts! We will be checking out those members who are in the top results to make sure that the users they invite actually participate on the site. Don't try to create fake members and don't try to cheat. If we determine that you are doing either, we will ban you from the site permanently!
• A minimum of at least 10 "quality" referrals is required to win. If no one reaches this number, we'll end up keeping the books and t-shirts for our staff.

You're a member of the premier real estate social network . . . now what?

Here are some tips for getting started here on BiggerPockets:

• Fill in your profile - If you're here to network, make deals, or market yourself or your business,  people are going to want to know more about you. We've got four main sections on our profiles where you can tell others who you are and what you're here for: About Me (general info about you), Real Estate Experience (your real estate background), Real Estate Goals (your goals), and Currently Seeking (what you're looking for. eg. partners, money, clients, etc.).  Adding your location and occupation will allow us to bring you the most appropriate services, and like everything else, help others find you.  You can also add information about your company, your contact info, other social networking profiles you want to share and more.  The more complete your profile, the easier it will be for people to find you!
• Upload a personal image / avatar - As you navigate the site, post comments, write articles, blog posts, or forum posts, your personal image will travel with you.  By uploading a personal image, people will start to recognize you and get to know you better.  You'll start to stand out more than those people using the generic avatar.  Additionally, only members with a personal avatar appear on our Networking page. Please note that we DO NOT allow members to use company logos or any other form of advertising in their personal avatar.  We've created a company directory so members can get exposure for their businesses.
• Introduce yourself to the community in our New Member Introductions forum - There's no better way to start letting people know that you've arrived to our site then to introduce yourself.  Let people know where you're from, a little about your background, your goals, and some interesting things about yourself.  Please do not use this as an opportunity to sell your product, services, or deals.  We've got other areas for that. 

Congratulations! You've Arrived!

Now that you've got your profile together, you've introduced yourself, and you've uploaded a personal image, its time to start exploring the site.  BiggerPockets is a very comprehensive site with tons of free information, tools, resources, etc.

- Read articles on our forum, article directory, official blog, member blogs

- Find properties and deals in our property directory and dealmaking forums

- Network with others through our groups, networking page, and on our forums

- Keep up with the latest real estate news on our bulletins

- Learn about real estate companies and businesses in our company directory

- And much more!  Get out there explore, and start getting involved!

UPDATES:

I know that its been a while since I've updated you with exciting site news.  Rest assured, we've got some cool new stuff on the way to enhance the experience of all members.  We'll be letting you know about these developments in the upcoming weeks.  Meanwhile, we've been fixing bugs, speeding up the site, and doing minor improvements across the board.  

CONTEST:

We're also working on a contest with some really great prize giveaways. Stay Tuned!

If you're interested in getting some PR for youself and giving away a prize, please contact me ASAP.

BLOG:

We're looking to add new bloggers to the BiggerPockets Blog Team.  If you're interested in contributing to the Blog, please get in touch

GROWTH:

The site has been seeing fantastic growth in all metrics.  We're adding new members at a great pace, and activity in all areas of the site is at or near all-time highs. Thanks foryour participation on the site, and we look forward to adding more great features to get you even more excited about BiggerPockets.

Meanwhile, please continue to invite your friends, colleagues, and clients to join the site!

Until next time . . .

One of the nice things about BiggerPockets, in my opinion, is that we try to focus on people interacting with one another. We don't allow members to travel the site using a company avatar because it is just plain impersonal. The internet is impersonal enough, and we're work very hard to change that, particularly in the real estate space.

That said, we felt that there was a need for people to be able to share information about their companies, and in the vain of helping companies market themselves, (can companies market themselves?), we just launched the latest feature to BiggerPockets:

The BiggerPockets Real Estate Company Index

This new directory allows companies to gain FREE publicity in front of our vast and growing audience of real estate professionals, investors, and consumers.

Adding a company is simple. Just visit the directory and click the Add a Company link. After filling out the information about your company and submitting it, an admin will approve it (providing you create a neutral profile without all the sales copy), at which point you can join that company by clicking the "Click here to add yourself" link.

We encourage you to Invite your co-workers and colleagues to join BiggerPockets so they can also add themselves to your company.

This is a great way to get FREE PR for your company!

Once you're added to a company, you'll note that the company's name in your personal profile links back to your company's profile. In the next few days, we'll additionally make it so your company's logo appears on your personal profile.

So . . . what are you waiting for? Create your company's profile today and start getting some free PR!