Remember the Stone Age? The days when, if you were out and about and needed to make a phone call, you either used a pay phone or went home? When, if you had something to say to a friend across the country, you sat down with a pen and some stationery, wrote a letter, and put it in the mailbox? And when, if you needed some information on, say, how to identify the unusual flower in your backyard, you either asked an expert or you WENT TO THE LIBRARY AND LOOKED IN A BOOK?
As quaint as all of these creaky, ancient ways sound to us today, only a few short decades ago, this more innocent era was all we knew. Some of us still long for the time when life was simpler, when communication was person-to-person, and creations like the internet and social media were just kooky imaginings from writers of the science fiction movies on late-night TV.
Today, those fantastical conjurings have turned real, and we have this to wrestle with: constant connectivity. Do you ever feel as if social media has eaten your family, friends, and colleagues, just absorbed them like The Blob? (That gelatinous, person-eating, eponymous star of an old film which most Facebookers have never heard of.) Such perpetual engagement with technology indeed absorbs us, and has shifted our thought patterns to stay consistently focused on cell phones pinging with incoming emails, notifications, text messages, calls, likes, and gaming moves, glittering with apps galore. So attached are we to our phones and their alluring, virtual magnetism, we have changed, globally, as a society. And we had better get used to it, because the family of humankind is all on Facebook.
Well, okay, that’s a slight exaggeration, but here’s a statistic backed up by facts: 76% of women and 66% of men worldwide are on Facebook. That’s 2.01 billion people!
So, if you’re selling OR buying a house…why not take advantage of that? A Realtor who uses social media to advertise your home for sale or broadcast your buying needs has got your back. One who doesn’t? He’s failing to fulfill an agent’s first duty: to place the best interests of the client first. The speed, detail, and responsiveness supported by social media simply cannot be outdone by non-computerized human-to-human interaction.
Conclusion? When it comes to social media you’re a (willing) participant or you’re not, but either way, its exponential growth in use proves that it cannot be ignored. When you think about how quickly information, photos, and videos, all of which are the backbone of strong real estate listings, can be shared? Nothing beats it.
And finally, here’s another number: 42% of businesses that market on Facebook report that the outlet is invaluable to their success. Ergo: whether or not you’re a believer, FACEBOOK WORKS.
BFG
