Kristal Kraft, a broker associate with The Berkshire Group in Denver, found a new client recently courtesy of the popular social networking site Twitter.
The man, who is relocating to the Denver area, contacted Kraft via Twitter after seeing pictures of the Mile High City she posted on , a popular photo-sharing site.
“By the time he found me, he knew more about me. He felt comfortable,” she said.
That’s hardly novel for Kraft, who posts frequently across social media platforms as a way to extend her business online.
“Social media is a bread crumb that leads back to my website,” she said. “You’re not being pushy. You’re presenting the ‘real you’ and showing you have other things going on in your life.”
Kraft isn’t the only broker, Realtor or agent giving social media a spin.
The National Association of Realtors reports nearly half of the country’s Realtors reported using, or may use in the future, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Currently, about 35 percent of Realtors lean on social networking sites, the group reports.
The older the Realtor, the less likely he or she would turn to such sites to spark business or extend their online presence, according to NAR.
Larry McGee, owner of The Berkshire Group, said real estate agents can’t sell homes during a cocktail-party conversation. The same holds true for online interactions, McGee said.
“You have to create an online identity that will be beneficial for a certain number of people who tune into your account, just like in the real world,” McGee said. We won’t sell a house on Twitter. . . . We might sell ourselves on Twitter.”
Scott Beasley, a broker associate and partner with The Group in Fort Collins, said he gets “good traction” by posting some of his listings on Facebook.
Beasley, who uses both Facebook and Twitter, said one of the cons of being in his business is that clients sometimes see him in a one-dimensional way.
“This provides more depth,” said Beasley, who might post pictures he took on vacation to his Facebook page.
It also might be helping his bottom line.
“I’ve been really busy this year, contrary to other people in real estate,” he said. “Maybe there’s a connection.”
Randy Ewan, a broker associate with Re/Max Alliance in Fort Collins, uses standard social media sites as well as , a destination designed for real estate professionals, from Realtors to home inspectors. He sees being a part of both systems as worth the time, even if it requires frequent attention to keep all his pages up to date.
His Facebook page has been of particular help, reconnecting with old friends who sometimes become new clients.
One area where Ewan and his peers try to be careful is not alienating potential clients through social media revelations. Ewan includes his religious and political affiliations on his Facebook page, and little more that could be divisive.
“How much do I want people to know? If it’s something my grandmother can read, I think it’s OK,” he said, adding that he often uses the site to alert people to real estate tidbits, such as information on the $8,000 homeowner’s tax credit set to expire soon.
Real estate agents aren’t the only home-industry professionals grappling with social media. Jim Czupor, owner of The interPro Group, a Denver-based public relations firm that deals with home builders, said social media is very much on some of his clients’ radar. But not every builder is a Twitter believer quite yet.
“They say, ‘I don’t have time to Twitter,’ ” Czupor said.
Others are starting to see the value of it, “even though it’s really difficult to come up with a definite return on investment,” he said. “It’s hard to track where some leads are coming from.”
