Brian LoPresto

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I guess I don't fully understand this idea of social media "selling Real Estate." I was under the impression that Realtors still sold Real Estate. Over the past 10 years the one major complaint of Realtors I have heard, is that the internet has diminished their sphere of influence, since the consumer needs them less during early stage research. Now you have all these terrific internet based networking sites to "re-build" an online sphere of influence....AND IT'S FREE!! I don't understand this article. Did these sites advertise their ability to drive lots of new leads with unprecedented close ratios?? Did they claim that a Realtor could use this and no longer need to work the deal?? It's just creative networking & communicating online. I'll bet for every hard luck experience, there's also a positive experience too (which the author even referenced). I think what this author was looking for was an "Easy Button" >> Try staples.com ;)

I like the direction that Justin is going, but I will say that this audience will come and go as their status of "active" buyer/seller changes. Whereas a community like facebook is relevent to most who have an account, on a daily or at least weekly basis. While Realtors spend time and money on e-mail marketing, communities like Facebook offer a much more "sticky" place for them to communicate with their network. It's also a better place to grow a network. This "pull into" community seems more effective than a "push to group" in an over-used and over-abused e-mail medium. I wouldn't be surprised if development of Facebook listing applications have been launched. Anyone?? Brian www.onjax.com