At the recent Inman Connect, the keynote speaker was Gary Vaynerchuk who I personally thought was THE highlight of the entire convention.

Gary Vee (as he is known in the online world) is the founder of WineLibrary TV and is credited for bringing the love of wine to regular folk--you know, the people like you and I who don't necessarily buy $150 bottles of wine normally. In addition to promoting his wine store and wine reviews he has made an even larger name for himself as a social media and online marketing success. The man is brilliant and although he is "rough" at times with his language, he is simply being real and talking straight to you.

Jay Thompson (also a social media and online real estate marketing superstar) posted a video of Gary's speech at Inman. At the bottom of this post I will include that and a prior speech Gary did at a Web 2.0 seminar that originally got me hooked on Vaynerchuk. (That's Gary on the left and Jay on the right)

It seems that the business community is beginning to wake up to the power of social media but unfortunately there are still many in the real estate community that either don't understand it or don't WANT to understand it. That's a shame...and short sighted.

I live in a very small community (12,000 population) tucked away in the White Mountains of tiny New Hampshire. However, through the leverage and connections of social media, Jay Thompson in Phoenix will soon have a new listing because one of my good friends moved from the area to Phoenix and is now looking to move back (he must be missing the minus 29 degree temps we are having today!). My friend wants a referral and doesn't want to pick blind from an agency billboard or postcard.Since I know/follow Jay -through the various social media tools-he will get the referral. That is just a small example and certainly doesn't even touch on the other aspects of social media which is simply being real/authentic and available to your clients and customers. I have plenty more real world situations--as I am sure you all do as well.

I am "preaching to the choir" here because if you are on ActiveRain you are likely already into it all. I just needed to rant a bit because I came back enthusiastic and empowered and have since been deflated a tad. Just a tad. I will watch Gary again and remind myself to keep preaching...even if some of my choir ain't listening! ;)

~Sean

 

 

 

If you aren't comfortable with the occasional cuss word or a drop of the f-bomb then don't watch this one...he is speaking to a different audience here and cut loose a bit more....