With all the chatter and “hype” around using social media for selling real estate there inevitably comes the questions: “what is the ROI (return on investment)?”, “Is anyone actually making money using these sites?” and “give me a concrete example of success.”

Realistically the ROI for social media is hard to calculate (but so is the time you spend at social events), but people definitely are making money, and, YES, there are success stories. Social media is a “soft” sell/tool and shouldn’t be measured directly by time in, results out – but by overall results. By a “soft” sell, I mean it’s not about posting listings to your Facebook page or Tweeting them via Twitter and expecting to find that perfect buyer.

That said, here is a great example of how social media can work for you. Chrissy Smith, the marketing director at Peabody & Smith in Franconia, NH, recently shared a great success story about one of her agents – Joy Moore , CRS, GRI (and btw Lakes Region Board Realtor of the Year 2009).

Joy is an agent in her early 60s who isn’t intimidated to try new things. With Chrissy’s help, Joy jumped on the social media train, joined Facebook and immediately began connecting with friends, family and even her 30-ish daughter’s friends. Low and behold, one of her daughter’s friends was in the market for a home, was reminded of Joy’s career through their Facebook connection, and ultimately ended up contacting her and buying a home, with her assistance, that was far above their marketplace average.

Chrissy and her team have helped lead the social media charge by holding classes to make her agents more comfortable with these tools and even help them to build profiles. She’s counciled her agents about how social media is just one more touch point and encourages them to blog and write in their real voice – i.e. if you are writing from home, talk about home. If you are writing from work, talk about work. Chrissy’s advise is “be real, be yourself and be out there.” Clearly it’s working.



Posted By: Stephanie Pfeffer