Kristal Kraft: Totally Connected

By Tracey C. Velt
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“I’ve built a company through my Web site and blog.”

Kristal Kraft, ABR, CIPS, CRS, PMN, is what’s known in the tech world as an “early adopter.” She’s had a Web site since 1997, was posting on message boards since the mid-1990s, started blogging in 2003 “when no one really knew what it was” and has been on ActiveRain since its inception. Kraft has more than 3,400 "followers" on Twitter.

“I’ve built a company through my Web site and blog,” according to Kraft, a broker with The Berkshire Group in Denver, CO.

But don’t think for a second that Kraft’s techno savvy is at the expense of building personal relationships. “The whole goal of being online is to transfer those connections to offline business,” Kraft said. That’s why she meets in person with networking groups started online and is teaching social media to several industry groups. In fact, at a recent in-person meet up of a Flickr online group called Open Doors Denver, Kraft got a referral and is currently working with the seller.

“Leverage your online activities to meet with people in person,” she advises. “Attend networking events and share information. It’s a great way to build your database. And, once you have a database going, everything else should work around that.”

Today, Kraft is heavily involved in all types of social media including Flickr (a photographic social networking site), Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and more.

“I post to my blog once a day, which takes me about an hour. I’m not obsessive about it. I may check Facebook, Flickr and Twitter once a day and update them every few days.” She also attends real estate-related social media conferences such as REBlog World, Bloodhound Unchained and RE BarCamp. In fact, Kristal organized the first RE BarCamp in Denver in May 2009.

Kraft started in real estate 25 years ago as an assistant to her husband. “I got licensed and next thing you know I was selling on my own.” She recognized the potential of the Internet and got involved with building a Web site right away. “I use it to get recognized by my peers and to get referrals,” she says. In fact, Kraft credits her use of the Internet and social media as the reason she has such a successful business. “Some 75 percent of my new business is from my Web site and blog,” Kraft said.

“I’ve dealt with a huge cross section of people who have found me online,” she said. “I tend to pull people in like engineers, school teachers and technology-oriented people because of the amount of information I offer through my Web site.”

Kraft credits her blog with being the most valuable part of her marketing equation. “My blog is working when I’m not. I’ve got this huge body of work, so when people search for information, they read what I have, and they call me,” she says.

Of course, it wasn’t always that way. “When I started I wasn’t really good at it. I was blogging about events but wasn’t injecting my personality into it. I didn’t find my voice until I decided to really focus my Web site and blog on building relocation business.”

Kraft writes about a variety of real estate-related topics, however she focuses the most on relocation. “I work with quite a few people relocating to Denver. I want to make sure they’re familiar with the area when they come. I want them to know what to expect.”

She also finds that people contact her because “they have a higher degree of trust. I’m building that by putting so much of my personality online.” She says she’s passionate about helping clients learn about the whole process. “I want their decision to be based on knowledge, not emotion.”

Because Kraft enjoys photography, a large part of her blog is photographic. “Pictures help express what it’s like to live here.” She’s also posting a series for consumers on her blog called “100 Real Estate Tips in 100 Days.” She first posts it to her personal blog and then reposts it a week later on ActiveRain.com. “It’s been a great reference for buyers and sellers. In fact, I just sent a client one of the tips relevant to a question he had. I didn’t have to research or rewrite something so it saves me a lot of time.”

Kraft is also refocusing her business to market to first-time homebuyers and investors, so many of her future blog posts will be information about financing and other topics. “The first blog post I wrote for investors got me three phone calls,” she says.  And, that is what it’s all about. “We can complain and wait for the storm to be over or we can dance in the rain,” Kraft said. “By exploring different channels of communication, you can be dancing in the rain.”

Tracey C. Velt is an Orlando-based freelance writer.