Expand your network with the power of social media.
If relationships drive real estate, social media keeps the wheels in motion. In less than an hour a day, agents can put their names in front of thousands of people, establish themselves as a trusted source of information, and build and maintain relationships, all for little to no cost and without leaving the office. Whats not to like?
Billboard signs and print advertising have gone by the wayside, says REALTOR® Carolyn Mantia, CRS, broker-owner for Clarity Real Estate in St. Louis, Missouri. Social media has taken center stage. It can net an immediate response and be very inexpensive.
From Pins to Tweets
Real Estate Social Media
Gena Gilbert, CRS, with NC Coastal Properties Keller Williams in Morehead City, North Carolina, along the Crystal Coast, has incorporated Internet marketing into her plan since the mid 1990s. Now Gilbert showcases new properties on Facebook and Twitter. She also posts photos of her home listings on her Pinterest board. You have to stay on top of it and mark listings as sold when they close, she says. But the more photos you post, the better [your profile] looks.
Mantia connects with her wide circle of friends, as well as her local community, through Facebook. Although she does receive referrals and new business from Facebook connections, her main goal is to maintain contact. The people I engage with the most care about my success and are like-minded, she says. I also support friends businesses, so its not just about real estate.
To rise above the din of billions of tweets, Mantia makes effective use of hashtags, which help Twitter users find relevant information, and she incorporates calls to action in her tweets. Mantia launched two successful contests via Twitter that got her name out in the powerful, very referral-based market in Maplewood, Missouri. Both contests encouraged people to post photos of themselves holding a Clarity Street Realty water bottle for a chance to win a pair of baseball tickets. As a result, Clarity Street Realty practically became a household name in this small community. What did it cost me? About $50 for two sets of baseball tickets, she says.
Kay Conageski, a south Florida-based REALTOR® for The Keyes Company, stumbled upon The Real Estate Social Network (RESAAS), an industry-focused social networking and blogging site. Its now a key component in her social marketing plan. The business Ive been getting from them is amazing, Conageski says. The connections Im making are better than any other site Ive used in the past five years.
Fresh, Local and Real
Regardless of the outlet, agents will see more benefit from sharing interests than sharing listings. Mantia created a Maplewood-Richmond Heights community page on Facebook populated with local events, news items and other neighborhood tidbits. When she ran a geo-targeted Facebook ad for the page, the likes flooded in, she says. Those likes cost me about a dime apiece.
Real estate agents are experts in their communities by nature and should use social media to establish themselves as such. This builds trust among your followers. I provide a service while I also tell people who I am, Mantia says of her business and community pages.
Conageski combines scheduled Facebook posts related to home décor and real estate with community news and photos of happy new homeowners. The [local] posts get shared like crazy, she says.
Follow the Trends
As technology advances at a breakneck pace, new social media outlets seem to appear every nanosecond. While Facebook, Twitter and, to a lesser extent, LinkedIn and Google+ remain key players, its wise to stay abreast of the latest tools.
Gilbert uses Instagram and LinkedIn and recently incorporated Google My Business, which puts company information more prominently on Search, Google Maps and Google+. Conageski uses Instagram and plans to move into video. She has also used the trendy Snapchat video messaging app with some success. If I see a house that a buyer might like, Ill use Snapchat to send a photo to the buyer, she says. Its like a teaser. Ive used it with a couple of buyers and they love it.
A Matter of Time
Because of social medias relative low cost, to measure return on investment is to measure time spent. Agents should ask themselves, Is there something you could be doing in the same amount of time that would make you more money? says Conageski, who spends a couple of hours each week on social marketing. What I do on social media gives me a greater return than some of the traditional methods.
How does Mantia, who spends about an hour a day on social marketing, measure success? When people come up to me and say youre everywhere, she says.
Learn more in the CRS online class, Navigating the Social Media Maze.
