Social Media Marketing | Thanks, Stefan

Is social media marketing a fad? Or is it the biggest shift since the industrial revolution?

Businesses – Dell, Comcast, Ford, Zappos – have embraced the shift to social media marketing from traditional marketing channels.

Blendtec invested $50 in a white lab coat and nerdy glasses. The company boasts a 700% return on their social media marketing investment.

Have you seen the neat splash sticks available at Starbucks? The product is a direct result of My Starbucks Idea social marketing community.

Stefan Swanepoel reports on social media marketing.

Many traditional forms of media we have been using for decades are being eclipsed with growth, membership numbers and adoption rates that we have never experienced before.

Consumers no longer want or trust advertising to the same levels as a decade ago. Today they want to talk to other consumers directly, create a discussion and validate for themselves what they want or believe.

If you feel confused as to what this means for real estate agents, don’t worry you’re not alone. I have literally received hundreds and hundreds of emails, posts, facebook comments and tweets about Social Media and what it could mean to the Real Estate Industry.

Therefore I have decided to write another report (similar to my annual Swanepoel TRENDS Report) but to dedicate the entire 120 pages of this report to only addressing Social Media and Social Networking.

Here are some of the items the Report covers:

• Where to Start with Social Media?
• Finding your Target Market Online
• Social Media Rules of Engagement
• Best Practices and Tactics
• Finding Social Balance Online
• Top 25 Social Media Networks
• How to Manage your Time?
• Finding Social Media ROI

Social media marketing is not a matter of IF you participate — you already do, you know. It’s a matter of WHEN you shift to a social media marketing mindset.

Don’t wait for Stefan’s book on social media to be published sometime in October.

Start shifting to a social media marketing strategy today.

• You can Google social media marketing and start reading – now.
• You can subscribe to this blog – now.
• You can request an email newsletter – now.
• You can take a course through the Social Media Marketing Institute.
• You can attend a RE BarCamp – or, two, three, four, or more.
• You can learn How Social Media is Changing the World – now.
• You can book a phone consultation – now.

You can treat social media marketing like a kid with a twenty-dollar bill at an ice cream parlor by adding a little of this and a little of that into your existing marketing plan.

I wonder if a For Sale sign will blend.