The problem I see with most of the discussions around social media ROI in the real estate industry is that the product real estate agents sell, a house, is not an impulse buy and the decision to use one agent over another, a completely different kind of conversion, is not a simple decision. If they were, we could focus on conversion alone and be done. But they’re not. So, the focus on conversion to the exclusion of all other sales or marketing objectives is simply wrong.
The sexiness of the social media space and the desire to see a immediate return on the time investment required to access it, has created an atmosphere ripe for solutions to problems that don’t really exist. And it has enlightened us to some changes that need to be made at Real Estate Shows.
“Are You Ready For Social Media: Preparing Your Teams To Listen, Engage Measure & Adapt” is a 40 minute video of the panel discussion with Bert Dumars, Seth Miller and Peter Fasano. The goal of the panel was to have a fairly high level conversation focused on what’s required to prepare an organization for social media, with a heavy emphasis on listening; how to listen, what to listen for, and what to do with what you hear.
The notion that monetization, measurements of effectiveness and ROI are to be abandoned in the Social Media world is a foolish argument. It’s the same kind of nonsense that permeated the dot.com world and led to its meltdown. In hindsight, intelligent venture capitalists lost their sanity and threw millions of dollars at ideas that would never earn a nickel. That message was crap back then. It still is.
Ever since the word brand (a noun) was expanded to branding (a verb) interpretive misunderstandings about what “brand” and “branding” really are have multiplied. Various self-proclaimed gurus (consultants above criticism) have written about the sins of misguided “branding.” Unfortunately, too often, they themselves didn’t know what a brand or branding were either. So they just added to the confusion and the body of misconceptions masquerading as wisdom.
Taking the time to search for deeper meanings is becoming obsolete. Peoples’ concentration levels leave no room for expansive exploration. Bullet point bluntness has replaced the expansive paragraph. People do not use Social Media to have a literary experience. They use it to connect to others. Successful Social Media people are not judged by their writing skills. They are judged by their ability to connect with people.
Solving a crossword puzzle requires a good understanding of crossword conventions, puzzle logic and a broad general knowledge (vocabulary, literature, culture, art, sciences, geograpy, etc.). You can learn the conventions and logic relatively quickly, but the general knowledge is what separates the men from the boys. Bill Leider is a man.
Change for change’s sake has never made good business sense. Self proclaimed “visionaries” who tell you to destroy what you have built because fashion dictates it have probably never run a successful company over a long period of time. Still, you cannot ignore the winds of change. Social Media is here to stay. We’d like to suggest a different approach.
Why don’t more Realtors use the Internet more effectively to gain more clients, do more transactions and earn more money? Are the majority of established Realtors just so fearful and stubbornly defiant that they won’t embrace Internet marketing even if resisting it could mean their demise?
Do Realtors really understand that they are running a business? And do they understand what a good business person out to focus on in making solid, thoughtful decisions? This post looks at three major areas of concern.