Moving to a new platform isn’t about where you show up, writes Audie Chamberlain. It’s whether your presence actually helps someone make a real estate decision.
Every few years, the real estate industry becomes convinced that a new platform is about to change everything. Sometimes that’s true. In most cases, this is not the case.
The challenge isn’t finding the next new thing. It’s about knowing if it actually changes behavior or just posts more places. Generating attention is easy. The signal is not.
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A recent helpful example is the Wall Street Journal reaching 1 million followers on TikTok. It wasn’t just a change in social media. It’s a behavioral change. Traditional media companies built on trust, credibility, discretion, and journalistic depth have figured out how to appear on platforms designed for speed and discovery without diluting their brands.
They didn’t follow trends. They translated what is already working. This distinction is important because the real question is not whether the platform is growing or not. It’s whether the way trust is formed changes, and whether behavior changes.
attention is not authority
A Reddit thread about an agent can travel faster than a Wall Street Journal article. That doesn’t mean they weigh the same. Man creates consciousness. The other creates authority.
Today, platforms like Reddit, TikTok, and Discord are shaping perceptions much earlier in the decision-making cycle. Buyers and sellers are forming opinions before they fill out a form, schedule a showing, or speak with an agent. That doesn’t mean traditional media is irrelevant. It will be situational. Trust is no longer something you can find in one place. Organized across many feeds.
Where brokerages get this wrong is that they treat all attention equally. it’s not. You can’t build a brand unless you can draw a straight line between where attention is drawn and where trust is established. You are just being watched.
Community search is not lead generation
Buyers and sellers are increasingly using platforms like Reddit, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok as search engines, but not for product listings. they want answers. Things like what it’s really like to live in the area, whether the buildings are quiet, and which agents actually know the market. This is not a transactional search. It’s social validation.
So measuring community engagement using the same metrics as traditional lead forms misses the point. Communities don’t convert instantly. It compounds. The value will show up later in more purposeful conversations, more informed clients, and fewer trust gaps that need to be filled once you’re in the room.
If your only KPI for the month is leads, you will always be under-investing where you shape decisions before the form even exists.
Luxury requires restraint
There’s a real tension between being authentic and being exposed. High-end customers want honesty, but they also want discretion. You can participate in community platforms without breaking the veil of luxury, but only if you understand your role. You’re not here to perform. You are there to guide.
Agents who do this well don’t overshare or chase engagement. They answer questions calmly and consistently without trying to win the room. The reliability of luxury products is not great. It’s stable.
When is the platform worth your time?
Platform migration is worth paying attention to if it changes at least one of the following three things:
How do people search? How do people assess trust? How do they decide who to give access to?
It is important that TikTok influences search behavior in certain markets. Reddit is all about building your reputation through peer discussion. Not a new app that simply adds places to post.
Testing is easy. Will your privileges disappear if you stop posting tomorrow? If the platform were to disappear, would your relationship still exist? If the answer to both is no, you’re probably chasing and contributing to the noise.
One app test
If you had to delete all but one social app on your phone, which one would you keep? It’s the platform on which your clients have already formed an opinion, whether you’re there or not.
And the first thing you should post tomorrow isn’t your list, your wins, or your latest hook. It should be helpful, it should be specific, and it should show that you understand the question behind the question. Platform change is not about where you show up. What matters is whether your presence actually helps someone make a decision.
That’s the signal. Everything else is just noise.
Audie Chamberlain will speak at Inman Connect New York at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Grand Ballroom.
