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Social or Social Media?

Posted in Real Estate Bloggers By Jed Lane, Saturday, July 26, 2008.

After experiencing the wonderment of it all, from ReBar to the incredible group of leaders of our industry talkinig about "When will it turn?" I was deflated by the walk away message that we social media types were told to get off the computer and go out just be social.

In the wrap up Joel Burslam said the take away message he got was to go out and do it the old fashioned way.

I was paying very close attention to all the talk but I guess I was focused on learning more about the media being used successfully. I missed the part about it being overdone. Kris Berg was clear when she recognized that there's an explosion of platforms and profile pages and that, as she said in the way only Kris can say it, "I can't go to every party"

It seems that Twitter might just be the app that broke the camels back. I don't know and as my daughter says I'm confuzeled!

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Submitted by Heather Rankin on July 26, 2008 - 6:14pm.

I was not there, but followed along best I could on twitter (which was actually pretty cool) and flicker (pretty cool as well).

It seems the nature of the beast for something to catch on, and then competitors show up out of the woodwork. It seems that has happened here.

I am still pretty new but have
1) My Lake Powell Real Estate Blog
2) Active Rain/Localism
3) Inman
4) Facebook
5) Twitter
6) Myspace for my band and family
7) LinkedIn

and several others..... plus I still want to get on Zillow but I need more hours in the day.

I am at my limit. To fill out one more profile the platform would have to make my coffee, do laundry as well as claim to help with my RE business.

Just a note of thanks to everyone out there in Social Land, for sharing your time and talents with us new folks. Hopefully I get to return the favor.

For now tho.... I am having a blast!

 
Submitted by on July 26, 2008 - 6:15pm.

A bunch of us were discussing that with the "new" real estate market and the income of most real estate professionals dwindling that the cash available for "new" technologies will dry up.

Thank god. There's too much out there already!

Remember at last Inman, Intothebox.tv was like the "hottest" thing---now I think it's over---last post 3/26.

Not much "new" was introduced this year from last.

 
Submitted by on July 26, 2008 - 6:17pm.

Heather

We are all at our limit---the majority of the re.net would NEVER admit it.

I look at all the agents in social media, twittering and I think "if they are twittering all day, they can't be selling real estate."

 
Submitted by Christi Borden, CIPS, ABR, GRI on July 27, 2008 - 6:15am.

I am grateful to know that I am not alone. I have a co-worker who is a HUGE producer and a majority of his business is through his social media contacts. I am amazed at how much time he must spend keeping afloat on the numerous platforms. I tend to derive the majority of my business from face to face social contact and have wanted to find a happy medium between the two. I just cannot imagine spending all of my evenings and weekends (when not actually serving clients) away from my family to keep up with this other life on the net. Suggestions?

I was very active on ActiveRain but have dropped off somewhat. I am on LinkedIn, Facebook, Inman and a few other places but not often enough to be effective.

Your Katy, TX Realtor,

Christi Borden, CIPS, GRI, ABR
Prudential Gary Greene, Realtors
Email: Christi@ChristiBorden.com
Web: www.ChristiBorden.com
Cell: 832-372-7470

 
Submitted by Missy Caulk on July 27, 2008 - 6:53am.

The message I took away was... the social networks, blogs are the door. We still have to be face to face with people to make it happen. That will never change in my opinion. It's what we do and how we treat the consumer when they walk in the door from all the sites available.

Missy Caulk
Ann Arbor, MI
Missy@MissyCaulk.com

www.AnnArborRealEstateTalk.com
www.SearchAnnArborHouses.com

 
Submitted by Hanh Brown on July 27, 2008 - 8:34am.

Hanh Dang Brown

Perhaps one (Internet social networking) doesn't replace the other (Face to face interaction). It is a fine balance between the two.

However, with regard to the internet social networking, people can learn about you (i.e., who, where, what, etc, from your site/blogs) while you are asleep. One could have 50 visitors that could learn about you before you even talk to them and perhaps, out of that 50, you may have 10 voice to voice contacts (not bad considering you were asleep when this was initiated).

Sure, it is important the quantity of people visits your blogs/site … I personally think it is more important the quality of people that you can nurture the relationship and mutually benefit from each other out of those “quantity of people”.

http://www.investorsloungeonline.com/

Regards

 
Submitted by Jim Cronin on July 28, 2008 - 1:10am.

The marketing landscape has been changing, and there is definitely a need to continue to stay relevant... hence the push to understand all the new social media.

However, I have experienced that successful marketing will always be found in a simple solution: Focus, consistency, passion and hard work will make your efforts pay off.

If these efforts are focused on Social Media, then you will see this generate an audience that is looking for you. If your focus is on walking the neighborhood (for example), then this too will work for you.

Trying to straddle, test market, or spread yourself too thinly, you will commonly find your efforts to be futile.
--

I may be wrong, but I think that the point that Joel was making was that an effective way to improve your social media efforts is to work to engage your target audience the 'old fashioned way'. By bringing more of your target audience and community into your online playing field, you increase the exposure to potential clients, while leveraging these exciting new marketing mediums.
If your sphere is following you on Facebook and Twitter and commenting on your blog, well, now all that 'tinkering' on the computer starts to really make sense.

$0.02

Juicy Blogging Advice for Realtors
http://realestatetomato.typepad.com

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