Brokers, are you doing everything you can to help your agents succeed in a crowded market? Even if you've only been paying minimal attention to real estate marketing talk during the past few years, chances are good that you've heard someone use the term "local expert."

It's more than just a trendy marketing phrase, though. Just like consumers need agents to guide them through the maze of paperwork that comes with buying a home, they also need an agent's wealth of community knowledge to help them find the right home.

While there are plenty of things that agents can (and should) be doing establish their local credibility, brokers can help their agents get a boost on the competition. Below, we've listed three simple tools that brokers can start using now.

Lifestyle Property Search

Ninety percent of all consumers search for properties online during the home buying process. They have myriad search options to choose from, too--everything from giant portals like Zillow, Trulia, and big box brokerages to small town realty offices and agent websites.

That's why it's important that your brokerage's IDX search solution stands out from the crowd. If you're just offering boring, run-of-the-mill data, buyers have plenty of other places to look online.

Instead, capture their attention (and later, their contact information!) with lifestyle search. If the basic data of your average IDX feed is like a black-and-white sketch, lifestyle search provides the color between the lines.

For example, Onboard Informatics' Lifestyle Search Engine lets consumers search for properties based on criteria like school ratings, nearby amenities, cultural activities, and more. Likewise, HD IDX from Showing Suite offers commute time calculations and even a "Neighborhood Suggester" that considers user input in order to recommend the most ideal areas for a searcher.

Both solutions go beyond the standard bedroom/bath/square footage criteria to give searchers a richer feel for the community they're considering. To learn about more Lifestyle Search options, click here.

Enhanced CMA reports

As you can see, locally enhanced data is the name of the game. Once your lifestyle search brings a new client into the fold, you can continue to wow them with CMA reports augmented with--you guessed it--local information.

One great solution is Cloud CMA, who enhances their reports with "blended data." Information from the MLS is combined with data from WalkScore, local business ratings from Yelp, neighborhood photos, school ratings, and more. This provides the consumer with a more complete view of a neighborhood, empowering them to make better decisions about where to live.

Additionally, Cloud CMA released a broker edition last summer, giving brokers control over report branding, as well as access to business metrics. To explore more CMA options, click here.

Social Media

If you've let your brokerage's social media accounts fall into disrepair, you're missing out on being a critical disseminator of local data yourself!

To enable their agents to be the best local experts they can be, brokers should strive to be the central hub of community news and information. New business opening or an exciting event taking place? Tweet or post a status update to your Facebook page and encourage your agents to share it. Every time your agents share it, they'll also be promoting your brokerage. It's a viral branding opportunity for your company!

When it comes to social media, many agents just don't know what to post or simply don't have the time. By being a central hub of information, you make it easy for your agents to keep their own social media accounts active. Begin by following the social profiles of local businesses, community leaders, and media to keep your finger on the pulse of your area.

Share and repost their updates, keep your ear to the (virtual) ground, and soon enough you'll have a wealth of local information to flesh out your social accounts. And, by extension, so will your agents.

There you have it--three easy ways to empower your agents to distinguish themselves from the local competition. Are there any other strategies you use that have been successful? Feel free to share your story in the comments section below!