Somewhere between the group chats, the double-taps and the endless scroll, many of us have started to feel more connected than ever and lonelier than ever at the same time. Digital tools did not break human connection, but they did change its shape. Learning to work with that new shape is the difference between a phone full of contacts and a set of real relationships that actually move a business forward.
Screens strip away tone of voice, the pause before someone answers, the shift in posture that tells you they are actually listening. What is left is a thinner version of connection: useful for staying in touch, rarely enough on its own to build the kind of relationship that carries you through a hard year. Sherry Turkle makes a version of this argument at length in Reclaiming Conversation: that face-to-face talk does work that messaging cannot, and that we lose something when we let the second replace the first (Turkle).
The same principle applies to business. You can have thousands of followers and still struggle to have one real conversation a week. Or you can have a smaller network of neighbors, past clients and colleagues who know you because they have seen you show up consistently.
Where the conversations about homes actually happen
Most platforms reward breadth: more followers, more connections, more notifications. Meaningful relationships ask for the opposite instinct, a narrower focus and more attention per person. For real estate, the useful question is where people actually talk about their homes and their plans.
Nextdoor
Nextdoor is the platform I think many agents overlook. Nextdoor’s own published research reports that a quarter of conversations between neighbors on the platform relate to real estate, and its March 2026 survey of 1,000 U.S. homeowners found that about one in four said they were likely to sell within the next two years (Nextdoor, “New Research”). An earlier Nextdoor analysis reported that home-selling conversations on the platform rise in spring and early summer (Nextdoor, “Nextdoor Neighbors Are on the Move”). Those are the platform’s own figures about its own users, so read them as that.
Nextdoor’s culture is famously hostile to self-promotion, which is the point. The approach that works there, in my experience, is simply being a useful neighbor: answering a question about permits, explaining how a closing timeline works, pointing someone to the Property Appraiser’s site. Getting involved in your own neighborhood, one conversation at a time, does more than a sponsorship ever will.
LinkedIn is where the professional conversations happen, with other agents, lenders, inspectors and attorneys. I am on it regularly, not just posting about real estate but engaging with other people’s work. The goal is not to sell. The goal is to be present, be helpful and be someone people remember.
Zillow, Homes.com and the listing platforms
These are where many buyers and sellers go to search for homes and look up agents. When someone looks you up there, they are checking that you are who you say you are. A complete, accurate profile, with your brokerage clearly named and reviews answered thoughtfully, does that job before you ever speak.
What the published data says
The National Association of Realtors’ 2025 Technology Survey, as reported, found social media named most often by members as their source of the highest-quality leads, at 39 percent, ahead of their CRM at 23 percent and the local MLS at 17 percent (National Association of Realtors). A 2026 guide from Jamil Academy reports community social media boards and groups as a referral source in about one in five cases (Jamil Academy). Neither figure says what will happen for any one agent; they say where the conversations are.
Choose depth over reach
- Identify the handful of people you want to stay close to over the next decade, not just this year.
- Move important conversations out of comment threads and into direct messages, calls or coffee.
- Do not measure a relationship by how quickly someone replies.
Loose ties still have value. They bring new ideas and new introductions. But they cannot replace the smaller set of relationships where people actually know your history and how you work.
Use technology as a bridge, not a destination
A text can schedule a coffee. A video call can stand in for a visit you cannot make. But when messaging becomes the permanent home of a relationship, something tends to erode. A LinkedIn connection is a starting point; a Nextdoor answer is an introduction. The relationship happens when you talk. One practical boundary: before calling or texting someone who has not asked you to, make sure you have their consent under the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act and Florida’s telemarketing law.
Small habits that signal you are paying attention
- Send a voice memo instead of a text when you want someone to hear your actual tone.
- Remember details from earlier conversations and bring them up later.
- Schedule recurring calls with colleagues and friends who are far away instead of leaving contact to chance.
- Put your phone away during in-person time, even brief in-person time.
- Batch-check messages so replies come from attention rather than reflex.
Be relevant even when it does not directly help you
This is the part a lot of people miss. I answer questions online constantly, real estate or not, because being helpful is how people come to know you. When someone remembers you helped them, they remember your name. That is not a tactic so much as a habit, and it compounds slowly.
None of this happens overnight. Every answer and every conversation is a small step toward a reputation built on showing up. Be present. Be helpful. Be consistent. That is my approach, and it is an opinion, not a formula.