January 29, 2018
Real estate marketing 30 years ago may have been anything from business cards, to bus bench ads, to television spots during off hours. Social media marketing isn’t a new concept, but it’s new enough that many agents still don’t understand how useful it can be to refine their brand. In fact, only 9% of real estate agents even use social media as a marketing tool for their business. See just how important it can be to opening up a better world with a stronger community and happier clients.
Who Is Out There?
Real estate agents need to understand not only how many people are seeing their content, but who those people actually are. The more an agent can break these stats down, the more likely it is that they’ll be able to decide on a content strategy. Real estate has been evolving steadily based on human behavior. Some of the most popular social media sites include:
- Facebook, with over 2 billion total active users
- Instagram, with over 500 million total active users
- Twitter, with nearly 330 million active users
- Pinterest, with 200 million active monthly users
- LinkedIn, with over 500 million active users worldwide
“Real estate agents need to understand not only how many people are seeing their content, but who those people actually are.”
Each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses for real estate agents. For example, Twitter is excellent for finding clients in a specific area, even if an agent only has so many characters to work with; while Pinterest is an excellent platform to entice audience clicks to a specific website. Social media is a huge opportunity to establish a firmer sense of their market, and give them insights into how they can expand that market to more clients.
Social Media Is for Being Social
People log onto social media for any number of reasons: they want to see what their friends and family are up to, they want to laugh at a few funny jokes, they want to be inspired by stories that turn hardship into success. But the thread that ties it all together is that they want to connect with other people.
Real estate agents need to tap into those emotions when creating social calendars. The more relatable the content is, the more likely it is that agents will grow their following. This is usually code for abandoning corporate jargon and jumping into the language (and graphics) that people want to see. This is not about copying a successful business’ page, but about creating a personality that rings true for the business.
Building Relationships
Whatever approach an agency chooses — humorous, practical, emotional, etc. — there’s a need to maintain a clear persona and lay the foundation for a real relationship with their audience. An should appear:
- knowledgeable,
- helpful, and,
- honest.
People on social media aren’t looking to read about how great a business is. They want to be shown (not told) that the business is doing more than promoting various property at specific price points. This is how brands build trustworthiness and relationships with people. It’s how one friend tells another friend “I saw this post on Facebook”. It’s a way to work a brand into the subconscious of a community that will always have at least a few sellers and buyers in the crowd at any given time.
Humanizing Agents
Real estate agents have a tendency to be reduced to nothing more than a bland smiling photo on a web page to many people. But social media should push agents to share more of themselves with their audience. Hate all the construction delays in a neighborhood? Love the new rec center being built near the downtown area? Want to let people know that there’s a water main break on the main street?
The more relevant posts, the more likely it is that people will directly engage with the content. As a rule, about 80% of content should be social content that isn’t business-related. Real estate agents can let discussions wander in the comments section to better understand what their base is looking for.
Younger Demographics
There are very few people out there not engaging with social media, but age demographics give agents a better idea of which platforms they should use to better engage with their customers. In 2015, there were more than 75 million people aged 18 to 34 in the US. This market remains largely untapped for homeownership, with Generation Y home buyers taking the lion’s share at 32% of the entire market. Next comes the Baby Boomers X at 31%, and Gen X following at 27%. While Millennials are putting off home ownership for various reasons, there will be many looking to settle down eventually. The more real estate agents attempt to connect now (no matter what age group they want to work with), the better position they’ll be in for the future.
Social media will never be an exact science, but that’s what makes this type of real estate marketing so thrilling. It takes a lot of insight and perspective to do it right, but it is possible if agents have the right tools at their disposal. Understanding how powerful social media can be to reach key demographics is often one of the biggest hurdles to face.
