Welcome!
Who's calling you, Ms Chris - debt collectors?
I doubt very much the day will ever come when the social networks you mention provide any sort of leads activity to make the effort worthwhile. "I saw you on Facebook, I want you to sell my home!" will never happen. Nor do I foresee Trulia or Zillow ever providing leads of any magnitude. It seems impractical.
The vast majority of agents who use MLSPIN are extremely happy with the procedures and policies in place. Information is as free as can be expected - listings show up in all local newspapers, on Realtor.com, on Trulia, Zillow, Google Base, etc. Those "third-party" websites are not agents, so they are not in direct competition with local agents. Perhaps this is why MLSPIN has two policies - one for brokerages and one for national website companies. I'm not sure why they have this rule. There is no shortage of information available to buyers. You are all arguing something that does not exist, at least in Boston. I cannot attest to what happens elsewhere in the country, or the rules and regulations of the other 899 MLSs. The third-party websites are not run by agents. These sites include links back to the listing agents' (brokerages, actually) websites. This is one reason why these sites are allowed to include all identifying information - because the only way to schedule appointments, etc., is to contact the listing agents. Compare this with a site run by a competing broker. In fact, I don't want to include the listing brokers' contact information on my site - if it's there, then visitors to my site might just search online and contact the listing brokers, directly. It's better that there is a step in-between, where the buyer has to request full access. It gives me a chance to start a relationship. Those of you who are running third party sites don't like this, because it allows agents to continue to control their business. You want a slice of the pie, and are looking to find any way in that you can. Sorry, we pay for the listing services, we decide what's going to happen.