Looking to setup your own real estate private discussion forum?

Own a estate agency, property franchise or other real estate group and want to setup a private discussion area for members? It is easier than you think. Here are a few ideas:

1. Facebook Group

By far the easiest option to setup and manage.

- Login to Facebook

- Click on the groups icon

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- Click on create a group button

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- Enter a group title and other details

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- On the next page the trick is to make the group private or secret:

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- That’s it – all that is left to do is to invite people for the group to start using the discussions area.

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- Oh yes, if you have have tested it out and want to remove the group you can do so easily. On the group page bottom left there is a ‘leave group’ link. Since you will be the only member, leaving the group will also terminate it.

- You can also join the Entegral Facebook group or have a look at the sample discussion area we’ve created.

2. Private Blog

The ideas is simple, create a blog and make it private so that only people you invite can read the blog.

- Go to a free blog tool like www.blogger.com from Google.

- Follow the instructions to create your blog

- After the setup, click on the settings/permissions tab and on ‘who can view this blog’ select ‘only people i choose’. You can now invite people and start blogging. People you invited will be able to post comments on your topics. If you want them to post topics you need to make them authors.

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3. Google Groups

Go to Google Groups Home

Google Groups is free and easy to setup. You will need a google account.

- Go to: http://groups.google.com/

- Click on ‘create group’

- On the next page you can set the access level to restricted. You can set further options and then invite people to join the group.google groups

4. Other 3rd party forum tools

There are many other 3rd party tools out there like ‘Vanilla Forums’ and ‘Ning’, some free, some not.  It all depends on how much time you want to spend setting them up, how much functionality you need and what you are willing to pay.

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