Should Realtors Tweet?

Q: My client is a Commercial Real Estate Company. Most of the employees do not use the computer for anything other than searching listings and sending emails.  Social Media to them seems like a waste of time and money. Is it possible that in industries such as Commercial Real Estate, where there is no substitute for experience, we might have to wait for Social Media users to grow up before they can be considered industry thought leaders?

A: A few months ago I was asked to give a presentation about Social Media to the Realtors at a local office of one of the largest real estate firms. I thought it went very smoothly until we got to the Q&A part of it. Most of the questions I got were the “me” questions. You know, “how do I get more followers on Twitter”, “how do I promote my blog”, “how do I get more subscribers to my e-mail list”, etc. It’s like the previous 30 minutes of talking about the social aspect of social media didn’t even happen.

You see, Realtors have years of experience with push marketing, including handing out business cards, hosting parades of homes home-tours, or encouraging word-of-mouth referrals. Within 2 weeks of buying our first house, my husband and I received 10 brochures from 10 different Realtors, complete with 10 magnetic business cards.

Now, as Realtors get involved in social media (and lots and lots of them do), they use the same approach. They push through their profiles (listing them first and foremost as real estate agents), status updates with links to listed properties, etc.

That’s just the same old annoying stuff that earns real estate agents reputation comparable to that of spammers. Nor does it help that many Realtors end up using the same cookie-cutter approach to social media. That’s why, for example, it’s not that hard to find real estate agents with practically identical Twitter updates or Facebook fan pages.

So yes, if your clients approach social media with the mindset of constantly pushing their services, then they will find it to be a waste of time. It’s not that they have to grow up or get more experience, but rather that they have to start thinking of the value they bring to the community that this said community cannot get elsewhere online.

It’s just like going to networking events. Sure, you do get a chance for a 30-second “elevator speech” about your business and, ocassionally, for a slightly longer presentation. But most of the time is not spent in selling your services. Hopefully, you take at least some time to speak with other business owners about their businesses (or families or the latest Dancing with the Stars) and help them make things happen.

If you want to dig further into this issue, I highly recommend Transparent Real Estate blog. For an example of a commercial real estate firm using social media, check out this blog by Radius Commercial. Finally, here’s a very good article from the CCIM Institute on the use of social media by commercial real estate agencies.  

Related posts:

1. Why Realtors Need Twitter
2. Should I Automate Social Media
3. Best for Last – June 12, 2009