How strong are your relationships?

I have to laugh because I was at a Starbucks coffee shop the other day over hearing two 20 somethings talking about all the friends they each had on facebook. It was almost like a competition between the two of them. Not that having 3000 friends is a bad thing but really whats the point. What came to mind was how Real Estate isn’t just about  buying and selling homes, it has far more to do with great relationships that are cultivated on a daily basis.

Today the mode of interactions is always changing and as I’m out in the field teaching how Social Media helps us to better connect I still see sceptics that use the 4000 friends, 20 something as the bench mark to dismiss this amazing world of Social Media.

If you think about it however it is pretty simple. Albeit Social Media may be the forum in which we interact the most, it is really just what I call word of mouth via Social Media in 2010. You also have to remember that no matter how often you interact it has to do with quality vs quantity. It would be very difficult to have 3000 meaningful relationships on a daily basis. That said we live in a world where word of mouth and recommendations are key to the decisions we each make every day about the services and products we choose to use.  The richer the relationship the more weight I put on that friends recommendation.

Recently I saw this video from Seth Godin that really spells out what Social Media AKA (relationships)  should be about and I would throw in the caveat that this doesn’t apply to just Social Media for business but also Social Media for personal sphere. Just because the connection has moved to the digital world doesn’t mean that it should be any less sincere. The idea is to show that you care, and that you listen and you add value. Relationships whether they are face to face or digital they have to add value to both parties or they are just what Seth says they are “worthless.”

I know your reading this thinking how does this relate to me the buyer or seller? From the perspective of Windermere we don’t want to have thousands of  worthless connections but rather fewer great satisfied individuals living in our communities we server that add value. We want to connect and better understand our customer via our Brokers in the field. We would love know how your real estate agent connects with you?

“While having plenty of friends is nice, how do you choose who to keep in your network?”

“Tell us some of your social media relationship success stories?”