Since I don’t live in the Bay Area – where I hear posting Yelp reviews like this is prevalent – I snapped this photo prior to entering Damon and Pythias in Calabasas on my way home from a full week of meetings with brokers.
It got me thinking.
Breaking through the haze of social media confusion
As part of an all-day comprehensive analysis we offer brokers, drilling down deep into their systems, Websites, marketing, technology, vendors, etc., I spend time with their agents attempting to gain a deeper understanding of the broker brand and what it means from their perspective. Through this exchange I also gain insight into their understanding of social media.
Out of the four hundred agents I spoke with this past week, only eighteen dabbled in SM. Out of those eighteen, only three do it right. If you are Gabe Filkey doing it right leads to closed transactions.
Three out of four hundred. Wow. Something’s not clicking for me. After all, agents love people. It’s why they got into real estate to begin with. Many built their careers knocking on hundreds of doors a month for years. So how is it possible that these very same people are so reluctant to socialize online?
Can it be they don’t like change? I don’t buy it.
I asked the agents I met with to talk to me about social media. This is what they believe:
- Social media is “stupid” and “full of people writing nonsense about what they are doing at any given moment.”
- It’s a huge time suck and they can’t imagine where they would find the time to invest in it when they already work around the clock.
- They think social media is a generational thing and many felt they were “too old” to learn new tricks. They don’t see how it can help sell houses.
And the big shocker was many saw no point in revealing personal things about themselves to others, which I found absurd considering the kooky things they already do and reveal about themselves on websites, billboards, etc.
My sense was that everyone I spoke with suffered from one thing: Confusion.
So I put it to them as simply as possible.
The first time you receive a comment on a blog post telling you how good it was, watch how much time you’ll find to write another one.
The first time a long-lost friend from college locates you on Facebook and coincidentally happens to be in the market to buy a home, watch how fast you start friending everyone you’ve ever met.
The first time someone posts a question on Twitter about your community and you respond seconds later with precise information that turns them into a follower, notice how your slogan, which has sat dormant on your business card forever, begins to glow with meaning.
It took mere minutes to get them through their haze of confusion. That’s because they all really want to get it. And if your experience is that they don’t get it, perhaps you haven’t done a good enough job explaining it.
No limits
Maybe blogging isn’t your thing. Or sitting around Facebooking with others just doesn’t suit you. And I get the fact that Twitter can be addictive. The incoming rush of tweets can derail your day if you let it.
So set up a profile on Yelp. Leave reviews of establishments in your area. It takes seconds and exposes you to a whole new audience through information that is uniquely yours. It’s locked up inside your head screaming to be let out.
Yesterday, Angie W. was a complete stranger. Last night I met her through my Yelp iPhone App. And as a result I enjoyed a great dinner. I even ordered the marinated steak sandwich she herself reviewed. I now trust Angie W’s taste. And will eat anywhere else she recommends.
Agents have spent fortunes trying to create that sort of trust connection through paid marketing. You can take full page ads out in your local paper and still never accomplish what Angie W. did leveraging her experience and her opinion through a free review that took her 60 seconds to create.
That’s social media folks.
Go for it.
- Davison
Twitter: 1000wattmarc
Local, Mobile, Social and the future of real estate
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Hi Marc
Great post.
I would suggest to you that 3 out of 400 “doing it right” is probably pretty good at this point in the social media evolution. And I would bet that those 3 all had web sites and internet marketing plans that “did it right” too.
From what I’ve seen, over 95% of the real industry missed Web 1.0 all together over a 10 year period .. and many will say they did great without it. That’s majority that will find it hard to take the time to learn Web 2.0.
Cheers …. Dave
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Marc,
This is a great article….love the reasons for agents to get with the program. Web 2.0 has been here for some time now!
I can find a few more real estate agents than you encountered real estate agents who are in some way engaged in social media, but the Gabe Filkeys of the world are indeed few and far between.
It’s a strange paradox when sales professionals mentally grasp the concept that people do business with those they (perceive they) know, like and trust, but are reluctant to engage in any sort of self-disclosure through social media or offline.
As I’ve recently moved to Portland, I use the Yelp reviews all the time to make a determination of where to eat or Happy Hour but it never occurred to me to leverage it as a “social” tool.
Thanks again for an excellent post, ending with an excellent call-to-action!
Great article. I have a couple of agent friends who said all of the things you quoted about social media. Your percentage out of the 400 sounds about right.
I didn’t really see anything in Yelp before, thanks for changing that.
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Marc,
As always, you do an excellent job of breaking it down to the point where hopefully more people “get it”. I’ve had the same conversation over and over again with agents in my own office and all over Vancouver & Portland.
Keep beating that drum.
Thanks,
Dale
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Bada-Bing. Correct! It is amazing that an agent’s contact information and picture are splashed all over the internet with their listings, but they don’t want to use social media because it’s an invasion of privacy. Ummmm…..yeah, the secret to success is to keep yourself a secret.
And it boggles the mind, chit-chatting, commenting and engaging on line is dumb and a waste of time…in real life it’s called brilliant-power-networking – WTH people, wise up!
It’s a mind set, if they’ll just flip the switch, a whole new world will light up.
And last, I want to strangle the agents who play computer solitaire whiling away the slow times during Floor-Time. How about jumping on Facebook – grow your network and touch base and engage. It’s easy and free and smart.
Nice post.
For the agents I work with, who voice the same objections to social media as you recount, I recommend Meetup.com, a sort of SM halfway house. Since the meetup groups they join are of interest to them, they dont feel they are “wasting” time. It’s a great blue ocean.
For those put off by time, and who still can’t get out of sell mode, I send to BlitzTime.
Amen. AmeN. AMEN! In Jan. I posted a tour of a home we have listed on Twitter and FB. A great Broker in another part of the midwest reposted it to her network. One of the people in her network saw the tour, liked it and forwarded it to a friend of hers who was coming to my city to buy a home that weekend. They bought that home. At the closing the buyer holds up her Blackberry and says the first time she saw her new home she was standing in the swirling snow at a truckstop in Effingham Illinois. Her friend Nan had urged her to see it. Would she have bought it anyway? Maybe…but a strong referral from a friend sure didn’t hurt!
My facebook moment was taking a photo of a ’51 Chevy and having my friend Arthur Pincus from The Bronx commenting on it.
We got to talking about his father’s car lot, and how our mothers were good friends, and how glad he was that our mother’s sons stayed friends too.
It was an instant connection spanning almost 60 years (yep, I’m within experimental error).
Did I make a sale? Nope.
Did I make a connection? You bet!
That’s one reason I like Facebook, and particularly like your thoughtful posts and tweets.
Sharing a bit about myself online – I think it’s a good idea.
If someone comes to my web site, likes the way I come across, and contacts me, it’s a good result.
If they come across the web site, don’t like the way I come across, and don’t contact me, it’s also a good result.
Either way we both win.
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Social media also happens to be the only way to connect to the younger generation that is just starting to get old enough to start looking at homes. If you cannot Facebook or text message the younger clients, and you feel the need to keep communication on the phone and in person, then you may alienate a client that is more comfortable with the quick, online, informal forms of instant communication
Good point Tyler but clearly, social media is also a great way to connect with the older generation.
Consider LinkedIn as one social network that odds are veteran corporate executives might be checking up a prospective agent when considering buying or selling a home.
These days, if you don’t exist on any social network – it’s questionable whether you exist at all.
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Great article. I have a couple of agent friends who said all of the things you quoted about social media. Your percentage out of the 400 sounds about right.
I didn't really see anything in Yelp before, thanks for changing that.