You can’t erase decades of legacy media influence on the human psyche in just a few years of twitter and blogging. Those sources will still matter to most people, just less and less going forward. The hierarchy of importance for media outlets has been well established for at least 2 generations of Americans. That ain’t gonna change overnight, no matter how many people reach Techcrunch or Mashable.

Not to mention, much of the target audience for some of the folks who are in the social media consulting business are the type of folks who value those sources, so. . .

I was interviewed and quoted for a Wall Street Journal article about twitter for business a few months back. My Mom was thrilled, my mother-in-law was thrilled. My initial reaction was that it was cool. Then I saw the paper sitting on my kitchen counter and thought– eh. Five years from now, the reaction from the new generation of digital natives will probably be something along the lines of, “so what?”

That article would lend me credibility among certain circles, and absolutely nothing among others. It’s all a matter of which circle I would rather be in.

Heya darlin’ Of course there can be a balance. But not if the SM activists/leaders are claiming that Social Media is a Major Paradigm Shift that Changes Everything!!1!BBQ1!one!!

I’ve always thought that the fundamental shift happened when the Internet became widespread back in 1996 or so (or earlier if you were on the pre-Netscape academic Internets). But even then, marketing itself did not change so fundamentally.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say that social media means the end of business as usual; you’ve always characterized it as yet another arrow in the quiver — a very powerful one, but just another tool. The leaders and the savants, on the other hand, hype the living crap out of social media. Whuffie Factor is one of the prime examples.

I think if someone is going to talk the talk, then it’s only fair to take a look at whether s/he is walking the walk.

-rsh

I totally get your point about the illuminati not being completely “transparent” (talk about a play-on-words) – and as much as I am a total SM activist, there is still a lot of hype and status associated with “legacy media”

That is precisely why I advocate the BROKER (or the Admin/Operations staff in the case of teams) focus on tracking and metrics. That would be one solid value that they can provide to the agent.

-rsh

Now what and how do you track? How much money divided by tweets?

I think the tracking will get better once people settle in more. Real Estate agents are typically D or I on the DISC and really do not like to be bothered with things like tracking and paperwork.

Do we start tracking our time and assigning a dollar value to the time? That is how phone prospecting is measured.

Of course RobH we would love for you to study and write about how to measure.

Social media is perfect for real estate as our job is connecting people. Since the Internet is the 1st stop for most home buyers, of course it is effective to have a voice and a presence where the clientele is. Same thing for politicians. When the big-boys see how the mom & pops are succeeding with social media, it won’t be long before you’ll see tweets sponsored by Coke and Facebook sponsored by Revlon

I’m sure it took awhile for the covered wagon companies to change their business model when the automobile came about but the smart ones started building chassis!

And for those considering stepping into this ‘new’ space with more than a little trepidation, I think it’s fair to say they are comforted by the validation that ‘the Wall Street Journal, US News & World Report, The Montreal Gazette, Newsweek’ affords.