Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
As a realtor you know that your business relies on contacts. Staying on top of the latest industry trends, touching base with other agents, fielding questions from interested buyers and/or sellers is vital to your business.
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With increasing numbers of buyers and sellers embracing social media and online research to find their new home, we've been told that it's essential to make sure that you have a wide and varied online presence. While this is important, the wide range of social media channels available can lead to information overload - and as we all know, when confusion enters the room, inaction is right behind.
Social Media Time Warp
To prevent information overload by embracing every single social media resource out there, pick your poison. Begin with one or two social media channels that your target audience frequents and focus all of your efforts on them. For example, Zillow.com and Trulia.com are two well known websites frequented by individuals who want to gain knowledge of a marketplace.
After sticking with one or two, if you’ve built up a nice following you could consider adding more channels, however if you do, think about using a social media management tool such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck and Seesmic.
Paid options include sites such as Sprout and Sprinklr. Using these tools, it’s possible to monitor numerous social media channels on a single dashboard. You can follow one or more keywords, or topics and organize them to make monitoring even more simple.
Content Feeds Traffic
Every social media marketer will tell you that “content is king.” This is true to some extent, however I would add that “good content” is what will drive customers to your doorstep. When you consistently offer quality information that individuals can use - for free, you establish yourself as someone who is reliable, and is likely to be trusted.
According to a recent survey by eMarketer the objective of content curation, according to those surveyed, is varied. Answers reveal that 78.9% believe it is to establish thought leadership, while 76.1% said it was to elevate brand visibility and buzz. Over half - 60.6% use it for lead generation and 47.9% use content creation to boost their website’s SEO.
Narrow Your Focus
Finding the time to create quality content, however, can be difficult if you’re being distracted by the “noise” from so many social media venues. To keep information overload at bay, simplify your social media life. Unsubscribe from emails that are clogging up your inbox or “to read” files. There’s nothing like the feeling of freedom when facing an empty inbox. Don’t worry, there will always be another informative article or industry report - there’s no possible way you could read them all anyway. Just pick a choice few and stick with those only.
You’re certainly not alone. eMarketer’s study also showed that 73% of social media marketers have difficulty finding the time to create content. This isn’t surprising when you consider how much of a time suck social media sites can be.
Keep it simple. Even with the use of a media management tool, it’s not hard to get drawn into monitoring your channels 24/7. To avoid getting sucked back in, limit yourself to reviewing your channels at specific times of the day, and for a set amount of time, say 15 to 20 minutes.
As business owner, you need to remember that your audience is all about the “what’s in it for me”. If you’ve found out where they are “hanging out”, given them quality information that’s useful (and specific) to their needs, (thereby establishing yourself as a professional) and you have engaged them through social media, you’ll be ahead of the pack who just have a vacant blog and profile gathering “dust” with no real connection to readers who stumble across it.
What do you think? Has social media improved your business or been a waste of time?
