Hi all! So our first series of posts deals with…you guessed it from the title…SOCIAL MEDIA and real estate!
Social media is EVERYWHERE! Potential customers for just about any product or service seek out their information on the web. These days when one hears of a company or person they are interested in, the first thing they do is run a quick online search. And what happens if they can’t find anything? They move on to the next guy (usually a competitor) who has a social media platform, allowing potential clients to connect and relate with him.
Real Estate and Social Media…What’s the connection?
Like it or not, without a social media presence you won’t be doing anywhere near the business you could be. This is especially the case with real estate, as at some point in their lives everyone has to buy or rent a home. Even if they don’t intend to buy right now, at least 95% of the population all think and dream about owning their own home. With SO MANY people literally living in their social media profiles, having your social media platform set up is such a crucial step in gaining the awareness of potential clients online.
So, with the hundreds of social media sites out there, which ones should you be focused on? I would suggest the top four, which are, Facebook, Twitter, Google + and a blog to begin with.
With Facebook you don’t have to make “friends” with all your clients on your personal account if you want to keep your personal profile strictly for family and the like. All you need to create is a business page on Facebook. This will allow people to “Like” and follow your page, seeing updates on new listings and other information you put out, as well as allow you to interact with anyone at the click of a button. Think of your page as your shop window for all potential clients to see.
Twitter is a big one, as it allows you quick and easy access to 500,000,000 users. Plus it grants you access to such things as keywords and searches, so you can find out if any of those half a billion users are seeking real estate in your area instantly. If you have a welcoming Twitter feed, you could snag some clients you never would have had access to in the first place. Thing is many people head straight to Facebook when they think social media and focus purely on their Facebook page. DON’T FORGO TWITTER.
Google + is the newest of the group, but with the power of Google behind it, whether you like them or not, it is sure one not to miss.
And finally we have a blog. Having a blog is very important because here, people truly get to know you. With a blog you can build relationships with clients and provide them all your services, feedback, contact information and regular updates in a very personal way. If you can build a blog following that really grows to trust you, you can access a whole world of clients that you never thought possible. Now the two main blog hosting sites are Blogger and WordPress. I prefer WordPress myself because of the sheer control you have over what you can do with your blog (Real Estate HQ has been built on WordPress) but I have used Blogger before too and it should do most of what you require to create a great looking real estate blog. I must say Blogger is easier to setup and being a Google product, you can set up a Google Plus page pretty much at the same time which is quite handy!
Each of these four social media platforms will show your skills and expertise off to clients in a whole new light and each can be done with very little knowledge and effort. Also when dealing with social media there are a few things you should take note of when starting out.
Never spread yourself too thin
Meaning, don’t sign up for 20 social media sites and only work on two. It doesn’t look too good when a potential client searches for you and finds your Facebook page with 2 followers rather than your Twitter feed with 1000 followers.
Start with these four and put the same amount of effort into each one. You want to make yourself equally appealing everywhere a potential client can find you. 🙂
Don’t do things the hard way
There are many apps that can be used in ways that make each of these four social media platforms work together, which we will get into later on. But for instance, you can connect Twitter and your Facebook page. So whenever you make a new update to either one, it shows up on the other.
Houston, we have NO problem!
And no matter the social media platform, make sure every link works and that your contact information is easy to find and up to date. There is nothing more frustrating to people than finding the realtor they want but then not having a way to contact him/her because available contact information is outdated or just simply doesn’t exist!
There are other platforms you can branch out to once you have a handle on these ones, such as Linkedin and Digg, but for now these are the four that should have your main focus and they are the ones you should concentrate on getting up and running, visible and working in every manner. I will do separate posts with instructions on using these other social media sites in due course if you want, let me know if you would find them useful.
Conclusion
So, whether you are just beginning your journey into social media or are already on your way, here you will find many tips and tricks to maximize your social media visibility. You will pick up on various aspects that many real estate agents overlook. With each additional post you will be armed with knowledge that will help you create a huge online presence. So follow Real Estate HQ today (RSS and email options are available in the sidebar to the right) and let us help you create and bring your social media platform to its true potential.
