Meet the woman who tied her famous name to her real estate domain. Learn how to own your online brand, too.
When a song written about you reaches No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is synonymous with pop culture, you use it in your business marketing. After all, it was Sharona Alperin’s first name that catapulted her to fame at 17 years old when she found herself the inspiration for The Knack’s lead singer Doug Fieger in the hit song “My Sharona.” The catchy pop tune that leads up to those familiar repetitive lyrics—”My Sharona!”—turned the Los Angeles native into an instant household name.
Years after “My Sharona” first topped the airwaves, Alperin says hardly a day passes by when she isn’t asked whether she’s “that” Sharona. She’s never hidden from the song’s enduring success. Instead, she’s found ways to build a powerful real estate brand that leverages her name and her Los Angeles expertise to cater to Hollywood A-listers and international buyers and sellers as a real estate associate at Sotheby’s International Realty. Alperin consistently ranks in the top 2 percent for sales volume among agents recorded nationwide by NRT, the parent company of Sotheby’s International Realty.
She knows when people first meet her, they’ll undoubtedly want to talk about the song. It has become an icebreaker of sorts in her real estate business. She realizes it’s what makes her unique, and so, she’s used her “My Sharona” identity to grow her real estate business.
“I do have an advantage with my name. It’s recognizable,” says Alperin, “but my marketing is what helps sell real estate.”
That’s why when the National Association of REALTORS® started offering the .realtor™ and .realestate top-level domains for real estate professionals to customize their website addresses, Alperin jumped at the opportunity. She can now directly tie her famous name to her career as a real estate agent through the domains mysharona.realtor and mysharona.realestate.
“The real estate domains convey that I am a real estate professional, and they allow me to distinguish myself in the business,” she says. “It has been a fantastic marketing tool.”
What’s more, mysharona.realtor and mysharona.realestate also fulfill Alperin’s own personal mission. She doesn’t just want to be remembered as the inspiration behind the hit song “My Sharona,” but also as Sharona the REALTOR®, with an equally long-lasting passion and enthusiasm for real estate.
What’s Your Brand’s Domain?
My Sharona was a natural fit for Sharona Alperin’s top-level domain. But, you don’t have to be the muse to a hit song to own an online brand that makes your business stand out. When you think beyond the dot-coms, you may find a greater opportunity to carve out your brokerage’s special space through a unique URL that ties directly to real estate. Both .realtor™ and .realestate can be used to connect your name, brokerage, niche, geographic location, hobby or personal interest to your real estate brand through customized, memorable URLs, whether your hook is something like keepaustinweird.realestate or countryliving.realestate.
Find your differentiator and take ownership over your online real estate brand. Start by claiming your domain: The .realtor™ domain is exclusively available to members of the National Association of REALTORS® and the Canadian Real Estate Association, and .realestate is available to the general public. The .realtor™ domain is free for the first year, one per individual REALTOR®. Learn more at www.get.realtor.
