I have a habit of saving and forwarding many of the ridiculous voicemails that salespeople leave in my inbox, but it isn’t too often I receive a letter of this quality, pointing to the problems that salespeople face when introduced to social networking.

The beauty of social networking is that I can typically gain value from the people I am connected to, before I am asked to buy something..  The danger comes when we decide to sell before providing any real value. Gary Vanerchuk said at Big Omaha, “we are like 18 year old boys trying to close too fast.” –This is why salespeople ruin social media.

In sales, people are told that they can reach a broad audience through social media and think they can reach this audience without working at it. To provide real value to the people you connect with takes real work. Social media doesn’t eliminate working hard, in magnifies it. We now have more messages and more people, but each person seeks information. Our messages are read much quicker and distributed to a larger audience, making it more important to respond.

I’m waiting for the realtor who wants to answer my questions online and tell me about market conditions, helping me to learn their expertise.  Teach me about how I can use my home and rental property better.  If I met you at a social gathering, you probably wouldn’t ask me to list my house immediately, you would probably find out my needs and I would describe my situation.

Finally, to this realtor’s credit, I do admire his personal touch in a handwritten letter but I think his effectiveness will improve if he provides content to his network and improves his penmanship.