Interview: Geordie Romer on Social Media
Interviews
Geordie Romer is an active Social Media user. I seem to bump into his tweets, posts and other web interactions on a regular basis. So as a follow-up to my Social Media post, I decided to ask Geordie a few questions about his experience with Social Media:
Hi Geordie, thanks for taking the time to answer some questions regarding your use of social media. How about a brief introduction on who you are and what you do?
Sure Shon.
I am a real estate agent in the Leavenworth and Lake Wenatchee area. Most of my clients are buying or selling vacation homes in the Leavenworth area and most of those buyers (and many sellers) live in the Seattle or Bellevue area. Real estate has really made a switch in the past few years and the internet is a big source of information for consumers, especially in my case with out of area buyers.
I notice you use Twitter quite often, and I of course know you via LinkedIn.com. What other social media services do you use?
I guess that depends on what you call social media. I am on Twitter ( @geordieromer ) and on Linkedin and Facebook, but these are probably ancillary to my main focus which is my blog, www.IcicleCreekRealEstate.com Years ago websites and blogs were separate tools, but they really have blended into one over the past year or so. My blog has dozens of articles about real estate in the Leavenworth area and also features that allow you to search for homes or learn about specific neighborhoods.
I also play around with sites like Flickr and Youtube and I used to be pretty active on the real estate networking site, ActiveRain.
I think folks can be pretty social online without using particular tools, but instead just being active in discussions on existing blogs. This may mean writing a guest post or just by writing engaging comments. I get great traffic from comments I've written on sites like www.RaincityGuide.com , www.SeattleBubble.com , and www.SeattlecondosandLofts.com
Approximately how much time each day do you put into these services?
I think it depends. Some days it's 30 secs here and there, just doing basic "hellos" and simple "lifestreaming" sorts of posts. Other days it's more about writing articles or longer comments. You certainly can waste a lot of time if you want to. At the same time, you have to be active and engaged. If you just sign up for Twitter and expect a paycheck, you probably are out of luck.
And the big question(s): Is it working for you and how can you tell?
This IS the big question. What's the ROI on SMM? (Return on Investment on Social Media Marketing) I have met a client on Twitter which has led to the sale of house. Could I be spending my time elsewhere more productively? Quite possibly.
If you include my blog and my website - without a doubt. The blog is a huge source of clients for us and is also a great way to keep in touch with past clients. Other real estate agents have dropped out of the business in the last year, our business is thriving because of our internet presence.
Real estate is a social business and it's about creating relationships. The key to social media is to turn online relationships into IRL (in real life) relationships. If Twitter isn't leading to lunch dates or sales calls or at a bare minimum increased web traffic, it's time to re-evaluate.
Do you prefer one service over another? Say Twitter over LinkedIn?
Linkedin is great place to be found. It's a great place to toot your own horn, or better yet to have others toot it for you. The key with Linkedin is not to be connected to hundreds of friends, it's to be recommended by hundreds of happy clients.
Twitter is a great place to listen to what the world is saying around you and about you. It's a good place to share a message to the world, but it's a even better place to help folks who could use a hand.
I try and keep FB a little more private, but if your business is the kind that is likely to have "fans" it could be a great place to interact with your clients.
As an experienced social media user, what advice would you give to people just getting started?
- Start with listening to the conversation. Figure out how the culture works first before diving in.
- Read more.
- www.chrisbrogan.com is an awesome place to start. Especially this post: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/if-i-started-today/
- www.twitip.com is great.
- Use Google to see what your digital footprint looks like. Find out who is active in your market online and see if what they are doing is working.
- Would you believe it if I told you the US Airforce has a manual on Social Media? It's true, and if they can figure this out, maybe you should too. http://www.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-090406-036.pdf
- SEM or SEO
Got those figured out? (me either) Feel free to proceed on towards social media.
Thanks for time Geordie.
Do you have a success story or tip to share? Sound off in the comments.
Reader Comments (1)
Great interview Shon. Geordie is certainly a local leader in social networking so its great that you got to get some answers out of him. Thanks for sharing Geordie!