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As participation in various online services grows every day, the participants in social media become attractive targets for almost every type of business, organization or service.
Sadly, in the head-long land rush that is social media, there are a lot of real estate professionals rushing to participate using the "ready, fire, aim" method of engaging. And in their rush to leap into the action, they often leap right over the edge of a cliff into a free fall without redemption.
A little over a year ago, The Economist wrote, "Social networking will become a ubiquitous feature of online life. That does not mean it is a business." That doesn't mean that one cannot derive business benefits from their social media interaction, but it stresses the importance of effective engagement with your community. The key is to remember that what your community wants and needs is more important to them than your product or service.
In fact, no one cares about your product. Well, that may not be strictly true — you might care about your product. However, rest assured that it's not the focus of interest to your potential customer that you think it is.
People are, by necessity, the stars of their own movies. They are interested in their needs and the needs of their communities. It is only by establishing that you are interested in their needs as well that people may return your interest.
Think about your own reactions when you meet people face to face:
We tend to feel kindly toward people who take the time to show interest in our lives, our families and our interests. We are not as well disposed toward people who seem only interested in what’s good for them. And yet when we put on our “business hats” we forget our own honest reactions and assume that others do not have those same honest reactions to being solicited without invitation.
In her book The Whuffie Factor, Tara Hunt suggests that you start building your business with social capital when you "turn the bullhorn around" and start listening to the community with which you want to do business.
It sounds so simple, but it is many times the exact opposite to the training that made many small business people and professionals successful in the off-line world. They have become so accustomed to selling their product that the relationship-building part of their business strategy has become less important.
It's really very simple. If you get people to care about you, they may then care about your product or service to some degree. If you are a trusted member of a community, the other community members will want to do things to help you because you have done things to help them.
Perhaps the hardest part of the concept for people to grasp is that this desire of the community or their pre-disposition to help or support you is not a "you scratch my back, I scratch yours" action/reaction. It is about growth of a relationship, which is nurtured by your actions and the respect and trust that are built as a result of the body of those actions — not by a single speech or article.
If you make genuine contributions of value to others without regard to your own needs, you will become an integral part of the community, and therefore, will be an integral part of their product and service infrastructure. You will be called upon to supply your product or service when it's needed by the members of the group.
Amy Chorew is the Director of Training for SMMI and owner of TheTechByte. She is a nationally acclaimed instructor, who is highly experienced at helping managers and real estate agents maximize the infinite opportunities that technology offers them. You can find her at www.amychorew.com.
Bill Lublin is Founder of the Social Media Marketing Institute and CEO of CENTURY 21 Advantage Gold, Philadelphia's largest Century 21 firm. He is an active real estate investor and blogger, writing for Agentgenius, and his own blogs, REreflections and MovePhilly.
