Do Realtors need 4,995 "friends?" No, they don't...

How Real Estate Agents have pimped themselves out using Facebook

I am a huge believer in Social Media.  How could I not be?  It has changed everything.  In my case, it has revolutionized my office from a place that was on the chopping block to a national success story in just four years and I attribute much of that success to the social media paradigm.

However, I see a disturbing trend and if we do not keep it in check, I believe we will cheapen the overall experience and devour what should be our real purpose: creating lasting friendships.

You see, here is the problem.  There are those among us who believe that Facebook, Twitter, and ActiveRain are a popularity contest.  Now these are good people and I know many of them personally, but I just do not understand the value in having the ambition of collecting the most friend requests, the most followers, or the most points.

It's even gotten so bad that I notice people post 1 picture on a blog post on ActiveRain just to get the points.  Or better yet, they unfriend someone to stay under the dreaded 5,000 person figure on Facebook (at which point Facebook shuts you down).

All I know is our entire profession is based on relationship building.  The entire point of social media is to build relationships.  So if that is the case, please tell me, how could we possibly get to know 4,995 "friends?"  The simple fact is, you can't.  And you know what?  You shouldn't try.

Instead, we should concentrate on making the point of getting to actually know the people we have already befriended and stop worrying about how many others have collected.  We should stop using "badges" like they mean anything and consider points as  a distraction that sidetracks us from relationship building.

Maybe I'm wrong.  All I'm saying is I think I've seen the light and the tunnel is a little scary.

So the next time you get a friend request and you have no idea who they are, ask them. Start a dialogue before you hit accept.  Because then, just maybe, we will be doing what we are supposed be doing...making friends.