Interview with Jeff Turner of Real Estate Shows

July 18, 2008

Anyone who has spent any time in the Real Estate Blogosphere (re.net) is very familiar with Jeff Turner. He is a staple of the online real estate community and always willing to lean a helping hand. So when we ask him to answer a few questions for an online interview, he quickly agreed. Below is part one of the interview.

Brad: I think you have joined every social network known to man. And more importantly, you seem to actually use them. How do you keep up? How do you manage all your profiles?

Jeff: Brad, a look at http:jeffturner.info will probably illustrate your point. 🙂 But just when I think I’ve joined every social network known to man, another one rears it’s ugly head.

I think some people watch my behavior and think I’ve got nothing better to do than play on social networks, when that’s clearly not the case. I don’t actually use all of the social networks I’ve joined, or all of the web 2.0 tools or social messaging sites I test.

For example, there are three major social messaging sites today, Jaiku, Pownce and Twitter. If you go and view my page on each of those networks independently, you’d certainly get the impression that I am active in all three of them. In fact, I’m only active in one, Twitter. I feed original content from Twitter into my Pownce Profile and I use RSS feeds to drive content into my Jaiku Profile. Now, there are a few people on Pownce who I will sometimes communicate using the Pownce tool, but it is rare. And even as I’m writing this, a new site, FriendFeed, is quickly becoming a place of value for myself and others, but I still drive most of the content there via Twitter.

I join these networks to learn. I’m looking at very specific things when I am setting up a profile and engaging with it for the first time. I’m looking at user interface and user experience and the size and quality of the visible communication on the network. Often, I’ll finish out the profile and see if I know anyone on the network and move on. Sometimes my continued use of a network has nothing to do with being social. Some social networks are valuable because of the tools they are built around.

I’ve signed up for well over 400 different web 2.0 sites, a percentage of them would be considered pure social networks, so managing passwords and logins is also key for me. I am on a Mac, so I use 1Password to manage all of the passwords. I allow the program to generate random passwords, so my logins are very difficult to compromise. But I don’t recommend that an agent even begin to be a part of that many online sites. Two or three social networks will be all that most people will ever need to navigate.

Brad: What advice would you give other real estate agents to avoid Social Network Fatigue?

Jeff: First of all, you have to treat your online social networks the same way you treat your offline social networks, your “real world” friends. If you have your friends over every night for dinner and drinks and games, before long, you’ll simply grow tired of even your closest friends.

You must set boundaries on your time or you will find yourself eating up large amounts of it before you know it. And sometimes it’s hard to spot when it’s happening. Some networks, like Seesmic, eat up time in large chunks, so it’s easy to identify the time that’s wasted. Other networks, like Twitter, eat up time in very small, 140 character chunks, so they are deceptive in how much time can be wasted. If you’re capable of multitasking effectively, then a network like Twitter can be used effectively with partial attention. That luxury doesn’t exist with many other social networks.

My advice for most people would be to set aside some time each day to check into your social networks. Most of these networks do not require constant attention.

Brad: How has the use of Viral/Social Marketing helped grow Real Estate Shows?

Jeff: We have a large number of extremely vocal Real Estate Shows supporters who are also very active in social networks that real estate agents frequent. The social networks magnify and expand what would have happened anyway via word of mouth. The benefit to Real Estate Shows is that their unsolicited testimonials are spread further and faster as a result.

For me personally, social networks like ActiveRain, have provided a place to share knowledge and to connect with people I certainly would not have met otherwise. And, I try very hard NOT to be constantly selling Real Estate Shows on ANY social network. Some may argue with that approach, but I think the biggest mistake people make in social media is placing a higher priority on the media aspects of the network than they do on the social aspects of the network. Something happens to business people when they go online. They behave in ways they would not if they were at a local Cub Scout function with their kids or at the local Chamber Of Commerce meeting. They forget to be social, they forget to get to know people first, and they rush into the network and just start selling, selling, selling. You might be able to get away with that in a Business to Business (B2B) social network, but that’s never going to play well in the open social networks with people who come to those networks solely to be social.

Brad: Obviously, you and I are have a business to business model, and like you, I have seen Social Media play a big impact on my business, but does the application fit in a real estate agent’s B2C world? Can an agent make a sizable impact from these same social networks?

Jeff: Brad, I started to answer this in the last question. I’ve used the analogy of deer hunting to explain this. Imagine that Realtors are the hunters and consumers are the deer. When hunters go out to hunt deer they do their best to camouflage themselves so they can sneak up on their prey. But they’re forced to wear these bright orange vests so they don’t shoot each other in the process. When you and I go on these social networks, we’re not hunting deer. We’re hunting hunters. So, they’re easy to spot. They’ve got on these bright orange vests. They can’t hide.

That makes it a lot easier for those of us who are working in the B2B world. Using the same analogy, if you could, the best way to hunt deer would to be able to become a deer and walk right up to them in the wild. I think social networking will turn into something valuable for many Realtors, but they’re going to have to learn to take off their orange vests and camouflage and just be a deer.

Brad: Are you the exception to the rule? Let’s face it. You are well above average when it comes to technology, but when it comes to the average Joe consumer, are they using these tools or is it just tech hype. I say this because I recently read posts about this topic and it raised some good points. Even at Dakno, we have rolled out some pretty innovative solutions only to find that it’s only adopted by the bleeding edge of the “bell curve.” We often find out that Jacob Nielsen is right about Web 2.0. What’s your take on all this? Does the average consumer care (or even know) that a Real Estate agent is twittering or using FriendFeed?

Jeff: Brad, we actually spend a great deal of time here at Real Estate Shows talking about these very things. I’ve said, on more than one occasion, to others heavily involved in what is now called the “RE.net” that we’re all just talking to ourselves. So, in our view, Alexander van Elsas’s post about the tech elite creating its own bubble, is right on target. Bill Leider wrote about this very thing on our blog back in September of 2007.

The most common reality is not found online. Today, in the midst of the techno noise about the latest, “we can’t possibly live without this” applications, the most often used approach to contact and prospect for new clients is – DIRECT MAIL. Sending postcards via snail mail is still the default choice in the average Realtor’s marketing tool kit. Why? Because it still works.

Relationships and personal referrals are still the most prominent and coveted sources for getting new clients. And the vast majority of Realtors have not yet connected the dots as to how technology can help create the kind of new relationships that lead to referrals. There is an entire generation of Realtors who do well and account for a huge number of transactions that will probably NEVER make the connection because they don’t have to. They can continue to operate effectively and earn their livelihoods for the rest of their careers.

So we may be looking at a very long-term technology adoption cycle. It may not occur in meaningful numbers until an entirely new generation of Realtors, buyers and sellers dominates the transaction world.

It’s one of the major reasons our focus at Real Estate Shows is on easy and effective, not on the latest tech craze.

Comments

6 Responses to “Interview with Jeff Turner of Real Estate Shows”

  1. Jeremy Vaught on July 18th, 2008 9:31 pm

    I love that you are using Social Media to excel in a non-technology area. I disagree with you about Seesmic though. It’s only a time waster if you allow it to be.

    For example, you can use it to create a video on your blog and allow others to respond through video. Video is much more personal than text. You can also add the ability to allow your readers/watchers to respond to your blog posts in video through the WordPress plugin or by adding Disqus.

    So even if the timeline at Seesmic.com doesn’t suit your needs, there is still a lot more to Seesmic. (you mentioned Twitter as a great took, well Seesmic’s Twhirl is also the most used Twitter client)

    So if you haven’t figured it out by now, full disclosure, I actually am a contractor for Seesmic. But I got the job because I’m a such fan of Seesmic. We are doing great things, so don’t write us off as a waste of time.

    Cheers!
    Jeremy Vaught

  2. Tallahassee Real Estate - Joe Manausa on July 19th, 2008 6:05 pm

    Jeff said “First of all, you have to treat your online social networks the same way you treat your offline social networks, your “real world” friends. If you have your friends over every night for dinner and drinks and games, before long, you’ll simply grow tired of even your closest friends.”

    Super advice for people entering into social networks for the first time.I wish I would have heard this a year ago! Thanks and I’ll pass this along.

  3. John, Vancouver WA Homes on August 6th, 2008 2:42 pm

    Thanks for bringing Jeff’s insights to this forum. Personally I find it very easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of social networking sites a real estate agent can get involved with, let alone finding the few that will be a good fit for my business model. I also like the closing remark of having a focus on the easy and effective for RES, and not the latest tech craze.

  4. Ricardo Bueno on August 21st, 2008 8:26 pm

    Re: “You must set boundaries on your time or you will find yourself eating up large amounts of it before you know it.”

    A very, very important point. You don’t need ALL the tools with respect to social networking tools out there, you just need the right ones. Use your online presence to engage with people and drive on-line relationships into off-line encounters… But whilst your out there social networking, set boundaries for yourself or you’ll end up wasting a lot of your valuable time…

  5. Joe Manausa - Tallahassee Real Estate on August 23rd, 2008 6:55 pm

    Great article Brad, but unfortunately it makes me realize that I have yet to make it to the Kindergarten of web 2.0. The fact that I have a job outside of this learning curve is very intimidating, considering that I feel like I need an 80 hour week just to get my company moving in the right direction on our new web marketing strategy.

    It certainly helps when you “pick the brain” of somebody like Jeff who is out there mixing it up with all the various social networks and can help us reach a starting point. Thanks again.

  6. Joe Manausa - Tallahassee Real Estate on September 10th, 2008 8:01 pm

    Hey Brad, when are going to bring some more content here? You had a good string running for a while. You can’t be that busy can you???

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