Somehow I doubt it. But in case you are (I got over 100 more in email), we’re going to continue our discussion on how you’ve gone about killing passion in the real estate space and clear up a few misnomers.
I’m not anti-training. Training is a valuable tool in consumerism. It keeps all professionals at the top of their game and reinforces value. Training or the idea of training in and of itself is not the crime. The crime is in what is and is not being taught; what has been elevated to the point of mission critical is not what is actually mission critical.
With all due respect to those that may disagree with me, blogging is the cornerstone to all online marketing unless your goal is to simply boost traffic and the prestige of the latest social network. It has become commonplace to lay out the easy route of skipping blogging altogether in exchange for a 140 character retweet of something completely unrelated to the goal. In other words, you’re teaching the virtues of pulling, but not teaching where they’re pulling to, nor constructing and delivering a point of value (POV) in which to capture community within an agent or broker’s web property. In other words, you’re low level, teaching low level ideals and principals, not building the value of the agent in the eye of their consumer. To prove my point, I often ask myself “become a fan of what?” What exactly is on that fan page, where does it lead me, and what do I find once I get there? If there is nothing, then there is no value.
Instead of high level discussion on the value platform of an agent, there is only the “me” quest. “Me” quest begins with a barcamp, then usually another conference and then another. Suddenly, all reality has flown out the window. The blog is dead, the agent is playing geek, passing out 140 characters of nothing, all while the consumer they once hoped to capture have found an agent that has focused on the cornerstone- the content only they can provide, it’s personal, it’s spectacular, it’s exactly right, and it closes the deal in terms of winning the consumer. It elevates the consumer to partner- this is social media 101.
No agent should be on to advanced levels of social media until they’ve actually cleaned up their house (their blog and website are active and in order), and are ready to receive guests. The invitations come after, but this seems to have been skipped all together. Teaching facebook or twitter to an agent that has no place to call home is the equivalent of the homeless man on the corner begging for change. I’ll give him a buck, but I’m not really sure why or where it’s going, or if he is really what he says he is… a struggling homeless person could also be a full time beggar making twice your income. We would know more if we could see more, if we could dig deeper, if we could better assess him, but no, the light turns green and the opportunity is lost.
I think Ruthmarie drives it home when she says that blogging is hard work, and it is. But like anything else we’re passionate about in life, it ain’t work if you love it, if you love what you do. When was the last time a social media guru could sell someone passion? The answer is and was never. One can inspire you, but what you do with that inspiration comes from you, and no where else. There is no shortcut to being a mega producer, it also takes work, but if you ask a mega producer if they hate their work, they’ll tell you “hell no, I love what I do.” It shines though, and they succeed.
You can’t teach or sell passion. I can sell you how to turn on your computer and explain why you should turn it on, but what you do in that moment should be natural if you fully understand what it means to be consumer-centric. I see very few honest people in social media to be quite honest. I say that with much regret. Realtors are told to be human and not to sell, yet it seems no guru has built really anything they can call their own. It’s a facade of followers and not much behind the curtain if you get my meaning. It’s self promotion buried below layers of other people promoting nothing- it’s hype. For you, pretty flyers, better web UI, and a facebook fan page isn’t enough unless your goal is to be a really bad blonde joke… you know, a lot on the surface, but not much going on in there, if you get my meaning. A traveling ball of ego, self promoting and sheep throwing all while saying look at me, I’m a geek on a plane with my iPad all while tweeting out how much they admire their friends at the other end of the flight.
Folks, that isn’t real estate, it’s bullsh*t.
Imagine if you will, a billboard with a picture of your phone book ad on it- your old fashioned social profile. Your face is there, the office number is there, a consumer calls, but no one answers. OR worse, you answer but not much knowledge or resource is there to build credibility. I suppose you could put them on hold, call a competitor, ask them the questions and switch back over with the answers without any attribution? This is the equivalent of using other people as the source, so why not just call them in the first place, we wonder? Why wouldn’t you staff your office with expertise? The same is true for your blog (the point of value).
The gurus are lying to you and they’re omitting huge facts- anything worth doing takes work, and if you love what you’re doing, it’s not work at all. This isn’t about being in the cool kids club, it’s about your clients wanting to be in your club. That’s consumer-centric social media, that’s consumer-centric real estate, and all else is piss poor marketing with only a badge to show for it.
…and then there’s those that actually do teach blogging, but I’ll save that one for another day.
