Lost in the crowd

For most, participating in social media is like going to a rock concert. You find yourself surrounded by people that all have a common interest (be it the rock band "AC/DC" or real estate). You like the familiar loud music, you like the energy of the crowd, you feel connected. But, at the end of the show, there are only a select few that the whole crowd remembers. It was those on stage, leading the audience to be connected, who made the biggest impression.

So with your efforts in social media, you need to make the choice: Are you going to be on stage, making the lasting impression? Or are you going home in an overpriced souvenir T-shirt, telling all your friends how great it was?

For prospectors, making a fortune during the California gold rush was so challenging, because the effort and investment of organizing an outfit to do all the heavy lifting was out-of-reach for most.

Social media, on the other hand, has made it all too easy to organize a formidable community. Now, to be successful in leveraging that community to "work" for you, it is your responsibility to get up on stage, in front of them, night after night, and start leaving an impression. If you go to the show just to hold a lighter, you'll always be just a face in the crowd.

To be successful in social networking, there is a (much easier) formula:

1. Get there early to develop the largest amount of followers as possible.
2. Regularly provide relevant, compelling, eye-catching, and impressionable content for the community to consume.
3. Update your status regularly with relevant, compelling, eye-catching, and impressionable bite-size content.
4. Participate (comment, message, tag, nudge and friend) in the greater community to grow your reach, relevance and influence.
5. Lather, rinse, repeat..

I can't stress enough how important it is to learn to use these social tools of today.
Be certain, they aren't going away. The generation coming up will make sure of that.

Originally posted at Real Estate Tomato.

Copyright (c) Real Estate Tomato

***

What's your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor.

All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.