January 2, 2018
Social media isn’t just the junior high crowd busy snapping photos left and right. There are plenty of potential home buyers and sellers looking to catch up with friends, watch silly videos, and get the reader’s digest version of the news. Amidst all the chaos on social media, real estate agents have a real opportunity to establish their name and brand to interested parties. There are also plenty of ways to connect with the social peers of a target demographic to raise an agent’s rate of passive lead generation.
Real estate agents who discount the importance of their social media will unfortunately never even realize how much business they’re missing. It’s not fair to an agent or their business to leave that kind of opportunity on the table. It’s time to learn more about all that professional social media entails, what the true costs are, and how an agent take advantage of it without doubling (or tripling) their marketing budget.
The Ideal Calendar
A well-planned social media calendar takes a lot of time and more than a few special skills to get right. It’s a branch of marketing that’s constantly evolving, sometimes right in front of a marketer’s very eyes. Too many real estate agents rely on pictures and general information about the homes they sell. The content has a tendency to come off to viewers as far too pushy and overtly sales-y. After a while, it’s easy for followers or idle browsers to either actively or passively ignore these posts — even if those posts are actually relevant to the viewer.
But the graphics and copy of each post are really just the beginning. From there, marketers have to be cognizant of who’s replying to the posts, how people are interpreting their brand image, and what the ideal public reaction should be. Social listening is the practice of monitoring all conversations about a brand and then using those conversations to strategize the next steps. It involves managing the reputation of the brand on a sometimes minute-to-minute basis and being ready to do damage control for the sake of the longevity of the company.
A good social media calendar also means understanding how different people interact with different platforms. This strategy goes far beyond identifying what different demographics want from a home purchase or sale and pushes the specificity into the next realm. A 40-year old housewife may be looking for something very different on Twitter than she is on Facebook. To fully optimize each platform, the analysis (of both an audience and their desires) must be thorough.
Ultimately, this translates into custom content that takes center stage on the right feeds and pages. A good calendar should include partnerships with non-competing businesses for cross-promotion, and feature prompt customer service for any questions or complaints voiced on the page. The analytic reports and A/B testing for the same campaigns will tell an agent just how engaging their content is. It takes tech skills, market insight, and ingenuity to successfully swim in the increasingly murky waters of the online world.
Cost of In-house Social Media
The average cost of in-house social media is typically between $35,000 and $50,000 for a full-time coordinator. In fact, the average is anywhere from between $200 and $350 a day. To do it right, real estate agents should have special software as well as a wide range of stock photos. If this sounds high, consider what a good social media strategy can do for a real estate agent. Unless an agent has somehow managed to become a household name in their neighborhood, most of the public sees real estate agents as interchangeable.
In-house social media is there to convince potential clients that a real estate agent can do far more than just successfully complete a home purchase or sale. An agent who can work the system to their client’s advantage does so much more than just point out the quality of the baseboards and fill out paperwork. They can be the key to a successful negotiation that manages to work out in their client’s favor. If an agent doesn’t happen to have $50,000 lying around though, there are ways to get what they need for a lot less.
The benefits having in-house social media are fairly obvious: the more exposure someone has to a business, the more likely they’ll be able to portray that business in the most positive (and accurate) light. But the reality is that in-house social media simply isn’t practical for many real estate agents who may only have between $500 and $1,000 a month to spend on social media.
The Cost of Freelance Social Media
There are plenty of people available to work on an ad-hoc basis for a real estate’s social media. Hiring a freelancer to work a few hours a week will undoubtedly be less expensive than an in-house expert. However, the hourly rates for a freelancer are typically higher at about $45 an hour, and it can eat into a company’s budget for marketing fairly quickly. Just an hour a day can cost a real estate agent up to $1,300 a month, and that’s only for five hours a week!
To really explore an agent’s demographics and the dynamic of the neighborhoods they serve, it may take more time than this — at least when getting started. Plus, freelancers tend to be less reliable based on the nature of their work. A freelancer has to pay for benefits that usually come standard with full-time jobs. This means that they’re going to sell their services to the highest bidder without very much loyalty to their lower-paying clients.
Hiring a Professional Company: The Perfect Blend
Outsourcing a company to take care of social media is the perfect combination for real estate agents who need killer social media content but don’t have the economic freedom or the need for a full-time coordinator. A professional marketing company is designed to provide excellent work with the utmost efficiency at every stage of the way. Agents don’t have to pay for a full-time social media during the slower months or worry that a freelancer is going to abandon a cause for a better-paying client.
“Outsourcing a company to take care of social media is the perfect combination for real estate agents who need killer social media content but don’t have the economic freedom or the need for a full-time coordinator.”
Real estate agents pay a flat monthly cost each month, and they don’t have any to deal with any unwelcome surprises. All of the social media services received are carefully planned out well in advance. Agents get a quality social media calendar for less than a salaried employee without sacrificing the ROI of their marketing strategy. In addition, companies that offer these services open doors to real estate agents by allowing them to mix and match services under the same roof. Real estate agents get exactly what they need without paying for anything they don’t.
Wrapping It All Up
Social media may be saturated with individuals, collectives, and conglomerations all fighting for attention, but there are ways for a real estate agent to stand out and increase brand engagement amongst a key demographic. Successfully distinguishing one agent from the rest via social media may not translate into profits immediately, but the engagement and positive recognition are two of the biggest drivers of future success. It’s one of the best ways to establish, maintain, and address the personal integrity of an agent. When done correctly, it’s the kind of advertising that can reach epic proportions.
