The Impact of Social Media is going to be huge in Real Estate
Yes, it's a hyperbolic statement...
Last month, I noted that there seems to be a ceiling on the amount of online real estate blogosphere traffic. On a larger scale, Robert Scoble seems to think so too... readers are stepping away from blogs and onto social networking platforms. He says: "Do not miss what’s happening to Facebook. It is turning mainstream".
Facebook, MyBlogLog, Linkedin among others are all low maintenance compared to blogs. Someone wants to be my friend, or link to me, and a simple click expands the network. Scoble notes: "I’ve been on Facebook about a month now. I have just about 2,000 friends". And we know Realtors are attracted to low maintenance marketing...
It's about the Network...
Hugh at GapingVoid notes a recent interview of Doc Searls by Shel Israels, two web visionaries:
5. How has business fundamentally changed because of social media? How will it change in the coming years?For Real Estate Agents, it's about Marketing into Massively Multiple NetworksThe walls of business will come down. That's the main effect of the Net itself. Companies are people and are learning to adapt to a world where everybody is connected, everybody contributes, and everybody is zero distance (or close enough) from everybody else. This is the "flat world" Tom Friedman wrote "The World is Flat" about, and he's right. Business on the whole has still not fully noticed this, however.
Real estate agents are in a unique position to benefit from the crumbling walls of business because the job of real estate requires referrals, which are based on large, communicative networks. Networks are easier to build when there are fewer walls, and that is the effect of social media. And Doc Searls is right... business (that's you, agents) has not fully noticed this yet.
Although network expansion has become easier with social media, the blog and its content are still critical to getting noticed by and invited into massively multiple networks (think of how many people you know and who they know). The blog and the Facebook page has replaced the agent website as the real estate marketing piece, and both facilitate the building of the next generation network of referrals. Eventually the agent's referral base will migrate onto social media platforms, and will in effect facilitate even more referrals to a larger network base.
Yes, this is FutureSpeak... I'm assuming it's hard for most agents to comprehend that their next warm leads are coming from their online networks... and the best way to explain this is to imagine that all their local friends are communicating online in the exact same way they discourse over bridge or coffee claches... and it will happen.
Technorati Tags: social networking, social media, facebook, scoble, linkedin, gaping void, doc searls
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7/6/2007 10:34 AM
Agent Scoreboard Blog wrote:
Pursebuzz.com In a post this AM by Pat Kitano, over at TransparentRE, Pat talks about how “huge” the impact of social media is going to be on the real estate industry. I just can’t agree. I see the following three reasons for social media to fizz...
Great post Pat.
I think a big part of the evolution of social media is in lowering the barriers to participation.
I'm a big fan of the co-presence aspects of both Twitter and Facebook. Once a network is established, it's very easy to broadcast and consume a constant stream of small bits of information, which re-enforce connections without being overbearing or intrusive.
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Hey Andy, I guess it goes without saying that we'll have lunch Monday solely based on mutual social networking connections, a rite that confirmed our shared interests...
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