Inman News recently put out its Essential Guide to Social Media and Real Estate. The guide is a compilation of thoughts and comments from some 65 real estate agents, brokers and marketing professionals.
We have some highlights for you here.
Everyone agrees that the key elements on which to focus your social media efforts to achieve your real estate goals are
- being authentic to yourself, your values and your brand
- putting relationships, not deals, first
- being consistent to your values in all that you do
- embracing disruption
- understanding how to use video
Jason Frazier, aka the Agent Marketer, suggests that you the agent concentrate first on your brand and second on your audience. Frazier said, “The brand is you; the brand is what the home consumer tells someone else about working with you.”
Frazier emphasized that your brand must resonate with you first and foremost. Again, the brand is you…it is, as Shannon Miller of the RVA Team with eXp Realty said, “about letting your personality shine through.” And, as you evolve, your brand will evolve.
Once you’ve specified who you and your brand are, specify the demographics of your audience. Is your audience a combination of first-time buyers, luxury buyers, military families, Boomers, vacation/second homes, investors, foreign nationals, millennial buyers?
Your brand, goals and demographics will determine the social media platforms and applications you use. Remember that you DO NOT have to use every platform/application and you DO NOT have to “be” everywhere all the time. Remember that, as Chelsea Peitz, a former agent and now social media strategist, said, “It’s not about your preferences and what you like; it’s about what the consumer likes…” and what works/resonates with and for the consumer.
Most everyone, 97.14% of everyone surveyed for this guide, said that Facebook is one of the most important social media instruments for their business. And, if they had to use one platform, 77.67% would choose Facebook.
Everyone comes to and uses Facebook because it has users of all ages and because it’s the “…easiest to learn and navigate. It’s also the convergence of so many types of content creation (messaging, marketplace, storytime, etc. and etc.),” said Frazier.
After Facebook, Instagram is used by 65.7%, LinkedIn by 53.33%, You Tube by 47.86% and Twitter by 26.67%.
How much time do people spend creating social media content varies between platforms and applications. (Find the specifics in the Inman Guide itself.) Whatever time you do spend with/on social media, make it consistent.
Speaking of content creation, everyone suggests that you as the agent (and/or your content creator) focus on being an educator, providing news and information, and answering questions in straightforward, understandable, specific and down-to-earth written/visual/video communications.
One more thing… learn, understand and use videography. Peitz and Frazier both believe that Facebook will be mainly video by 2020 and that it may just take over You Tube as the go-to video hub.
Remember…
- Everyone makes mistakes. Get over it.
- Be authentic. Be you.
- Go for relationships first and foremost.
- Be consistent.
- Make videography (or your videographer) your new best friend.
For a thorough look at Inman’s Essential Guide to Social Media and Real Estate, go to… https://www.inman.com/2018/07/10/the-essential-guide-to-social-media-in-real-estate/
