Good article over at the Transparent Real Estate blog that does a good job explaining why Realtors in particular have taken to social networking online. While there are certainly still agents trying to figure the Internet out, the thousands who are online have made sites like ActiveRain, Inman and RealTown into some of the largest community sites on the Web.

Real estate agents leverage blogging and the social media for lead generation… there is a purpose for their participation. Real estate agents, admittedly a low-barrier-to-entry profession, need to differentiate themselves and the social media has become a proven method for demonstrating their expertise, experience, personality, etc.

And I’d wager that it’s still a very small segment of the industry who participates actively in social networks online. As more and more catch on, these sites should see sustained growth.

Read the full article and then let us know: do you find social networking to be useful?  How so?