Don’t go it alone, look to the people you trust to help guide you to those that you can entrust the largest purchase of your life. No matter where you are in the world, ask a real estate professional you know anywhere, and they can help you find the right person to work with.
Isn’t your time valuable enough to ask a trusted real estate advisor to help you find the right real estate agent?
I don’t subscribe to transparency, I don’t talk about everything I am doing, projects I am working on, people I hang out with, or honors or awards I get, that isn’t my kind of thing. I very carefully choose what I put out on Twitter, I am a little less careful on Facebook as that is a closed community of people I know and who should know me.
I observe. I enjoy watching interactions, how people stand while in conversation, the angles they face each other, the distances apart or close, these things all say a lot about who people are. Often these things will betray the façade people present, to me this is a quiet observation not one I share.
If there is one thing that should be top of mind at all times in social media it is keep the message, and tone, positive under all circumstances. I had one of those days when forces outside of my world affected my attitude, it was only visible to my closest friends (I hope), but still…
And online it happens too… People talk about what they use to “surf the web” – which browser is better, which Twitter application is superior, which blog platform is preferred. I honestly think people are missing the point. Stop worrying about the tools and start working on your technique.
I am often asked if real estate agents are resistant to the whole “social media thing” – it is an interesting question with a multiple choice answer. There really shouldn’t be a multiple choice option but that consolidation and evolution will come with time. For now I believe that real estate agents fall into one of four categories of social media in late 2010.
How you behave sets expectations. There is a psychology to the sales process and how real estate sales people interact. If you are going to be belligerent and display a laziness then my experience and expectations for working with you might be influenced slightly, tainting the experience. Becoming argumentative is never the right way to respond to another real estate professional reaching out to you for more information or cooperation.
Try to follow the good examples of those already in the space and doing the real estate social media thing. Learn the rules or accepted protocols for the different platforms. Perhaps we need to hire a Protocol representative for the industry who can tell us exactly what we are to do, and not to do? There are plenty of real estate agents who do it well, like @ginakayRE, @utahREpro, @nobuhata, @MIrealestate or @tamaradorris, so study those folks.
I am working on a project with Chris Brogan for Human Business Works, it is a project specifically for the real estate industry and we are seeking real estate professionals to share their personal success stories of how they are using a variety of social media platforms to build their real estate business.