Check out Survey Results from Luxury Home Marketing: Social Networking Works

Hey Activerainers just wanted to share info from my Luxury Home Membership Connection

Here's a very brief summary of the results:

• More than 80% are using social networks in some way
• About 20% report having given or received a referral or otherwise generated business via social networks.
• 58% of respondents are on LinkedIn, Facebook, or both-making them the two most popular networks by far-with an almost even split of respondents on each.
• Very few real estate specific social networks were mentioned, with Active Rain being the most popular among those mentioned.

 Survey Results

This survey has helped us to understand how you-our Members-are currently engaged with social networking and craft our plans for the future.  (More on that later). 

There were seven questions in the survey.  
The results are summarized below with comments.

Question 1

 
80.5% of respondents are using social networks.  That's a pretty big number!
We intentionally did not list the many smaller social networking sites, or the many real estate sites that now exist.  We didn't want to overwhelm folks with choices, and more importantly we wanted to see what they would write in as "Other".  Here is a summary of the "Other" responses:


 
There were some additional sites mentioned, but none by more than one person.

Question 2

 
More than 1 out of 4 respondents expect to have stopped using some or all of the social networks they are currently using within a year.

Question 3


 
An almost equal split between LinkedIn and Facebook-with LinkedIn enjoying a slight edge, and the two of them together representing almost 2/3 of responses.

Of the 8.7% indicating "Other": 24.5% suggested ActiveRain.  The majority of other responses indicated some variation of "don't know", "it doesn't matter", or "any site with a professional orientation."

Question 4


 
Facebook and LinkedIn are so close here, each with about 1/3 of responses.
Of those who chose "Other": 44.7% indicated "I don't know,"15.8% indicated Active Rain, and the bulk of the balance indicated that we should "create our own site", with a few other individual sites mentioned by the remaining responses.



Interestingly, a quick cross-tabulation reveals that, among those who indicated in Question #1 that they "don't use online social networks," on this question 37.3% chose either "LinkedIn" or "Facebook" while only 48.0% chose "None."  So, even among non-social network users, over half indicated a preference, with 22.7% choosing "Facebook" and 14.7% choosing "LinkedIn."

Question 5

 

Another split with LinkedIn and Facebook dominating.  The good news for members here is that with the new version of the Member Directory that is under development, Members will have the ability to link to any social networks of their choosing from their profile.  
 
Of the 15.9% that indicated "Other":

• 25.4% indicated "I don't know"
• 15.5% indicated "None"
• 14.1% indicated "ActiveRain"
• 5.4% indicated "Twitter"
• 5.4% indicated" BrokerAgent Social"

Question 6
 


1 in 5 of the respondents has done business via social networks.  
Not bad...

Question 7

There are too many comments to share all of them here, but here are a handful of representative excerpts:

• Social networking is the wave of the future - get in!
• I do not like social networks.  I think they are trashy and inappropriate for upscale or downscale marketing.  Create your own social network....luxury social network....something appealing to the wealthy and upper end agents.
• I do not see Active Rain included in the choices above and it is a good site and real estate specific too so, it is very useful among agents.
• I guess I am an old timer, but I feel these sites are cheap and who in the upper tier would want their personal life made public?  I know it is the way to go with young folks, but at age 54, I think I will opt out.
• There is nothing more effective then working lead generation by meeting people face to face or over the phone.
• Social networking is a must in today's society...
• It is getting very time consuming to keep up with all this!!!!!
• However old-fashioned this may sound, I believe Real Estate is about personal relationships with business done face to face....
• Hurry and get on the social media bandwagon!

About the Survey

Margin of error: +/-4% Confidence Interval: 95%  Surveys were sent to just over 3,000 of the Members of The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing.  473 completed surveys were gathered from 12/16/08 to 01/05/09. A random sampling methodology was not employed. We make no warranties as to the accuracy of this information. You should treat it as we do-as good, anecdotal information about the attitudes of our members.