How about anti-social media marketing?

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Responding to Brian Brady’s BloodhoundBlog post about the profits and pitfalls of social media marketing, here — surprise! — is my contrarian take on the subject.

More to howl about...

6 Comments

jim canion says:

Greg
It is hard to tell you are an introvert from your written word. You are so opinionated, direct, rude,
sometimes even vile in your comments that you always
provoke a response. However those are the very things
that make you so interesting. You usually have as many
disagreeing with your ideas as those who agree but
most love your ability to write and convey your ideas
in a forceful,unique, and passionate manner. You make
life a richer experience.
Jim Canion
Connect Realty.com

September 10, 2009 — 5:54 am
Ian Greenleigh says:

A true contrarian you are, in the spirit of Hitchens and so many before him.

My experience with social media marketing has been positive, as you know, but you make some interesting points. With regard to superficial “relationships” and such, I think all of us develop a virtual BS detector at some point that either allows us to navigate the SM world or makes us become callous to it completely. When that BS radar is pinging nonstop, I can see why people would want to surface and jump ship. In your case, however, you never dived in. That seems more respectable than giving it little effort and expecting it to be some sort of windfall, only to quit when the easy money never arrives.

It’s simple. You know what you like and you know what you’re good at.

September 10, 2009 — 9:32 am
Joe Strummer says:

I wouldn’t have thought you were an INTJ. I would’ve thought you were slightly ENTJ. I’m a huge INTJ. But you should read: Caring for your Inner Introvert.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200303/rauch

I hate idle small talk. Love people insofar as they can teach me things. And I’ve kept in touch with Greg four years after he helped me buy my house because he was an interesting person.

Excellent post though on social media, because I really have thought I *should* do social media for my law practice, but haven’t really *wanted* to do social media. I am on facebook, but most of what fascinates me are the occasional idea voiced by my friends, not what they’re doing in their lives.

I think we were separated at birth in some way Greg.

September 11, 2009 — 6:21 pm
- Comment by post author
  
  Greg Swann says:
  
  > I wouldn’t have thought you were an INTJ. I would’ve thought you were slightly ENTJ.
  
  Depending on the version of Briggs Myers, I can test ESTJ, but that’s from deliberately working to become a salesmonster. When you’re alone in a half-empty cafeteria and you pick up your tray and turn to find a seat, that’s when you discover if you’re an introvert or an extrovert: Are you looking for a table with an empty seat, or are you looking for an empty table? I always go for the empty table that is surrounded by many other empty tables.
  
  > I think we were separated at birth in some way Greg.
  
  I really love it that you’re here. You provide a very welcome client’s-eye-view on the real estate business, and I know I’m not all alone when I get to the hard-core libertarian arguments.
  
  September 12, 2009 — 10:40 am
Greg Dallaire says:

Greg,

You’ve definetaly found what has worked for you. For instance this community and your extremely strong web 2.0 presence.

I’m always trying to analyze my time and what activities benefit my bottom line the most.

My personal friends suprisingly have been the least helpful, it’s the past-clients the networking that I do that produces the majority of my business which happens to be referral based.

All the social media stuff is like anything if you want it to be truly beneficial to your business bottom line you unfortunately have to put in alot of effort. But over time your relationships will grow.

For you it’s not something that you have any desire in and I respect you for not jumping into something that would probably make you miserable.

Brian’s continuation post of SMM is pretty good.

September 13, 2009 — 10:04 am
Tim O'Keefe says:

Greg-
Social media is nothing more than an opportunity to network.
All it is, is digital networking. How practical that is on facebook or twitter is extremely questionable. Especially in real estate. Real estate buyers sellers are thus so for only a moment in time. So they are on these mediums without wearing those uniforms. They are on there as Coaches, charities, alumni, hobbyists etc.

In my opinion you must hunt out the groups where the buyers and sellers lurk and resonate with you. For me to hang out in a quilting group would be strange;-)But not so if you are into that kind of thing And then be a useful member of that group finally taking thought leadership/authority in that group.And then get together and grow the relationship. The other way is to pick up the phone and old school network.
It helps hugely if these groups are somehow tied to your market locality.

And therein is the problem with ROI and social media. The right groups and right localities simply do not exist, at least in many of the more hyped social sites. There may however, be other web locations/forums where these groups exist. Also a business is not really a business if it is not able to be replicated.

September 16, 2009 — 2:22 pm