Social Media is a Sinkhole? HOGWASH!

Recently we have all read the blogs and the comments about Social Media and its effects on Real Estate.  Comments varied from "Social Media is a sinkhole" to "Social Media is a fad" to "Social Media does not sell homes" and each blog and comment had more than opinion behind it.    The blogs and comments negative slant was aimed at convincing the reader that Social Media has no place in the Real Estate world unless it is an affinity group business communication.  To that I say HOGWASH.

Social Media is described by Wikipedia as this: "Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques."  Basically it is the way to convey a message to a targeted audience or more likely to anyone who happens across your Blog.  This message can be written, audio, video or any combination of these. 

Social Media has had a profound effect on the Real Estate Market.  Social Media is easily one of the top three biggest internet phenomenons we have ever seen.  Evidence shows that this phenomenon continues to grow a very fast rate.  Comscore reported that Facebook Searches Grew by 10% in February.  For the week ending March 13th 2010 Hitwise reported that Facebook was visited more than Google.  This was the fourth time in 4 months that Facebook achieved this feat.  Sounds like Social Media is just a fad.(insert hysterical laughter here)  So what is behind the negative comments we read about Social Media?

I believe there are two very selfish and misguided reasons for that.  One reason is that many of these articles are written by people who have something to sell.  Social Media is taking money out of their pockets.  They would rather sell you their very overpriced Lead Generation Systems than be honest about the overwhelming evidence that Social Media plays an important role in Real Estate.  Because if Real Estate Agents fully understood the power of Social Media and how it affects their Search Engine ranking then these companies would have nothing to sell.  The effects of Social Media (especially Blogs) can be measured through statistical and anecdotal evidence. 

Secondly these same companies are dishonest about the leads.  Some of them will guarantee you so many leads a month and when you do get the leads they are worthless.  They are much like the leads you would get from the companies that sell leads.  You also get the companies that are doing nothing more than organic SEO to push leads to your site but mislead their customers into thinking that they are doing something magically. 

Social Media if done right can have a profound affect on the Search Engine Rankings of your website.  This is not only because of the amount of back links with relevant information that you are generating but do not forget that Google places a high priority on backlinks and the use of Social Media.

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Wayne Golliday
SEO Redefined
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