Make It Real

At a conference recently I was chatting with a group of colleagues from around the country when one of them asked me, “Do you actually write your own blog?” Before I could answer another said, “Of course not. That’s what P.R. people are for!” I felt outraged; I said, “Doesn’t it sound like me?” They acknowledged that it did, but could not imagine that I would take the time to write it every week. When I assured them that I write every word (with some copyediting from my wife) they were shocked. And that brought me face to face with one of the fascinating and apparently little understood facts about social media today: it’s all about authenticity. If it doesn’t feel real, it doesn’t work.

One of my Warburg colleagues has also discussed with me hiring a “gal who will do social media.” When I pressed her about what the “gal” will do, she acknowledged that she wasn’t exactly sure, beyond knowing that she posts on Facebook and Twitter. It led to an interesting discussion between us, in which my colleague described how pressed she is for time and how it just wasn’t possible for her to post on her own. To which my reaction was, skip it. Using social media is not for everyone. But if you are going to do it, YOU have to do it.

I see my blog, Facebook and LinkedIn, which are the only platforms I use, as opportunities for me to present an honest but carefully curated version of myself and my opinions, devoid of excessive personal detail but carefully thought out. If I paid someone else to do it for me there would, for me, be no point. It only works in my genuine voice, expressing my genuine feelings and opinions.

Increasingly I see that agents (and almost everyone else in a sales or marketing business) perceive participating in social media as another personal branding box which must be checked off. My opinion is different. To me there seems no point in checking the box unless you dedicate yourself to actively pursuing a social media strategy to which you make a commitment of both time and intellectual resources. A few simple rules make the process more successful:

• Don’t overshare. Your bad break-up, your recent flu, what you are eating for breakfast, and the restaurant at which you are dining may seem fascinating to you but not, I assure, to the rest of us
• Choose a few topics and focus on those. Make sure they are outlets through which your connections really get a glimpse of who you are while remaining in every way G-rated. I gravitate towards my grandchildren, my garden, my passion for baking, and of course real estate.
• Stay away from politics, unless you are a professional commentator. In today’s polarized environment, you may find people who won’t do business with you because they disagree so strenuously with your opinions.
• DO mix the personal and the professional, especially on Facebook. I am not a believer in the Facebook business page, and I quickly unfriend anyone who only posts their listings. Mix it up!  The whole point is to reveal enough of yourself so your network develops a sense of who you are. I have seen time and again how useful that has been for me when I then find myself in a business situation with these social media friends. Even if we have rarely or never met, we’re connected. 

So yes, I write my blog. I think all week about what to write about before putting it together on Sunday evenings. I love it. It creates an outlet for the frustrated writer in me and, even better, it connects me to YOU.