By Todd Carpenter, Director of Digital Engagement, National Association of REALTORS®
I’m a big fan of selective transparency. The concept of showcasing what makes you great and sparing your followers the boring, the mediocre, and the downright ugly stuff is especially important when networking online. One of the biggest challenges real estate agents face while online is drawing the line between personal and professional: what to say, and where to say it.
Many use different networks for different reasons. LinkedIn for work, Twitter for play. Facebook has rolled out a suite of tools that help their members segregate communications. But the launch of Google+ is game-changing in that segregation of communications is backed into the “friend/follow” process. To connect with other Google+ users, you add them to various circles. This one-minute video explains it well:
After playing with Circles over the weekend, it’s apparent to me that Google Plus is not so much a social network as a network of smaller social networks. It’s suddenly very easy to not just share personal pictures with your family, but to also craft different messaging to different people. You could even design circles where you are “free to be yourself”. Places where you might even vent about work to your friends. But just because you can, doesn’t necessarily mean you should.
Have you ever helped a close friend or family member buy or sell a home? Have they ever referred business to you? Have you ever generated transactions from the relationships you built at your church or in your PTA? You are always a real estate agent. That means you need to be very thoughtful in how you talk to everyone. Don’t mistake these circles as a place where you can behave badly. You never know who could be your next client.
