Amused to Death?

Tanya, We All ask ourselves the same thing... is our blogging and social networking taking us away from family and friends, Is it worth it? Well, there are two sides, for what we learn and the friendships we make, and the negative of picking up a child late or no milk in the house cause we were too busy to shop.

Balance is all I can think! Set reasonable time limits and adhere to them. Then you will see the best results, including a fun positive spirit when you talk about a blog you read or about a person you met.

Tanya,

I'm afraid the concept of balance is long gone for many.  And social media is still in its infancy stage as far as discovering its profitability.  This is why I'm helping Cherise out right now with blogging.  If she spent the time on this, it would distract her from more meaningful, and profitable tasks.  We're taking this one day at a time... g

Paul would be amused to think he organizes your thoughts!  I spend way too much time online, both here and on facebook, but to be honest, it gives me pleasure and it amuses me.  But it is largely unproductive.  I just don't happen to feel I have to be productive every single minute of the day.  In fact, right now, I'm brewing a nice up of tea and I am going to sit down with it and two cookies and a book until I have to leave for my 1:30 appointment!  Have a wonderful day pretty lady.  xxoo

As opposed to many people, I believe that social media has peaked in terms of its business use.  The scale has tipped, and now that a large percentage of real estate professionals are aboard the social media train it will become a less profitable activity for the average agent.

Nicely organized, Tanya ;) Paul might be one of the smartest people I've ever met, online and off, but don't tell him I said so.

I find that the entire process of social media involvement is pointless without the development of offline relationships. I have been fortunate enough to have my online discoussions move offline to productive networking. Even better, I've formed many amazing offline friendships with my online buddies.  They mean the world to me. When online friends finally meet in person, it is as if you've known each other forever. Furthermore, I keep making new contacts and new friends, like a certain Ms. Tanya. 

Client contact and client awareness of your services can begin online, but also has an essential offline component. Clients met offline can be directed to your onlilne presence. Control over time spent and figuring out what works and what is a waste is a highly indivifualized process. Do what works and toss the rest.

Tanya, I enjoy my time on AR. It's a place to celebrate victories and get support when things are slow. I think it has increased my Internet presence. I have just joined facebook and I'm not sure what that will do for me. We'll see.

That being said, I'd rather be actually working than talking about it LOL>

This is such a hard thing.  Obviously I love my real estate crew that I've met and just spoke with Jersey for the first time this weekend.  I'm excited to get to know you and Leslie better, but AR is an overwheming place and for me, I have really scaled back how much I participate on here in the past year. I am reminded of that Seinfeld episode when they were talking about the limit on friends and not having any more.  I think someone was taking applications for a friend since one of theirs moved away and they had an "opening."  I don't go out seeking new friends, but if I meet someone with wit, humor, intelligence, confidence, I'm interested in putting them on my follow lists.  There is nothing greater than having an empathic group of people to commiserate with when things going into the toilet.

What I like about social media is that if I have 5 minutes waiting for a client, I can chat with my friends on twitter or facebook for a few minutes but I don't have time for a good phone call often.  Since I own the brokerage, have two kids, and been married for almost two decades, means I often don't have a lot of time for my friends in one sitting, but I can still socialize with my friends in snippets over the day.  I find that I have better friendships because I can find out what they are doing so when we do chat on the phone or get together iRL, I'm up on their life.  I just feel I am better engaged and a better listener because I have been following their lives...albeit, a few sentences at a time.

A good friend moved away and was in town a couple of weeks ago and we chatted like she still lived here because we talk all the time on Facebook.  When you get two working moms with kids, married...it's hard to stay connected sometimes.  I think social media enhances relationships for me because it allows me to give a little bit of myself to my friends when I have time, which isn't a lot.  Otherwise, it would be sad to say that many of my friendships would go the way of the do do bird, just because i have a crazy life.

Tanya - I struggle with intellectual concepts, so if I missed your point (as eloquent as it was), I apologize!

I truly believe that when you're in the right business for yourself, it often doesn't feel like work. And that carries over to your prospecting. If you're doing ANYTHING that involves other people - and making those other people feel at all special, you are prospecting. And if it doesn't feel like work, so much the better.

I've been told by many well-intentioned advisor that I need to STOP doing what comes naturally to me (emailing, blogging, commenting) and do more "profitable" things. I should stop answering emails in nano-seconds and charge for any advice I provide. And I've tried, but my replacement activities 1) feel like work and 2) don't seem to lead to any discernible financial benefit.

I've heard real estate trainers tell agents that they should be spending the majority of their time doing things that are directly leading them to a paycheck. That they should hire out the administrative stuff and focus on prospecting prospecting prospecting. Stop designing pretty brochures, stop doing your own paperwork and GET OUT THERE BELLY TO BELLY (ugh). I disagree. If I love making pretty brochures, I can harness that energy and talent and make it work for me. If I'm great at the paperwork, I can use that ability to my financial benefit by being incredibly on top of my transactions and wowing my CURRENT clients. If I return emails in nano-seconds (because I'm such a homebody), I'll snag online leads way before my competition who's out there beating the streets.

Did I totally miss your point? Oh well, I enjoyed making mine ! ;-]

Tanya get an iPad and read your friends blogs and comment while you workout.  You can tweet and Facebook while working out easily with an iPad...unless you run on a treadmill.  Then you can probably only read...if that.  Stairmaster and elliptical work well while iPadding...

Ha, Ha...I love it.  iPoggles.  You'd probably run into a few trees, off some curbs...it would be ugly.  You'd make a mint on a lawsuit though.

Tanya, from time immortal, humans have tried to organize their time better. When reading the biographies of world & business leaders the one trait they all say they wish they had was the time to better prioritize their time!

Amazing is it not that the majority feel that we do not channel our time or resources productively? At the end of the day, I may not have reached my daily goal but I sleep wonderfully knowing that those I did come into contact with, being family, friends, prospects or foes, I did my best.

Ty

I spend the majority of my time now blogging for business.  That is what has been making the phone ring where my previous marketing is producing nothing.  So, how can I knock it.  Not sure that SM has run its course, we just need to keep the momentum up, because you can be sure others are going to.

BTW love The Wall.  Did you know that the kids featured on the song The Wall brought a law suit against Pink Floyd a few years ago because they were not paid properly and got no royalties.