I got up this morning to find a Tweet written by my partner Todd Waller linking to a blog post written on December 23, 2009 by Chris Brogan.

Brogan is the author of New York Times Best Seller “Trust Agents” and one of the icons of Social Media. The particular post was entitled,  “If I Were a Realtor.” This post struck such a chord with me that I sat down and immediately wrote this post.

I’ve reproduced Brogan’s post in its entirety below:

“If I were a Realtor looking to use social media for my business:

• I’d write a blog about the location where I was selling.

• I’d take tons of pictures and post them on the blog.

• I’d shoot walking tour videos all the time with a Flip camera and post them.

• I’d shoot interview videos with people from my community.

• I’d host meetups and tweetups for local residents, inviting people who are house hunting.

• I’d find various niche communities (developers, stonemasons, parents) and start community platforms for them on Ning.

• I’d empower as many local businesses onto the Net as I could, and help them get successful.

• I’d encourage as many people in my community to join Twitter as possible, and I’d bundle them into a list.

• I’d consider setting up hyperlocal news and events sites, or at least empower/support their construction.I probably wouldn’t put pictures of me in a tie (or a dress) and write about the rates. I probably wouldn’t pitch you dozens of times in a row. I probably wouldn’t just rehash links to listings. But that’s just me.

You?”

Here are the takeaways:

• REALTORS, if you EVER wondered about the value of Social Media, wonder no more. Brogan has just dished out a blueprint for any
  
  
  Realtor to follow to leverage Social Media straight to their bottom line. And he did this for free. The fact that 99% of the Realtor population will likely never read either Brogan’s original post or this post just makes me feel really good for the 1% that will. Congratulations! YOU understand the value and the power of Social Media. And I predict that YOU are going to wake up at the end of 2010 or so with a decided, significant competitive advantage over your fellow agents who do NOT see the *magic* of Social Media.

• I thought our vision for leveraging Social Media was “advanced.” Brogan’s vision is WAY beyond mine, and that tells me that I’m not crazy for pushing Realtors to expand their thinking and really take a deep dive into Social Media. It’s worked VERY well for me personally, and I haven’t even scratched the surface when I compare what I’ve done with what Brogan is recommending. This just throws gasoline on my already raging fire of wanting to take Social Media to the limit when it comes to incorporating it into the very DNA of everything we do at Professional One.

• I write frequently about how the job of selling real estate on the cusp of 2010 is radically different than it was just a few short years ago. If you look at what Brogan is suggesting a Realtor do in his post above, I think this corroborates my position quite well. Who was doing ANY of these things in 2008? I would hazard to guess absolutely no one. How about 2009? Very, very few. 2010? We’ll see, but I am confident it will be less than 1% of the Realtor population. But I think that 1% will do well if they follow Brogan’s advice and implement even a few of his suggestions.

Thanks so much, Chris Brogan! If you ever want to buy a real estate franchise, I hope you’ll consider Professional One! We think you’d do very, very well!