Helping Real Estate Agents Socialize & Market Online
Need a quick cheat sheet that shows when you should be sharing your new listings and other content on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest? We have you covered!
Feel free to share this with other realtors. And don’t forget we offer free mini-audits of your social media presence for your real estate business!
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I was talking with a real estate agent the few days ago, helping her plan her social media strategy. She had set up a page on Facebook for her business and set up a Twitter account as well. While she wasn’t super active – posting maybe once or twice per month – she was making an attempt to market off the huge networking opportunities on social media. But she was discouraged about why she wasn’t getting more likes, followers and engagement on both Twitter and Facebook. The main reason? While she had created the accounts (which to her credit is more than many real estate agents do), she did absolutely nothing to promote either of them, and this is a huge mistake many social media novices make.
In order to get followers, likes and conversation on either Twitter or Facebook, you need to ensure you are promoting your social media accounts so people can find them. The vast majority of your potential clients aren’t going to hunt down your Twitter account, but if they see a link to your account, chances are they might click it and then follow you.
So what are things you can do in order to promote your social media accounts so people realize you have them?
Email signatures
This is one of the most cost effective ways to repeatedly get your social media accounts before your clients. At the end of your regular email signature, add “Follow me on Twitter at @yourhandle” and “Like us on Facebook!”. And be sure that signature is linked to both of those accounts – you want people to just click and end up on your Twitter account. If you make them type in www.twitter.com/yourhandle, chances are good they won’t bother. Always remember the KISS method.
Website links
Make sure you add your relevant social media links to your website. Facebook and Twitter are the most common, but also add your YouTube account and Pinterest account if you are utilizing them as part of your social media marketing campaign too. If you have a webmaster who makes your changes for you, send him or her the links to your social media accounts so he can add them along with the appropriate company logos – this is one of the more common website additions so it should be quick and easy to add to your website.
Print ads
Especially if you are taking out a larger sized ad, it is easy to add “Follow me on Twitter at @yourhandle” and “Like us on Facebook!” on those print advertisements. Or if space is limited, choose one or the other. And if you do happen to have a large advertisement coming out, don’t forget to make sure you update your Twitter status or share something on Facebook. You don’t want people to see you have a Twitter account, only to discover you haven’t engaged on it for the past six months.
Don’t be dormant
While on Pinterest it isn’t as obvious if you haven’t shared anything in the past six months, on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, it is quite noticeable. People also forget that posting on those accounts is also promoting those accounts. Anytime a client shares something you posted on Facebook, it has the added bonus that all that client’s friends and family see not only the share, but also that it originated with you, and those people are not only reminded of your name, company and what you do for a living, they might also re-share it to all of their friends too, extending your reach on Facebook even more, and potentially getting not only brand awareness for yourself with a potential new circle of people, but also the possibility that some of them will “Like” your Facebook page as well.
While it would be amazing to just be able to create our social media accounts and then ignore them, while the magical powers of social media do the rest, in order to make social media work, you do need to put some effort into promoting it.
Note: We offer social media audits and strategy blueprints for realtors looking to extend their social media marketing for networking and selling. Please contact us for more information.
So often I see real estate agent to have gone to the effort of setting up a Pinterest page, but all they are doing is simply pinning their listing images, the very same images they have from their MLS listings. But in order to really market on Pinterst, you may think about what is of interest to people in your community, not just using it as a platform to post pictures of houses you’re selling.
Here is one really useful way you can use Pinterest to leverage more traffic, more followers, and more re-pins.
First create multiple community related boards on your Pinterest page. Now, this doesn’t just mean pinning local schools and local libraries. It means really going beyond what many real estate agents have on their websites regarding the community, and creating boards that are of interest and use to potential homebuyers.
These kind of community boards articles useful and interesting to people who may not necessarily be looking to buy a house now, but perhaps their friends are, and they has seen one of your followers re-pin something you originally posted. Pinterest is very social, so you never know who might share your pins and boards with you. And every time you get your name out there, you are continuing to build your personal brand in your community.
Here are some ideas for the different types of community boards you can create and pin images to in order to promote your community to both homebuyers and future homebuyers their friends with.
Neighborhoods
Pin images of the maps that show where the different neighborhoods, and communities are in your particular real estate market. Then also include pictures of iconic landmarks or features in each of those neighborhoods. Make sure you include comments on the photos that details exactly what neighborhood each of the photos is taken from.
Here is the “Favorite Places in Upper Haight” board by the Climb Real Estate Group in San Francisco.
Community Events
Pin posters of upcoming events, and photos of events that happened local to your area. This could include things like festivals, parades, charity walks and runs, any kind of event that bring a real sense of community to your marketing area. If you aren’t aware of events that are happening, check out your local Chamber of Commerce or city/town website, or ask for recommendations from friends and family on Facebook and Twitter.
Fun Things To Do
Do you have some great museums, water parks, sporting arenas, concert halls, gardens, hiking trails, regular farmers market and the like? Post pictures of each of these kinds of things so that particularly if potential buyers are moving to the area they can get an idea of some of the things they can do. Don’t forget to include things for kids as well.
Local Art Scene
Create a board that has some of the local art galleries, art museums, local artists and photos from any art shows you may have attended. The art scene can be a real draw to some homebuyers, so showcasing this can be a great way to introduce people who are new to the area to your local art scene.
Schools
Link to local schools in your area, including both public and private schools, co-ops, specialty education schools and more. Be sure to include any special programs a school is known for (ie. “Best football team in the state” or “The award winning Honor Band program is great for musically inclined students”.
The Lisa Barton Team at Pridential Realty created this “Schools – Public & Private” board featuring the schools in her Florida market area.
Shopping
Does your area have some great outlet malls? Or a street that has all the designer stores? Or even some other great shopping destinations, such as traditional malls or a particular area that caters to local businesses. What about antique stores? Or an area with local galleries? These are all things that can get people interested and excited about your community.
Restaurants
Pin some of your favorite restaurants you like to go to in town. Be sure not to just pin the upscale places, focus on some of the unique local restaurants of all price ranges, including things from family restaurants to swanky wine bars. Once again, be sure to include a sentence or two about each restaurants, such as “this place has the best pizza” or “best happy hour in town”. Don’t always go for the traditional photos of restaurants, taking the photos of the restaurants in the evening, or the sidewalk board they use.
Local Gardening
Are there some great public landscapes or gardens? Unique local nurseries that cater to organic gardeners? Great local landscapers? Highlight some of them.
Here is the “Seattle Gardening & Landscape Design” board by RealFX Group at Coldwell Banker Danforth
Pin 5+ images
Do be sure to always pin at LEAST 5 images to a board, that way when people search for a board, it isn’t obvious that it is mostly empty, as Pinterest shows 5 pins on each board preview page.
This nameless realtor got off to a good start, planning her boards, but never continued after the initial “let’s pin some stuff” day. When those are the only two boards on that realtor’s Pinterest page, and both of her boards are mostly empty, it doesn’t look professional. She also missed potential marketing as some of her pins were re-pinned as well.
