Avoiding the Wham! Bam! Spam You Ma’am Approach

By Matthew Ferrara
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While many REALTORS® still don’t know that social networking exists, there’s definitely a trend growing amongst early adopters to drive a stake in the heart of Web 2.0 world. Being first often creates a competitive advantage – similar to being first to respond to a buyer’s inquiry on a property.

On the other hand, being effective with social networking technology requires something that too many REALTORS® still need to learn: We don’t care that you just listed another overpriced property.

On the surface, social networking is the easiest technology for the industry’s Boomer-somethings to master. Unlike MLS systems, forms software, corporate intranets or the menus of not-so-smart smartphones, social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn are mercifully straightforward. Simply fill in the blanks, and you’re in the network.

Social networking is easier than taking an overpriced listing! Or is it?

With half a billion people doing it, real estate professionals might want to take a few minutes to study some good profiles. Then copy them, link to them and learn. But don’t make assumptions that your online photo makes you an instant social celebrity. Unlike personal bragging sites, it takes more than a snazzy page to master this new medium. Great social networking is about how you interact with your sphere of influence online.

That’s the entire point, of course. Social networking isn’t advertising. It’s about managing an endless online conversation where friends, family and business connections interact. With you, through you and because of you. And that’s how you leverage "Web 2.0" to build relationships online and stay connected. Social networking is the ultimate solution to the “customer for life” problem for sales professionals in any industry.

This would be great news if somehow the usual real estate minimalist approach to technology could be avoided. So far, though, it seems like all the real estate industry has heard about social networking is: “Look! Another Web site where I can slap up my personal bio, drip-out my photoless listings and copy-paste my classified ads!”

Alas, it’s simply awful. As usual, REALTORS® are treating social networking like another e-substitute for postcards and their pathetic listing sheets. Too many status updates, wall-postings, share-a-links and the REALTOR®-to-REALTOR® discussions and nothing more than big, bland blather.

“Oh! Who wants to send me a sale? Hey, I want referrals! Look! I’m online! Isn’t this cool?” No, it’s not. And click, you’re not my friend anymore.

We wouldn’t act this way in real life, face-to-face networking, so why do so online? Do you move from handshake to listing sheet when you meet someone for the first time? Somewhere along the line, agents have completely missed the point. Social networking isn’t just another place to vomit your advertising.

The case in point came to me the other day, by “blast e-mail” within my LinkedIn account. I went from being “a friend I trust” to just another address in a marketing distribution. Worse was the content of the message. It was - gasp, I can hardly say it - full of abbreviations. The REALTOR® literally cut-and-pasted their newspaper classified ad into a mass-blasted e-mail to their entire social network list. No hyperlink to the listing. No photo. Not even fully spelled out words. I nearly cried.

Aside from violating almost every online advertising rule, this mass-blast contravened the culture of social networks. Online social networks have rules, just like a golf club has a dress code. Each has a kind of culture. What is acceptable is slightly different in each, so there isn’t one set of rules. But it’s fairly certain that in most of the social networks, rampant advertising isn’t the norm.

Just as e-mail has a certain etiquette, structured networks like Facebook or LinkedIn operate within behavioral norms. Consider them social networking manners that sit somewhere between red-light Web sites and the buttoned-down IRS Web site. Somewhere in between is a culture that defines how to get connected and interact in each social network.

Most importantly, perhaps critically, is that social networking isn’t a new space for “blast advertising.” In fact, you’ll notice that even the most “open” social network (MySpace) is very mild when it comes to integrated advertising, by both the site owners and the participants. In general, most social networking is a place where people interact, not a sales platform. It’s about building and maintaining relationships with people you know and people you’d like to meet — in a normal, not in-your-face sort of way.

This doesn’t mean to say you can’t do business using social networks. It’s done all the time. But it’s done in the kind of way that says, “Hey, nice to see you again. Hope all is well. By the way… ” Not “Wham! Bam! Spam You Ma’am.” Not a torrent of advertising in every personal update, every shared link and every photo upload. It’s just not the social networking way.

Social networking is about you — but the real you, the full you, the human you. Not the one-dimensional you. It’s where people learn about you and learn to trust you. It’s where they see who also knows you, likes you and trusts you. It’s where relationships matter because people get to know more about the whole you, not just the promotional you.

Every time you try to turn social networking into blatant advertising, you’re going to rub the online culture the wrong way and maybe even look silly or desperate. Generation X and Y could care less about your marketing message anyway. They are proven to be a cynical bunch when it comes to advertising: they don’t believe it, and they don’t trust it. And if that’s all there is on your social networking page, they won’t hug you for it. Not even Generation Y.

And they certainly won’t hire you. If you’re not careful, awkward social networking can result in the exact opposite of your desired outcomes. Instead of becoming someone people seek out, trust and refer to each other, you could become someone they disconnect from, delete or simply filter out.

Matthew Ferrara is CEO of Matthew Ferrara & Company, an international real estate consulting, management, strategy and sales organization. For more than two decades, Ferrara has been helping top performing brokerages transform their marketing, technology and customer service strategies to create loyal clients and lead the competition in the next generation of real estate business. Learn more at www.matthewferrara.com.