I think social media is overplayed in a lot of ways. Social media has largely turned into another angle for markets to try and solicit business from agents. The hype of integrating your internet presence across your FB and Twitter accounts won't beef up your SEO and will only extend as far as your current friends. A lot of talk is swirling around Google's integration of a Google+ search result, similar to Google Places, and how this is going to pave the future of searchability. However, thes Google+ results are not laid out in a way that makes me want click them. They feel more like PPC ads and I just move on.

SEOmoz did a really good review of the impact of social media on random search phrases. The gist is social media has an impact but not a major one because (and this is their conjecture) it can be spammed easily. Wading through what is legit and what is not is difficult.

Depending upon the type of business that you are promoting on social media will ultimately determine the success of a good Social Media campaign. You have to first determine the most common method someone will find information on what your business is. If you are doing a search for a house for sale or rent in a specific location, 86% of people will first search google for local website then go from there. In that case, social media wont play as large of a factor then providing relevant and up to date information on your website. Now, with the advent of google's Search plus your world, using social media will play a factor in your search results as well as organic. Now for places such as restaurants or night clubs, social media will play a much larger role as social interaction and social engagement will keep the location fresh. Yes, we want to keep people talking about your real estate company, but people are more likely to spend $30 on a meal then $300,000 on a home this weekend.

Well put Truerealestate I am always engaging in this same conversation with many people and especially agents.

I agree also with Truerealestate. Buying a home is not exactly a great fit for social media, like dining and dancing might be. I have conferred with a couple of SEO guys who think that Google+ and FB pages are going to be given a lot more authority by Google in the near future. Whether or not that is true remains to be seen. My advice is to be in all the popular places, like Google+ and FB. It certainly can't hurt. I'm now trying to figure out how to automatically post my blog posts to FB and Google+. Maybe I'll find it in another thread. I thought it would be more cut and dry. But I am finding out otherwise. It all takes so much patience. Little at a time.

I don't think that Google+ has taken off as anticipated. As far as Facebook is concerned it is still a widely used medium for marketing purposes.

with buyers, you have to connect differently when using FB. The sellers are already in the social spaces. There isn't too much work to put on to get to them. With buyers, marketing needs to be done based on how real estate is encompassed by what surrounds the property...the neighborhoods and community...it's not difficult, but the approach is different...

Google + I managed to find a GREAT use for it, I pretty much have the same people in my SOI in a circle, as well as colleagues in another one (referrals) and the hangout feature has helped me get about 20 clients, all because they were impressed with how I managed to use it to present me marketing to them...VERY useful!!

Social sites are really usefull for business. We can make our corporate accounts over there and can spread what we are doing. Yes there is nothing like forums AO. Forums are good as compare to social sites because It is never accepts the post anything that resembles advertisement,porn,crude,jokes.

Social sites are really useful for business. We can make our corporate accounts over there and can spread what we are doing. Yes there is nothing like forums AO. Forums are good as compare to social sites because It is never accepts the post anything that resembles advertisement, porn, crude jokes.

Super Realtor is right on the money here. Driving traffic to your website is the main thing here.

My opinion is that social sites are just in the beginning. Especially facebook. Zuckerberg's group is extremely talented and I'm sure that sooner or later they will figure out how to get their platform optimized for businesses.

when Facebook entered in market i join that, nut when Twitter came! I join Twitter and I like Twitter rather then Facebook.These are the social media which ll never fall down ever.

Research has shown that up to 50% of twitter accounts are fake.

It is not quite as bad on facebook, but the numbers show facebook is already on a downward spiral.

People will always work hard to figure out ways to game the system in one way or another, just like Black hat SEO with Google and people buying Facebook likes. If you work any of the social or SEO platforms consistently, with integrity and stay within the rules you will reap great benefits from them.

How much time did you devote to social media last year and how many deals did it produce?