These days being a member of different Social Media groups is a must for all real estate agents. The list grows exponentially every single month. You often ask, what should I be on, all of them? Yeah Right. I want to take a different look at Social Media, the personal side of things. Helping others, benefiting your personal lives, things that we in the Real Estate business often forget about.

We often read blogs about using Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter, Active Rain, MySpace, etc, etc about improving your business life. What about your personal life? How often have you met someone on there and clicked. How often has someone helped you, or better yet you have been able to help someone else on a site.

It is a bit weird. Meeting people you don’t even know, putting your trust in someone you know by their online persona. On nearly every Social Media platform I am known as HunterJackson. I wonder how often people ask themselves, who is HunterJackson? Well, I am Hunter Jackson. I try to be myself, but often I say, “Heck, this is the internet, lets have some fun!”

Recently there have been a number of problems and gossip in the RE.net. We have seen Vlad get sued by E-Perks. In this case a ton of bloggers and Social Media ‘friends’ came out of the woodwork to support him. Writing posts, donating money, making calls on his behalf. Why? They don’t even know this guy. However, that is a great aspect of Social Media. We are all one.

More recently, we saw the fiasco involving Mary McKnight and RSS Pieces play out over the internet. Once again, nearly everyone came to Mary’s side. Whether it was wishing her well, helping her find a place to live, or like Lindsay (Real Estate Radio USA’s Producer) and I, taking in her dogs, people came to her aid.

Driving down to Boca Raton to meet up with Gia and Grant of RealSeekr.com was not the most fun thing in the world. However, I got to meet them, who I know via Twitter, eat dinner with Barry Cunningham and Barry Johnson, and meet Barry Cunningham’s lovely wife Robin.

In addition to meeting some great people, my fiancée Carolynne got to see what the RE.net is all about. She met the people, and now understands why I spend time online with these people. Through Social Media you can truly create a friendship and a business partner in the same 140 character Tweet.

Thought people often think of Social Media as that place where you go to get business. I think of it as a place to go to get LIFE. You can only handle so many true friends that you see face to face, however, when you are Tweeting at them, how many can you handle?

Next time you are online, think about What you can do for your Social Media friends. Remember, if the need arises, they will be there for you.

Here are a couple of Pictures (sorry about the quality, they are from a Blackberry camera) of what I have gained (on a personal level) from Social Media. Barry and Barry, I am sorry, but I had to post the picture!