Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Real estate agents might not be keen on Snapchat, but a new report from Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England and Westchester Properties says that that’s where dozens of potential homebuyers are hanging out.
"Snapchat is an innovative tool for realtors," stated Candace Adams, president and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England and Westchester Properties, told HousingWire.
"It visually tells a story and allows for more personal engagement with clients. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England and Westchester Properties understands the importance of social media in the digital age,” she said. “It is essential to reach clients where they are already looking."
The numbers are there for all to see. eMarketer reports that Snapchat is set to “grow its user base by double digits, pulling ahead of Twitter and Pinterest in the U.S. for the first time. And the gap will only widen through 2020.”
eMarketer further noted that Snapchat’s user base in the U.S. will increase by 27.2 percent to 58.6 million users later this year, a figure that exceeds that of mobile messaging in general. More importantly though, the article states that millenials, the next big home buying generation, are flocking to Snapchat in greater numbers than ever.
“Snapchat has been especially successful at capturing younger users, particularly those 12 to 34,” eMarketer reported. “Snapchat’s biggest user base is between 18 and 24, with that age range representing 34% of Snapchat’s user base this year. That’s followed by Americans between 25 and 34, which represent 27.0% of Snapchat’s US user base.”
As such, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices has provided a number of tips on how real estate professionals can use Snapchat to boost their business. For example, it says agents can use Snapchat to record videos of home listings, creating a kind of virtual open house that shows off unique aspects of the listing. Agents can also add text to provide a short description.
Another benefit of Snapchat is GeoFilters, which allows users to identify where a video or photo was taken using the phone’s GPS signal.
Finally, Snapchat lets real estate agents reach out to prospective clients much more easily, with simple yet creative messages.
“One of the great things about Snapchat is that the platform makes it very easy to create content,” said s media and marketing expert Gary Vaynerchuk on his blog. “It doesn’t have to be “polished.” Because of the low barrier to entry, you don’t need a high-tech camera or to be blessed with amazing photography or video skills.”
What about real estate investors? I provide social media marketing services for Real Estate Investor clubs and want to find out if this would be a good marketing source for them.
thanks,
Carolyn
Real estate investors tend to be a bit older so I would say Snapchat is a less useful avenue for that demographic. It's much more useful for targeting millenials