After reading this title you’re either saying, “No one is buying homes off Facebook,†or you’re thinking “What the heck is Facebook?†Don’t worry. I’ll explain both.
Facebook is a social networking Web site. What’s a social networking Web site? It’s sort of like making 40 phone calls to friends. If you called 40 people just to catch up, or to let them know how you are, that would take a while. What Facebook lets you do is type a few sentences on your own personal Web page regarding “what you are doing right now†or “what’s happening in your life.†With one click of the mouse you send that note out to 40 friends. It’s called networking in the year 2009.
There are many sites like Facebook including My Space, Twitter, Plurk, Live Journal, Bebo and on and on. You can share photos, videos, notes, e-mails, blogs, invitations and yes, even homes for sale. I put every one of my listings on 34 social networking sites. Why? Because I can reach thousands of people with one mouse click.
Social networking is here to stay. In fact, Dirk Freeman, owner of Steeleboy Productions and Web 2.0 guru, says e-mail will soon be a thing of the past. Freeman says, “If you speak with high school and college students, they’ll tell you they e-mail very little. Instead, they communicate their entire life in 140 characters or less, and they do that through social networking.â€
I can hear it: “But Dan, high school students don’t buy homes.†Maybe not, but their parents do. And I know plenty of parents that have started a Twitter account and a Facebook page just so they can communicate with their kids.
The same can be said for blogging (which means writing a personal Web log). Blogging about homes for sale, posting pictures and blogs of homes for sale and then virally spreading them over the Internet is the fastest and easiest way to expose your home to people all over this country, actually even the world. If you’re trying to sell your home, social networking, blogging and video blogging all should be in your marketing tool box.
