Brian Brady, contributing to the BloodhoundBlog, shared some information learned from a discussion about marketing to the Wired generation. The panel consisted of college students, and the discussion was moderated by Guy Kawasaki.
Everyone who reads this blog and works in the real estate profession should read, mark, and inwardly digest the information from Brian’s post.
Brian’s final paragraph may be a bit facetious, but he has hit on a critical issue:
Does this mean that the real estate weblog of the future will be written by Paris Hilton on Facebook? If you sell a home to Matt Leinart, you’ll want to make sure your Facebook profile publishes his video endorsement (cross-posted on YouTube). That Facebook profile will need a widget that allows for a text message question so you can provide quick, relevant information.
When I think of the real estate customer of the future, I think of my brother. My brother (another Bryan, with a “y”) is currently a college student at High Point University in North Carolina. He, and just about everyone he knows, has a Facebook profile. For them, Facebook is absolutely critical to the way they communicate and interact with each other and the world at large. I converse with my brother far more through Facebook, text messages, instant messages and email than I do on the phone. He doesn’t use a land-line (neither do I, for that matter). He reads the newspaper, but online and through his RSS reader, not in the paper form. Unlike the students on the panel, he does write a blog (I’ll take a bit of credit for getting him started there). I know he reads a lot of other blogs, too (even that of his big brother, from time to time). He fits right into the demographic of the panel.
The question becomes, how will he find his REALTOR when he needs to buy a home in a few years? This is assuming, of course, that he isn’t buying a home in the Charlottesville area. I hope I know who his REALTOR of choice will be in that situation. I’m willing to bet my bottom dollar that he won’t be trolling the newspaper for REALTOR ads. I’m willing to bet that one of the very first things he will do when he moves to another area is meet people through the Facebook network for that area. I’m willing to bet that the first way he will contact a REALTOR is by email, IM, or text message. The REALTOR that has the most exposure to all of those means of those communication stands the best chance of working with my brother– and the MILLIONS of other prospective customers just like him.
Mark my words– any REALTOR who is not on Facebook will be irrelevant in 10 years, maybe even sooner.
With that said, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. are just the tip of the iceberg. Those types of social networking sites are still in relative infancy. I am sure that people will come up with all sorts of creative uses for them and even create new networks that are even more effective. For better or worse, all of this technology is creating a “want it yesterday” world. As this trend continues, I think that people’s tolerance for those who aren’t utilizing the technology will go down. It still astonishes me that there are REALTORS out there who aren’t proficient with email. And heck, email is becoming old-fashioned as we speak. The point that I am trying to make is that the Internet is changing the world faster than most people can keep up with. If you are a real estate professional, and you aren’t at least trying to keep up, woe be unto you.
Technorati Tags: real estate, realtor, charlottesville, virginia, facebook, myspace, linkedin, guy kawasaki, technology, marketing, web 2.0, social networking, realtorsaurus
