Why Social Media Isn’t A Real Estate Panacea...
There have been a slew of recent posts on the usefulness of social media as a means of attracting business for real estate agents lately.
Ralph Gorgoglione wrote How many transactions have you closed as a result of Social Media? - this was a very insightful query on where we are getting business from via the Internet. Ralph’s question is a needed one, as it forces many of us to evaluate, as he did, where our business via the Internet is coming from…
A follow-up post with plenty of tips to help agents with their social media utilization was written by Peggy James - Who Else Isn't Getting Leads From Their Blogging Efforts On Active Rain?
Then Loreena Yeo recently wrote this piece - How Ready Are You For Business When Social Media Knocks At Your Door? - a guide for how to effectively use social media for business purposes.
But for all of the blogs that have been written that speak to the usefulness of being involved with social media for business purposes , I think that this comment by J. Philip Faranda on Mitchell Hall’s Real Estate Consumer Evolution: The Times They Are A Changing! post is the most insightful, because it very succinctly states why social media isn’t a real estate panacea:
"Social networking is a sphere of influence tool, not a new prospecting tool."
DID YOU GET THAT???
Case in point: On Sunday evening, I had a three hour IM conversation on FaceBook with a prospective client concerning a real estate matter…a client who incidentally was a former student of mine. New prospect? No. Sphere of influence? Most definitely.
J. Philip expanded on his comment in Social Media, and Separating our Business and Personal Lives. Make no mistake, there are clear lines of demarcation between being involved with social media for its own sake, and using it as a means of reaching clients for business purposes. When we use it more for the former, and set up separate venues for prospects in our sphere to reach us for business purposes, then it would be very clear to anyone questioning whether they are getting business from social media as to what the most effective method to that end would be…
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