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.

frontdoor-fan-page-on-facebook

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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How media is changing the way we “experience” real estate

Posted by Annalisa Burgos | July 21, 2009

frontdoor-on-twitterI’m looking for a home to buy in New York City. I learn about local market trends through TV and the Web, search for homes for sale online, use my BlackBerry to get listing information in the field (still haven’t bought an iPhone yet), and share my real estate adventures with my social media universe, i.e. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Like many of today’s savvy buyers, I expect the real estate agents I work with to understand the ways I “consume” and “experience” real estate.

Let’s face it — why work with an agent who isn’t taking advantage of all the platforms available to market my house? Advertising on Craigslist is great, but it’s standard practice now. The question these days is — what added value does this agent provide?

On Aug. 5-7, many of the big players in the real estate industry will convene in San Francisco for Inman News’ Real Estate Connect, a conference focused on the convergence of real estate and technology.

On Friday, Aug. 7, at 9 a.m., Scripps Networks Digital president Deanna Brown will host a presentation called “How TV, The Web, Your Phone and the Social Universe are Colliding (In A Good Way).”

Brown will talk about what’s happening in real estate with the use of social media, video, TV, etc. and how this is changing the way people are searching for properties.

The entire team of HGTV’s FrontDoor.com, along with yours truly, will be at the conference, so please say hello if you’re going!

You can register for the conference here: http://www.inman.com/events/real-estate-connect-san-francisco-2009/register

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