Real estate agents should run their businesses like businesses and not just hobbies by creating budgetary allowances for outsourcing its Web 2.0 engagement in instances where agents do not have the time or patience to dedicate to proficiently learning the various social sites.Research shows that such staff members are being actively sought out by for-profit and non-profit organizations, and realty firms and agents should be no exception (Kwon, Min, Geringer, & Lim, 2013). Furthermore, real estate agents that personally sell billions of dollars of real estate understand and readily use the help of others to manage their productivity and to drive their profitability, indicating that a secret of real estate sales success is to build a team (Carmel, 2012).
For those not ready to employ someone in a full-time capacity, the next affordable and viable option is to use crowd-sourcing (another Web 2.0 phenomenon), where tasks can be doled out via an online broad network of contractors that will work on specific tasks virtually (such as managing one's Facebook business page) as opposed to being employed to fill an empty seat in an office that is not based upon specific, measurable duties but rather a generic need for help (Carmel, 2012).
Lifebushido is one of the largest companies that was formed specifically to provide real estate agents that produce (or desire to produce) an annual income greater than $100,000 with affordable virtual assistants, who possess unique talents that work unique hours to fit the precarious demands of a real estate practitioner's daily, unpredictable schedule (Carmel, 2012). Even if an agent decides not to use Lifebushido and opts for another crowd-sourcing service or a more traditional staffing placement company, Lifebushido's guiding principle of placing assistants that have an intrinsic motivation to do the specific tasks assigned is one that real estate professionals should adopt in their hiring practices (Carmel, 2012). Notably, in hiring a person to be the social spokesperson, it is paramount that the hire be apprised of acceptable and unacceptable behavior and practices along with learning the mission and structure of an agent's real estate sales practice (Kwon, Min, Geringer, & Lim, 2013).
Table 2 below summarizes the aforementioned strategies real estate
practitioners can employ to effectively engage with consumers along
with examples of complementary technological resources to help.
| Strategies to Enhance Consumer Engagement | Explanation | Corresponding Technological Resources |
| Identify the purpose to be accomplished through Web 2.0 | Do not focus on the challenges associated with a new technology but gain a broader perspective of what the technology can specifically contribute to the profitability of one's business. | Site that offers real estate professionals guidance in using Web 2.0 techniques: LearnWithLee.REALTOR |
| Seek meaningful interaction instead of generic, infrequent approval | The quest for subscribers and fans is not the final destination on the road to Web 2.0 engagement. Instead, agents must recognize that "likes" are a positive indicator but must be couple with interaction | Sites that allow specific topics on social media to be watched in order to actively participate in online conversations: TalkerWalker Alerts, Mention.com |
| Do not "set it and forget it" | Do not continue the outdated method of creating an unchanging website that is uploaded with content only once but purpose to engage several times a week on your preferred Web 2.0 sites. | Sites that allow several updates a week to be done in one sitting: Hootsuite, BufferApp |
| Balance creating a sense of client community and share-able content | Agents do well to strike a balance between creating content that can be shared throughout the entire Web and content/interaction that is exclusive to clients. The exclusivity can create a sense of camaraderie and affinity for a brand, while the publicly share-able content can expose the real estate agent's brand to untapped markets. | Content sites that allow varying degrees of public and password-protected/special access: Papyrus, Pressbook |
| Seek out a social media specialist | Real estate agents that have either limited time or limited patience can seek out affordable talent for hire to fully utilize the Web 2.0 platform. | Crowdsourcing sites: LifeBushido, Fiverr.com, Guru.com, oDesk.com, etc. |