From enhancing your reputation to connecting you with prospective clients, a robust social media presence can enormously benefit your real estate business.
Many realtors may not be making the most of this powerful tool because they feel they lack the skills or the confidence to do so. Others may simply fail to recognize how it could benefit them in the first place.
Let’s take a closer look at exactly what social media could do for your business and how to use it optimally to build your brand.
The Importance of Social for Real Estate Marketing
Like it or not, we are living in the digital age, and while social media isn’t a new concept, it can be an intimidating and often misunderstood one. There is this idea that if something is not converting directly to sales, then it has no value. You may have even attempted to build up your social presence and felt like giving up after seeing no immediate results.
The thing is developing your brand’s online presence takes time. You may not reap instant rewards but you have to keep providing quality content on your social channels. At the end of the day, success on social media comes down to exposure. So, put yourself out there!
Taking advantage of your social network via social media channels helps you find and attract more buyers and sellers to expand your business, as well as connect with the real estate community at large. And connecting with a larger network means more potential referrals and significantly boosting your credibility within the industry — a great way to gain a competitive edge over other agents!
Finding Inspiration For Content
Content is key to establishing a successful online presence. While quality is important to uphold the reputation of your brand, frequency and consistency is even more important. You can post gorgeous imagery and entertaining videos and still lose your audience if you go too long without posting content.
However, it can be tough to come up with fresh ideas — especially if you focus on sales and only post photos and videos of listings. There are so many other ways to keep people engaged with your socials.
Here are a few of our favorite ideas:
Share Success Stories and Company Milestones
There’s no better way to pique a potential client’s interest than to show them what you have achieved for others. Documenting satisfied clients will help boost your image while bringing a more human element to your business.
And don’t forget to speak out about your own successes. Social media content is a brilliant vehicle to prove your excellence and expertise within the industry and to demonstrate to clients why they should have confidence in working with you.
Discuss Relevant Industry News
In a constantly evolving industry, it’s great to show the outside world that you’re keeping up. Social media is a perfect way to let clients and colleagues alike know that you really know what you are talking! You can talk about thethe industry and where it’s headed to build trust with your network.
Sharing industry news is also an excellent opportunity to encourage your audience to engage with your content. Ask them to share their thoughts and opinions on topics, and to further extend your client reach while establishing bonds with potentially valuable contacts.
Provide Tips and Tricks Posts
Keeping your audience engaged with your business when they are not actively looking to buy or sell a property can be tricky. That’s why you need to think outside the box to ensure you don’t lose followers.
Useful “how to…” videos on everything from home renovation to furnishing and beyond keeps things interesting and offers valuable, helpful content to your audience. It also helps you reach a wider sector of your audience while demonstrating your know-how on these handy topics to further boost your reputation.
Interacting With Your Audience
Boost your outreach efforts beyond a personal website by connecting with potential customers in the places they are spending a large amount of their time. After all, most people these days start their search for their new home online — why not find them before they find you?
When starting out on social media, the biggest stress for most business owners is thinking that everything they put out there into the online world needs to be perfect. This ends up making them nervous about sharing anything and they end up posting nothing.
The secret is, your audience isn’t looking for perfection, so much as authenticity — real, honest and relatable content. Just look at the kinds of content that goes viral in cyberspace. Often, it’s real people sharing their humanity and genuine selves with the world.
Yes, you are a business, but remember, there are people behind any operation, so let your audience in and show what’s happening behind the scenes. Social media offers a brilliant way to connect with your audience by offering insights into your day-to-day operations. Don’t be afraid to show the truth and just roll with it. Be yourself, and be genuine.
And keep up your blossoming social presence by making sure to engage and follow up with your community. Respond to any comments you receive — both positive and negative. Instead of bombarding your network with in-your-face sales attems, you are fostering bonds with colleagues and potential clients and building trust to generate more leads and more business.
Balancing commitments
Another reason people shy away from social media is the time commitment involved. They can feel overwhelmed by the idea of running a business while also putting their focus into developing a solid online brand. It’s true that it’s easy to get sucked into social media and distracted by it for the wrong reasons.
It’s vital to remember that your clients and business come first before your online presence. After all, that is where your direct stream of revenue is coming from. While the creativity of social media can be a fun and exciting contrast and a great change of pace to the day-to-day hustle, you need to compartmentalize and manage your priorities. Allot time for your social media operations into your schedule like everything else.
At first, it really is going to feel like a lot. Building a successful online presence takes time, energy, commitment and concentration. But put in the work, be patient, and consistently show up for your network and before you know it you will have a flourishing following and an even higher-performing business.
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