The most blatant point made showed that, in comparing social media practices across nine major industries, real estate agents posted the most content, yet garnered the least engagement.
What’s going on?
Real Estate is Unique
Consumer packaged goods companies can blow their content out of a cannon for all to see, but the Inman article implied that a similar strategy won’t work in real estate. Buying a candy bar is far less complex than buying a house, of course; that needs to be reflected in how agents market themselves and their listings.
Consumers of all kinds are over-saturated with content. You have no more than a few seconds to grab their attention. That’s why “best practices” often call for using images and limiting the length of your posts.
Some of these engagement tactics might lead to a like, a share, a retweet, etc. But what will those engagements do for you?
Should you draw people to your website, where they can learn more about you, see your listings or reach out to you directly? It’s up to you; there’s no right or wrong answer. There are many ways to efficiently use social media as a piece of your marketing.
Three Tips From the Article
- Don’t post every listing to your followers, because many of them – perhaps former clients and possible advocates – don’t care to see that. It may lead them to unfollow you, and you might lose possible future referrals (and potential business).
- Keep your audience in mind, and more importantly, what they want to hear. They likely don’t want to hear about how well you’ve done; they want to hear about how well you’ll do for them.
- Spend time thinking about your content so you can deliver it in the most concise and impactful way possible.
It makes sense for real estate agents to invest time evaluating their social media efforts, determining and measuring what works and what doesn’t. What are you trying to achieve through social media? Write your goal down. Keep asking yourself “why?” to eventually reach the answers and practices that are right for you.
More Tips
- If you’re going to use social media, try not to make it an “add-on.” Start with a goal and look at it occasionally; you might be amazed how much content you can filter out because it doesn’t connect to your defined goal.
- Decide on the tactics that will lead you to your goal. Deterimine the best social channels for you, and how often you should post to them.
- Settle on the best ways to optimize content for your audience without overloading them with information, or providing content they are not interested in.
- 4 Areas of Focus to Generate Real Estate Leads on Facebook
- How Real Estate Agents Can Connect, Engage & Create Leads on Twitter
- How Real Estate Agents Can Benefit From LinkedIn
- How Real Estate Agents Can Benefit From Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube & Pinterest
Before you know it, you’ll have a full-fledged social media strategy.
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