As consumers, nothing is less welcomed than a phone call right in the middle of dinner asking: Do you want a lower mortgage? Are you happy with your satellite provider? Would you like to consolidate all of your debt into one low monthly payment? The cold call is the exact opposite of what most successful sales people know to be effective: referrals from people they know or have done business with in the past. Sure, the buckshot blast method of distributing the message of one's product or service may hit some, but it will miss most. I recently attended a conference in New York which explained social media and its role in the future of personal real estate marketing. Social media includes not only social networking but also blogging, photo sharing, podcasting and more. Never has there been a more opportune time to build a network than right now. With the advent of social networking, reaching one's sphere of influence has never been easier, or more welcomed. Haven't we all received an email from Classmates.com at one point or another? This is a prime example of social networking. Old schoolmates share a bond. Now with the popularity of Social Networking Services including MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, reaching out to past contacts is simple, unobtrusive and a lot of fun. People like to interact and do business with people who they perceive to be like themselves, and especially with people they know who fit this bill. Within this vetted group, consumers will find the already trusted doctors, lawyers, dentists, plumbers and Realtors.
