Recently my trash provider in Crozet went on vacation. Apparently they went on vacation for a week, and in the quarterly bill (which few people ever read) had included a reminder. Needless to say, everybody had their trash bins on the street on trash day. And the day after. And the day after. His voice mail was full and did not mention his absence. And – he has neither a website nor a blog. Talk about bad advertising.
We live in a world of on-demand information. His leaving town and putting a note in one of the four bills of the year would be like me trying to show property today using one of the MLS books from when I was a kid – immediately outdated and inaccessible to most who need the information. Consumers want to have the information and they want it now (I certainly do).
What he (and every business) needs is a blog, if only to say “thank you” to his customers and let them know when he’s going out of town. As a Realtor, if I left town with no one to cover for me … I don’t want to even imagine the consequences.
I came across this post yesterday – How Many Friend and Sharing Apps Can a Soul Have?
Part of being a good Realtor in today’s world is being available, being connected (on and off-line) and providing good, useful, relevant information. Without knowledge – both local economic, market and social knowledge – a Realtor is no better than Google.
I just added GrandCentral yesterday; while it’s not a “social network” it is yet another way to manage my “connectivity.” (let me know if you want one of my 10 invites)
–it seems that every two weeks I add something to my arsenal that Google provides. Whether it’s Google Apps for my email, Feedburner, Google Analytics, Google Docs, Grand Central … Google scares me. But I cannot resist their offerings … if they would buy and integrate Jott, which has fast become one of my “must-have’ …
Coming up first for a google search of “Jim Duncan” is gratifying yet daunting. Yet, I am very, very reachable.
I have yet to have anybody contact me because they found me on one of the various social networks, because most of the general real estate consumer population aren’t early adopters. But they might.
Technorati Tags: blogging
Jim,
Nice article! I’m writing on behalf of a client, Copper West Properties Agreed that social networks may not necessarily generate leads, but are you seeing that the links and search engine placement generated from your social networking helps your natural search efforts (making it easier for your end user to find you)? It’s interesting that as we adopt Web 2.0, we have essentially two customers, our end users and the social communities we live in. Hope this comment wasn’t too far off topic! Thanks for your time! Best, Lisa
Lisa –
Thanks for posting. Tell me more about the “writing on behalf of a client” part, please.
Is what you do something like this?