A month ago, I received the strangest email ever: An agent in LinkedIn blasted an email to her connections announcing her next open house. Sadly, it was little more than a cut-and-paste of the abbreviation-dumb newspaper ad she probably also ran. No photos, nor punctuation. Not even a hyperlink.
More recently, a steady-stream of Facebook invitations have been arriving, with impersonal introductions like, “If you know someone who needs a REALTOR in AnyTown, USA, send me your referrals!” Oh, sorry; I thought you wanted to be my friend.
But the social networking abuse reached a tipping point yesterday: It seems some virtual tour vendor has made it “quick and easy” to mass-post your tours across multiple networks at once.
Oh, goody: REALTORS are about to have no more friends.
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The idea of social networking is to make connections, not to advertise your self. Realtors who try this tactic will find themselves blocked, suspended, trashed, and friendless. Twitterng and facebook, like real life, require your time to make real connections before you can be trusted to handle someone's real estate needs.
I hate getting those posts from my "friends" too but have been told they are getting business from it. Double edge sword I think.
I think many "newbies" to social networking get confused with the purpose. There are so many posts, books, classes etc. about trying to brand your business with social networking. I feel like it has two extremes. The TMI agent who tweets and blogs tooooo many personal details and the "send me business" agent who just posts random canned junk to try and satisfy the blog quota! Beware of being friends with either :)
All this social networking is in it's infancy. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out in the long run.
This is exactly the type of social networking that will indeed destroy social networking. It is about personal relationships, not SPAM messages.
I call it the "shadow industry" of VT companies, foreclosure sites, "get my homes value" blah blah. They're the ones who pump (expletive) into the mix. Realtors need to exercise extreme taste and use social networks with poise.