It is pretty amazing to me that real estate professionals are such slow adopters, especially in an economic climate favoring innovation

Especially given that I'm guessing many first-time homebuyers are under 35 (if not under 30), this gap can become even more problematic. (Or, to put it another way, even more of an opportunity for people up to date on current technology.)

I am only a little surprised at these numbers. I know based upon my own market area that Realtors generally seem to be a little late to the dance. We need to watch what is happening around us and be fluid and flexible and willing to adopt new practices into our world. The public certainly doesn't want "that's the way we've always done it" and frankly they deserve more from us. Technology mixed with pure, caring service can be a powerful thing. I hope that the other 270+ agents in the room who are doing almost nothing online took good notes, met someone to help mentor them and will make efforts to improve their online social networking.

Chris,

Real estate agents as a whole industry may be slow to adapt, but those of us that have seen this gap and run into the middle of it, seem to make up the largest one industry to embrace SocNet's as a whole. Heck, our business is built on networking, communicating and providing a caring service. I view the SocNets (FB, Twitter, etc) as nothing more than a Chamber of Commerce meeting with no geographic boundaries!

@Steve - One part of me was surprised while the other sat back and looked at what tools they use now and how it never involvs anything outside of the real estate software itself

@Adam- I have a screencast of a tool coming out shortly, and I hope the agents use it to bridge the gap

@Dale - I saw many taking good notes, but few fire up some of the tools he mentioned, even those with laptops in the room

@Todd - it is the few of us that embrace the new tools that will make the leap in connecting to the newer generations buying homes

Sometimes it's information overload! And with new and emerging tools daily, are they really ALL worth the investment? I would say that answer is no. What's needed instead is a strategic approach wherein your blog is your homebase and a select group of networks work to drive traffic back to your blog where you build community, create trust, and work the sale.

It can all be a little overwhelming at times but the cool thing about the blog-o-sphere is that people are ready and willing to help one another. If anyone is interested in building their own little online media empire, all they gotta do is formulate some form of strategy, and jump right in. You learn by trial and error and testing what strategies work and which ones don't.