In Part I of this two-part summary of Inman’s Special Report on Mastering Social Media for Real Estate Agents, we discussed the importance Inman gives to content creation.
Think of content creation as both creating quality writing AND creating quality videos. You know the old saying, “pictures are worth a thousand words.” Videos are worth a thousand-plus words.
Chelsea Peitz, the social media wizard you “met” in Part I of this short series, believes, “There’s something about a video or Facebook Live. You can’t hide who you are.”
Think about a video as an opportunity for you to personally introduce yourself to your clients, develop a relationship with them through your regular video programming and to eventually become a trusted advisor to your viewership. People want to work with people they know, like and trust. Videos give you the agent the opportunity to automatically build that trust between you and the viewer/user.
(If you are not comfortable in front of a camera, know that the more you do it, just like the more you do public speaking and listing presentations, the more relaxed and more effective you will become. Have fun with the medium. Watch other agent videos to see what you like/don’t like. Maybe get some coaching for make-up, hair, style, speaking, body language?)
Social media experts think that videos will be “the next driving force” in social media. They predict that by 2020, 60.52% of all social media content will be video content and that Facebook Live will overtake You Tube.
According to Inman, social media is really about navigating relationships with your users. As relationships are central to real estate, you need to know how to use these platforms in order to create and connect those relationships. Invest in your knowledge.
Currently, Inman found the top uses for social media to be
- marketing – 88.57%
- advertising – 74.29%
- publishing news and information about your business – 76.19%
- generating leads – 63.81%
- communicating with clients – 53.3%
- communicating with partners/colleagues – 30.48%
Again, social media is an opportunity to give your users/viewers an authentic, more well rounded understanding of who you are and what you stand for as a real estate agent. If/when you make a mistake on social media, own it, apologize for offending anyone and move on.
Some cardinal suggestions from Inman’s report:
- Cross-pollinate your contacts.
- Cross-pollinate your channels.
- Cross-pollinate your content.
- Follow-up any leads or comments from users with a phone call, email, direct message and/or text as soon as possible.
- Continue interacting with users regularly.
- Make sure all of your content (written, video, ads) conveys useful, up-to-date information in your consistent, authentic voice.
- Know that social media is NOT a quick fix. Give yourself time and patience to cultivate your social media outreach and relationships. Nothing happens overnight. Most experts who spoke to Inman for this special report said that the fruits of social media labor take 8-12 months to grow and blossom.
