I was part of a seminar today sponsored by Metrolist focused on social networking for real estate. What all three of us on the panel had in common was that we saw social networking as an extension of community. The other panelists, Carmen Isais and Mandy Tanburg are both using facebook as lead generators to connect with new clients. Mandy is encouraging her entire database to connect with her on facebook, even offering to help her clients and friends set up their facebook pages. She has had a lot of positive response from people with updating her status messages with real estate related information. One that was particularily successful was letting people know she was going to be putting together a list of best priced homes. She has also reconnected with a lot of people from her past that would otherwise never know she was in real estate . She grew up in the region and is very active in the community. She uses the chat feature a lot to communicate with her friends when she’s online. Typically she calls everyone in her database 4 times a year – if she connects with them via social networking she crosses them off the list. Facebook allows people, without too much effort, to keep track of the minutia of our friends’ lives. Depending on the level of involvement it makes it easy to stay in touch with many people in a short period of time.
I am still a relative newcomer to Davis so I don’t have the depth in my connections here – I’m also not as likely to friend people on facebook I do not know very well – however I think long term there is great potential in reaching people through facebook advertising using my Sacramento Homes page or my Discover Davis Homes facebook page.
I mainly spoke about twitter since the other two are not as active there. I tried to convey that you can also build community on twitter and where else do you have such a great shot of getting a short little message out to so many different people including someone like Lance Armstrong where there is a good chance that he might see it.
I think that facebook is an easier concept to grasp – most of the agents at the seminar could see value in at least connecting with others in their community. I think it is important for people to realize that with everything that is internet based, only do what you feel comfortable with – don’t feel obligated to friend every acquaintance (or even more so, strangers) if it is not something you are comfortable with. Done right this is a great way to connect with people, as long as you don’t oversell yourself as an agent – but make sure you do it on your own terms.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I found this statement “don’t feel obligated to friend every acquaintance” very interesting; I started writing a comment, but it got so long and in-depth that I turned it into a blog post instead: Putting the “Social back in “Social Media” Thanks for the insights!
Thanks Elle. I did friend you on facebook even though I don’t really know you because we might have some common goals and that is definitely a reason to get to know someone better.
Hey there, my fellow Thesis theme user! Caught your article on Drawing Traffic to Your Real Estate Site over on Eric Bramlet’s blog. Great article!
I’m a huge Twitter fan, and enjoy using Facebook as well. I think it’s OK to be selective as to who we let into our networks. Ultimately, these folks reflect us at some point or another – so it pays to choose somewhat carefully.
Do I follow folks on Twitter who are relatively unknown to me? Sure. But typically after I check out their web or blog site. I tend not to follow those who have not posted a custom favicon there, or who don’t post a URL in their profile. Hey – I’m lazy. If you don’t make it easy for me to check you out – I probably won’t!
Drop a line as time permits. I’ll keep up with your stuff here – or over at EB’s blog as you post there.
Best –
Kevin Sandridge
Winter Haven, FL
Kevin, thanks for the comment. I just followed you on twitter – I’m not looking to only follow people I know – just ones I think are interesting or that I’m likely to build a connection with. I get up to ten new strangers a day following me there and 90% of the time they make no real effort to engage. I do pay attention to the ones that do.
I’ve seen your blog before – I’ll check it out again soon.