Real Estate Investors Suffer from SMF

I was just talking to a fellow investor in the Atlanta market, and he was giving me grief because my Facebook status hasn’t been updated in ages.

I must be suffering from Social Media Fatigue (SMF).

I explained to him that, besides the fact that as entrepreneurs we don’t get paid to surf Facebook, I must be suffering from Social Media Fatigue (SMF).

This catchy little acronym coined by the internet gurus describes the sheer overwhelm that can come from the endless parade of “next big thing” sites, lining up to revolutionize our personal and business lives.

SMF reveals itself in dropoffs in updates, infrequent status updates, and irregular posts. It often occurs as a result of too many networks, too many profiles, and too many places to publish.

The following MindMap has been passed around online as a clear example of the problem. It was created by a person who was trying to map the flow of all his content online, and clearly shows how far out of control the problem can get:

How do you snap back out of real life and get back to updating the web?

Joking… Actually, I frequently am faced with too many opportunities and too little time to take advantage of all of them.

My system is easy:

1. Family first.
2. Business second.
3. Personal enrichment third.
4. Updating social media with any time left.

This may sound like I’m not a big fan of social media, but that’s not true. I’m always interested in what’s new, and have previously written before about how real estate investors can get started with social media and on why you should be using social media in your real estate business, so why the negativity?

Actually, I simply suggest that you…

Know WHAT you should focus on and WHY you are using social media.

Do you love playing virtual farm and mafia games online, and seeing what pictures and updates your friends are posting? Go ahead, then, and goof around on Facebook to your heart’s content.

Just know that it’s entertainment, not working. That said, do it when you have free time and enjoy (in other words, it’s not going to bring in bucks, so don’t fool yourself into thinking that you’re working)!

If you want to use social media for business purposes, then you need to pay attention to your ROI. Social Media ROI is a VERY murky topic, as it can be difficult to track, and it’s not as clearly calculated.

That said, here are a couple ideas for measuring your social media return on investment (ROI):

• Using a URL shortening tool (like Bit.ly) that offers link tracking. This will allow you to track every click a link you shared has generated… a rough measure of reach and popularity.
• Use Google Analytics to see your Top Referrers (the sites that sent you the most visitors). These are the sites you want to use more of (and you can see the duds too):
• While you’re in Google Analytics, check out which pages on your websites are seeing the best traffic… you should be sharing these, since they’re performing the best.

One last consideration in allocating your limited online resources… consider that some efforts (blogging and writing content) will stick around forever, continuing to bring you web traffic for a long time to come.

Other efforts (Twitter tweets, status updates, etc.) are gone in the blink of an eye. Spend too much time on these efforts, and it’s like social media quicksand…

Of course, if your eyes glazed over when I mention social media, tracking stats or using Google Analytics, start with a good primer like Inbound Marketing or join me for Internet Marketing for Real Estate Investors.

What do you think? Any specific sites or tools working really well or poorly?

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