Social Media Marketing Strategy for Real Estate
To stand out on social media as an agent, you need to have a decent social media marketing strategy for Real Estate and follow some tips.
The question is this: now that almost everybody is using the internet how do you stand out on social media as a real estate agent? Recently there has been media hype around social media despite all the ambiguities around its impact on business, but what’s all that fuss about? What is so special about social media that makes it so interesting for businesses? Social media offers many benefits but the one which truly fascinates businesses is how it facilitates a direct connection to the customers and vice versa. Here is how you can have a decent social media marketing strategy for Real Estate.
Now that different platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. are becoming more and more popular every day, using them correctly becomes even more important as a failure in this results in wasted time and resources. Finding the right platform and more importantly, knowing how to use it is what makes your efforts fruitful.
Be Like No Other
People are drawn to those who are genuine and stand out in both character and behavior. We tend to be less interested in those who are a copy of the others who have already established their image. The same thing applies to our presence on social media. A glimpse at social media is enough to show us the majority of people are doing the same thing. It is not bad to follow the best practices but the image you present to the public needs to be unique. Your own image with its unique values.
You might say that all real estate agents serve the same purpose and how one can be unique in the message they project? What agents do is not the same, nor the results of their efforts. The field they work in is the same. Two clients with the same needs can have pretty different customer journeys. Facilitating buying, selling, or renting require different skill sets for agents. It is the different needs of clients and the way agents handle these needs. What particular needs and problems you solve, your unique way of handling these needs, and the very specific outcome of your efforts are what make you different.
Be Authentic
Social media is a way for people to express themselves. We love people with great personalities. While you are working on your marketing skills, it is not a bad idea to work on how you sell your personality too. Do not try to copy other agents who are successful. People can tell who is faking a personality. Be yourself; a friendly, helpful, and reliable agent. Let your character make the sales.
Find Your Niche
In order to stand out on social media as a real estate agent, you need to be known for a specific and certain skill that helps a specific group of people. Trying to cover a wide range of clients with various needs makes you similar to many other agents who have nothing special to offer. It is better to be an expert at helping a certain group of people than to be a mediocre agent for a wide variety of clients. For example, you can be the agent for luxury properties serving high net worth clients. Furthermore, having a niche gives your social media efforts a purpose and defines the content you should share.
Optimize Your Profile
This one may make readers wonder why it is even mentioned. It seems obvious. But the truth is that many agents fail at making their profile the best it can be. Social media profiles have many sections, and all of these sections need to be carefully defined and completed:
Your Bio
Your bio should clearly tell your visitors who you are, where your farming area is, specializations, what you do differently, and what the outcome is. You can fit all this information into a single brief sentence to help visitors decide if you are the agent they need.
Address and Contact information
Many people take contact information for granted, create social media accounts, and share great content but do not put their contact information right in front of their visitors’ eyes. Just as easy as that, they lose clients because many do not bother to direct message agents or look for contact information elsewhere.
Profile Photo
You are a business person and need to look professional. The first place people see you is your profile photo on social media. Using photos you have taken on a family camping trip will not leave the best impression. Furthermore, in order to make your brand more recognizable, try to use the same photo across different platforms so that visitors can easily place you.
Your Website
Your website is the base of your marketing efforts and other media should lead back to it. Social media needs to guide your visitors to your website. Therefore, on your profile make sure you put a link to your website. All social media offers this feature, but some agents fail to utilize it and use social media only for sharing listings.
Go Live. Few Agents Do It
To truly stand out on social media as a real estate agent, you need to do what others don’t or won’t do. Live broadcasts are one of the things agents tend not to like. Some do not believe in them and some do not feel confident enough to speak live in front of their audience. However, as more and more social media platforms are integrating live broadcast features into their apps. Those who get an early start on live videos can stand out and shine. Live videos cause your visitors to feel they can contact you directly and this creates trust.
Consistency
One of the biggest issues in the way people run their business on social media is that they look at it as a side feature. Therefore, they do not spend the time it deserves. Nothing will work for you unless you believe in it. Treating social media as one of the less important aspects of your marketing efforts will result in a less significant outcome.
Social media has become a habit for people. You may be someone who checks social media frequently to find out what your friends and family are up to or what is going on around the world.
But imagine waking up and finding no news on social media, and you have to use the radio. What happens next? Most probably after a while, you will let go of social media and go to stick to the radio. Inconsistency on social media has the same effect on your audience. People want to receive updates on the channels they follow, or they will leave you for other sources.
Get Your Content Shared
The best content in the world does not matter without audience interaction. Having 1m followers won’t matter if people are not sharing your content. The number of likes matters too. Social media in business is all about sharing. But how do you get people to share your content? To answer this question, think about the content you usually share. Why do you share them? You think your friends will find it either helpful or interesting. That’s what you need to keep in mind when creating content related to your business.
Engage, Engage, Engage
Do you know why you are on social media? You are there to connect with people. Social media is not just about sharing content and letting things go. You need to engage with your audience and prospects effectively and have a plan for it. Here is how:
Help People On Twitter
Use Twitter’s search feature to look for people who have questions regarding real estate in your area. Give them advice without trying to sell anything your pitch yourself. Offer them further help if they need it.
Retweet Content Related To Your Farming Area
There will be people on your followers’ list who share different content about your neighborhood and farming area. If you think your followers will find it interesting retweet/share it. This makes your account more valuable to follow.
Join Local Real Estate Groups On Facebook And Twitter
Contribute to these groups and share great content that you think members need and are interested in. Avoid selling or pitching yourself. These people are not looking at buying things. They are there to learn.
Automate
Social media requires time and effort. Depending on the size of your business and the number of platforms you use, this effort and time can increase dramatically. Even without what you do normally as an agent, social media can be overwhelming. There are tools that can assist you with the large load of content production.
Social media automation is a new trend that is becoming more popular. Automation systems are not just for publishing content. There are actually some really effective services that offer social media automation.
Rule With Videos
Social media is about entertainment too. You can entertain, educate, and make your audience aware of what you have to offer. Text and images might do the trick, but chances are videos get more clicks than images and text. Whether you are posting about tips and tricks, market updates, FAQ sessions, introducing yourself or your team, showcasing listings, etc., videos are your best. They are as simple and easy to watch in a single click. Try to include captions for the videos. It is inclusive and many people browse social media without sound.
Do Not Sell, Teach
People are exposed to many advertising messages on a daily basis. So much so that many ignore ads by default and only those who are looking for a service or product or know what they want, pay attention to ads. However, a large percentage of potential leads are not actively looking for services. Therefore, direct marketing efforts are ignored by default by most of those prospects. How do you grab their attention and keep yourself on top of their mind? By making yourself valuable to them. By teaching them and adding value. Focus on helping not selling.
Direct Your Audience To Your Website
Apart from the fact that you try to create awareness around your brand on social media, one of the important purposes of social media is to drive traffic back to your website as the base of your marketing efforts. Social media come on go but your real estate website is there to stay. Therefore, directing your audience to your website should be taken seriously. Promote your website by linking back to it through different posts. Depending on the platform, linking back to your website can differ.
Reply To Direct Messages And Comments
The fact that agents are doing business on social media keeps many of them reluctant to engage with their audience on a personal level. Many leave social media to automation systems and think they are done. Regardless of how you share content on social media, there is another aspect to these platforms and that is customer relations. You are the one who should take on such a pivotal task. Every once in a while, a client or prospect might direct you, ask questions in comments, etc. not attending to these messages and inquiries has a negative impact on your audience.
This is so important that all the big companies have a dedicated position for their social media accounts to gather customer feedback through comments and direct messages, reply to them and try to leave a good impression on current customers and observe prospects. To stand out on social media as a real estate agent show that you care for your clients and prospects by actively engaging with audience feedback.
Promote Your Social Media Accounts
Your social media is used to promote your business. But that does not mean you should not promote your accounts. Make sure you mention your social media accounts everywhere from your website, to your business card, videos you create and share, your blog posts, etc. The more followers you get on social media the more you get your content shared and ultimately the more engagement you get.
Social Media Marketing Strategy for Real Estate: Final Words
Standing out means being different. However not every difference is valuable. Doing things that other agents are not doing that creates value helps agents separate themselves from others. On the other hand, copying others, sticking with obsolete methods, not taking social media seriously, and not putting effort into creativity and technology will not make you stand out positively from other agents.
Standing out on social media as a real estate agent is all about the mindset. Putting the clients first and thinking of new ways to get closer to them, creating a more personal relationship, providing the right type of content, and helping them with their problems. Social media is not the place to show off your pitching skills. It is a place to see what appeals to the audience.
