Been thinking about how news today and in the future will no longer have the ‘big-impact-big reveal’. Look what happened Sunday night when the television news outlets announced that the White House had called a press conference for 10:30pm. While the news guys on TV sat there, cameras pointed at an empty podium, and speculated, Twitter was alive with commentary and information and it went absolutely crazy.
By the time the President finally appeared to make the announcement – it was essentially OLD NEWS! I watched and listened just to see if I could get more details, but I couldn’t get over how anti-climatic the whole thing was. Granted, a lot of misinformation went scuttling about – but the conversations were rampant and those conversations were good and represented the beauty of social media and it’s ability to engage people like never before.
Even Wikipedia immediately posted Osama bin Laden’s death date next to his date of birth. Of course, at the time, the rumor was that he was killed a week earlier and that DNA tests had confirmed that it was him so Wikipedia posted his death as a week earlier. Minutes after Obama announced that he had been killed earlier that day, Wikipedia’s information was updated. Instantly updated!
Say what you will about social media… but it has SO changed the game. Plus it allows us to channel our inner comics. I have to admit, I laughed quite a bit at what people were twittering. Best one: Osama is probably cursing his obsession with 4Square location checkins…
Just signed up for the REALTOR.com National Blogger Call June 30 at 2pm EDT (it’s scheduled fo 11am PDT so I’ve converted it for you lazy ones…).
In the world of real estate however, I think it’s a great business tool as well. As REALTORS today, we need to sell more than just homes. In fact, our listings come later in the game. In the world of social media, we need to sell ourselves first to engage people and earn their trust. You shove a listing down someone’s throat and you lose them. No one likes to be sold to. Instead, we sell our community, the area in which we live and run our daily lives and the lifestyle – which are all part of who we are and what we know.
The business of real of estate has always been about networking. This industry practically wrote the book on networking. I remember when I first moved here, sitting with friends at Rafter’s in the Village, packed in like sardines listening to some band when the woman sitting next to my friend started talking to us. We made small talk until she offered me her business card out of the blue – a real estate agent. What a conversation killer. We made excuses and slunk away into the crowd. I wish to this day that I had kept the card so I would know who that was. Midnight at Rafters, people out having fun, drinking and listening to music – and here was this real estate agent passing out her business card.
And yet, if I ask them if they’re on Facebook or LinkedIn, they throw me that exasperated look as if I’m asking them if they play video games. But it’s called Social Networking folks! It is the heart and soul of our industry, but for some reason, passing out business cards to random strangers makes more sense to them.
In any case, my next free seminar for our board office is coming up Oct. 21 at 2:00pm called “Social Media: Business of the Future or Just and Excuse to Goof Around?” It’s a basic overview of what social media is… how it works…why it works… and how it can impact a real estate business. The coolest part of this is that I used the Prezi presentation tool rather than the bland PowerPoint for this class… so it’s sort of cool and I had fun putting it together!
Welcome to Real Estate Tech Topix where I hope to share and exchange information about the tools and applications impacting and changing the nature of the real estate industry every day. Today, technology is essential to a successful business... and let's face it, it can be a lot of fun. Come join me in the conversation and let's all learn something new!
