Houston, we have a problem.

Perhaps you aren’t aware of this, perhaps you are.

But.  There are “social media experts” out there giving out old, inaccurate advice.

An even bigger problem?  These “experts” are important to the real estate community at large.  They have many followers and contribute untold amounts of wisdom and knowledge.  And yet, not everything they say is accurate, but agents are listening to them and implementing what they say.

So why is this a problem?  It is because these experts are social media generalists.  Knowledgable at social media in general, but not experts at the ins and outs, ups and downs of each individual social media network.

With that said, here is an example of some advice that I came across and no, I’m not going to identify the person who gave this advice.  That isn’t the point of this post.

“Sharing a link on Facebook is the worst way to post.” And then this person proceeds to share the “better” way to post links on Facebook.

What’s the problem?

Well, first and foremost, what this person is saying is wrong.  It was right several months ago, but Facebook changed things up in January 2014 and now, what this person is advising, will actually hurt you.  Hurt your reach, hurt your engagement, hurt your stats.

Sharing a link on Facebook, with the full, beautiful, preview picture, is one of the best ways to post on Facebook now (when sharing a link).  The old way, of deleting the preview and just posting a text update with a link (often called the ugly way) is now being penalized.

Secondly, the problem, as I see it, is advice being given by someone who isn’t up to speed on the changes within a social network, advising people how to use said social network.  Now, this person doesn’t realize they aren’t up to speed and they certainly don’t realize they are giving out harmful advice.  Be that as it may, they aren’t up to speed and they are teaching inaccurate information.

Third, how are real estate agents supposed to know who’s up to speed (and who isn’t) when they themselves, have barely any knowledge?

The third problem is the biggest problem as I see it.  It takes time and research as a real estate agent.  Time most agents just don’t have.