Is Social Media A Time Suck Sink Hole?

Seven days ago, Ines Hegedus-Garcia, posted an article titled, Social Media Is A Sink Hole For Real Estate Agents – Seriously? on AgentGenius.com

Ines shares her counter-point to a blog post by Mike Parker, which appeared on the RisMedia.com blog.  Mike basically shares his belief that Social Media for real estate agents is lame and ineffective.   The tile of his blog post is, Social Media Can be a Sinkhole for Real Estate.

Ines’s counter-point post generated over 300 ReTweets and 65 comments. Regrettably, Parker’s blog post doesn’t provide an opportunity for comments, which is a bummer, there would have been some red hot comments to be sure.

A snippet from Ines:

I think most of you will agree that it is crucial for someone that will post an opinion on Social Media tactics to understand the dynamics, intricacies and social behaviors of the medium before they start coming up with conclusions. If you understand the basics of SM being about permission based marketing as opposed to interruption marketing then you would see that statement as absolutely ludicrous…

I’m sure Mike is great at what he does, but I’m also convinced that he doesn’t quite get SM, maybe some of our readers can enlighten him.

A snippet from Mike:

Don’t be stampeded into feeling like you are disconnected
One of the oldest techniques in the world to promote a cure is to create a sickness. Lacking an interest or skills in social networking will not affect your selling real estate. Lacking an Internet presence will greatly affect that ability and having one will bring you success you can’t now imagine.

Well, as I have been telling you for three years now, that is hogwash. Social media is a sinkhole that absorbs time, effort and money that could better be spent on finding listings and selling houses. Social media is the new blogging. It too will peak, then decline with one very large exception: affinity group business communication.

If you’re a real estate agent startling the social media fence, I recommend you read Mike’s article first, thenInes’s article. Check out comments too, interesting stuff.

The flurry of comments led to fellow AgentGenius writer, Brandie Young to post this: Why  The Visceral Reaction To Questioning Social Media?

In her blog post, Brandi, a bonafide marketing expert/consultant, asks why all hoopla from those who do and those who don’t?  She also poses the question, is Social Media ROI verifiable.  Brandie’s blog post generated another 76 comments and 194 ReTweets.  Obviously, people are passionate about the subject.  Take a break,read her post and peruse the comments.

A snippet from Brandie:

They didn’t call your baby ugly.  There were several fantastic responses, and some interesting reactions where folks seemed put off that someone dared to call BS on SM activities and predicting it will die out as a fad.  To the point of questioning the intelligence of the person with the opinion.

For now, I’m neutral.  Since there does not yet exist any absolute hard data that proves to me that it’s a highly impactful tool for agents.  Before you kill the messenger with that statement, continue reading.

As for me, I’m a Social Media believer.  After reading Ines, Mike and Brandie…

I posted this comment to Brandie’s post:

Ken Brand

November 24, 2009 at 8:01 am |

Shhhh, let the unbelievers sleepwalk. Without statistical, verifiable, clinical, empirical, dead-bang data, it really is a waste of time. Until they have reams of analytics, it’s wise to continue building trust, communicating and conversing as per old-school usual – mail some post cards, run ads in the paper and magazines, bump into people randomly at the grocery store or the gym, try to reach someone on the phone and hope and pray for connection and conversation.

Seriously, the problem with gathering all the ROI data, etc. is that if the people you’re analyzing don’t know what they are doing, it’ll look lame. It’s the same if you analyze the ROI of Holding Open House, Direct Mail, FSBO, Expireds, geographical farming, eLead follow-up, etc. It all depends on who the chef is.

I preach SM till the cows come home, the 82 agent icons in my office are complain that their ears are bleeding, I preach on. Using SM correctly is no different that old fashioned networking, it’s simply done on-line, for free and conveniently. Team members in the office can specifically attribute SM efforts to individual closed sales and current active listings. As a sales manger, I don’t list and sell anymore, but this year, I’ve referred 6 leads that came directly from Facebook, my blog and Twitter.

When used well, SM is a money maker and a time saver. Like other marketing mediums and methods, when the agent is passionate, trustworthy, likable and remarkable, their success with SM is greater. When they are less attractive, the results wain of never blossom. If unbelievers doubt, no worries, more for us.

PS. Next week my blog post is about revisiting The Long Tail Theory. Social Media was a rumor back when the book was written (1996).

Cheers Brandie:-)

To which Brandie replied (because she’s cool and engaged):

Brandie Young
Facebook |  Linked-in |  Twitter

November 25, 2009 at 12:29 pm |

Ken,

It’s always an honor to hear from you.

Question: Why is one an unbeliever if they want data? And, for some people I know, that old school way is making them seven figures – today. Should they change their ways? The big question is could they make more, or would they make less by incorporating SM?

Question: If you had someone on payroll for $50 per hour, 40 hours a week purely to engage in SM, would that adjust the way you measure its success?

I can’t wait to read your post!

Which prompted this:

Ken Brand
Flickr | Facebook |  Linked-in |  Twitter

November 25, 2009 at 4:17 pm |

Good questions Brandie:-)

I’m not saying, “if someone wants data” they are an unbeliever, what I think is. it’s impossible to specifically quantify the ROI.

Here’s why. The expertise, personality, social skills and selling skills will all impact the ROI. Sorta like trying to figure out if car is a beater of a race car by how fast it goes around the race track. It would depend on the skill of the driver. The skill spectrum in the real estate industry goes from your front porch to Pluto.

IMO, Social Media doesn’t really attract strangers (new business) as much as it creates Top of Mind Awareness, which leads to an agent having more of her sphere call when buying or selling or just as profitable, refer their friends. Social Media is just one in a dozen of connection/Top of Mind Awareness tools. A successful agent uses many new and old school others. Who’s to say which touch-tool worked? They all did, the combination of touches made it happen. It wasn’t the entrée or wine the makes the meal, it the whole experience and you’re dinning with.

Good question about the 7figures old school Icon. Should they change? I think not. Rather, not much, but a little. I think they should evaluate what they do, eliminate what seems to not work as well (think print ads) and begin adding new tools, like Facebook for example. Facebook, when used properly is a 1000watt conversation, communication, relationship and Top of Mind Awareness tool. I am certain they would attract more business and profit if Social Media touch-tools were used. Because, I’ve seen it with my own eyes…as long as they choose and pointed the touch-tools correctly.

A paid Social Media person? I believe SM is personal. I think an overwhelming percentage people (clients), choose an agent they know and trust themselves or who have been referred by a trusted friend (studies show this). When it comes to real estate, I think most people don’t have a relationship with the company per se. The relationship it’s with one of their agents, trust and confidence are placed with both. When a company has a positive brand image, it benefits the agent like wearing a fine suit would. It makes the agent look more attractive, but their clients are buying the agent, not the suit specifically, although the suit helps.

I wouldn’t recommend paying someone to engage my sphere, any more than I would pay someone to go to all my social functions on my behalf (actually I don’t go to many social functions, so in reality, nobody goes to mine;-). I would recommend hiring a whipper-snapper-smart someone, to help teach which tools to use, how to effectively customize them, best practices, etc.

If I was a broker, I’d hire a Social Media person to teach me everything, so I could build velcro like relationships with my team members and to help me recruit and build relationships with talented people who were working for the wrong broker. I’d also turn this whipper-snapper S&Mer toward my agents, not for a beating, but to teach them best practices. Then, instead of having 1 S&M queen, I’d have a army of social media empowered agents, sharing and talking and broadcasting and prospecting across the inter webs. In this case, the way I would measure ROI would be to listen to my agents and ask lots of questions.

Here’s the important part for the broker, because they (the broker/leader) are also empowered, they would know what success and connections and conversations their agents were having with their spheres, because the Broker is not part of the conversation and connected too. When listened to and asked, the agents will tell you when Social Media created a new transaction. The problem is, as I described earlier, It’s difficult to nail it down, due to variables; the tool, the personality, the talent, the ability to close, the willingness to follow up, etc.

Selling success is part science and hugely art. How do you calculate the art part ROI? You can’t.

So there’s my 2cents. Don’t know if it’s very helpful.

Thanks for listening and the compliment.

Cheers Brandie and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours:-)

So Why Am I Sharing All This With You?

If you’re stratling the social media fence, I thought you’d find this spectrum of views interesting and helpful.  I’m a big believer in Social Media.  Ines, Mike and Brandie’s perspective inspired me to write this AgentGenius blog post:

Are You Wagging Your Tail? Begin Now. Here’s How.

Are you familiar with Chris Anderson’s  theory?

If you’re unfamiliar, or need to re-up, here’s my take:

The Long Tail Theory centers around the impact of Google style indexing, searching and filtering all things on-line and humankind’s ability to find today’s hottest and urgent, as well as yesterday’s and yesteryear’s relevant and important.

Here’s a few plain-english definitions from Chris Anderson’s blog:

Best Definitions:

• “The Long Tail is the realization that the sum of many small markets is worth as much, if not more, than a few large markets.” –Jason Foster
• “The Long Tail is the 80% of stuff that didn’t used to be worth selling.”–Greg
• “The Long Tail is the story of how products that were once considered fringe, underground or independent now collectively make up a market that rivals the bestsellers and blockbusters.” –Bob Baker

The question is…

Is The Long Tail Theory Relevant To Real Estate Agents?

When the book was written in 1995, “blogging” was a baby, “Twitter” was a hatchling, “Facebook” was a pimply punk kid and smart phones were dumb. Our on-line opportunities were small and our tails, if we had one, were minnow sized too. Today, these 4 factors make the Long Tail Theory worth revisiting.

R e a d  T h e   R e s t

Thanks for reading.  Hope all this has been helpful.  If you’re not engaged on-line, I hope you will.  If you are, rock on!

Cheers.

PS.  Still thirsty.  Here’s more from Benn Rosales – ROI in Social Media Marketing for Real Estate