Social media has become an important part of many real estate professional’s marketing plan. Are you using it effectively, or could you be wasting your time? Answer these questions to decide.
1. Are you using your personal profile for business?
Mixing personal and business isn’t an effective use of social media. If you have clients or prospects who follow you on Facebook, for example, they aren’t interested in your vacation photos, or where you went for dinner last night. It’s easy to create separate profiles for business to target your message.
2. Have you written some extraordinary content for your social media profile pages?
Many social media profiles do a very poor job of promotion. Take the time to write an effective profile. Each social media site has its own rules about what you can include in your profile. So, the best approach is to write a comprehensive profile, then use portions of it to correspond to each site’s rules.
Your social media presence will never make it to star quality if people who visit your profile don’t come away impressed with what you can do for them.
3. Are your social media profiles branded consistently?
One of the advantages of strong branding is that people in your sphere will start feeling as if they see you everywhere. One of the best ways to give them that impression is to use consistency in what you put on your social media pages.
- Use the same profile photo: People respond more to a person, therefore use a head shot, not a logo.
- Use consistent cover images: Create a professional-looking cover image, then create different versions for various social media sites. This would be the place to include a logo and even contact information.
- Use the same colors: Even if you can’t include a large cover image, just making sure that you’re using the same color scheme as your logo and your other images will help witih brand recognition.
It’s true that the requirements for various social media sites change much more often than it should, you’ll find summaries of updated rules online that reflect the latest rules.
4. Do you ever find yourself using social media profiles as your personal soap box?
It can happen. You’ve had a long frustrating day, and some comment on a social media site just sends you over the edge. You need to remind yourself that anything you put on the Internet lives for all time. Also, think about people like Roseanne Barr. One stupid tweet, and an apology wasn’t enough. She lost her successful TV show and ABC lost a lot of money.
Or, the situation people you don’t know got themselves into. They liked a page online that was just short of being pornographic, not realizing that everyone in their network got a notification sharing their opinion. Just don’t do it.
5. Are most or all of your posts about your business?
Social media is meant for sharing, providing insight, and keeping in front of people you need to have in your sphere. However, if all you ever do is post your listings, you’re really wasting your time. Try posting links to your blog posts that provide useful information. Describe how you use your showing feedback system or your real estate text riders. You can also post links to other resources that provide information your sphere will find useful.
Of course, you want to post your listings. But, make sure it’s more than a link.
- Make it a story about the types of homes currently on the market
- Point out special homes that would appeal to a specific group of people you work with often
- Include a professional photo of the exterior and point out unique landscaping
- Include a photo of the interior and comment on how well the homeowner used their open floor plan, or other home features
Final Thoughts
Social media may not be something you’re comfortable with, and you’ve established a successful marketing plan without it. And, that’s fine.
But, if you’re using social media, just make sure you don’t waste your time!
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