Real estate professionals discuss social media etiquette
Posted by Annalisa Burgos | August 5, 2009
None of my friends are real estate agents. And a lot of my friends’ friends aren’t agents either. They just never happened to roll in my social circles. Not really sure why that is. Perhaps it’s because I’m naturally skeptical of people who make a living from selling things — be it a house, insurance, a car or a story pitch.
So you’d understand why people like me who don’t normally socialize with real estate agents in our personal lives would feel weird about “friending” an agent on Facebook without having met him/her in person and establishing some sort of relationship. Even now, as a homebuyer, I’m not going to search for agents to friend.
So it was especially interesting to listen to a panel for real estate agents about using Facebook as a professional tool.
(The FrontDoor team is in San Francisco this week for a real estate and technology conference called “Real Estate Connect,” hosted by Inman News.)
FrontDoor, for one, has a Facebook fan page (thanks to those of you who’ve joined it!) and is doing some interesting things with social media, such as integrate Facebook Connect on the site so readers can comment on articles through their Facebook profile.
At the panel, Craig Donato, CEO of online classifieds site Oodle, talked about their service, which would allow agents to automatically load their listings into their news feed and their friends’ feeds. Someone in the audience quickly pointed out that that was the “fastest way to get me to de-friend you.” Indeed. I know I would.
So that begs the question — what is the proper etiquette, for any business, to build relationships on social networking services like Facebook and Twitter, without scaring away people? We’re discussing that here at Inman Connect. If you’ve got an idea, please share it!
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Ryan
August 5th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
I really don’t think Facebook and Twitter are going to get buyers in the door. I think its better for agents to let each other know what’s going on. Buyers seem to want to gather their own information and others just want to read news or interesting facts. Not see feeds of listings.
Vicky Chrisner
August 5th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Okay – I use FB personally. I also see it as my duty to keep people informed about the real estate market – usually antidotally… but my primary focus is friends there. For Twitter, I use it professionally… hyper local information and real estate news only. My Twitter name is REWhisperer (mimicking The Real Estate Whisperer, my consumer real estate blog). On FB, it’s really me. Many of my connections on FB are current or former clients. My daughter (she’s 6) describes my business “my mommy helps people, sells houses and makes new friends”… and she’s dead on. I sell houses to help people, and then they become my friends. The “advertising” on FB is just about relationship building and staying in contact, and reminding friends (clients) that I depend on their personal referrals. They would not be my “friend” unless they already knew me – like you said. Sound reasonable? Want to be my friend? You can check out my profile first if you want, it’s public. And, before I confirm you, I’ll be checking you out, too. I only connect to people I know or other real estate agents; and I won’t hesitate to get rid of you if you’re too much business.
Vicky Chrisner
August 5th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
oh, and PS – I found you via Tweet Deck, where I have a search for REAL ESTATE on Twitter… someone linked this site; and here I am. You see, I must read to learn. I must tweet to share.
Eli Lucero
August 6th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
I don’t mind it at all. It lets me know what is going on in specific markets.