You can't tweet your way to success.

Forgot to mention..Todd your pic shows you're a good looking guy..so prospecting face to face would probably serve you well.....   :)      

Being on line is only a piece of the puzzle... I totally agree with your friend Frankie, you gotta be out there rubbing elbows, talking to people, demonstrating who and what you are. I love social media and do a lot of it. It's important... but what's more important is to follow up and get to know the people you met online in person. A blog, or comment on a blog is not 3 dimensional like showing up in a room with people and sharing your passion... Great read...

Any avenue you use to get yourself out there is worthwhile....do it all. Good post and great reminders to stop hiding behind a computer.

Todd, GREAT Advice!!! I live in a small community (7800 pop). So here it is not what you know, it is WHO you know. I have only been in the business for 3 years, so it is hard for me to tap into the local market, everyone knows a Realtor in some fashion.

Yep, knocking on doors, local functions and just getting out from behind the desk. Gotta do it!!!

Hi Todd -- Tweet may be true at this point in time, but you can SEO and other marketing techniques your way to a good living, I have 3 transactions in play right now because of SEO and AR, not Twitter, which I stink at.

As I have said many times before, Facebook and Twitter are like Allen head wrenches in the toolbox. From time to time they are useful, but not in most cases. However, a blog is like a hammer or screwdriver. Much more useful in a variety of situations. If you put all of your real estate eggs into the social media basket, you will end up with some rotten ones after a while.

If you join the Elks soley to get a lot of real estate customers, you will be disappointed as well. Sure you may run into someone who happens to be looking to buy/sell, but that is dumb luck. Elks go there to socialize, not find a REALTOR. When they want an agent they go where they are sure they can find one, on the net or to a brick and mortar brokerage.

Take them for what they are, but do not build your whole business on the hope that when you Tweet deals will come flowing to you like a flood. My guess is that they will not. Keep them as just one part of your marketing activities.

I think Rick #39 said it best. You can't have one bullet in your pistol, you have to have other approaches. 

What a mixed bag of comments!! But I do honestly agree with you Rick, it's true you can't rely on Twitter or Facebook to drive your core business. I'm currently writing a new post about this exact subject and how I think the "promise" of Social Media hasn't lived up to the hype as we're led to believe. It has it's core benefits like SEO and brand building. But I'll save the "juicy rant" for my future post... Here's my 2 cents... a close personal mentor of mine handed me this key piece of wisdom... "Real estate transactions, from the dawn of man, have always been opened and closed with a good'old fashon handshake!" - Reuben (http://www.TurnKeyFlyers.com)  - Flyers so easy we called them "Turn-Key"

It all depends on the person.  No ONE method is going to do the job.    I prefer to get the bulk of my leads online.  But that's just me.  It may work for many and not for others.  I also use other methods to attract buyers and sellers.

Many people think that blogging is the "easy way" of doing things.  It is not.  I try to go for quality over quantity and some of my hyper local posts are time consuming and draining to write. But they get me business.  If tossing off a blog in 10 minutes isn't getting you  a lot of business, I'm not surprised.  That might have worked five years ago, but not now.

Some of the other things I do are costly.  Networking has been tough because I came from a field that was outsourced and everyone in there is like me - scrambling to make money someplace else.  So my natural SOI is being built up from scratch.  But I'm working without it and getting business. 

While the door knocker is irritating the HELL out his "farm" by showing up unexpectedly and at a bad time, My blogs are touching those who are actively looking for information.  BOTH are time consuming - both require a knowledge of neighborhoods and shoe leather (I work with photos - so I'm out there all the time) one is push, the other is pull...I prefer PULL.  BUt that is up to the individual.

People have their different niches. For the past year and a half, every single one of my buyers have been a relocation to the area. They found me online. I have not worked with a single local buyer in quite a while. I think I can build a business from my desk, and do it quite nicely...

Though others need face to face.

Todd, there is a definite balance. But don't minimize the power of meeting people through tweeting. I closed a large amount of business last year from people I met through twitter. Did I meet them in real life? Yes. AFTER they felt they knew me from twitter and we had built a great rapport and I had already instilled a large sense of trust in them.

Todd, they call it belly to belly selling. It WORKS!!

Todd,

Asking a prospect to do business with you is a novel idea, completing it with a good reason why he should do so. That makes plenty sense.

Hi Todd~  It is a combination of methods that work.  We have to get out of our comfort zone and do lots of things and learn all of the other ways available for networking!

Rick #38 said it so well, I can't add to the discussion any more.

Great message !   Social media and blogging is a tool to help grow one's business, but you are right, at the end of the day it is all about getting in front of people and making things happen.

I think there has to be a good balance between social networking and actual person to person contact. 

Great Point - and so true.

Todd, I think that the key to your message is that there has be be multiple facets of one's business-getting strategy. No, we can't rely on tweeting alone to be successful, but we cannot just rely on old methods alone either. Good post, well said, and nothing more that I can add to it.