Is social media the new 'comfort call'?

This piece made me laugh. Reminded me of my cold calling days....

December 3, 2010
By Todd Carpenter, Social Media Manager, National Association of REALTORS®

When I first started originating mortgages in the early 1990s, the refinance market was booming. Because my sales manager wanted to assure my long-term career efforts, he used to make me perform a set number of sales calls to real estate agents before I could spend time on floor duty, working those refi leads.
Cold or warm, making sales calls is hard work. Especially in-person calls. I would get stood up, thrown out of offices, asked for a bribe, or blown off on a regular basis. Even the deals that lead to good business were often demanding and stressful. But every once in a while, some agents would welcome me into the office, offer me a cup of coffee, and talk to me like I was their best friend for as long as I wanted. These “Amiable Joes,” as I call them, were fun — a welcome respite from a typical day of sales calls.
But my sales manager called them comfort calls, and told me they’re a waste of time. He was right. Amiable Joes tend to have a lot of spare time on their hands to share with you because they are not very busy closing any business of their own. They had nothing to offer other than nice words and a cup of joe. Making comfort calls isn’t as ineffective as getting the car washed or picking up the dry cleaning, but if they are the highest level of business activity you do in a day, you really didn’t work.
Most of the activity I see from real estate pros on social networks can be classified as comfort calls. Liking your friend’s funny jokes, checking in at Starbucks on foursquare, commenting about last night’s episode of The Apprentice, or reminiscing about the conference you went to six months ago with a group of fellow practitioners may be critical to your value as a member of a larger community, but don’t call it work.