I believe I see another possibility for agents spending time on these social media sites.  Time wasting.  For some agents being involved with social sites can also have a negative impact much like you might find in any real estate company. 

For visualization I will compare it to agents who gather around the office water cooler.  At first, standing around the water cooler exchanging war stories, discussing ways to improve marketing, prospecting or even the business itself or catching up with your office friends is harmless.  The problem starts when the agent never leaves the comfortable feeling the water cooler provides.  You will find the agent day after day loyally maintaining their post waiting for anyone who might drop by to give them an ear.  But by the end of the day, week or month, that is all they have accomplished.  No surprise, their income reflects where and how they have spent their time.

A successful agent on the other hand understands how to balance.  You will rarely catch them wasting an entire day talking the talk because they understand that their career depends on them walking the walk.  Walking requires moving away from the water cooler, walking requires physically meeting with those who need their services.    Walking includes developing a business plan that includes social media as one of many sources of business. 

While I have talked to some very good agents who skillfully use social media to further their brand or business, I do not think the majority of existing top producing agents in our industry today have embraced social media.  When successful agents finally sign up, I believe they will quickly discover how to optimize their time and effort to the benefit of themselves, their business and the customer.  Those are the agents we will want to pay attention to, those are the agents we will want to follow, friend or connect with.