Social Media will Change the way Realtors do Business

Some say social media is the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution others say current craze and will pass soon.  

“Social media is not a fad, it’s is a game-changer,” says Stefan Swanepoel, co-author of the new Swanepoel SOCIAL MEDIA Report 2010. “Social Media didn’t just begin overnight. It’s a natural and very important part of the evolution of the Internet.”

According to Swanepoel by 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers and 96% of them have already joined a social network.

The origins of the Internet can be traced back to 1957 with email arriving in 1971, the introduction of Usenet in 1979, Listserv in 1986, Internet Relay Chat or IRC in 1988 and personal websites including chat and discussion groups 1991. By 2004 the web had evolved into a new and more sophisticated communication tool; Web 2.0 was born. It changed the Internet from just providing the ability to gain information to a platform for interacting with anyone, anywhere, anytime via voice, video and messaging. Web 2.0 became a network for conversations with the activity of sharing forming the basis for many of those conversations. And that set the foundation for the launch of Social Media as it is known it today.

In less than one-and-a-half decades the web evolved from browsing to searching to sharing – from Web Sites to Social Media.

·         Browsing—To surf the web, users typed in the address of the destination they wanted to find like Realtor.com.  Or they went to portals with links classified by a subject such as “real estate.” As a result, companies spent big money on banner ads and branding campaigns to lure web surfers to their sites.

·         Searching—As the web exploded it became harder for users to find what they wanted with any single website. Keywords ruled as web surfers clicked through lists of web results dished up by search engines. Google, with its simple look and super-smart algorithms, refined surfing and online advertising.

·         Sharing—Today people are increasingly customizing personal websites, blogs, social media and network pages with little programs known as widgets. The real power of these simple services, created by individuals or large companies, is that they’re shareable and can be distributed widely and easily.

Today your profile, posts and comments on most social media networks will be available for many thousands, maybe even everyone to see – forever. It is therefore vitally important that you conduct yourself correctly.

It’s all about the conversation, the sharing and the value to bring to the other members of the discussion. The more selfless your actions the better your following and ultimate return will be.