An online survey, conducted by Postling, of more than 500 real estate professionals in the USA has found:[tweetmeme]

• 84% of real estate agents use social media.
• 79% use Facebook and 48% use Twitter.
• Most (55%) feel comfortable using social media, while 26% are only somewhat comfortable.
• Agents are missing opportunities by not using video for property marketing.
• 29% of internet searches result in a prospect contacting an agent.
• 45% of searches lead to a prospect walking through an open for inspection.
• Real estate agents are ahead of other industries in the use of Facebook but they’re behind in the use of Twitter and WordPress.

These stats demand agents rethink their web and video strategies.

According to a recent article on Mashable Real estate professionals are using social media to achieve real results. How are those results being achieved?

Matthew Shadbolt, Director of Internet Marketing at the Corcoran Group says that it’s all about developing relationships. His company’s goal? To “foster a kind of openness and a dialogue where people can feel they can talk to us about the things they are worried about.” It’s a long, long way from Tom Hopkins style trial closes!

On Corcoran’s YouTube channel CEO Pam Liebman answers questions posed to her via Twitter. When asked about her feelings between Facebook and Google her response was: “People find us on Google and we talk to people on Facebook…it’s a real deep way of getting to know our clients and interacting with them.” For Liebman the two platforms are complimentary. Google is where the relationship begins and it’s extended on Facebook.

But Corcoran’s efforts don’t finish with Facebook. Shadbolt proactively leaves local neighbourhood tips on Foursquare and Gowalla for users to find and maintains a highly conversational presence on Twitter.

He avoids pimping company listings though.

While an occasional listing may be appreciated by your social media community, many experts advocate engaging your audience with industry knowledge and an expert perspective, rather than alienating users with useless information. Because there are so many factors that must align to make a listing pertinent to a single customer, such as pricing, location and size, there is a high probability that most listings do not pertain to most people in a given social media audience.

That’s a sentiment shared by James Kimmons who believes that promoting listings on social media is old-thinking:

Just like that would be a stupid thing to do, it’s also not smart to take a budding new marketing medium and permanently damage its ability to promote your business because you keep placing your listings there. Visitors to your Twitter page, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts really don’t want to see every new listing you take…really. Continuing to push them there will only alienate visitors, causing them to leave at some point.

Promote you, your business, and your expertise in your local area real estate market. Do it with market commentary, education and statistics…The “old ways” are causing destructive marketing by real estate professionals in the new Internet world.

The place to promote listings according to Kimmons is on aggregation sites. Here in Australia that includes all the major portals. But equally it means promoting them on the agency web site.

But that’s not all an agency website should do. The Corcoran site includes a variety of Neighborhood Guides that help people new to an area pick where they’d prefer to live. Much of the content comes from external sites.

So how are you building your brand with social media? Do you have a strategy?

The Power of Relationships & Influencers- Social Endorsement- Part I | Real Estate Magazine – Real Estate Opinion Column – AgentGenius: “Popularity gives you a voice, but social capital makes your message matter- social capital is granted, not purchased, nor demanded.”

There appears to be little conflict between real estate and social networking in the real estate industry – or so it seems on the surface. According to a recent article real estate agents are jumping on the social networking band wagon in droves.

I wonder if there’s going to be some big train wrecks down the track as agents shift between firms and possibly make negative comments about current and past employers. And what of the potential for agents to over step the legislative mark without the knowledge of their principals.

One wonders if the genie, once out of the bottle, can ever be recaptured.