So I was right.
I love starting a blog with that, but it is true. I now have solid confirmation, metrics even, that I was dead on center CORRECT.
Several years ago I started to use social media to be, well…social. A little bit later I realized that this stuff could work for business, too. After doing some research and LOTS of bumbling around I began to use social media and new media techniques in my real estate career.
My thought was this: I shop online ergo: others shop online. I prefer searching for information on the web ergo: others do, too. I use my smart phone for just about EVERYTHING ergo: others want to use theirs.
Now I know that not EVERYONE is the person I describe, but there are many people who do fit the description and THEY are the ones I wanted to work with.
I did a lot of groundwork, made some key errors and then got more and more savvy. I asked a lot of questions, I read everything, I spent days upon end educating myself in the ways of this social media world. I set up profiles, started blogging and using Facebook and Twitter for business purposes. And then a wondrous thing happened: I got a lead. A lead that called me and said “I read your blog and thought it was great. I want to buy my house with you.”
When the angel light went away and the resounding trumpet blaring ceased I realized something….something BIG. I was onto something that other agents in my area weren’t. I was finding a means to speak to people who I had never met and they LIKED me.
That was followed by many other successes for me, but I am only one agent. One agent alone does not a standard make and everyone wants to know if there is any “real” return on this social media “stuff”. While teaching social media to real estate agents, I had general business statistics to call upon, but I wanted some hard proof in the real estate field. When I came upon this little article on realtor.org I finally had my resounding substantiative proof….
- The Internet has become an essential and indispensable tool in the home search process with 90 percent of home buyers using it to search for homes, up 30 percentage points during the past six years.
- Additionally, among buyers who reported using the Internet, 76 percent reported using it frequently, an increase of 7 percentage points from 2008.
- Furthermore, as a result of searching online, buyers frequently request additional information or find an agent.
- Around 60 percent of buyers were also likely to walk through home viewed online.”
—from realtor.org
Now I DO realize that I am not the only real estate agent that figured this out. So, those of you that did and read this: you get to say “I was RIGHT!”, too.
If you are an agent that isn’t using new media for business growth then it is time for you to reach out to TQI Consulting and ask for a guiding hand. We are like your best girlfriends, only geekier and we know real estate AND social media. Join us: your clients already did!