Social Media is Mandatory for Real Estate Professionals

As a real estate professional, you’re already well versed in having a charming personality, phenomenal networking skills, and substantial abilities in closing deals.  In a nutshell, you have created your own personal brand when making an impact in a fast-moving competitive environment.  You’ve mastered your abilities offline however it’s important to leverage the same consistency online as well.

You might already be using social media, however there are some interesting facts you might not have known:

• Over 84% of real estate professionals are using social media to advertise their services.
• Social media has a lead-to-close ratio which is 100% higher than traditional outbound marketing.
• The fastest growing social media demographics are between 45 to 64 years of age. It’s a suitable target market for your industry.
• 93% of consumers use social media to influence their purchasing decision.

After knowing these facts, what steps should a real estate professional take when marketing their residential or commercial services?

Grow Your Community

Advertising is important, hence you should continue growing your social network to keep potential customers locked into your services.  Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have dynamic tools to help you seek individuals who are actively looking for real estate professionals so you can zero-in on that opportunity.

Tip: Try to use dynamic advertisements and content-based marketing to advertise your community. With Facebook, you can ‘boost’ your posts to ensure important information is being reached to its full capacity.

Cultivate Your Community

As you continue to grow your community, be sure to cultivate them in the most creative way.  A low hanging fruit for a real estate professional is advertising featured properties, but you will also need to gauge your community to help them understand what makes you the best solution.

Tip: Try to influence potential customers to ‘like’, ‘follow’, or ‘contact’ you based on risk-free services. Such examples can be market value assessments, free consultations, prizes and rewards, and any other strategies to incentify your social network.

Be Transparent

It’s important to advertise yourself based on actual properties and clients you have worked with.  It’s easy to get generic images of high rises and ‘attractive’ property, but it’s best to have a real persona on by showcasing your client portfolio.  Customers have a large appreciation for real testimonials and featured properties to ensure they are in good hands.

Tip: Perhaps featuring a quick video every week on your industry knowledge. Perhaps showcasing a video on reasons to live in a specific area (i.e. schools for children, neighbourhood safety, lower property taxes, etc)

About 4 Eyed Media

4 Eyed Media is your one-stop source to improve your online performance for increased customer acquisition and retention, digital cultivation, and increased branding in a competitive online marketplace.  We provide our clients with the right tools necessary to help them achieve success with social media management, responsive website development, search engine optimization (SEO), and content marketing.

SOURCES: http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/, http://www.realtor.com