I’m beyond the point of return in the social media arena. I mean, wth? I’m a social introvert unless I am in front of clients. Give me a television, a great college football game and I’ll give you the keys to all the open houses you care to lounge in. Sincerely, I don’t really care to talk to masses when my brain throbs from the numerals floating around in my head- as I said today, my eyeball hurts. I no longer see stars, I see numbers- stop computing!
There is no way an agent can be in every place every day, to sell every client, so it stands to reason that creating ways for business to come to you is the answer. That answer is the royal flush we hope for with each new username/password we create and honestly, it just doesn’t come in the first or 30th hand. We’re ahead of our time in many respects, those of us who venture to join these new online cliques, we’re pioneers.
But pioneers when settling new lands had to plow fields, build buildings, homes, create irrigation methods, dig outhouse holes and more to establish their neighborhoods and online social networking isn’t much different– winters were cold on the plains of the new lands, and these new online lands are roughly the same.
My advice to any agent planning to pioneer their own online town is to pack lots of food, brings lots of socks for the long cold winters, and a soft chair for the hours of waiting for your online town to be found by the wouldbe fellow passing through.
Consumers really don’t get it yet. They pass through blogs and wonder wtf!? They search for homes in google and some result comes back 3rd or 4th with a random quote from someone they’ve never heard of- a fragment of a conversation picked up by a search engine spider– the result is the ultimate frustration of walking into the middle of a conversation that has really no meaning to their search at all because you’re 500 miles away.
Some techie selling a product (with the hopes of going IPO or being bought out by a tech giant, or scoring VC funds to hit their lottery dreams) said their way was the road to everywhere, and we bought it, hook line and sinker. Those same techies have agents jumping through social hoops all over the internet trying to answer the so called call the consumer hasn’t even made yet- fine, you do that, while I write this contract with a buyer that came from the phonebook you call so archaic. You type on twitter while I dine at the Saltlick with investors from California. Seriously, you sit there while I farm your neighborhood and fill the void you left when you stopped sending mailers.
Maybe the housing slump wasn’t caused by subprime and credit woes, maybe it slumped because all of the agents went out west to settle baron waste lands. Or, maybe you’ve been so busy taking your eye off the ball to follow covered wagons you’ve let your own business slump.
The answer is really simple. Pick one or two social arenas that you enjoy, continue the marketing you know has brought you success, treat your blog like a client or better, and most certainly, continue the things that work. You can do both the settling of new lands, and continue to maintain the business you’ve already built- and most certainly keep your eye on the consumer, and not the shiny beta badge.
As much as I like Zillow, and Trulia, and see consumers gathering in those places, I see more opportunities in a shopping mall to make one on one impressions with real people, real buyers that do not need to be convinced. I see more opportunities in Church that know me, that want to work with me given the opportunity, and what about the PTA, the Men’s Club, Happy Hour at the local pub- the last time I checked all of these places were full of real people, real business opportunities in networking.
My most recent client came to me by accident when I rented a car here in town. Last year, he drove me home 5 minutes from the car rental place and we chit chatted about real estate. Last week he called me, today we wrote the contract, soon we’ll close.
The quality time invested in these types of social arenas has real value, and the last time I checked, these people talked to you about real estate to grow knowledge, not steal it.
All I’m saying is you do not have to take the word of a techie and throw all of your business into the wind. But whatever you do, make sure you do it really well- or you may find yourself living in a wagon.
Mariana
January 15, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Well said, Benn. The internet is a TOOL – a town bonfire (of sorts) to let people know where you are, but you are right… Physically engaging people in “real life” puts the REAL in Real Estate and is really where it is at.
Brad Coy
January 16, 2008 at 12:06 am
Thanks Benn. There is some real solid advice here. I’m curious, do you know of many agents spending time “pioneering” and taking their eye off the ball only to lose business as a result of it? Or is this speculative?
Vicki Moore
January 16, 2008 at 12:32 am
Thanks for the reminder. I do get caught up in the latest thinga-ma-gigy. My plan for this year is quite different than last. I hope the results are too. But it includes much of what you discuss in your post.
Charleston real estate blog
January 16, 2008 at 7:36 am
Well said Benn, thanks for the reminder of the basics that got us to here.
Kate Morris
January 16, 2008 at 9:44 am
I have to agree 100%. As an internet marketer by trade, I see so many pushes to get into the “social market” like it’s the answer to everyone’s woes. But on the internet, there is no one answer.
You website is one big brochure. People don’t buy and sell houses through brochures, never have. It’s the relationship that is key. It’s nice to see that other people are seeing this. The internet and social marketing are tools just like everything else.
Well spoken.
Benn Rosales
January 16, 2008 at 10:02 am
Brad, great to see you commenting. There are two schools of thought in the marketing world to date.
If you agree with Athol’s post (the first two paragraphs) here which is the 2.0 school of thought then yes, there is data to support that it (1.0 marketing) does still work. So, if the standard approach to marketing still does work in many many ways and you leave it for something that might work into the future then yes, there is proof that people may be losing business in the time they’re focusing online.
There are way to many articles around the net that basically say “why am I bothering” to blog, or do social networking because nothing has come of it. The truth is, I have evidence that 2.0 marketing does work and is effective by my own experience, but the reality is, if I’ve gotten a closed lead from a phone book in the last 100 days then and a closed lead from a post mailer and a lead from the the street also within the last 100 days then it stands to reason that if you’ve removed your focus from standard marketing/cut your mailers out, cut out your phone calls, cut out your door knocking then yes, someone will fill that void and take that business- because it does still work.
Now, I do not need to load my article with clicks to support my theory because the theory is a common theme in the blogiverse- my post is a generalization of the event of leaving one thing for another without pause because a techie said so. Real estate comes with 100 years of proven methods, hence the reason it is so easy to dive into the business. I believe that in the past year many have abandonded proven principals and begun to say they’re old and do not work without any documentation whatsoever. I am just adding in a tad bit of common sense to the mix that the truth lies mostly in the middle of both schools.
Chris Lengquist
January 16, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Benn, why would anyone ignore established business for speculative business. Oh, never mind. I don’t want to hear the answer.
I love blogging and blogging has been very, very good to me. It is a great lead tool, retention tool, stress relief tool and social networking tool. But it doesn’t sell my houses for me. That’s still up to me.
The blog also gives me something to do during the timeouts of my basketball games. 🙂
Brad Coy
January 17, 2008 at 12:41 am
Benn,
Thanks again for elaborating. This is very much a topic that’s ripe for the pickin’. I get what you’re saying, it’s just in my company I’m usually on the the new school side of the discussion. A balance is what I personally try to strike for myself as well while remaining cautiously optimistic of the bigger picture in online social communities. As it was a couple of years ago with blogging, I think it’s far too soon to be real negative about the possibilities of using certain tools given your niche and market.
Benn Rosales
January 17, 2008 at 1:55 am
Well, Brad, check out the west today and you get where I’m going with my analogy… Why not look both east and west when looking at that big picture- balance is the key.
Brad Coy
January 17, 2008 at 2:31 am
I understand your analogy clearly. Again, thanks for your sharing.
Chris Lengquist
January 17, 2008 at 10:19 am
What about the southwestern northern end of the east? 🙂
Benn Rosales
January 17, 2008 at 11:01 am
well, hrm… ha
ines
January 20, 2008 at 6:05 pm
OK – I’m late to the party and I’m glad I read so many agreeing with you but here’s another take.
I do agree to continue doing what works – but I can also tell you that Rick and I have had to change our whole marketing approach because things that worked were no longer working and it felt that we were throwing our money into the wind. From local chamber mailers to Church Bulletins – after thousands of dollars and not one call……we had to rethink.
Going back to the basics is key, but experimenting with new technology and other methods is crucial.
Ruthmarie Hicks
March 2, 2009 at 8:16 pm
I think that this issue is area specific. You have to look at what’s working and what’s not. I spent a ton of money on mailers and got zilch. People were papering their walls with agent postcards and mailers – so I shouldn’t have been surprised.
I rethought the cards – and did everything the WRONG way and got results. I knew the following:
1. Most prospects could paper their homes with the number of real estate related mailers they were getting.
2. In NY people open their mail standing over the shredder.
So I hired an artist and used my “husky theme.” People know my white Siberian Huskies. So I had cartoons drawn with them helping me sell homes. ($$$) Due to the expense – I sent them 5-6 times a year. QUALITY over QUANTITY. To make it cost-effective I sent them to a much wider area than a usual farm.
One of my standards for whether I think something will work is this: I did a Ph.D. a few years ago. During the last 2 years my average day was 15 hours – 7 days a week. I was walking around like a zombie for two years noticing NOTHING! When I look at any marketing plan – I ask if it is different enough to have caught my attention in that sleep-deprived semi-comatose state. If the answer is “yes” its probably worth the money.