I think of myself as someone who stays ahead of the trends, unlike most agents who wait till something appears in Realtor Magazine (I think they plan on covering slap bracelets and stone washed Jordache Jeans this month).

I got onto Twitter and Facebook in the early stages and watched as real life people grew in FB (as opposed to teenie-boppers on myspace) while twitter hit the news and was overrun with useless people saying useless things. It’s a great technology, but it’s not a lead generator.

Social Media has to make sense. If you don’t have something interesting to say you can’t fake it. I try to explain Twitter to my friends and family and they just say “Why? Why would I want to ‘follow’ somebody? What can they possibly be saying that is that interesting?” The answer is probably nothing.

I use and love FB to this very day. I keep up with friends and learn new things, I don’t however generate leads, although I have met a few people who I worked with who found me on facebook they would have found my website anyway. I stay up with clients who I formed a connection with and became my friends.

None of this will ever replace blogging and if you don’t have a blog than you certainly shouldn’t be microblogging because there’s no end game. You’ve got 1000 “friends” who still won’t pick up the phone to call you when they’re ready to move because you haven’t given them anything more than 140 character quips on life.

Keep up the good work!

“I am implementing some changes to our social media strategy, including revamping our blogging efforts and cutting out some of the channels that overlap too much.”

Overlap is so common in re.net social media. There are many social re.net networks in cyberland to post listings, blog for free, promote services that, in my opinion, an agent’s B2C message can be diluted and caries little weight.

How many networks does it take to get to the top of the re.net lolly pop?

Depends on who you refer to as an RE.net Rockstar. I know a few , some are vendors, some are bleeding edge re professionals, most all of them are very insightful and honest business people who share what they believe to be the unvarnished truth of what works and what doesn’t and realize that much of this is still uncharted territory. To say that social media is “overused” is probably a misnomer – abused, misused, unglued, yes. (sound like Vince the slap chop dude) If you’re “overusing” these kind of tools, you have entirely too much time on your hands.

“Many of the social media darlings of the re.net are vendors (and I am a fan of many of you).”

There are many vendors in the RE.net that have devoted resources, cash and a great deal of transparent time in an effort to advance web 2.0 in the real estate vertical – the return on investment for this effort is abysmal at best. It’s an awesome branding opportunity, but as far as direct marketing goes, it’s not a business generator, at least that’s been our experience. Granted, we have not made an attempt to sell directly in most of these venues. I’ve been doing some evaluation of the efforts of the past couple of years and I am implementing some changes to our social media strategy, including revamping our blogging efforts and cutting out some of the channels that overlap too much.

“Their consumers are Realtors not home buyers or home sellers. If we are going to play in the social media pool we need to remember who OUR consumers are and spend as much time as we can connecting to them.”

As the uncharted territory I referred to early becomes more familiar, best practices will emerge.

I agree with Toby, Mike and Spencer that SMM can be invaluable. However, agents need to think about how they are going to strategically use Social Media to connect with consumers (B2C)or to connect to those other real estate professionals and vendors who will help them further their business goals.

Spencer mentions using the re.net to learn more about the industry. I think this is a great point. I learn more about current trends, legal updates, sales strategies and marketing every morning from my feed reader than I do in a year of weekly office meetings.

Are the rockstars of the re.net to blame for the way too many of use social media?

Many of the social media darlings of the re.net are vendors (and I am a fan of many of you). They use social media to connect to their consumers throughout their market – Realtors throughout the U.S. They travel to rebarcamps and Inman and collect friends on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin like it’s going out of style.

Their consumers are Realtors not home buyers or home sellers.

If we are going to play in the social media pool we need to remember who OUR consumers are and spend as much time as we can connecting to them.