Too many agents get caught up with SOS (Shiny Object Syndrome). If you want to effectively use social media in real estate, you have to follow the three R's...

It's called social media, not social selling!

Many agents have created successful referral based business by using social media with intent, and not by posting listings.

Let's look at the first R.

I have asked hundreds of real estate professionals this question:

Is building relationships a key component of success in your business?

The answer is unanimously yes.

So why do so many agents fail to remember this when using social networks?

It's as simple as it sounds.

How can real estate professionals build relationships through social media?

We have become a nation of over-sharers. That is good for agents. Become a good listener and a lot of valuable social intelligence can be collected.

Use this intelligence to reach out, connect, and strengthen relationships.

Let's look at Facebook and see how this can be accomplished

First, relationships are not built through Facebook Business Pages. In fact, 99% of agent business pages should probably be deleted.

Why? Because the page is basically invisible, and why would anyone waste valuable time maintaining an invisible page?

Facebook's Open Graph works much like Google's search algorithm. Agent pages usually have very few likes and very little interaction with each post. Facebook gives these posts very little weight, meaning very few, if any of the "likers" of the agent page see the posts in their newsfeeds.

So how can agents be effective on Facebook?

Facebook users need to use their profiles.

For those that claim it is a violation of Facebook's Terms of Service to use the profile for business, I have a question.

Wasn't Facebook built to help build relationships?

So how is it a violation for agents to use Facebook in this way?

It's not.

There is one key strategy that must be employed.

It's called custom Facebook friend lists.

Facebook custom friend lists allow users to filter the noise out of the Facebook NewsFeed and target outgoing posts.

Imagine a custom friend list comprised of a real estate professionals top clients. Clients that regularly refer business to them.

How difficult would it be to check this list daily and see only their updates? Wouldn't it be easy like, comment, share or even call these very important people? Of course it would. Lists make this easily possible.

The second R is Research. Many social networks make it easy to find posts, discussions, or groups engaged in conversations about specific topics.

Why wouldn't an agent use this to increase their network?

We will look at two options to accomplish this.

Twitter is often misunderstood as a noisy stream of inane commentary.

That does exist. I choose to ignore that and use Twitter to find content, follow thought leaders, and build new relationships.

I use Hootsuite.com to help filter the noise of Twitter. Much like Facebook lists, HootSuite allows for separate lists and filters.

As a nation of over-sharers, there are ample opportunities to listen in and gather information we can use to our advantage.

Of course, Google is useful for research.

Other tools to help with research include Rapportive and Contactually

Use these tools to locate people to connect with and build relationships with.

Reputation management is the 3rd R.

Critical in today's online world to pay attention to the online information about us and our brand.

It is as simple as regularly searching our names and brands on Google.

Is there a tool to help?

There is. Google Alerts.

Easy to set up and easy to use.

Anytime a search term entered into an alert is found during Google's routine "work", an email is delivered with a link to the contec containing the search term.

Create searches for your name and any variations, your brand, other key people in your company, and even competitors.

It takes one socially connected, disgruntled customer to put a huge dent in your online reputation.

The first step to correcting this is to know that it exists.

This is where most people fail.

Summary -

Focus on tools and strategies that pass the test of the 3 R's.

Many tools and technologies are marketed to real estate professionals. Examine the claims closely and question whether they help with one or more of the 3 R's.