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Article Content:
The sales methodology of the real estate industry is unique. Its sales force, primarily agents and brokers, needs to market themselves widely to a local community in order to capture transactions that happen infrequently. The traditional way has always been a form of promotion, or “push marketing” - advertising, drip email marketing, direct mail, open house guest book trolling. The net effect of a generation of million plus real estate agents trying to get their foot in the door with any consumer has spawned the stereotypical image of the glad handing agent.With the real estate industry’s new found craze for Facebook and other social media as a channel for networking, the same traditional push marketing methods are being recast. Agents slap up Facebook fan pages, write blogs and tweet out their listings with the same messaging either overt or hidden within their conversations - see how good I am and what I can do for you. One trend is Farming 2.0. Agents on Twitter often follow everybody in their hometown hoping on the off chance that they are in the market. The problem with this approach is spammers do the same thing.The community blanketing approach of say, inviting everybody to become a fan of their Facebook page, may not work with the potential client down the street who wants a professional, not a social relationship with a Realtor. These tactics need to change before the agent’s reputation as a flycaster for leads precedes them in their evolving community social space.What the real estate industry fails to grasp is the concept that the social media makes its participants transparent in the long run. From the consumer perspective, it’s obvious that someone is a broker or agent simply by reading their profile on, say, a HomeGain web/blog system or examining their conversations …

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