Last week a Eugene, OR based Coldwell Banker Realtor wrote a post on the Inman News Website that generated such an enormous and negative response even Glenn Roberts (Managing Editor) got involved.

As at yesterday it was the top commented post with almost fifty comments, all of them negative:

“This post is incredibly out of touch.”

“This article reflects not the professionalism of the writer but her naivete and ignorance of the business world.”

“Respectfully, I completely disagree with your post. It would appear that you have not been properly trained []. My bet is that you still use a fax machine and maybe a FiloFax to keep your appointments.”

Some just treated it as a joke:

“Tip your waitress. Alisha appears here all week!”

Alisha’s sin? In trying to answer the question “Should Realtors use Facebook to communicate with prospective clients and open house visitors?” her answer was based on your age:

“20-29 never; 30-45 maybe, 45-plus OK.”

You’ll need to read the article to see all of the comments and don’t be swayed by this one post; the Inman Website provides excellent content (this post being a unique exception) from some amazingly intelligent and forward thinking people.

I was the first person to comment and, as you might expect, also disagreed with the comments. But I also need to thank Alisha because she has helped me make a point I’ve voiced several times; many Realtors dismiss the new social world we live in because it’s too early for them to understand what it really means.

The following video clip is from the NBC “Today Show” and really makes my point. In it you see two prominent and intelligent co-anchors (Katie Couric and Bryant Gumble) ask questions that in 1994 weren’t anywhere near as funny as they are today. One can’t help but smile as Gumble, when describing an email address, questions what the @ sign is;

“that little mark. The A with a ring around it [] Katie said she thought it was ‘about’. I’ve never heard it said. It sounded stupid when I said it.”

As the email address violence@nbc.ge.com displays on the screen (with the @ represented as the letter ‘a’ in a circle) Gumble describes it as “NBC GE COM” omitting to mention the ‘dot’ (as in dot com). Couric can be heard adding that she thought the @ sign meant “around or about” and collectively they continue the fun by asking questions like “What is ‘internet’?” and “What, do you write to it like mail?”

Today we all routinely describe the Internet and our email address at a domain name making Couric and Gumbles comments sound like a comedy skit. Which leads me to a question; with so many Realtors refusing to leverage social media, social networking and social marketing (Allan Dalton is correct; they are three distinct and separate things) will we ever look back on their objections, rejections and excuses with a smirk on our face?

Poor Alica’s lack of social experience has been very publicly outed which brings up another question; will this be part of her legacy? Our great, great, grandchildren will know more about us than we will ever know about our great, great, grandparents. How? Consider how we publicly share our photo’s, locations and (for some) most intimate of activities and thoughts for companies like Google and Facebook to archive and backup and store forever.

And with that in mind please enjoy part of the Today Show’s legacy 🙂

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