Update: The Austin American Statesman article is no longer available.
I am intrigued when I learn that regular business professionals are using social media tools like Facebook and Twitter as a primary part of their communication strategy with customers, and in turn actually generating business from it.
An October 2010 article published in the Austin American Statesman describes how Austin real estate agents are using blogs, Twitter, and LinkedIn:
“…commercial realtor Mark Pustka, of McAllister and Associates, says that having his own blog and website has increased his profile immeasurably. He diligently monitors his LinkedIn account, where past clients and associates have logged kudos about his service.”
“I am on Twitter, which I started doing about a year and a half ago,” says Pustka, “It’s difficult to measure the effectiveness of it so far but I will say that LinkedIn is really useful. It’s like putting your résumé on the Internet. I kind of see a correlation between the number of people I’m meeting with each week and those people that have looked me up on LinkedIn. I think that (potential clients) use LinkedIn when they meet somebody and want to know who is this person and want to know his legitimacy, what has he done before.”