DISQUS

I referenced Kris Berg in an earlier comment, if you get a chance go read this post by her today in Inman News. "Our 20 percent investment in Internet-related advertising accounted for the biggest component of our production -- 36 percent of our business came from social media-related activities including our blog, our Web site",http://www.inman.com/buyers-sellers/columnists/krisberg/forging-real-estate-relationships-online?page=0%2C1

Rebecca,
Sounds like you have a cohesive strategy. Here's where the rubber meets the road:
"every day, if you do it smartly"

Keep up the good work!

"Are the rockstars of the re.net to blame for the way too many of use social media?"

Depends on who you refer to as an RE.net Rockstar. I know a few :), some are vendors, some are bleeding edge re professionals, most all of them are very insightful and honest business people who share what they believe to be the unvarnished truth of what works and what doesn't and realize that much of this is still uncharted territory. To say that social media is "overused" is probably a misnomer - abused, misused, unglued, yes. (sound like Vince the slap chop dude) If you're "overusing" these kind of tools, you have entirely too much time on your hands.

"Many of the social media darlings of the re.net are vendors (and I am a fan of many of you)."

There are many vendors in the RE.net that have devoted resources, cash and a great deal of transparent time in an effort to advance web 2.0 in the real estate vertical - the return on investment for this effort is abysmal at best. It's an awesome branding opportunity, but as far as direct marketing goes, it's not a business generator, at least that's been our experience. Granted, we have not made an attempt to sell directly in most of these venues. I've been doing some evaluation of the efforts of the past couple of years and I am implementing some changes to our social media strategy, including revamping our blogging efforts and cutting out some of the channels that overlap too much.

"Their consumers are Realtors not home buyers or home sellers. If we are going to play in the social media pool we need to remember who OUR consumers are and spend as much time as we can connecting to them."

As the uncharted territory I referred to early becomes more familiar, best practices will emerge.

Spencer I speak to many of those same RE professionals that attribute a great deal of what goes to the bottom line on their social media and blogging initiatives - they ALL had to put an extraordinary amount of work,trial and error to fill that pipeline and start that flow. You're observation is dead on but I would hasten to say you've made an assumption that all agents even understand that B2B & B2C stand for business to business and business to consumer. I've been at this for a long time and I have to be constantly reminded by my partners to keep the vernacular - technical or otherwise - more fundamental.

There's no doubt that a well planned strategy for social media will have a positive impact on one's overall business but like so many things in real estate, Social Media is being pimped as something it's not and never will be and lately it's been getting deep out there. I've seen session topics at Real Estate conferences that say you can "Be Linked In For Dollars" etc. , etc., that make promises to create social media gurus that can enjoy more income immediately through a 45 minute conference track. That's why I recommend going to RE Barcamps that are not affiliated with anyone that has an agenda (a true "unconference") and ask the real "feet on the street" professionals the truth about what works and what doesn't. Want to know the unvarnished truth? Listen to someone like Kris Berg or Tim Moncrief talk about what and how much time they spend on the things that work.

Done correctly, a business professional can count social media as one of the more important arrows in an overall marketing,branding and identity quiver. Sadly, most real estate professionals do not plan marketing strategies that take into consideration long term prospects, branding and the ROI that can be put to the bottom line. Jay Thompson didn't start getting leads the day he wrote his first blog post. The dynamics of reaching prospects and developing sales relationships are changing but that doesn't mean that spending a dollar on the effort today is going to generate two dollars immediately afterward.

Blogging and Social Media are time consuming efforts and may not be right for everyone, that's what makes it so easy for people to sell a pig in a poke to unsuspecting people who think you can throw a miniscule investment at it and have it work on auto pilot.

Social media has been invaluable to me as I have been able to build a brand and get recognition that would have heretofore cost a fortune in marketing and PR. When it comes to me being able to say it has resulted in direct sales, not so much.

You're absolutely right, I have returned to using Safari as my primary browser. It would seem while Apple works on improving the core performance and features that need to be addressed in a browser, the Mozilla folks are starting to miss the boat a bit with FireFox, the latest release of FF has been very disappointing, in fact there are sites I use that won't even render a page. I have a post in draft mode regarding HTML 5 and the improvements we can look forward to when all of the browsers support it and Apple is way out in front in that regard, on the desktop and support in the iPhone version of Safari.

:) I'm thinking you'll be waiting a while.

Great job Chico!

Jay,
It doesnt seem that long ago when we first talked about your decision. I was proud of you for going for it back then and even more proud to see you've reached a one year milestone. Laurie and I send our best to your whole team. Congrats.

A follow up podcast with Gary V. for some more perspective on what he had to say at Inman along with some response to Notorious ROB. http://www.mlpodcast.com/blog/2009/01/gary-vayn...

Watching the morning Fox Business report it's apparent that with the tightened credit markets and other restrictions, the number of folks in a position to take advantage of this will likely not match its intended goal. I agree with Jeff that this is a great opportunity for the type of RE professional that can arm themselves with a cohesive strategy. 1. Unmatched Knowledge. Case in point: Jay Thompson has put his sanity on the line by actually watching every nuance of the new legislation as it was coming together. He is light years ahead of his competition when it comes to understanding how to implement it.
2. Relationships. Working with the right partners in the lending industry to add more knowledge to the base and find ways to jump hurdles and get people to the closing table.

I think the folks that win are the ones that are willing to work harder and smarter, from both sides of the table. To answer your question though. I guess I would say that the 787 billion stimulus package won't do much in the end to help the housing industry, which begs the next question, will the housing specific stimulus proposed yesterday do enough? At first blush the key provisions of the legislation actually seem to make sense, at least helluva lot more than the barrel full of pork that the POTUS signed off in Denver Tuesday. We can only hope. There are too many people that need help either staying in their homes, or having a shred of hope to ever be able to own one.

I only have one question. Can I tell people I know you? :)
MP

Wow, that's a kick ass milestone and I'm proud to be a part of it.
MP

This is especially true of the real estate industry. Brokers and agents are resistant to anything outside of their traditional comfort zones and use the excuse that it takes too much time to learn anything new. Its those that are learning that using different distribution points for their marketing exposure and making it more about the property and less about themselves that are going to acquire the lion's market share of the future. Did a great podcast interview with @garyvee yesterday on this exact subject.

Claudia,
I'm really happy you're sharing some Int'l insight with the RE.Net. I'd love to hear more of what your counterparts in other markets across the world have to say as well. Your participation here will certainly help motivate them to do so. Looking forward to your next post!

I am proud to be the first person to view and consume the cool fortune cookie. My first goal is to try to be half as enthusiastic as Daniel about goal setting.

My Dad always said I was a Twit. He just didn't know I'd actually be good at it one day. :) Thanks for including me amongst this group of awesome folks.
MP

The voice search is extremely impressive. I used it while on the road yesterday to search my destination, it displayed the address and displayed a linked phone number, one click and I was connected. Sweet.

No idea on what it will be called, my last check, it wasnt in the app store yet.

Kent, I have no idea, I'm sure we will see when it shows up in the app store.
Drew,
Do you think it will understand if I ask it to Zestimate the value of my home? We'll see :)

<preaching to the choir rant>"Fewer buyers rely on a home book or magazine" (Well no shiznit sherlock :) ! Why are your agents continually pouring good money after bad in those home grown publications that people sometimes grab at the grocery store and end up letting them yellow in the trunk of their car. Full pages, Double Trucks so on and so forth. Why won't they take a cue from the rest of the world. If I were you, the next time best buy or circuit city does one of those new half sized fly ins in the sunday paper, show it to them and recommend the same, dont eliminate it, down size it and then hold it up against something new. . I promise you the other half of that coin went to a more "un-traditional" ad spend. it's a way for them to give you the same old BS line, "My seller expects to see it there" At least if they cut the ad size down and change the creative on it, they will have something left over to put into a new media channel of some sort. </preaching to the choir rant>

James,
You and Greg are doing an awesome job of spreading the word regarding social media. I'm very proud of you both. Keep up the good work.
MP

How can everyone afford to license this kind of music. I don't get it.
MP

Tubemogul is great for distribution but it's only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to syndication and distribution of media content.

:)

MP

Love the Alltop style "Sphered" feature. Very well done.