Sam Shueh
SM has transformed the world building communities for anyone who has a smart phone or internet to instantly connect and share data across the continent. It changes how we meet people, read and share information.
As realtors we are learning about Social Media (SM) and how we take advantage of the new technology. A couple of years ago, SM was the hottest thing as all young people twit, IM each other. At my favorite TV news station every news reporter posts their # on TV. I even get personal messages about what they experienced and joked with some reporters through SM sites.
As realtors we are opt to every changing technology to position ourselves to be connected or get noticed to market ourselves.
I learned from AR that lately there appears a lack of interest in SM as fewer business advertisers want to continue to support SM. I research the public companies that are on the cutting edge and wish to share the financial results:
Twtr - Inspite of recent improvement in adding 8 more features recently. Its stock tumbled from $51 down to $16.81 with a negative earning (-$0.79/share). Management is leaving left and right. It looks like it is underwater soon as the photo below suggests.
Lnkd-Another local company that saw its stock drop from $265 to $115 with a negative earning of -$1.29/share. Employees are fleeing. As a realtor I am not even sure it is right platform as I have endless loan persons wanting to introduce themselves(over 58 waiting).
MTCH- A dating site saw its stock price reduced from $15 to 11. May be it is a smaller Dallas based company it is one of the only profitable companies. It is also into other things I am not quite sure in many countries.
YELP- It also saw its stock tumble dropped from $97 to $20.60 with a negative earning of -0.44/share. Six of none stock analysts downgraded its rating indicating ads income are less than projected.
FB-Another local company which never wanted to get into advertising now appears to be Google of the search engines. Its stock price is held steady at $109 and is profitable. Through AR and other sources it appears it will stay. A few agents I have contacted who are willing to put place advertisement to get people look at their website. The results for realtors finding customers are yet to be justified. This is from several AR rainmakers experience. Time will tell.
In the past, realtors get calls from listings, floor time, and walk-ins through brokerage offices. They follow tradtional marketing, with signs, farm mailing, open house, door kocking or making cold calls to reach out.
Social media is a relatively new technology supposedly to allow us to expand our contact faster virtually. If we can reach out more and faster it is an excellent way to reach out inexpensively. Unfortunately, SM is still at its infancy and is constantly changing with leaders like FB. It keeps adding new features and business opportunities. Since it tracks what people are searching, items of interest will keep popping up on the right side and advertisers will approach me as my unwanted new "SM friends".
Every week I learn about another site popping up while major public companies advertisement seem to suggest it does not work well with big business as stock prices are all heading south (see above). I keep a close eye what people post and if I see a potential in a new tool that works in our profession I will definitely look into. We need to be there where our clients want us to be.
This past week I was asked to sign up on Yelp as a business entity and ask past clients to post feedback. I talked to a Yelp marketing guy actually learned a few things about how the site perceives realtors and how customer searches realtors. If anything, he shared some stats from other agents in the area. A $500-600 monthly fee is needed to get you on the top of its page. But there are organic ways to progress it. One advantage is Bing search engine ranks the agents according to the reviews and stars provided. With Google I am not so sure.
Chaning with the times is time consuming to learn ins and outs of FB is already a challenge. I do notice many agents link their website to their FB business page and seem to get a bit visibility.
The last two weeks I seem to pick up a few more calls as a result of all things I am doing. This is the first step to engage in using the SM tools. Needless to say we need to do it consistently and often.
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Sam Shueh Realtor
I've called San Francisco South Bay home for over 37 years. We love this area and all it has to offer, and I enjoy sharing what I know about homes. I documented in several books about Silicon Valley history. I have much expertise in real estate...please give me a call. Silicon Valley Realtor Sam Website (Four-O-Eight) 425-1601
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