Just what are Facebook'ers thinking with Smiles?
There are lots of valid ways for Facebook friends to communicate with each other, but are smile, gift and cute animal requests going to help you as a real estate agent, stand out from the crowd?
It sure is cute, but I feel somewhat deluged - I just recently received five within a few hours of each other and two were from the same person within a couple of minutes!?!
These applications make it seemingly very easy to participate in social media, but let me be blunt -
It's too impersonal to make a meaningful interaction.
Let's face it if you have over 500 friends on Facebook (unless you are a genius at communicating) many of these people can be classed as acquaintances. If you are a real estate agent these acquaintances may or may not be future clients.
So will a cute doggy picture and an invitation to send something back create a relationship with an acquaintance that will lead to business or future referrals?
This begs the same question framed another way: "Are you more likely to do business with someone because they send you ridiculous Facebook gifts?"
I don't think so – AT ALL ..
In the offline world would you actually sent a cute doggy, or even a postcard of one to acquaintances and expect them to respond favorably?
I don't think so, so why do it on Facebook?
What's your view on this? Do you think I might be right? Or not?
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Peter,
Great observation! I've always felt the same with regards to "conversing" with people in any online media…let alone SM. I always try to address my followers, fans, members, etc by their first name. I feel that offline rules apply just as much online when engaging others. Actually, today it kind of separates me from the fray.
Right on the money Darryl. The brilliant author Seth Godin posted on his bog recently:
“Who you are and what you do. The neat thing about the online world is that you are judged almost entirely by your actions, usually based on just your fingers ….”
Personally, I scan past all of these nuisances on my wall and if there were a setting to block nuisance applications, I would activate it! (There probably is and I just don't know about it yet) As a matter of fact, the only thing I like about FB's Blackberry App is I can search just "status updates" and not subject myself to this inane litter.
But then again, I wonder why so many real estate agents play "Farmville"?
There is usually a “Block App” link under these Smile type applications – click it and you won’t see posts from that app again.
Farmville? Yeh, I noticed too – what sort of message does that send to their FB Friends? “I’m too busy playing to service your needs?” Or perhaps the more subtle message “The market is so bad and I’m having trouble generating business so I’m just keeping busy untill things pick up!”
I'd say you're right. Smilies, contests, etc. … lots of chatter, little substance. Some friend groups might love it (especially younger people), but for us grown-ups, it's definitely not professional and probably not socially acceptable. Thanks for calling it out!
Thank you for “getting it” Will …
Personally, I hide every game, gimmick and any other means of communication on FB that wasn't sent personally to me, or wasn't the creative composition of my friends. And if a friend continues to send me that junk, eventually I hide them entirely.
Or more simply put, not everyone is a dog person.
Facebook, Pleasure or Profit or both..
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Come on Facebook is social media. Not business media. Leave the suit and ties outside. Conducting business on a personal profile page is breaking TOS Terms of Service… For your Business build a Business page / Fan Page and interact with your clients if you do not like animals. The new online games replace board games. Do not judge people for playing with the dogs, smiles and hearts they just maybe your next customer or referral.
That’s too funny Durrell - you obviously didn’t read my post about composing in MS Word and then just copying and pasting into WordPress! You can read it here!
BTW – I’m not judging everyone – just the real estate agents (all five actually were Realtors) who send this “crap” rather that actually communicate in a meaningful way ….
I received this from a Broker in Michigin by email:
"Peter, I am in complete agreement with your view regarding Facebook and all of the shall I say "Silly gifts" who has time for this? I certainly don't and if you do have time for it … How much business are you really accomplishing for your clients?
Facebook serves a few purposes 1. for keeping in touch with loved ones out of state, oversees, in the military. 2. For keeping in contact with acquaintances, past/present clients who socialize on Facebook.
Many times I have asked others not to include me in sending "a smile" or "a cupcake" etc … I have to ignore anywhere from 30 to 50 of these request daily and it is time consuming. I have actually gotten to the point where I dread Facebook."
… and a Prudential California Realty agent sent me this too:
" I completely agree … I'm annoyed by Farmville, Mafia Wars and all the cutesy stuff that gets sent to me (animals, pillows, cupcakes, etc).
I wish I could turn off these settings but haven't figured out how so I just delete them. "
You CAN turn these notifications off. Its very simple. Under Settings, Privacy Settings, and Ignore Application Invites. You don't have to ignore 50 times a day. If you're going to use Social Media, you need to learn the ins and outs so it doesn't annoy you and you don't "dread" it.
Thanks for the tip Kathy, looks like most of us will be headed over to that link as fast as we can!
I may have a completely different point of view than most of the previous posts, but I believe that the answer to whether or not a Real Estate professional should use specific apps to communicate via facebook is "it depends."
I say "it depends" because it really depends on your strategy, your activities and your intended perception. Now while I completely agree that anybody who is not participating in certain online communities and "games" probably does not care about the angel, cupcake, mafia job, or farm gift on their wall there are millions of people who do (Mafia Wars has 4 million daily users.).
I think the key is being aware of what you publish, where you publish it and what time of the day it is published. I think the issue is that many people are publishing EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE ALL THE TIME. Here is where the "it depends" comes into play.
I am guilty of playing Mafia Wars. For about 5-10 minutes of my day I update my account, make some moves, complete some jobs, deposit some money and forget about it for the day unless certain things get done with an easy click.
Here's where I am ok with playing "Mafia Wars" (which has 25 million registered users), I try to use discretion and rarely post to everyone's wall (or at least have recently tried to be conscious that I don't.) Within the game, I interact with Realtors, Insurance agents, Financial Planners, friends from college, people I have networked with and some of their friends I would have never met otherwise. As a lender, the fact that Mafia Wars gives us common ground to stand on has resulted in REAL business opportunities when we meet in the real world.
I have literally held a conversation with a financial professional about how asset management in the facebook game vs. making poor financial decisions in the game can have a parallel in the personal financial decisions people really make. This makes me feel ok with the 15-20 minutes I spend a week interacting with them in a "pretend" world. I am ok with being known as a "Top Player" within my "Mafia" because it is another opportunity to interact with real people and exchange in conversation. To me, the key is reaching out beyond the game and reaching into their real world and if that step is missed… then you really are just playing a game wasting time.
I believe if there is a method to the madness, it can't be such a bad thing (once again used with discretion, awareness to what is being published on your wall and keeping it within the circle of other "game players" so as to not litter other's walls with non relevant information.)
This may not be the ideal way to reach out and connect with someone…but nonetheless if you are reaching out and connecting it must be better than not reaching out at all?
WOW Rafael, that’s quite the post and more power to you if game playing on Facebook leads to business! If others are thinking this might be a good strategy I think this sentence of yours sums it up nicely:
“ To me, the key is reaching out beyond the game and reaching into their real world and if that step is missed… then you really are just playing a game wasting time. “
but then again it seems to be the same on a lot of realtor's websites. So cute dogs must do something.
Doggies are cute, but Realtor’s holding their pet pooch – I don’t think so ….
I personally don't play any of the facebook games like mafia wars or farmville (maybe an occasional game of poker), and I generally ignore all application invites (except when my daughters send me hugs!). But Rafael makes a valid point. There are a lot of Mafia Wars users, and many times your clients are people with common interests. So, it does make sense to play the game and interact with other users. At some point you should be able to translate that activity into a closed transaction.
I read some Social Media "experts" claim you shouldn't promote your business on facebook except for business pages, but I think that's insane. Facebook is the perfect place to promote your business EVEN on your personal profile. I believe you do it in moderation though.
Speaking of dogs and agents…there is a real estate company in our area called "My Dog Tess" (I'm not joking! Google it). How ridiculous is that for a real estate firm?!? Apparently some CPA thought Realtors made too much money and wanted to start his own "discount commission" shop. No offense, but seems like he should stick to being a CPA to me.
Since Farmville has been mentioned here, I couldn't help but post this. It was the most popular digg.com item in the last 24 hours. It's absolutely hillarious! But be warned, there are several F-bombs dropped, so if you are easily offended, don't go there. http://digg.com/d31Hlzk
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