I’m going out on a limb here. Social media is essential to your real estate career. To embrace it is to embrace not just a new way of marketing, but a completely new way to think about your business.Think I’m being a little gushy? Well take a look at these examples before you make up your mind.
There’s something very big happening in the world of social media marketing. It started back in 2004 when Howard Dean made a big splash on the Net with what turned out to be an unsuccessful bid for the Whitehouse. Although his online success failed to equate to success at the polls, Dean woke the world up to the power of the online as a vehicle for political activism. Fast forward 4 years and the new young gun of politics, Barack Obama, stormed home to become the world’s most powerful man. His success was due, in no small measure, to an immensely effective social media marketing campaign that spanned web sites, blogs, YouTube, Twitter, MySpace and all points in between. The number of people who followed, fanned and friended Obama was staggering. As of election eve, Jermiah Owyang reported, Obama had attracted 2 379 102 supporters on Facebook, 833 131 friends on MySpace, 114 559 subscribers on YouTube and 112 474 followers on Twitter. Unlike the good old days of the 2004 campaign all of these sites allowed Obama and his team to listen and converse with the people. Technology had returned Obama to the town hall politician.
Less than 12 months later Obama’s election day numbers look sick. Today he has 6 231 222 supporters on his Facebook page, 914 628 followers on Twitter and 169 792 subscribers on YouTube. But Obama is no longer the trend setter when it comes to just numbers. As I write this Britney Spears has 1 066 946 followers on Twitter and a massive 1 383 886 fans on her Facebook page. Spears joins a growing membership of the Twitter million-follower club along with Ashton Kutcher (the first person to reach 1 million followers), Ellen DeGeneres and CNN Breaking News.
Numbers on their own are one thing, but it’s the speed in which they’ve been achieved that’s truly head snapping. Take a look at the following graph, a screen shot from TwitterCounter, which shows the astronomical growth in followers for the @britneyspears account. Although celebrity and popular culture have much to do with Spears’ Twitter popularity it is the speed and recency of this growth that serves as an alarm bell for real estate agents. Spears, along with Oprah Winfrey and a host of other celebrities, know full well the power of engaging with a fan base. As their online popularity grows they drag onto social media platforms, such as Twitter, a whole swathe of supporters who’s only experience with the Internet is that of the read/write web. These engaged fans expect to be able to write on someone’s wall, expect to be allowed to post a comment and expect to say something about a picture. Having your say online is not a privilege, it’s a right.
Growth in followers for @britneyspears as of April 21, 2009
Along with this growing level of personal engagement is an emerging consumer activism leveraged by the ease by which disgruntled customers and disaffected employees can air their negative experiences online. In as much as brands, such as Barack Obama and Britney Spears, understand the benefits of engaging with online fans, others, such as Comcast and Amazon, have failed to respond appropriately to public relations challenges. And they paid the price. Comcast’s online nightmare came in the form of a YouTube video showing one of their technicians asleep on a customers lounge (agents: take note) and, according to Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell, “resulted in the Comcast brand going down the toilet. You must understand”, she said, “power is now in the hands of consumers”. In Amazon’s case the removal of a number of gay and lesbian themed books from their catalogue led to a Twitter revolt. Amazon’s silence was met with fury from customers who, in the face of a stonewalling company, chose to reach their own conclusions, which they quickly shared with their followers on Twitter.
What do these emerging trends mean for real estate agents today? First, social media marketing presents real estate agents with an unprecedented opportunity. The speed at which the world of social media is moving is newsworthy and agents who get on board now will be seen as innovators, giving themselves a meaningful point of difference. Quite simply social media marketing reshapes an agent’s brand like nothing else. Second, failure to participate is to risk losing valuable ground to competitors. While an agent languishes in the world of old media and old marketing, forward thinking competitors are online developing intimate relationships with potential customers. Finally, participating in social media gives an agent the ability to participate and shape conversations about themselves, their market and their competitors. To participate is to create and to
Social media marketing presents real estate agents with the potential for great risk and great reward. Only active participation will ensure the latter.
Photo credit: photofarmer on Flickr
