Marketing is one of the most challenging parts of having a successful real estate business. Great marketing ensures that, even after the peak season ends, your business will weather less-than-stellar sales. Truly, real estate is a cyclical industry, marked by seasonal highs and lows. Not only do you need to be prepared for the lean months financially, but by employing some strategic marketing tactics, you can stay in the forefront of potential clients’ minds.
But how can real estate agents keep the home fires burning on social media? What are some of the best ways to take advantage of your social networks?
Katie Lance is a fantastic business guru, often speaking at conferences focusing on content strategies. She is totally brilliant. If you’re not following her blog, you’re missing out! Lance just posted this great list of the top five “don’ts” for social media marketing when it applies to real estate professionals, and it’s a must-read! I agree with every single one of these suggestions, especially No. 5.
Jump for the complete list!
1) Don’t outsource your social media. Think about it this way: would you outsource taking your best client to dinner? Of course not. Don’t hand off one of the biggest opportunities you have to connect and build relationships with past, present and future clients.
Now, if you are a broker or manage a large office or team, then yes you will want to hire someone to help manage your social media presence – but for the average agent – doing it yourself (even if just a few minutes a day) can make a big difference.
2) Don’t go on auto-pilot. Automatic notifications are considered spam, and no one wants to look spammy – especially as a first impression! That being said, there are some things you could automate to help your process. One of my favorite tools IFTTT allows you to create ‘recipes’ – such as:
- Every time you post an Instagram photo it tweets it using the pic.twitter.com format
- Every time you change you Facebook profile photo, it changes it in Twitter too
- Every time you favorite a tweet, it saves it to a spreadsheet in Google Drive
3) Stay out of sync. Don’t sync your Facebook feed to your Twitter feed, or vice versa. Many real estate pros do this in an effort to save time, but it comes off as annoying to anyone who follows you on both platforms. You’ll also find that the language and conversation styles vastly differ between the two social networks. While you can certainly post the same type of content to each channel, do so separately and be sure you’re using the right lingo for each,
4) Do more than promote your listings. There are few better ways to kill your feed than reducing it to a bunch of listings. You can certainly talk about your listings on social media, but do it in a smart way: highlight an amazing photo with Instagram, or take a quick video of the home or homeowner using an app like Vine or Instagram. Stay away from the same-old, same-old and get those creative juices flowing!
Want to be inspired? Check out some of my favorite Facebook Pages for real estate that are generating leads for Realtors but more importantly, they are helping to build relationships with current and past clients:
- Team Diva Real Estate
- My North Langley
- Live Urban Real Estate
- Monterey County Association of Realtors
5) Fix that broken record. Get yourself a content strategy and take the time to brainstorm all the different things you can talk about on your social channels. Making sure you have a nice balance of daily content will prevent you from bombarding your audience with the same message again and again – and it’ll do a far better job promoting your brand. (need some content inspiration – make sure you are on my email list to receive your free copy of my content grid!)
Thanks, Katie! And don’t forget to subscribe to Katie’s newsletter for even more tips on marketing strategies, and check out her list of upcoming events, which includes webinars on using twitter to promote your business.
