Clearly, I make money helping professionals and small business owners with their sales strategies online, so the use of new media is essential to me as well. I definitely do not argue against using social media to market your business!

My main goal here was to show that using social media poorly will do you no good at all, and that it’s simply a tool…it’s an awesome tool, and if you’re willing to put the work in, you can get awesome results. But if you’re not in a place where you’re willing to put the work in, then leave it alone.

Social media is absolutely optional, just like cell phones or any other tool out there
.-= Christian´s last blog ..Is Email Marketing a Fad? =-.

As I said before, I agree that social media is a great tool, but people can certainly do quite well without it (yes – it is also counter to my business model to say such a thing). I know plenty of people in the business whose businesses are thriving without using any social media.

That said, I feel your argument is fair, and I appreciate your feedback. I agree that the competent use of new media tools is highly beneficial to almost anyone in real estate. This principle does not, however, apply to 100% of us 100% of the time.

I don’t like blanket statements, and I see a lot of that out there coming from social media “experts” touting their wares…which is why I wrote this post

The problem with your premise (and many other similar arguments also fall under this trap) is that using social technologies is only for communication, and if you aren’t using them then you’re failing. There’s a lot that’s missing between the ‘rocking’ social media results a real estate agent (or anyone) can expect and ‘failure’.

We will offer a solution for real estate agents to have a compeling facebook fan page and use that to aggregate media, provide useful, hyper-local content, and other tools like calculators with analytics and just having a place where people can find information and connect with others is better than nothing. Wouldn’t one have to measure things like ‘time spent and benefit’ and then ‘time spent setting up tools but not using and benefit’ and then ‘time spent setting up tools and time spent using it and benefits’ to understand the impact of putting in X amount of hours?

A lot of people won’t ever use these but it increases the perceived value of the real estate agent. Also, there’s tools that can automate a lot. Obviously a really busy person can’t respond to all 1 on 1 questions, but they can definitely plugin their twitter feed (if they are using it) or an RSS feed.

Going completely virtual is no good as you will ignore a demographic. I think the benefit of social media will come from those that can engage their prospects and add value through content.

I would argue that it’s not that you don’t need social media, but you should mandatorily use social media like Facebook and learn from the experience now. There’s tremendous benefits that you would not want to ignore. It is almost imperative. Also these agents should start becoming familiar with how mobile will change the playing field when it comes to local search. Whether its SEO or social media, people may definitely begin their search online and using everything with an integrated and measurable approach will provide good results for real estate agents.

On a more interesting note though, I had lunch today with the president of a very large real estate association here in Seattle. He talked about how many real estate gurus were taking their offerings completely online, trying to take advantage of the internet and reaching a broader base of customers. However, what they’re finding is that they are losing customer base, because the older generation (especially those with disposable income for real estate investment) are not as tech savvy as the younger generation and not as willing to sit through several hours in front of the computer doing some online course. They want, or require, the personal contact.

I thought that was an interesting development in how going completely virtual, and trying to market using only social media, is actually hurting business.

Anyway, good post. Look forward to more.
.-= Craig Grella´s last blog ..Welcome to Cornerstone =-.

Karen – that’s great feedback! I appreciate it. I would argue that social media and other forms of marketing are all simply instruments (thus the guitar analogy) used for the same ultimate purpose (with regards to business, anyway); that was my thinking.

Cheryl – my post certainly isn’t meant as an argument to NOT use social media. Just that it’s optional. As a professional, I would urge you to investigate it until you “get it”, and then make an informed decision if you want to make it one of your weapons of choice.

Josh – thanks very much. It’s easy to get wrapped up in hype; fact is that many businesses don’t use social media. I think they could benefit massively by implementing on it…but at the end of the day, life is short. Do what you love, do what works

Christian – Awesome post! Social media is just that . . . another form of media. While it can certainly be an important tool, by no means is is something that people need to succeed in the business of real estate. Great commentary!

Thanks,
James

Agents shouldn’t have a presence in social media just because everyone on the internet says they should. Besides, an old, out of date social media profile is likely a negative thing for your business because it makes you seem out of touch and gives the impression you might no longer be in business.

Bottom line – if you’re going to use Facebook, Twitter, etc. to try and boost your business, then use it. There’s a lot more to social media then registering and never returning.