I was talking to my favorite NH Real Estate agent recently as she was telling me about a fellow real estate agent who has gotten six sales this year via Foursquare on Facebook.
This real estate agent had followed the typical steps of creating a Facebook profile, posting a lot to Facebook and adding friends. What she found was that nobody was commenting on her Facebook posts or really interacting with her. After doing some research she found that her friends were spending all their time on Facebook playing Foursquare.
The consensus of social media experts is that if you want to generate business from a social networking site like Facebook that you should not spend any time playing games like Foursquare. They call it a time suck.
But this real estate agent didn’t follow the rules. She decided that if all her friends we spending time playing Foursquare that she should also. And when she did, suddenly she found her friends were interacting with her, messaging her and as a result of these interactions she was able to get six sales in less than a year, via Foursquare.
Social media marketing is so new that a lot of the time, the rules that “social media experts” spout are nothing more than personal opinions. A lot of the time, if you do the opposite of these rules, like this real estate agent did, you will be really surprised at the results.
This is such a great story, and really goes to show the potential power of Foursquare, especially for real estate agents. Also the term “social media expert” is getting thrown around a little too much at the moment, without much substance.
A real “social media expert” should provide proof that using social media has directly generated new or return clients for the business, like this example has shown.
Though Foursquare has turned checking into real places into a game, I wouldn’t actually call Foursquare a “game” to put it in the same category of farmville. Those types of games are in a whole different category, and I believe they are the types of games that the social media experts (if you want to call them that) are talking about when they say don’t play games.
I think a lot of businesses could benefit from doing something like this real estate agent. All they have to do is generate a little buzz, and if their services are valuable they could certainly see an influx of business.
Specific examples that come to mind include restaurant and nightlife venues, where it is easy to gain a following if the atmosphere and service is good, as well as off-the-wall shops, etc. I have seen coupons offered by some local venues like this, and I think it will grow as the social society continues to expand online.
I agree with Drew Meyers. Foursquare is not a game.
Although I did find this post very interesting. Was the agent updating her location when she was at an open house? How did she use foursquare to work for her?
If she was checking in at different properties she had listed, did she get permission from the homeowner first?