Can Facebook serve as a viable marketing tool? Yes, but maybe not in the traditional since. The traditional user pattern is generally geared towards diving in an out of friends lives but I have seen others creatively market their services to individuals on their friends list.

For example, I have a friend that owns a high-end clothing store and she uses the Events application to notify her network of in-store sales and other need to know things. Potential this could be a good tool for you. Since everyone knows someone related to the real estate industry, you could send out a monthly request for referrals with some nice incentive attach to it. Not sure how RESPA would apply to this but assuming it’s okay, this method could generate some warm leads for you.

Secondly, your status bar could be used to broadcast unique services or offers relating to your business. The cool thing is that every time you update your status, it shows up on your friend’s home page when they log into Facebook.

Lastly, it's important to tell people what you do so, use Facebook as a tool to educate people on your industry and to engage them in discussions. I can probably come up with a million ideas but hopefully this helps a little. Good luck and remember that creativity is the key to maximizing the Facebook experience! Be free!

Kyle