Ellen Toay

Real Esate Agents - be properly involved in the world of social networking. Many real estate agents are joining the world of social networking because it has become the thing to do. However I have come across many others who refuse to go near it because they see it as a total waste of time – which it can be if not used correctly. Other excuses I have heard from many real estate agents are that they don’t have time to learn it or they don’t understand it. I know exactly where they are coming from because I have been in their shoes.

Facebook has become so huge that it has a larger population than some countries. It can be fun in keeping up with friends and family – I have even connected with some distant family members I never even knew existed. However, for quite awhile I also saw it as something that I didn’t have time for. I wasn’t interested in hearing about someone winning another game, walking a dog or hugging a grandchild. I also doubted that anyone out there was interested in hearing the same about me.

I stumbled on to groups on LinkedIn because someone asked me to join one and because both of my daughters had advised me to try it. I soon learned enough about “groups” to decide that I would join some pertinent to my business - one of them being from the National Association of Realtors. Once I joined the groups, I started getting email notifications about some wonderful discussions so I would periodically log on to see what was being said. The only problem is my inbox filled up so fast that I couldn't keep up. However feeling guilty, it would take me forever to delete those same emails (I am a pack rat). Eventually I would go in and delete everything - never actually reading the majority of what I was getting from my "groups". Looking back I realize I missed a lot of useful educational information and networking opportunities.

Twitter was another world altogether. I really didn’t understand what it was all about. I went to the SC Association of Realtors convention in early September where I was told we could follow the events on Twitter. I had joined Twitter last spring, had several followers (who literally had nothing to follow as I wasn’t contributing a thing ) and was receiving Tweets from the one person I was following – Tweets that were never read. At the convention I wasn’t even sure what my user name and password were. By the time I found out, the convention was about over. I felt like a fool.

It was at that same convention that I got talking to a techy-type. After a long discussion, he suggested that since I am pretty computer literate – especially for an “old bag” – my words not his – that I might want to learn more about it and help the over 45 crowd. Since I am a state certified real estate instructor and love teaching - was looking for a new direction - I took his advice.

Since then, with my nose almost constantly in a book or taking classes on the computer, I have become aware of a whole new world and have become a great advocate. In my blogs, I will share some of what I learned.