So many changes in the real estate industry, in our post-Internet world.
Changes that affected the travel industry, the car industry, the financial investment world, years before real estate experienced the outcomes of the consumer revolution, finally changed the landscape of real estate sales and marketing.
The economic meltdowns of Fall 2008 momentarily obscured the societal shift of this new and profound consumer-centric business model, engendered by the Internet revolution.
The consumer of information, the purchaser of commodities...yes, you and me...is now in charge.
Social media is just a method of communication...like the telephone when it first arrived on the scene, and people were still writing letters.
We shouldn't pay attention to the methodology of expression, except as it makes the packaging of content change to fit the method's parameters.
So what does social media mean?
Perhaps it's an extension of the buzz word of the late 90s/early 2000s: relationship selling.
If one keeps in mind the scenario of a person to person social event, where one meets a roomful of people for the first time, it can be illuminating.
At such an event, one doesn't immediately rush up to groups, announcing one's job description,
and asking for business.
First of all, there's a seeking for common ground: do we belong to a common group, perhaps a jogger's running group, or a book club, or a wine-tasting group, or an art guild, or?...you get the drift! What is the point of connection?
A common interest is the segue into a meaningful connection. There's the relationship side of our business linkings.
It has always been the case, but the "global village" of today's expansive world means we're "talking" to people we don't know...we lack the small town/personal knowledge of previous times, but social media gives us the entree to connection.
First comes the "friending" discovery and then comes the connection that allows trust to occur, and the willingness to do business follows.
It's just a change in method; the principle of ethical connection remains.
Just as in previous eras, there's no short-cut to authentic connection. People prefer to do business with those they "know"...it's about "trust".
In social media, then, it's a mistake to see it as a quick fix scenario...it always takes some time to go from acquaintance to friend and then to trusted business associate. In Internet-speak, it's called the "long tail" approach.
Social media is an important new method of communication in our "global village", but it's no immediate/quick fix, and humanistic decisions still create results.
Time is an ally, still...time and an authentic voice. The consumer of our social media presence wants to know who we are. Isn't that what we want to know, too, about those we deal with?
Ah...so it's only the method that's different...the underpinnings are the same.
What is it the Buddhists say? Wherever you go, there you are?
What did the caterpillar say, in Disney's version of Alice In Wonderland? Whoo Are Youuu? (in a lovely drawl).
So, more than ever, we need to know the answer to that existential question...social media and the consumer revolution demand it.
What an interesting world this "real" 21st Century is!
How may I help you to discover special Salt Spring Island & the Southern Gulf Islands? Call me!
