B2B Social Media Gets Intimate

The following is a guest post by @ericschwartzman.

Up to now, one the biggest challenges that social media posed was forcing organizations to decide just how open they should be. The belief was that information that could be public should be transitioned to social media, but proprietary information should remain under wraps in email, on the phone and in meetings.

Those that did a good job socializing their external communications, like Dell and Comcast, saw productivity gains, since conversations that occur on social media are automatically recorded, discoverable through search and shareable. But those parts of the organization which were not customer facing, or which did not interact with outside entities, were pretty much sheltered from realizing similar gains.

It is now popular wisdom that Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin are good places for businesses to market their products and services. Migrating external communications to the social web turns customer service into public relations, and minimizes call center demand. But what if you want to use a social network to collaborate internally?

Until recently, no one dared share corporate secrets on social networks. When it comes to B2B social media uses like privileged discussions between manufacturers and resellers or internal discussions between sales and marketing personnel, you'd need a more intimate social network. Strategic planning, competitive analysis and product development are just a few activities most companies prefer to keep confidential.

In episode #594 of For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report, Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz discussed Steve Rubel's Ad Age column about what he calls the 'Validation Era' of online marketing. In our rush to amass friends and followers, Rubel argues, we've assembled online social communities that are so loud and so constant, that it's become difficult to use them for more than mundane conversations.

The early stage of most sales cycles is equally mundane. You start the process by searching Google and asking your online social network for recommendations. But the final decision for a considered purchase, like a car or computer, or a high-ticket B2B purchase, like selecting a raw materials supplier, has to withstand greater scrutiny. Search and social help us build the short list, but the discussion that leads to a final purchasing decision has been offline. But with the rise of private social networks, internal business conversations are likely to go social as well. And that will limit the marketer's ability to steer the purchasing decision.

B2C marketers may have some luck. But if B2B brands try to secure access to these exclusive, customer-only conversations, by encouraging their employees to engage through their personal profiles, or by dispatching their subject matter experts, they're unlikely to succeed. These B2B conversations will only be open to small stakeholder committees, no matter how trusted or influential those outside the circle may be. Private means private. After the vendors pitch, the buyers clears the conference room to discuss who they want to hire. Marketers must leave the room.

Rubel cites the rise of services like Path, Beluga and GroupMe as examples of intimate social networks gaining prominence. And indeed they are rising in popularity. But already, one high-flyer has come and gone. Google Wave, a private activity streaming service launched before its time failed to catch on, Google lost patience and pulled the plug. On the B2B social media side, Salesforce.com made its Chatter service free in February, giving up to five users the chance to establish their own, little private Facebook. Others are leveraging platforms like Jive to create their own, password protected social networks, as SAP has so famously done already.

The private social network as a B2B social media tool has numerous useful applications. But I wouldn't count on it replacing Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin any time soon. These services provide private messaging features which are already trusted enough to swap email addresses. Instead, we are seeing the dawn of an era where sensitive business conversations, which could never reap the benefits of social media, are beginning to be socialized as well.

External communications will stay on Facebook. Sensitive, business conversations will move to services like Chatter. And private social networking services will expose organizations to the benefits of leveraging social media to accelerate the pace of proprietary, confidential business processes like product development, workforce management, strategic planning, business process management, vendor sourcing, research & development and logistics. We will learn to pick the social media channel, based on the public or proprietary nature of the message.

What do you think? Have you seen interesting examples of B2B social media? Please share as a comment below.

About the Author
Eric Schwartzman (@ericschwartzman) provides social marketing research, social marketing services and social marketing training to businesses, government agencies and nonprofits. His book Social Marketing to the Business Customer with Paul Gillin is the first book devoted exclusively to B2B social media marketing.

Labels: b2b, guest post, social media

View the original article here

A Brief History of the Evolution of Social Technology

The following is a guest post from David Murton.

To truly appreciate social media and the ubiquitous nature of the Internet, the consumer must first remember the wireless networks' distant and humble beginnings. In the year 1888, Heinrich Rudolf Herz generated the world's first radio wave. A short six years later, it translated into telegraph signals that made long-distance communication possible.

Piggybacking on Herz' radio wave, Marchese Guglielmo Marconi translated the wave into a wireless signal that would make short-distance radio transmissions possible. Perfecting his technology, he was able to gradually increase the reach of his radio waves to 31 miles. Online communication schools credit his tenacity for truly realizing the potential of future radio wave technology.

During World War II, the use of radio wave transmissions as main means of communication hastened the further honing of the technology. Fast forwarding to 1970, Norman Abramson designed and tested the first wireless local area network, also known as the WLAN. From there, the race was on to make wireless technology smaller, better, faster and further reaching.

When the courts released the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands for unlicensed usage in 1985, 802.11 technology created the industry standards for wireless product manufacture. It is from within this technology group that Vic Hayes tweaked the wireless Internet and would become known as the "father of Wi-Fi."

From there it was merely a hop, skip and jump to the fourth generation of cellular wireless (4G) standards that social media and wireless communication users enjoy today. Facebook aficionados in particular are known to congregate in hot spots that feature free access to the social network for laptops and cell phones.

The Impact on Communication Habits and Business
Harvard Business School proclaims social media and networking to be the "the most significant business development of 2010." Use of emails and phones has become a mobile endeavor that is no longer tied to the home- or office landline and stationary computer. Instead, it takes place while on the go, in transit, at the moment of opting to make a buying decision and also when actively pursuing business opportunities.

Entrepreneurs may have initially seen social media - most notably MySpace, Twitter and Facebook - as a playground for the younger generations. Yet as the true power of Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook creation began to shape business visibility in the online marketplace, companies had to scramble to make an appearance. Not surprisingly, less tech-savvy businesses were not as adept at presenting themselves to the consumer.

As a result, a good many businesses are now built around primarily the aspect of promoting other businesses through social media (and especially mobile social media) applications. Freelance writers, website builders and online marketers have grown a cottage industry around the function of introducing the world to small, midsized and larger businesses alike.

Case Study: Egypt and Tunisia
Mobile devices in conjunction with social media are also credited with influencing national politics. Cases in point are the recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Used to rally demonstrators, Facebook postings, mobile phone images and SMS messaging played a huge role in organizing a thus-far loose-knit regime opposition.

Using YouTube to transfer up-to-the minute information about events, protests and government responses to the entire world, 'sanctioned' local media outlets had no possibility to distort what was going on. Not only did social media shift the world's sympathies to be with the protesters, but when sharing pictures of what was happening, it was possible to motivate even the people within the countries to keep going and get even more people involved in the demonstrations.

Dispelling various incorrect claims made by the media, it became quickly apparent that the regimes of Tunisia and Egypt had failed, even as official liaisons denied any changes in power.

The Dark Side of Social Media
For all its benefits and the commercial advantages of social media applications, there is a decided downside to the mobility of the experience. For example, teenagers and even adults are spending a large portion of their days engaged in the virtual reality created by social media, which in turn affects school and work results. Who does not know someone who "just had to check their crops" before they wilted on Facebook's widely popular game Farmville?

Even more sinister is the peer pressure on teenagers to do "cool" things to show off, sometimes resulting in accidents, ill-advised meet-ups with predators and of course cyber-bullying by peers. There is a also an emerging culture that leads to a constant self-comparison with other social media users, especially by teenagers, resulting in possible psychological trauma and even depression. After all, it is difficult to not feel rejected if a friend or classmate fails to "like" a comment or suggestion.

What Awaits Us in the Near Future?
Trailblazers are busy making mobile devices faster, smaller and more powerful than ever. With the latest announcement of "brainwave to iPhone interface" from PLX XWave, wireless social media could soon become one with its users. These devices have the power to interpret brainwave activity and help shape the social media experience accordingly.

The already more commonplace text-to-speech and speech-to-text software -- along with the above mentioned mind-controlling device and simple headphones -- could even make hand held devices and laptops obsolete. Social media users may just opt to hear tweets/messages via a headphone and then post messages via speech-to-text technology.

Of course, this does precious little when it comes time for harvesting the crops on Farmville.

David Murton has been helping companies build and maintain their online relationships with customers since 2006. He is also a professional writer and blogger, with a particular interest in the open source Drupal platform. On a more personal note, David is an avid piano and accordion player, drawn especially to music of the classical and romantic periods.

Photo credit: Kaptain Kobold (Flickr) Labels: guest post, social media

View the original article here

The Uncommon Benefits of Social Media

We recognize that when you are brand-new and working to get something going, it is tough to gain a completely full understanding about something like social media specialist due to so much readily available information. Are you involved with social media marketing in your business? If you are not, what is holding you back? Of course it all depends on what you need whether it is just leads or increasing local brand awareness. If you are brand new to all this, then fear not because you can become a social media marketing whiz in less time than you think.

There were some arguments on our end about exactly what all to feature about social media marketing strategies. It is important to understand that the biggest companies in the world have a presence at the major social media sites. The usual battle cries of "take action" and "make consistent effort" are totally relevant, here. Lots of people talk about speed and getting to market quickly, but if you have not gotten involved yet than those ideas are a little not-applicable. You know what kind of action is needed, such as lead generation, and so then you simply construct your marketing campaign with that knowledge. Social media has opened up many different channels today, and it has made it easy for business to reach out to new markets across the globe - so why be limited? So of course you have heard so much about social media but perhaps were not completely sure about it. Don't stop yourself from growing or being limited by geography. Your business may not be suited for the world wide reach, and that is all right as you can do more in your own area. Even if you are an offline business, you still need to conform to the norms of social sites, and that basically means establishing a strong rapport with your niche audience. Do look into the app craze, but tread carefully here because Facebook is known for nuking apps with no explanation given.

You can take part in social marketing for either free or very low costs, but be careful about people who want to sell you a fan page for five hundred dollars. What's more important than finding the most effective tools is getting started with something, and then taking it from there. So don't spend a lot of time planning on what tools you should be using, but go with the most appropriate option you find to automate your social media efforts in favor of your business. Once you have your campaign in full bloom, then see about expanding it to other social sites. Do not get left behind in the dust with social media because it is definitely here to stay. You can easily get up to speed here, and the key is to find credible information about social marketing.

The Gamification of Social Media

Empire Avenue is the new game in town. It sits squarely in the social networking space, but it has a different twist - one from which I think businesses may be able to gain valuable insights, all while allowing people to enjoy themselves.

What is it?
Essentially, it is a rewards system that makes what we already do on the web   - create and share content - fun by making it a stock market-like atmosphere. You can earn money (their currency is "Eaves") by buying other people and you can see your own worth rise by getting other people to invest in you. When tied to other accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn and blogs, your net worth rises based on the content you either create or share. But like the other sites, it's also a social network itself. It's a chance to connect and brainstorm with others by finding affinity groups ("Communities") within Empire Avenue.

How to "win" at Empire Avenue
According to the team at Empire Avenue, there are two ways to win: by being an Investor or by being an Influencer:


While the world may be defined in these two separate buckets - creators and consumers - for most of us in the social space, it's not an either/or proposition; we're most likely creating and consuming. But if you're looking for a hot tip on who's a mover and shaker and is worthy of your investment, I'd recommend these two points:
Think of the people in your networks who are the most active content producers (tweets, videos uploaded or commented on, blog posts written, etc.) and invest in them, regardless of price;Search the "Recent Arrivals" for people you know who fit the description in #1 and heavily invest in them before their price rises. You'll be in on the ground level and well positioned for a long-term gain.
One point of interest: you can keep your activity to Empire Avenue if you like (investing, giving "Shout Outs," buying items), but the developers have created a way to make it more than just that: the rewards that you get for EA activity are limited in nature (dividends, currency for taking certain actions, etc.). By linking your social activity from other sites, you see your net worth rise more quickly. The main way the system does this is by using what's known as gamification. Yes, that's an actual term. By rewarding people with positive reinforcement for actions taken - much like Foursquare has become synonymous with - Empire Avenue uses a system of Achievements to recognize your progress. Below are some examples.

For a recent and in-depth look at how game theory is affecting the social and mobile space, take a look at what Brian Solis had to say about it ("The Games Businesses Play with Customers").

Is there more than just fun and games?
But let's get beyond the surface and look at the practical nature of what Empire Avenue has to offer. Robert Scoble, after interviewing the CEO Duleepa Wijayawardhana (DUPS), determined that one side feature he discovered was that it creates a way to better determine who's actually providing value in our networks.

Empire Avenue themselves have been pretty smart about their ecosystem, as they've already built in a revenue stream: there's The Shop, where people can purchase Luxury items such as airplanes, homes, boats, etc. For those who really want to rise to the top quickly, they can purchase Eaves with real cash. And I definitely see the potential for brands to enter the fray and sponsor items that they can offer for purchase.

Why I think Empire Avenue is onto something
Other sites such as Friendfeed, Quora or Klout all give us some information or let us interact with each other in some way, but they're each limited. To me, Empire Avenue is a much more holistic, three-dimensional system that is comprised of all of the digital grunts we get on Facebook and Twitter, as well as deeper forum-related discussions via the Communities, an aggregated stream of their activity, and - most importantly - peers' ratings of influence and effectiveness (via buys and sells). To see a really interesting conversation that Caleb Storkey had with a few influentials about this topic, check out his post.

That's a much more realistic and informative way to gauge influence, rather than a simple one-dimensional score such as Klout. I could see companies like Radian6 (recently acquired by SalesForce.com) acquiring Empire Avenue as an adjunct to their business. Think of the value they could add by giving clients a dashboard in which they could actively participate rather than simply consume information about the influencers they're trying to reach.

How do brands get involved?
While this may seem limited to individuals at this point, Empire Avenue does allow brands to get involved and has a separate business signup process. For well known brands, they lock down the stock symbol or brand name in order to preserve some semblance of order. We started accounts for Ford (FORD) and Lincoln (LINCOLN), linking our Facebook pages, YouTube channels and Twitter and Flickr accounts. We expect to add more content channels as we continue to explore the system. In the meantime, we've been lucky enough to see individuals investing in us, but we've also taken the important step of interacting with them (just as we do on every other social network) and we're investing in them as well.

"Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service." 
Other brands that have cropped up so far include Oreo, Sears, Audi and Applebees. Stay tuned as the gold rush begins. For a comprehensive roundup of other posts about this topic, as well as a set of recommendations and caveats for what it means for brands, please read - and then re-read - Jeremiah Owyang's post. And then take a look at Adriel Hampton's Game Mechanics blog.

I've just scratched the surface here; this is a very rich subject and I'll be interested to see how it plays out. We've seen other efforts fizzle out, but to me, this seems to have more potential. What do you think? Have you started an account yet?

Oh, and if you'd care to buy a few shares of me, I'm SMONTY and I think I'm still a value stock. :-)

Image credit: unlovablesteve (Flickr)

Labels: gamification, social networks, trends

View the original article here

The Social Media ProBook

He has been called "," "the best corporate social media lead on the planet," and Alan Mulally, the CEO of Ford Motor Company, called him "a visionary."

Currently on the staff of corporate communications in Ford Motor Company, Scott heads up the social media function and holds the title Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager. He is a strategic advisor on all social media activities across the company, from blogger relations to marketing support, customer service to internal communications and more, as social media is being integrated into many facets of Ford business.

Prior to joining Ford, Scott served as Consigliere for crayon and spent a number of years with PJA Advertising + Marketing, a boutique BtoB agency specializing in health sciences & high tech.

In addition to his consulting and agency background, Scott is an active blogger and podcaster. He writes about the intersection of advertising, marketing and PR at The Social Media Marketing Blog and also writes The Baker Street Blog, a literary undertaking. Scott has been featured in hundreds of news and business publications in print and on the web, in nearly twenty books, and on a variety of broadcast media, including NPR, CNN and Fox Business News. Scott is a recognized thought leader in the social media industry and frequently speaks at industry events.

Scott received his Master's in Medical Science from Boston University's School of Medicine concurrently with his MBA from BU's Graduate School of Management. He lives in the greater Detroit area with his wife and two young sons, golfs all too infrequently, and has a hidden talent for voice over work.

Oh, and one last little-known fact: Scott coined the Oxford Dictionary of English-accepted term "tweetup."

You may download a headshot here, courtesy of C.C. Chapman or here and here, courtesy of Becky Johns; a PDF version of Scott's bio is here .

Books in which Scott's work is featured:
Digital Strategies for Powerful Corporate Communicationsby Paul Argenti
Social Media Marketing for Dummiesby Shiv Singh
Real-Time Marketing and PR: How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Nowby David Meerman Scott
Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Webby Brian Solis
Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Businessby Josh Bernoff
Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movementsby Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church, and Spike Jones
Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Leadby Charlene Li
MicroMarketing: Get Big Results by Thinking and Acting Smallby Greg Verdino
Spend Shift: How the Post-Crisis Values Revolution Is Changing the Way We Buy, Sell and Liveby John Gerzema and Michael D'Antonio
Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Grow Your Businessby Amber Mac
The New Rules of Marketing & PRby David Meerman Scott
Twittervilleby Shel Israel
Six Pixels of Separationby Mitch Joel
Monkeys with Typewritersby Jemima Gibbons
Read This Firstby Ron Ploof
World Wide Raveby David Meerman Scott
Get Seenby Steve Garfield
Disclosures/Relationships

Scott Monty Bio

Scott speaks on social media at events, seminars and conferences around the world. His topic generally focuses on corporate use of social media, becoming an online spokesperson, and specifically on the progress that Ford has made in the recent past. If you're interested in booking Scott to speak at your event, please click here to submit a speaking request for Ford-related purposes or email me at speaking [AT] this site's URL (if you know what I mean) to send a general email request.. Scott's bio and headshot can be found in the "About Scott" tab above.

View the original article here

Global Map of Social Networking [INFOGRAPHIC]

Last July, I covered the work of Global Web Index, which offered a quick glimpse of data for global social network usage, which they called Global Web Index LITE.
Today, they shared their latest work with me - an infographic. The Global Map of Social Networking 2011 shows the size of active social networkers for each regional market and then segments them into three behavior types: messagers and mailers, joiners and creators of groups, and content sharers.

Here's the entire graphic as a Slidehshare embed:

You can also download the PDF directly from Global Web Index's website.

The legend that outlines social network penetration by country, enlarged for more clarity:

Are there any surprises for you in here? From the planning that I see many companies doing - not only in their marketing and communications efforts, but in their actual product planning and manufacturing - the BRIC markets (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are essential. That's borne out here as well - although it should be noted that Facebook has very little penetration into Russia and China currently.

To me, it's interesting to look at markets like Mexico, Italy, India, Russia, Malaysia and the Phillipines, where there is a greater percentage of people sharing content rather than those simply sending messages. This means that you need to have a content plan that enables active sharing of content - photos, videos, embeddable documents and slides, etc.

If you're in a global business, how does this infographic make you think about your plans? If you're based in a single market, how do the numbers reflect what you've seen?
-- Labels: global, social media, tools

View the original article here

Should Salespeople be Using their Personal Social Accounts for Business?

There is little doubt that social media has an impact on sales. Companies use it every day to generate leads, increase branding, and improve public perceptions. As a marketing tool at the company level, few would contest the potential. What about at the salesperson level?

That was the question that we tried to answer this week during a seminar in Connecticut. We spoke to 80 sales people and another 30 managers at a dealer group to show them the ins and outs of utilizing social media on the personal level. The group is doing well applying social media principals to their company pages, but can individual sales people utilize sites like Facebook to improve their personal sales?

As with everything, there are pros and cons.

If there’s one thing that social media is great for that companies rarely apply it to, it’s customer service. The goal of keeping customers happy while increasing repeat and referral business is a strength of the social web. For individuals, here are the ways that it can help.

Instant Gratification: When someone buys a car, they’re normally in a good mood. They have stepped up into something that they’re probably pretty proud of and sharing it with friends and family is inevitable. A salesperson who has built a personal relationship during the sales process can easily ask someone to be their friend on Facebook, to share a picture shot on an iPhone of them in front of their new car, and to mention them by name in the post. The chances of getting a referral quickly has never been easier.Simple Follow Up: Checking in on people to see how their product is doing for them is a challenge today. People don’t always answer their phones and they answer emails even less frequently. Texting, Facebook, and Twitter have become, for many, the easiest way to get a response. When finding out if someone has gotten their first free oil change, taken their CSI survey, or told their friends about you, social media is the easiest venue.Aggressively Non-Aggressive: After the sale is done, some people do not like being hounded by their salesperson. Social media is a place that can be non-confrontational, allowing sales people to become actual friends with their customers, sharing experiences and commenting on each others’ travails. It’s easier to stir up repeat and referral business a month after you’ve wished someone a happy birthday or congratulated them on getting a new job than when hounding them on phone or email month in, month out.

There aren’t just cons. There are flat-out risks for some. Our personal lives and business lives are not intended to be intertwined. In social media, the lines are more difficult to define when separating the two.

The Personal Faux Pas: Just because a salesperson is professional and polite at work doesn’t mean they don’t get wild and crazy outside of work. What happens on Facebook often stays on Facebook and can turn people off even if the sales process itself was flawless.Added Work: With anything that can drive business, work must be put in. Some sales people do not have the time to attend to their regular customers and still prospect or follow up through social media.The Addiction Potential: Getting into social media for business purposes can lead people to using social media for personal reasons. Sheer exposure to the “fun side” of social media can turn a productivity win into a major failure if the exposure turns into counter-productivity.

Both of these lists are incomplete. There are much more pros and cons to using social media on an individual level in sales. Are there others that you can think of that I missed?

View the original article here

Technology, Social Media, and Their Affect on Long-Distance Relationships

Social media often gets blamed for bad things that happen in relationships. We now have the opportunity to find old girlfriends and boyfriends on Facebook, make new relationships on Tagged.com, and see things even have random encounters on, well, sites that we wouldn’t link to from Soshable. There’s another side to the story – social media and advancing technologies can be used to keep relationships going, particularly long-distance ones.

Mobile technology is obviously one way this is possible. We are connected almost everywhere we go if we have a smartphone, tablet, or even “old school” cell phones. Even when we’re on the road or in a plane, internet connections are often available and cell coverage is spreading the farthest corners of the earth.

There’s a scene in Transformers 2 where the two protagonists are separated by distance but attempt to maintain their relationship by having a “date night” on video. The movie may not have been worth watching, but this scene is one that is becoming a much more common occurrence in the real world. Video chatting and multimedia communications are making it to where couples don’t have be together to have face-to-face interactions.

The infographic below by our friends at Rounds shows the evolution of the long-distance relationship and points to our current situation as one where having face time (even on Apple Facetime) is easier today than ever before. Click to enlarge.

View the original article here

Social Media & Real Estate

Editor's note: the following is a guest post by Herman Chan.

Social media is where people immediately go to for recommendations for anything and everything, from eateries to vacation spots to even real estate. As a service-oriented business predicated on spheres of influences, social media is more relevant than ever for this industry. Real estate is all about referrals and who you know...which, if you think about it, is what social media is all about.

Information overload is what most people feel when researching real estate. It's overwhelming the amount of data available on the internet. Some of it is junk, some of it is advertising, and a lot of it is just wrong. People are starved to get quality reliable information they can trust. So consumers gravitate to sites and communities that shared their interests and points of views. Sites like Yelp, Facebook, Branch Out, Twitter exploded because they satisfied this need. Knowing what their peers think and find interesting helps shape a consumer's opinion. People are not looking for just info anymore, they are looking for recommendations. It's the power of feedback. The testament of a testimonial. It helps them edit down their choices.

Real estate used to be a private transaction between a Realtor and client. However, it is increasingly now a shared social experience for a community. Open house visitors upload photos of what they saw, buyers blog about their inspection, sellers search Twitter streams for mentions of their house, agents get rated online. Today's buyers and sellers rely heavily on social media. Yet this is lost on many of my colleagues who cling to an era when agents were the gatekeepers of info. Tsk tsk.

So, next time you interview a real estate agent, ask them:

1. What are your strategies for marketing my property?
If they just mention fliers, open houses and website, tell them this ain’t the 1990’s! If they cite social media as part of their plan, ensure they really possess the social media savoir faire to meet your needs. (ie, Posting once a month on their facebook business page doesn't cut it. They obviously have a facebook page for the sake of having a facebook page, which is useless to you as a client).

2. How big is your social following?
If an agent has 10,000 twitter followers who hang on to their every word about real estate, that is 20,000 eyeballs on your listing. That’s more exposure than any flyer or open house will get you. One tweet to plug your home and it is on the radar of thousands of people.

3. Who follows you and how engaged are they?
Perhaps your agent's online tribe isn't the largest, but it may be an active targeted demographic. It’s a good sign when local businesses, past clients and even other real estate professionals are fans of a Realtor. (You can tell a lot about how engaged an agent is by reading their online chatter with other followers.) These people who have “liked” the agent’s page actively chose to read what that agent posts. They clearly expressed an interest in your agents business and want to keep tabs on their local market. With any luck, they will share/viralize your property to their sphere as well!

Bottom line: The traditionally stodgy real estate industry is finally catching on that social media can't be ignored. An agent with strong social media savvy can command a lot of attention towards your house for sale. The more people who are aware of your listing, the more likely someone will write an offer. In this market, a seller can not afford to lose out on any marketing edge, especially when Gen X/Y and Millenials are driving the market now. And guess what, they live on social media. Select your agent representation accordingly.

Real Estate Expert Herman Chan is a videoblogger, speaker, and writer whose social media savvy has made him an authority on branding and cementing one’s online presence. Check him out on www.habitatforhermanity.com or follow him on Twitter at @hermanity. Labels: guest post, social media

View the original article here