How to Use Social Media in Real Estate
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[Originally published on New Media 4 Agents.com on February 16, 2012: Click Here]
How to Use Social Media in Real Estate
Post Written by Tierra Wilson
At first, social media was just a way to connect with classmates, friends or family. Then it became a way to network with people you have met and keep in touch with them. Now, it has become the marketing life source of our business, a life source that we are required to keep up with.
It’s hard. We know! That’s why we started New Media 4 Agents, to help real estate professionals manage it all. But we didn’t want to just sell our services; we also wanted to be a resource for real estate professionals. More than any other professional, the real estate professional has it the hardest. You have to find your own business, close the deal, write the contracts, network, maintain clients, abide by serious laws, market yourself, become a neighborhood expert… well, you know. Throw in social media in real estate and it can be really scary, especially when 90% of all home buyers and home sellers start looking for their real estate needs online. Let’s be honest, if you haven’t embraced online marketing, SEO and blogging, you are missing out on a huge piece of the lead generation pie.
Anyway, enough with our soap opera, let’s get down to why you ended up on this post in the first place. How can you use social media in real estate?
1. Use social media to establish a real estate brand
Branding is the most powerful tool in your real estate marketing toolbox. When you establish a consistent, beautiful and well thought out brand across all of your online (social media, email marketing and websites) and offline (direct mail, post cards and flyer) you immediately gain an edge against your competition. Hiring a professional real estate creative marketing agency to develop that brand is worth the investment.
2. Use social media to establish yourself as a real estate expert
Before social media, marketing establishing yourself as a real estate expert was expensive and time-consuming. It included a public relations campaign for print placement, speaking at colleges/conferences and writing/publishing books. Today, print placement means guest blogging for a popular real estate blog, speaking at colleges and conferences means developing podcasts and YouTube videos and publishing books means writing eBooks for your targeted audience. You have the power to be an expert with little or no investment.
3. Use social media to target more relevant and interested clients
Social media in real estate has the ability for you to find real estate clients that need what you are offering. By strategically following and interacting with people in your targeted audience you can create a valuable database and resource of potential clients for your business. That means being a social media “snob”. Being a social media snob means only following and interacting with those who will eventually benefit your business. If you are questioning this, just think… would you put a billboard in an area where your clients don’t exist?
3. Use social media to keep in touch with past clients
One huge benefit of social media in real estate is the ability to keep in touch with your clients. If you take the time to add your real estate clients to your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ accounts, you will always be in their face, every single day, and you can even get rid of expensive mail campaigns. You can update your blog and social media accounts with closing announcement, new products, homes for sale and more. Just think of the opportunities if use it correctly!
4. Use social media to save money and cut real estate operating costs
Finally, social media in real estate can help you as a real estate agent save money and cut operating costs. Social media is free, it builds your business in a paperless and effective environment. Combine that with cloud based solutions and you can cut your operating costs by 40%.
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