At first glance you might not think that this post on social media has anything to do with home staging and that I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent.

I’m not so sure.

When I think of the agents that refer me, they are the ones that are using social media too.  They are the ones that are open to change and new ways of selling houses, whether it be engaging with their market on twitter, having a business facebook page or recommending home staging to their clients.

It’s true to say that we all got on perfectly well before home staging and social media were invented. Houses were sold and relationships were formed and trust was built.  It is also true to say, that the majority of people don’t like change. Change brings fear or misunderstanding for many. We don’t understand the benefits (what’s in it for me?) or how to do it (connections, likes, follows and RT’s all sound like a different language). We tell ourselves we don’t have the time.

I’ve been thinking about the above recently as I’ve been updating my distribution lists. As part of the update I thought it would be interesting to know how many of the agents on my list were using Social Media partly because I wanted to be able to engage with and learn from these people on all things real estate, brisbane and home staging.

My main focus for business is in the Western Suburbs of Brisbane so this is where I conducted the study. Here are the results:

Of the 25 real estate offices:

6 had a specific facebook page for the office (Brisbane Real Estate, Ray White Toowong, Arthur Conias and Belle Graceville, Century 21 Westside and Harcourts South West)

1 had a specific twitter account (Arthur Conias)

NB: I only measured specific Facebook or twitter accounts relevant to that particular office. Some agents, e.g. Place do have a twitter presence but it’s a corporate one.

Of the 231 agents within the above 25 offices:

27% (63) were on Linkedin (4+ connections)

4.3% (10) had their own facebook page  (3+ updates)

4.8% (11) had their own twitter account (3+ tweets in last 3 months)

To be honest, I’m mystified by the above figures.  Even if agents are within an office, they work for themselves and compete against others.  In this market particularly, wouldn’t agents want to try anything – not just Social media (Blogging, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter etc) but Networking, giving talks and presentations, offering e-books, door drops – whatever it took to get the listings. It’s so easy to think “It’s the market, there is nothing I can do”  The old saying “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got” holds so true at the moment. There is a real opportunity for agents to stand out in this market and pave the way for future success. Agents are known for their ability to network  - to meet new people & get word of mouth introductions to win those listings. Yet they are missing out on the easiest, cheapest and most rewarding ways of doing this – through social media.

I would love to hear agents response on the above figures (don’t worry, I’m also sending this link out via e-mail!) If you are one of the 5%, I’d love to know what’s working and what isn’t. And for the remaining 95%, tell me what’s stopping you from having a social media presence? I am genuinely curious to find out.

Also, if you think you’ve been left off my list let me know and we can start engaging through Social Media

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