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Use Social Media To Weather The Storm

By
Real Estate Agent with Jameson Sotheby's 471.005830

Are your current marketing strategies not producing enough leads? Has income been sliding? Overhead exceeding income? Struggling just to make ends meet?

No one adopts new strategies if the old ones are working. A quote from Abe Lincoln seems particularly pertinent to our current environment:

   "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew."

What a great nickname: "Honest Abe" - especially coming from Illinois - home of impeached governors. Honest Abe, of course, was talking about the Civil War and preserving the Union. Thank goodness he realized he had to use new strategies - or we might be 2 separate countries right now instead of one United States!  

This is what I've discovered: the lead generating strategies of the real estate boom are inadequate to the stormy present. I have been working REALLY hard for 2 years to generate the income I need to sustain myself. I've never been a stranger to hard work. But I having been working harder than ever and STILL not generating adequate results. I finally realized that I had hit a brick wall.

Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. If you're in a hole, digging harder and faster will only get you in deeper.

Delving into social media strategies, I am beginning to realize that THIS is how people want to be communicated with these days!! They don't WANT you "knocking on their door" (I did plenty of that in my youth!) or calling them on the phone. They want to go to the internet, (i.e. "FaceBook", "My Space", "Twitter", etc...) get the information they want and THEN contact you if they feel like you've got what they're looking for. If they CAN do it by themselves, they will. But most often that just isn't practical. So, they do the next best thing: they talk to the person they think is the most likely to help them.

And how do they find you? Using social media!

The way we did business in the "roaring 90's" is inadequate for the stormy present. Just as "cold calling" was an awesome strategy for the 50's and 60's, relational strategies was amazing for the 90's. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. Today, the way we market ourselves is using Social Media.

If you find that the old "tried and true" systems just aren't working for you as well, find out what we're doing on www.NewMarketLeaders.com. We'll help you put the all the social media puzzle pieces together.

"All Things With Exuberance!"
mary
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Li Read
Sea to Sky Premier Properties (Salt Spring) - Salt Spring Island, BC
Caring expertise...knowledge for you!

Great post!    I've just gotten onto all these places, and am now trying to figure out how to use them for biz purposes.    Will check out your link.   

Feb 04, 2009 11:29 AM
Pam Dent
Gayle Harvey Real Estate, Inc. - Charlottesville, VA
REALTORĀ® - Charlottesville Virginia Homes / Horse

Mary - Love your quotes.  Some ideas from the past are still relevant today.  If something is not working simply doing more of it will not work as well.  We all need to be adaptable and change with the times.  I am certainly no youngster (lets keep that fact between us) but I can "smell the coffee" and am active on facebook, linkedin, and twitter.  In fact I am teaching the company linkedin class next week.  So you are never too old to learn new tricks.

Feb 04, 2009 12:19 PM
Roland Carrillo, PhD - Mortgage Consultant
Cary, NC

Some "tried and true" methods are still essential, but at the same time we need to keep up with the times.  Social networking is important and a great tool.

Feb 04, 2009 02:17 PM
Christine Donovan
Donovan Blatt Realty - Costa Mesa, CA
Broker/Attorney 714-319-9751 DRE01267479 - Costa M

I am curious about NewMarketLeaders and will be off to take a look in a few minutes.  I think there is much to gain in being involved in social media.

Feb 04, 2009 03:31 PM
Michael Bergin
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage - ABR - SRES - Alexandria, VA
Northern Virginia Real Estate

Mary,

My "kis" have been a great help in navigating the social media "storm" and, like Christine said, there is much to be gained.  Reat estate is an on-going education isn;t it?

Michael

Feb 04, 2009 08:40 PM
Dirk Johnson
DomainDrivers.com - Potomac Falls, VA

Hi Mary

Here's a free tool that helps you manage your social networking tasks
Social Network Manager
http://www.domaindrivers.com/SocialNetworkManager.asp

Feb 04, 2009 11:44 PM
Catherine C Capasso
Catherine Cornelia Real Estate - Eastchester, NY
Cottage or Castle, What's Your Dream!

Text messaging - a key form of communicating with today's younger buyers. I am also educating all my buyers to using text messaging. It is working.

Feb 05, 2009 01:08 AM
Mary Nack
Jameson Sotheby's - Chicago, IL
Vice-President, Sales

Thanks for the awesome comments. Dirk - great suggestion on managing all those Social Media! I'm taking you up on THAT one RIGHT NOW!

And Catherine - I agree - text messaging is a great way to communicate with some of those Gen X'ers and Gen Y'ers. Well, hell, it's a great way to communicate with ANYONE!

And to EVERYONE - please join me on The Rain in my new group "New Market Leaders"!

 

Feb 05, 2009 04:09 AM
Marian Gregor-Ann
Keller Williams - Ann Arbor, MI
Arbor area Real Estate

Hi Mary, The time to reinvent your marketing is also when times are tough. People tend to not change when everything is 'smooth sailing'.

Feb 05, 2009 04:55 AM
Mike Henderson
Your complete source for buying HUD homes - Littleton, CO
HUD Home Hub - 303-949-5848

To quote Bob Dylan, "The times they are a changin"

Feb 05, 2009 10:52 AM