» Real Life, Real Estate, and Facebook

Real Life, Real Estate, and Facebook

Okay, I’m the one out there talking about web 2.0 marketing and social networking. I do a lot of marketing for my listings on the internet, but I’m coming a little late to social networking. It’s been on my to-do list for a while, but somehow, I could not seem to find the time between working as a Realtor, blogging on 4 different blogs, following about 20 blogs on Google Reader, writing occasional articles for my local newspaper, reading the Sunday New York Times, listening to NPR, reading books, eating, sleeping, spending time with friends and family, taking photos of local events, and working out.

A few weeks back I received an email about a social networking webinar being put on by Jim Cronin of The Real Estate Tomato and Brian Brady , mortgage broker extraordinaire, blogger, writer, and speaker. He’s a contributor to one of the premier real estate blogs, the Bloodhound blog. Jim has a business in which he advises Realtors on web 2.0 marketing and blogging. Brian Brady uses social networking like it’s been part of his life for years. He’s a master at it. So I sat down at my laptop for 1 ½ hours and listened to Brian and Jim talk about LinkedIn, “the business, buttoned up” networking site, Facebook, the “casual Friday”, and MySpace, “the Saturday night” of social networking. (Brian’s characterizations, and good ones)

A week and a half later, I still hadn’t done much more than sign up on Facebook, a pretty weak start. This past Saturday morning, I had a message from a friend asking me to join her on Facebook and I was off and running. I posted some photos of myself and my husband, David, and, most importantly, of Henry our dog. I filled out my interests, my activities, my schools, place of birth, and place of work. And then the connections started coming.

My husband decided it was also his time to join Facebook. We sat dueling it out on our computers, calling out the number of friends we were up to. We were both hooked. But he beat me, hands down. He has far more friends than I do! On his first foray on Facebook, he ended up with 48 friends, while I ended up with only 23. Since he is an ex-techie from Amazon, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. His community is pretty wired.

I’ve connected with people from high school, college, California, an art gallery, family, neighbors, and a few past clients. Will Facebook be an asset for me in my real estate career? Time will tell. My guess is it will give me the chance to connect with people on a more casual, personal level. It’s an opportunity for anyone and everyone from my business and personal connections to know more about me as a person. Besides, I think it’ll be fun!

I’m curious, how has Facebook has been working for you? Do you find it more of a truly social, fun site or is it a networking opportunity, too?

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http://www.kenmoreundressed.com James Lupori

Hi Debra – What a timely post. I have been using Linkedin for about a year and a half now. I find it quite useful in keeping up with my “professional” sphere. As for Facebook…Well, it’s been a very interesting addition to my (small) social networking world. Two months ago I received a Google Alert related to a person with my same last name. I thought it was my cousin in Tuscany. As it turned out, she is from Argentina. I wrote her and 1 month later, I am in contact with over 30 other Luporis who live in Argentina, France, Italy (of course) and a several Americans. Many of of us have family ties to the provinces of Lucca and Pistoia. The fact that this sort of communication can take place in such a casual and friendly way is amazing to me. It also makes me feel more connected “out there” than ever before. Another revelation about Facebook is that among the Luporis, I’m the “ancient one.” Almost all of the writers are 20-somethings. Yikes, I feel old!!!!!
I hope you find Facebook as enjoyable as do I.
http://www.debrasinick.com Debra Sinick

Hi James,

You are way ahead of me. I need to work on my LinkedIn connections, too!

How exciting you found all these unknown relatives on Facebook. I have some family member scattered around the US that I have heard about, but really do not know. There may be others out there who spell their name different. It’s my understanding when my father’s family went through Ellis Island, they were told how to spell their name. I think there may be people I’m related to out there who happen to spell their name differently.
http://www.360Digest.com Marlow

I love my Facebook and Myspace pages. I get at least 3-5 party or other event invites per week from them. Is it real estate related? Not exactly, but if I make new friends and they know I’m in real estate, it all comes together.
http://www.debrasinick.com Debra Sinick

Hi Marlow,

I’ll be looking forward to those invitations! Seriously, it will be fun to connect with new and “old” friends. I expect I’ll find out all kinds of things about people that I never knew before.
http://www.mortgageporter.com Rhonda Porter

Facebook has really become more useful. Currently I becoming re-connected with classmates from high school! Myspace…I do have a page and I check it every blue moon…I’ve found better results with Facebook and Twitter.

BTW next month, Real Estate Bar Camp will be happening in Seattle– (Feb 13, 2009 at Zillow’s headquarters) there’s more info on Facebook or you can contact me.
http://www.debrasinick.com Debra Sinick

Hi Rhonda,

I did sign up for the RE Bar Camp on a Zillow post about it. However, there is no address, which I can look up, but also no time was mentioned. I will check it out on Facebook, thanks for the heads up. I’m looking forward to it.

I had a high school reunion this past summer and a friend did a great job developing a google group before the reunion. We shared bios, photos, stories, etc. It really added a lot to the reunion well before and after. I’ve kept in touch with some people I hadn’t seen for years.

I’m from New England and there are some of us on the west coast. We aim to have our own mini-reunion next summer.
http://www.debrasinick.com Debra Sinick

The power of social networking:

http://www.brokeragentsocial.com/article/121/who-was-the-1-online-marketer-in-america-for-2008
http://www.debrasinick.com Debra Sinick

James Lupori from Kenmore Undressed, http://www.kenmoreundressed.com, sent me this article about Facebook from Slate, the on-line magazine. Facebook membership is larger than many countries, and counting!

http://www.slate.com/id/2208678/
http://www.debrasinick.com Debra Sinick

Theresa Boardman gave her thoughts about Facebook on Agent Genius this week. She’s a master at using Flickr.

http://agentgenius.com/?p=9266
http://www.debrasinick.com Debra Sinick

A group has formed on LinkedIN for Real Estate Connect and a link to an article in Newsweek on Facebook was posted there.

http://www.linkedin.com/newsArticle?viewDiscussion=&articleID=23580348&gid=59&trk=add-news-lnk-cThOon0JumNFomgJt7dBpSBA
http://www.RealityonRealty.com Katrina Munsell

Hey Debra,
Social networking is certainly the new wave of marketing…all types of businesses are jumping in with blogs, wikis, and allowing supporters and consumers to connect in ways unimaginable decades earlier. These forums provide an entirely new avenue of consumer feedback and research that all businesses can utilize, if they know how.

LinkedIn is a wonderful professional network, and Facebook is a hoot (Classmates.com done right!). Both can be leveraged in many different ways–not to mention the fact that provide us with a brilliant way to procrastinate real work!
http://www.debrasinick.com Debra Sinick

Hi Katrina,

I agree with your thoughts about social networking with regard to open avenues for consumers. Facebook will be more of a challenge, though. First and foremost, I love being able to find people from all parts of my life. Any business connections will be the cream on top of an already fun experience.