YOU DON’T HAVE TO LOVE SOCIAL MEDIA to make your peace with it/them. But just turning your back and walking away from it/them isn’t a very good idea either (hence my title). Unlikely as it seems to anyone over the age of 30 --  illogical as it may seem -- the social media advocates are truth-tellers: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and their cousins are POWERFUL marketing tools that fetch actual authentic bite-the-nickel OMG it’s real! real estate business. ActiveRain itself is a social medium, although its value explains itself better than something like a Twitter -- which at first glance seems not much more than a barely grownup version of Junior High School texting-gossip.

After the recent dry spell, years when just keeping the doors open has been such a challenge, rare is the agent who willingly overlooks any opportunity to cultivate business.

So if you are a broker or agent who is canny enough to tune into the blogosphere, yet at the same time are actively avoiding the rest of social media, the chances are good that you feel awful about it. You probably don’t even want to think about it. The thought, pure waste of time probably occurs whenever you think about getting involved.

For those who may have missed it, a recent Realtor® Magazine piece had a wonderfully energizing take on how to handle the whole issue: (http://realtormag.realtor.org/technology/feature/article/2012/03/spend-only-one-hour-week-social-media) .

Author Tarbox focuses on an approach that’s remarkably similar to what we at RealtyPLR concentrate upon. It can be summed up in a single basic precept, though it can be presented every which-way:

·        Jealously budget the time you spend creating online outreach…or

·        Don’t let the screens suck you in…or

·        Treat the Web like the pet wildcat it is...or

·        You be the Boss (else soon it will be sending you out for coffee)!

If you’ve been avoiding social media but wish there were a way you could put it to work, take heart. Just decide how many minutes you’re going to spend, go grab  a timer from the kitchen (don’t use the computer alarm -- you’ll wind up ignoring it) and stick to your guns. That’s the time you’ll give it. Not five minutes more. Don’t try to master any of it at one sitting. Just wade in now, come back later. When the timer tells you it’s time to get back to business, pay attention to it.

And keep in mind, feel good: you have been doing business!

Mitch Claymore is Editor of RealtyPLR, the confidential ghostblogging subscription service.