Not trying to be a weenie . . .

It has been awhile since I have written on this blog of mass destruction cleverly disguised as a hot dog stand.  It seems that there was a time when I only wrote controversial posts here, these days I seem to be writing them everywhere.  It isn't my intention to be controversial, it is just that I question EVERYTHING.

I am not being intentionally anti-social these days either.  The reason I have not responded to the 123 friend requests I have accumulated on face book is because I don't know the friends.  They could be friends and heck we can never have too many friends but it is getting harder and harder for me to click the "accept" button when I have no idea who the friends are.

It is the same on Twitter.  I looked today and figured out that I don't know about 600 of my followers, and probably don't have any idea who a few hundred of the people I am following are.  Some don't tweet so it is no problem to follow them.  Some I do know but they have screen names and avatars that confuse this simple Realtor who lives in fly over land so I don't interact with them very much.  sometimes I figure out who people are but they change their avatar and after a few changes I lose track of them.

It is getting harder to be social.  My participation in multiple social networks has made me a bit anti-social.  I have a tremendous amount of contact with total strangers while at the same time the people I do know have a hard time reaching me as I struggle to hear their voices through the crowd. There are people in my community that I would like to get to know better and others that I would like to meet.

It would be nice if there was truly a general social network that I could use for business and maybe another that I could use for friends and maybe a third that I could use to meet people.  Instead they are all lumped together in one big confusing thing that is way out of control and has limited value for me personally or professionally.

Having hundreds of friends who are Realtors is kind of nice.  From a business point of view it isn't so great.  Yes I get referrals from other agents, a few a year but I mostly don't take them on becasue, It doesn't make sense for me to ever pay a referral fee, especially when the buyers are relocating and take an enormous amount of time and energy.  I just can't run my business that way.

I want to be anti-social, but I have not figured out how to do that without cutting myself off from the people that I would like to have contact with and from those I would like to meet or would like to get to know better.   There really is a huge world out there and a lot of people worth knowing who do not have real estate licenses.

Comments

[Missy Caulk]

Ditto on facebook,but you have me beat as I only have 99 waiting. LOL

If people tell me who they are, a short second I will accept or if I know them or they put KW or RE/MAX in I will, but anomymous people, no. I just leave them there. Too time consuming to hit Ignore.

I do enjoy this blog but understand why you haven't been here lately.

[Maureen Francis]

I accepted. Might be catholic guilt. That c word should be capitalized.

Now I find myself missing the status updates and news from my real friends because there is so much other noise I have let in. I doubt I will ever get a referral from facebook. I suppose it could happen though. I would rather get in from LinkedIn because it's less noisy over there.

The only referral fees most people like are the ones they collect. Paying them out ain't so fun, but it adds a lot of money to my bottom line each year, so it works for me.