A successful real estate agent will be a master of earning repeat business and referrals. After all, even in today's age of digital marketing, we are a "people" industry. However, a new study sheds a new light on the context of the recommendations we receive. Although the data is limited, the authors of the study conclude that online recommendations may be just as convincing as those made in person.

The Study

The study was performed by ShareThis in collaboration with the Paley Center for Media. Now, the study is limited because it focuses only on three product categories: supermarket, automotive and mini-tablet. Real estate was not considered. And only 6,000 consumers were surveyed.

The online "shares" in the study were on social media and in email. What the authors found was that the lift in purchase incidence from an online share was quite similar to the lift in purchase incidence from an in-person share.

You can read the report yourself if you'd like further details.

What It Might Mean

Like I said, the study only looked at a few product categories and didn't include real estate. So any conclusions we can draw are merely conjecture. However, I'm going to go ahead and conjecture away.

Now, you're probably imagining that most of your referrals are coming from in-person interactions; you know Past Client runs into Future Client at the grocery store, hears that they're selling their house, and says, "Oh you simply must use my agent!" This study indicates that you might have to rethink this scenario.

Instead, you may need to start assuming that your past clients are posting reviews on agent ratings sites and sending their friends a link to your website (in an email or posting the link to their Facebook page). And that means you'll need to shift your online marketing at bit. Here are a few ideas.

1. Be proactive about agent ratings. Encourage satisfied customers to share their experience with you. Keep an eye out for negative ratings. Try to solve client problems before they become a negative rating.
2. Make sure your website is attractive, as many people will be linking to it.
3. Feature social sharing buttons prominently on your website. Make it easy for people to share you with their friends.

We've published some interesting articles about agent ratings. You should give them a read. You can also investigate your technology options for agent ratings.