Here is the audio from my 10-minute brain dump (it went almost 15, sorry Brad) at Inman Real Estate Connect in San Francisco on August 6, 2009.
And here is the formatted transcript of the presentation.
Opening Context
Thanks, Brian. I want to say something first to the three ladies who were standing in line behind me at Starbucks on my way over here. There you are, right there. I agree with you. Ten minutes is not anywhere near enough time to cover this topic. They did not know I was standing in front of them when they made that comment.
As technology continues to advance and expand in its reach and utility, it is becoming increasingly important to understand that technology is just a tool. That is all it gives us: tools. They are meant to be used in the context of achieving our goals. They do not endow us with superpowers, and they do not give us skills that did not exist before we started using them.
Understanding our goals, and understanding those goals in the context of our brand, is a prerequisite to using any of these tools. We define brand as a commonly held set of beliefs about what you deliver and how you deliver it. If you skip this step, you risk chasing shiny objects and becoming a tool of the tool. Trust me, you do not want to be seen as a tool.
Understanding your culture and what needs to change in order to effectively use these tools matters more than the tools themselves. Context is infinitely more important than the technology.
So yes, pay attention to new tools. Come to conferences like this where people give brain dumps and pass you URLs to cool new sites. But always filter those tools through your goals and your brand, and only use what actually helps you achieve them.
When I was asked to do this brain dump today, I changed the title and even changed the number of ideas because I want to focus on behavior. I want to focus on concepts that help you think differently about social media in the context of your goals. I am going to present eight ideas.
1) Look Outside Real Estate
If one of your goals is to help your agents attract more people to their open houses, do not pay attention to what other people in real estate are doing. You would be better off watching how street vendors in Los Angeles attract people to constantly moving carts, or how a pie maker in Portland gets attention by publishing a menu on Twitter.
You will learn more from that than by watching other REALTORS.
Innovation always comes from outside your industry. Always.
2) Move Offline Relationships Online
This sounds simple, and for an individual REALTOR it really is. Take your Gmail database, hook it up to Twitter or Facebook, and see who is already there.
I cannot tell you how many times I have sat in rooms with brokers and organizations with hundreds or even thousands of REALTORS arguing about whether they should spend time on social media because they do not know what percentage of their audience is online.
You have a database of customers. You have their email addresses. Put them in a file and upload it to Facebook. Just check. It is that simple.
If you are still handing out business cards that only have a phone number and email address, you are missing an opportunity. Every interaction should expose the social graph of the person you meet. A phone number and email address are no longer enough.
3) Care Publicly About Something
I want you to care deeply about something, and I want you to be very public about it.
One of the things I am most proud of in the real estate industry is how willing people are to open their email lists and their checkbooks for causes they believe in. I see this constantly through my wife’s charity.
I want organizations to take this a step further. Move beyond writing checks and start asking, “How can I help you spread your message using my own social capital?”
When you do this, two things happen. Your dollars go further, and your reach expands. At the same time, listening to how these organizations talk about their audience forces you to rethink how you talk to yours.
4) Share Openly and Often
You have no idea what the conversational trigger point is for another human being. Neither do I.
I have been married almost thirteen years, and I still do not know all of those trigger points. I never will.
I was traveling with my partner Bill Lider and took a picture of a slot machine that let you share winnings socially. I did not understand it, but it was interesting, so I posted it on Twitter. He asked why I did that.
I told him I treat social media like a business traveler sitting next to me. If something catches my attention and I would comment on it to a friend, I share it.
You never know what will create a conversation. It is amazing what does.
Yes, too much “I just went to lunch” is bad. Too much listing spam is bad. But balance creates diversity, and diversity creates connection.
5) Listen With Intent
There are many tools that let you listen to conversations happening online. Most are built for individuals.
Organizations should go further. APIs are simple enough that organizations can build their own listening tools and pass that information to their REALTORS.
If you want to help your REALTORS, listen for them. Tell them what you are hearing. Help them understand what their communities are saying. Build tools that are specific to your organization. It is not that expensive.
Great tools already exist. Build your own too.
6) Target Someone Unreachable
I am in love with David Armano. I love his visual thinking models. I see him as unreachable.
Because of that, I had to craft a very specific strategy to start a conversation with him. In doing so, it made me ask why I do not use the same level of intention with people I think are reachable.
Do different things on purpose. Pay attention to how your behavior changes. Then apply those lessons across your strategy.
It will change how you communicate.
7) Teach a Newbie
I do not care how little you think you know. You know more than someone just starting out.
You should teach newbies because they ask stupid questions. Those questions force you to think clearly about what you are doing and why you are doing it.
That is why organizations should offer training even if they think they are not good at social media. Teaching refocuses you on purpose.
8) Meet Face to Face
If you do not want to meet people face to face, get out of real estate.
At the organizational level, open your conference rooms. Make them available to the community. Let people hold meetups and tweetups there.
People are starving for places to connect. Opening your doors builds enormous social capital.
Whole Foods figured this out by letting groups meet inside their stores. You can do the same. Be the organization that welcomes people in.
Closing
Stop focusing on tools. Focus on behavior. Think about what makes you unique in real life and apply that context to how you use technology.
None of these tools are magic. But you may find magic ways to use them.
Thank you.
Outstanding! I will put some of this excellent information to use today!
Thank you.
Wow, what an awesome little 10 or 15 minute video. You may finally explained Twitter in way that I actually understand.