Still on the fence about social media?

If Facebook were a country, it would be the 4th largest between the U.S. and Indonesia

Are You Still Wondering Whether or Not You Need to Engage in Social Media?

Numerous articles have been written describing strategies for engaging in social media, who is on social media, and where it is headed. But many of us still believe it's a fad or just a time suck, while others understand it's a fundamental shift in how we communicate and use it to build relationships and gain new business.

Which is it? The truth is, it can become a waste of time or your new BFF, depending upon how you use it.



While the poll is still open, we've logged hundreds of responses, and almost 60% of Realtors said they do not blog, use Facebook, LinkedIn, or Tweet. Because of these results, we think its important now to step back and look at some statistics on social media to understand the impact it's making in the marketplace.

• By 2010, Gen Y (Echo-boomers - born between 1979-1994) will outnumber Baby Boomers and 96% of them have joined a social network. This generation and Gen Z following, consider e-mail passe.

• Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen in 2009! Do you plan on working another decade or so? These students will be your first-time home buyers within that time frame.

• 80% of companies use LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees.

• The fastest growing segment on Facebook is, surprise, 55-65 year old females. Selling vacation homes anyone?

• YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.

• Fifty-four percent of bloggers post content or tweet daily. There are 200,000,000 blogs.

There are many more statistics, but as you can see, social media is not going away and is becoming more main stream, even for business communication. Don't abandon e-mail and cell phones yet, just be sensitive and be open if your Realtor offers social media as an option, too!


Thanks to HWA for this article