I do have a fetish with MYSPACE...but it's more for fun!  I've discovered it sucks you in and the time slips away...kind of like ACTIVERAIN!!  I originally opened an account so I could "get familiar" before I let my son open his account.  Now I mostly spend time "monitoring his account" so I am sure he's not giving out too much information.  ***Great post!! 

Tammy, it's similar to the old adage, 'don't mail an angry letter before you've slept on it overnight'.  Later on, you might have second thoughts about sending it.

When you put personal things on the internet, they're there forever, for anyone to see - people that you never would have imagined seeing what you posted. 

My local Board invited us to set up a myspace account for a networking group. I joined, typed in my profile, joined the group, clicked the button that said I was "there for business networking" set up all the privacy and blocking features I could...

Long story short: I was bombarded with messages from guys wanting a date, wanting to meet me, etc. It was actually very creepy. Within a week, I cancelled the account. I'm staying away from myspace for now.

My Goddaughter was living with me last year (she was 15) and that is when I HAD to check out MySpace since she had an account.  My feeling is--besides believing whole-heartedly in FREEDOM OF SPEECH--that that place goes way overboard. Some kids under 18 (profiling that they are older of course) put some nasty stuff in there. Now that my Goddaughter is back home with her Mom, I stay clear.

Good point about bosses (and sellers or buyers) literally interviewing you AFTER doing a web sheach... it happens all the time

Tammy-

We certainly do need to be careful about what we put out on the web!

IMHO - MySpace is the LAST place a professional should go.  It's a social site, mainly for teens.

Hi Tammy,
Just what I need, one more place to blog and lose time.  Active Rain takes a lot of my time but I know it is worthwhile because I have learned so much.  Have you gotten any leads on My Space?  I looked at it but it just seemed more "social" than business but I could be wrong.

Tammy, don't worry about the domain name with your actual name.  If you are shopping around for a new domain name get one with Real-Estate in it.  It will be more helpful in the long run. 

I have a relative who is Director level at a large company, and hires people all the time.  First thing they do when interviewing someone from outside, even a contractor, is to google them.  Amazing what is out there.  There have even been people who were not hired becouse of what they put in their blogs about former employers, or things they did on the job, and in one case I heard about, comments a former coworker made in a blog about the person.  Just goes to show you, control what you put out there as much as you can, becouse you never know who is reading it.

I don't use Myspace yet, not sure if I will be, currently using Active Rain, RealEstateWebmasters, Wordpress, & Squidoo, Not sure when I will have time to sell any houses if I add more.

Jim

My space is another meat market yet I do advertise my listings there. Just have to screen your responses to the blogs or advertisement responses.

I am familiar though I have spent very little time there.  My personal life is my own.  No need to share to strangers.  My business blogs tell people all they need to know about me.  I'm a REALTOR, specialize with investment properties, I'm a dad and a Kansas Jayhawk fan, and a sports fan in general and I love to eat BBQ.  That's enough info for all but the stalkers...  Like I have any stalkers.

MySpace is great and all but it is useless for link quality or helping to promote your other websites ;-)  At least from an SEO standpoint.  They are one of the caugh caugh genious' that use "no follow" tags on ALL there links now.

While I acknowledge there is a huge difference between Tom & Katie and their need for privacy (they are plastered literally everywhere and everyone sees it whether they seek it out or not) and Jane Doe and her posting of her personal life on myspace (one has to actually search out Jane Doe to find her private information), there is this weird divide between people today.

One group is plastering their lives on the web.  The other group is so insanely paranoid that they only use cash.  Truly a strange world. 

I find it interesting how the mention of myspace.com tends to be a controversial issue.  Can't say that I have gotten any leads from it yet, but why not go where others are???  Yes, you obviously have to be very careful but don't forget some of these teens will be buying homes later and most people want to know who you are first before they use you!  Comments???

Tammy,

What a great aritcle.  I agree with alot of your points.  Mostly the rise of things like blogs and myspace in our business has been to gain online presence.  I agree that one has to be careful concerning that as in the case of any business.  At the advice of a colleague, I put up a myspace site and then later felt that it just did not match up to the image I wanted to project.  So I took it down.  When it comes to "blogging" I think it's a great idea but should be related to providing information of value to others whether it be within the community or other professionals.  When it's done in that manner, it also becomes of more value to one's business.   

That's great advice.  I try to be careful with that.  I've accidentally found info on another agent that I knew that I would rather have not known.  Good point. 

"you shouldn't put anything on the net that you wouldn't be able to tell someone face-to-face."

That's just sound advice. There is an expression, it's called "courage.com." That's when people say things online that they would not have the courage to to say to someones face. I often wonder how much courage.com is at work in blog comments.  

Tammy,

Hi there.  I too have a myspace.com profile for my business.  There are a number of professional adults on the site that are there to network for business (try joining the 'groups' specifically created for these purposes!).  Yes - there are teens and freaks and predators and creeps (as there are in everyday life also) - but the beauty of their message system is - you simply hit 'delete' ... and keep the messages that you want!  Take power over what can be an excellent tool - don't let it push you around!!!  : )

My compnay has a Myspace page and I think that I am about ready to close the account. It takes so much time and we have had zero activity from it. I think I will concentrate on other ways to connect with my clients.

I have a Myspace page but the only thing it has helped me do is stay in contact with my high school and college friends who have scattered across the country after graduation.  I have not had any business generated from the page.

Tammy this is so true.  I fight with my teens every day to remove information off from their myspace.com accounts.  I try not to put any informamtion out there that I do not want others to know.  It is a very scarey world out there.  

I try to remember that just because it is on the net does not mean that I cannot be found..  I am going tpring this and give it to my girls to read.  Maybe your words will be easier for them to digest than mine. 

Great article Tammy.  I've had an account on Myspace from some time now.  However, i recomend only having one account, and making it as professional as possible.  If you're like me, some of the best leads out there come from the people you know.  So it's always good to have a way to constantly remind them that you're in Real Estate, and that you're serious and very professional when it comes to your profession.  I've seen some agent on myspace who put pictures and other personal information on the site that makes them look like someone i couldn't see taking the business serious.  Even if most of your friends know how wild you like to get on your time off, you need to make sure they see you as professionally driven individual who has their clients needs as a number one priority.

i once found something that i thought was a personal communication. it wasn't really damaging to me personally, but it destroyed any sense of trust i had with this individual.

beware anything can show up.

even this response. 

MySpace is an AWESOME tool.  I mix my business and personal.  I am just now beginning to learn how to use it to it's fullest.  I think people may be more inclined to do business with someone once they have experienced what their personal world feels like and can identify with it.  Please visit my MySpace page if you'd like to see how I use it.  www.MySpace.com/Brad_Brusenhan While there, add yourself as a friend if you'd like, or not.  Your comments on my MySpace page are welcome...  By the way, I have added my MySpace page to my business web site as well in the about us section.  http://www.brusenhanandassocaites.com/

I created one for business but it has turned itself into more of a personal account. Hopefully it will create some business by keeping in touch with my SOI that way

Personally I think MSN Live Spaces offers a much more professional platform.  You can read my comments originally posted May 11th: MySpace vs. MSN Live Spaces - Don't Confuse the two

Hi Tammy - I checked out the MySpace for Business Professionals recently.  There weren't very many on there and I'm not sure what message they were trying to convey.  It seemed to be more of a social venue, too. 

I am with Jeff Turner and the others here with the philosophy of "if you cant say it to their face,  simply dont say it". 

Before I signed up for myspace.com, I had the impression that it was a meat market  and was hesitate on not only getting an account but allowing my son to have an account. Once I helped him set up his account, I learned that it was a good way to list properties and give out good information about Real Estate. I'm glad you gave your opinion and cleared the air of what myspace.com can do for you.

 Thanks

Motheranddaughterrealty.com

I think an online presence is important for our business but I also think the wrong online environment can hurt business. All websites are not created equal.

My space is definately not the environment I want my business associated with. For some it might be great just not me.

AR takes up enough of my time, I have a myspace account but don't spend much time there.

Myspace is definetly very popular and if you use it correctly it can work for you and your business. It is a great networking website to stay in touch with old friends and make new ones. If you can expose yourself to more people then i see nothing wrong with that. One great feature of myspace.com is being able to connect with classmates who you attended highschool with. All you do is type in your highschool name and graduation year and it will show a list of your classmates who are also on myspace.com. Everyone has their preferences and i think that the younger generation will definetly benefit from this site as it is geared more towards them.

Nice work getting featured Tammy, great post.

Thanks Gary, I love being featured.  Thanks everyone for the posts and comments.

there are so many people who have/are getting fired for their myspace pages.  My husband had a very funny one (adult themed) and someone googled him and turned it in to his boss.

I made mine private a few months ago.  Mine is strictly for personal reasons, no need to bring business into it.  I have (and still am) reconnecting with old friends from college, HS and even middle school

I have to agree that you get out of it what you put into it. I only joined when all the news stories came out about myspace in a negative way about the predators and such. I wanted to make sure what my 18 year old at that time was looking at. I had the account for a long time without doing much with it because I thought it was for kids.

One day a realtor local to me contacted me on there and was I surprised when I saw her group of friends! Not only is it not for kids anymore (not completely), but businesses are networking with specifically the target audience they want to reach. All you have to do is use the search features properly to find exactly who you are looking for.

How many members are there now on myspace? Like 81 million? I only have about 14,000 as friends now... LOL (and the majority are business professionals.)

It's worldwide now. Just take control of your site and don't let it control you. Delete and block the people you don't want to talk to and set privacy up so you have to approve all messages before they can go on your page. Then let it work for you. ;)

Sharon 

I would never put anything on the internet that I wouldn't want my wife, mother or child to see.  In other words, you need to use some good common sense.  If people are getting fired for MySpace stuff, they are not smart enough to work for me.  Reputation is everything and it certainly extends to the Internet.

I actually began using myspace to find old friends from high school a few years ago.  When I got into real estate I figured this would be the perfect opportunity for me to use myspace to let those people i haven't seen in 14 years know that I was now in real estate.  I periodically send out bulletins and messages reminding everyone and I recently sent a bulletin that had a slide show of one of my listings.  I have gotten a handful of leads doing this and within 15 min of sending the slideshow I had 5 people message me back to let me know they might know someone interested in the listing.

why create another myspace website.  isn't activerain taking enough of our time out of our business.  activerain is great to find new ideas and share other's bad and good experience with vendors who service our industry too.  i would never correlate my business and myspace.com .   myspace accounts are too personal and if you have clients finding your account on myspace, they will know all your friends and few not show presentable memories flshing back at you. 

I watched a news topic on this. Businesses were scanning myspace for potential hirees.....hmmmm.....

You know you bring up a good point.  I too have two myspace accounts and my personal one is private.  Not that I am hiding anything, but not every person in the world needs to know my dog's name and kids school that they go to.  I am still pretty liberal with my information, and you can find out a lot about me by googling my name, but of course I am the only one I know of.  But i am shocked when I get friends requests from other Realtor's and it shows the "good time" they are having in their string bikini and margaritas.  Do you really want that to be the first impression people have of you?  

Lexa Montierth 

I've googled my name. I'm the first to come up....affiliated with: Active Rain. :)

Kids that post strange stuff today on these sites will end up wondering why on earth they did that once they are older and trying to get a job. What goes on the Internet lasts stays on the Internet.

ALL ABOUT CONTROL !!!     My Space Fans !!!

Say what you will or what ever... but when time to look back, what out they may help you to make money or  they make hurt your business.

What did Golden ages say in the Bible... what come around go around???

Just be responsibility what you post in any place... not only My Space !!!

Even, in ActiveRain , also !

This is my first in ActiveRain ... every body say the same thing / Sound like my space.