Pretty REALTORS Get the Leads.

Have you jumped on the Facebook LIKE bandwagon?  I haven't. 

Here's why.

I have friends @ Facebook in middle management. They were under lots of pressure to get lots more clicks. Problem was, the Facebook FAN Page wasn't working out. And in some ways, it was getting out of control.

Be a Fan of my real estate website. Huh? Why? What for? What's in it for me? 

Why do I need to be a Fan of your website. It's ugly.

You're just a real estate agent.

There's gazillions of you out there.

I think you get my drift here. People aren't stupid. You can't con them into being a Fan of your template website. Selling homes is sort of boring, you know when you compare your site to Apple Computer.

Be a fan of Apple's new iPad.  Sure. This is cool. Sign me up. 

But becoming a FAN of a REALTOR Website? What's the point? There's nothing cool about that. 

What if you're not a FAN of something?  Okay... you start to see my point. I don't want to BE a Fan.  But they will click on: LIKE buttons.  

Hey, I want to be LIKED. Who doesn't? 

As Paul Harvey said, "Now you know the REST of the story."

This was the idea that gave birth to last Monday's big screw up. On Monday, you sit and watch Facebook change their minds every 12 minutes or so. 

10:17 am. Your Blog or Website has the Become a Fan button. 

10:23 am. Button changes to LIKE button.

11:09 am. Button changes back to Become a Fan button.

This went on all friggin' day. 

I'm NOT a Fan of Facebook's LIKE button. And I can't ever be.  Here's why:  I don't have a DISLIKE button. I can't be the only person out here wondering why that is. 

People need choice. This is why there is Large or Small. Cola. Uncola. Regular or Diet. Would you like to SuperSize your French Fries? Would you like KETCHUP with your order, sir?  

So I'm waiting for Facebook to come out with a DISLIKE button. How about a Sort of Like, button.  Or a Definitely Maybe button. 

What qualifies someone out there to LIKE something or not? 

So you LIKE the Book cover or a product on Amazon or Apple. This is ok. People get to RATE things and some products and services CAN be rated by ordinary people. This works. This is part of Social Media. 

But some things can't be labelled with a LIKE button quite so easily. Real estate is a good example. 

You slap the LIKE button onto a real estate listing portal. 941 People LIKE this house. Okay, so what? It's just a photo of the OUTSIDE of the house. 

Have you SEEN the house inside? No. 

Have you BEEN there? No. 

Have you seen the Neighborhood? No again.

Which agent would you buy a house from? ( this gets scary if it wasn't so real...)

Rating people, a book cover, a crappy website or a real estate agent that has had Digital Oil of Delay applied to it (retouched) means you get LIKE buttons, but what qualifies you to LIKE the REALTOR? 

We ran a test. I went to Google images and found two real estate agent photos. The ones you see above.

On Tuesday the Bartman sent out these photos above of two (2) very real, very active real estate agents to a few thousand home buyers via an email survey.

The questions were simple. I asked two of them.

1.) Of the two REALTORSs pictured above, which one do you like?  1,092 picked the agent on the left. Only 39 picked the agent on the right.

2.) Of the two agents pictures above, which one would you trust to sell you a home? The numbers are still coming in as of today, but so far we have almost the same margin spread. 94% is picking the cute, younger agent on the top left.  

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None of this should come as a big surprise to any of you. We still judge a book by a cover. The cute agent gets the better leads. Beauty still trumps over things that are not so cute, not so new and not so shiny. 

I'd like you to sound off on this one. 

Do you LIKE Facebook's LIKE icon and rating system?

Are you pasting the LIKE button right now on your website or blog?

If YES -- why are you doing that?

Enquiring minds want to know.