Millions of people use social networking websites to communicate and share information with friends and colleagues. While it has proven its ability to help you in your personal life, it also has uses for your professional life.
Social networking is a complex topic, so we'll explore it in a series of articles. In this edition, we'll review some of the basics of social networking, and discuss the many sites that are out there so you can decide which, if any, might work for you.
Networking Creates Communities
Social networks bring people together to interact and share information and ideas. They offer different ways to communicate, facilitating conversation between individuals or groups people. Additionally, they build on-line communities of people who share similar interests, or those who want to learn about the interests and activities of others.
What can you do on these sites?
- Post information about yourself for others to read, find and comment on.
- Link to your friends and colleagues.
- Send updates on what you are doing "right now" for all of your friends to read.
- Send private messages to friends.
- Upload photos of yourself, family, vacations, holidays, etc.
- Discuss topics that are current or of interest.
- Comment on friends' information, photos, topics or updates.
- Receive notification when your friends do any of the above.
Many of today's real estate professionals use social networking. In addition to the more "social" uses above, some of the professional uses common on social networking sites are:
- Advertise yourself and your services or company.
- Connect with other real estate professionals.
- Connect with consumers.
- Discuss important industry issues.
Plenty of Selection When Choosing a Site
You've undoubtedly heard the names of many different social networking sites. It is estimated that there are now more than 200 social networking sites.
MySpace and
Facebook are among the more popular sites in the United States.
Social networking sites enable you to join a community-like atmosphere, to belong to a network or individuals who share your professional or personal interests.
MySpace and Facebook offer the same basic features, including the ability to:
- Set up and customize profile pages where others can comment.
- Control of who sees what or privacy settings.
- Block any unwanted members.
- Have your own page of blogs or notes.
- Create individual photo albums.
- Own, form or belong to a group or community within the network.
Other popular sites include
LinkedIn and
Twitter.
- LinkedIn enables you to build a network of contacts, such as past and present colleagues or classmates, and manage these contacts.
- Twitter enables users to send and read other users' updates through short text-based posts, called tweets. Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them.
Social networking sites enable you to join a community-like atmosphere, to belong to a network or individuals who share your professional or personal interests.
TREND Examines Different Options
Social networks are all about fostering community. This concept is also important to TREND. We have recently implemented the ability for you to
comment on many news stories to get closer to creating an active on-line network of our members. This will help open the lines of communication, and provide you with a forum to discuss current issues with TREND and other members.
TREND also is examining creating a presence on social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn. Other real estate companies and organizations, including state and local associations, have used these sites to strengthen their relationships with their members. You may already be "friends with" or "linked to" many of them. Look for TREND soon on these sites!
It's Time for You to Get Connected
If not, the first step is to register on a social networking site. Since many are free, the only investment is the commitment of your time to actually using it. Try one of the sites we've listed above or ask your colleagues what they use. You don't have to sign up for a number of sites, just pick one, then try it out for a period of time and see how it works!
It's easy! Visit one of these sites, create a login name, add information about yourself to a profile and search for contacts. How you interact with others after that is up to you!
Social networking is becoming a huge part of the way people communicate on a day-to-day basis. We have only skimmed the surface here. In our next edition of TRENDLink, we will take a more detailed look at how to use them.