Social Media Marketing Tips For Real Estate And Other Businesses
How to Market Your Home or Business Using Digital & Social Media Marketing
If you are thinking of selling your home for sale by owner, if you are a real estate agent looking to up your branding, or any business owner looking to increase sales, this article on social media marketing is for you.
What are your goals when marketing real estate or your business on various social media platforms?
Your main GOAL is to get people into your database and provide them with good information.
Creating brand awareness, lead generation, and measuring the results through social media are your top objectives. The primary objective here is to create a long-lasting relationship with your target audience and convert social followers into qualified leads and new business.
You need to monitor your results and capture consumer opinions regarding information and measure consumer satisfaction.
Where do I begin my social media marketing plan?
The first thing you need to do is set up your social media accounts. Be consistent with your naming and use the same photo on all patforms so your followers willl know it’s you.
Website Development, Branding, Content Writing.
The first thing you will need is an updated and professional website to start a blog. Write useful and relevant content that your audience finds interesting. If you are not technical, there are plenty of resources that you can use to set up your site. I suggest hiring a web desinger and using Word Press to develop your site.
A good technical web developer will make sure your site is SEO (search engine optimizaton) ready. Your site will load faster and you’ll keep visitors. There are many professional Word Press themes to pick from. Get a hosting plan and purchase a URL for your website name.
Branding is very important. Brainstorm some slogans and look into theme colors and fonts. Be consistent with your branding over all the social media platforms.
Once your website is up and running you job is to learn how to write good content that creates value to your readers. This is very important. People read articles to get information, solve a problem or be entertained. Mix it up!
Most importantly, be consistent. Your followers will expect you to post at a certain time and day.
I suggest that you pick a few social media platforms to focus on to start so it doesn’t feel overwhelming. Gaining followers is a slow process and you are in it for the long haul. Do NOT buy followers!
Best Practices for Social Media Posting Frequency
WHEN TO POST & HOW OFTEN
- Twitter – 3 times per day, or more.
- Facebook – 2 times per day, at most.
- LinkedIn – 1 time per day.
- 20 posts per month (1x per weekday) allows you to reach 60 percent of your audience.
- Pinterest – 5 times per day, or more.
- Facebook Ads – Social Media Marketing
Remember your GOAL is to get people into your database and provide them with good information.
Currently Facebook has 2.3+ billion active users. This is a great place to market your real estate listing and provide valuable content for your readers. However, data shows that usage popularity is plateauing. Instagram is the next fastest growing network.
On Facebook you can run highly targeted advertisements and have a “call to action” button that drops potential customers into a sign-up form on your website.
Focus on providing value, post a variety of things to reach more people. Be different and authentic. Remember, your whole GOAL is providing good information.
Facebook Inbound Marketing
Your focus on Facebook should be creating quality content that attracts people to you naturally in an organic search. You want to attract inbound traffic to your website and convert them to clients.
It is not about outbound marketing techniques ie. getting likes, market exposure etc. but Facebook should be treated like an inbound market channel to capture quality targeted leads. Keep a database and covert them to closed clients.
LinkedIn Social Media Marketing
Build your personal brand on LinkedIn
LinkedIn has over 575+ million users, with more than 260 million monthly active users. It is a great place to publish content and grow your client base. Connect with other professionals and build relationships with them. Introduce them to other members in your network. Here are some tips for LinkedIn marketing:
- Grow your connections daily.
- Be social when someone has a work anniversary, birthday or has written some amazing article.
- Start with people you know, always send a nice note and thank you for connecting.
- Before you send the note, read about your contact and ask them a question about their business or interests.
- Never be “Spammy”. DON’T just hit the connect button, send a personal note.
- Join liked minded groups related to your business.
- Join in on group conversations.
- Always be positive and gracious. Respond to comments.
- If you are going on an appointment do some research on your customer and connect with them. Know their business – be knowledgeable.
- Use LinkedIn to provide quality content to the business world.
- Give to get!
Pinterest Marketing
Pinterest is a killer social media platform you can use to reach new prospects and drive traffic directly back to your website. Pinterest has 3 billion Pinterest “boards” and 250 million active users a month. Fifty percent of new sign-ups in 2018 were men and it is used by men and women of all ages.
Pinterest is a search engine and you need to optimize your content with keywords in the board title, descriptions and pins.
Have a variety of boards, some local, some for home buyers, real estate, home improvement, home staging, home sellers, gardening ideas, mortgage information etc.
You can pin and re-pin your content. Join group boards and share content.
Twitter Social Media Marketing
If you want to use Twitter to promote your business or your personal brand, you have to do more than just broadcast tweets every once in a while. Be consistent with your posts. Use a scheduler to keep you on task. A great Twitter strategy requires proper analytics to understand what’s working and what isn’t. Are your Twitter posts generating any clicks? It is important to invest in a Twitter analytics tool to keep track of how your posts are performing. There are several to choose from.
Like other social networks, mid-week on Tuesday and Wednesday are your top days to post on Twitter, and engagement drops off on weekends. Make sure you are branded and stick with your photo and colors across all social platforms. Know your audience and write quality content that will engage your target market.
You should link to your content on your website 20% of the time and link to others content as well. Post personal content as well to let others get to know you outside of you work world.
Networking is very important! Comment, like, and be social.
Instagram Social Media Marketing
Instatgram has 400 million users and their ads outperform all other platforms. Instagram users embrace brand marketing. Videos are very effective. When posting a video (very popular) keep it short. 10 second videos only! Facebook controls and filters who sees your Ads but 100% of your followers will see your Ad on Instagram.
Instagram & Hashtags
Use Instagram hashtags to attract your followers and make yourself more discoverable. Instagram allows for 30 hashtags to be used on each post. After you identify the best hashtags for your following, save them to cut and paste. Hashtags put your content in places where others can find it outside of your followers.
Do some research on hashtags and avoid “spammy” hashtags. Look for median range. You will be more visible in a hashtag that has under 400,000 posts. The more popular your post the better.
The easiest way for you to find hashtags is to search for them in the Instagram search bar. The key is to get in front of a whole new audience. Get featured by someone who will re-post your posts.
Instagram Branding Tips
- Optimize images for each social media platform. You can find the image sizes in Google.
- Don’t be afraid to give a “like” or “share” to another agent or competito . You help them promote their brand and they will promote yours resulting in more exposure for both.
- Plan your Instagram feed and use a color scheme.
- Upgrade Instagram to a business account to integrate with your Facebook business page to get a contact button.
- Some like to use filters but pick one and stick to it.
- Make sure your photos are professional and consistent in style
- You need to BRAND yourself with a color scheme and use it everywhere. Use the same FONT whenever possible.
Be Social!
Take time to comment on other posts and promote them. This is very important! Make sure you have a link to your website and blog articles so you can drive traffic right to it! Always track your engagement. Learn what works best for your audience and the best times to post.
Pros and Cons of Facebook vs Instagram
Facebook marketing is overcrowded and Facebook users generally don’t like to see ads on Facebook. Organic reach and engagement on Facebook has plateaued in recent years. Only a small percentage of your Facebook followers will actually see your ad because Facebook filters posts. Facebook shows popular posts – the more people that comment the more you see the content. So public use determines the algorithm.
Another downside to Facebook is that the advertisements can be costly.
Facebook controls who sees your posts while 100% of your followers will see your ad on Instagram. A small percentage of your Facebook followers will actually see your ad – Facebook filters posts.
However, Instagram is based on personal use not public comments. Your content is less likely to be missed in Instagram.
How many adults can you reach organically on Instagram vs Facebook? Keep in mind that Instagram and Facebook have different demographics.
YouTube Marketing Tips
Here are some ideas for YouTube marketing:
- Interview your clients: ie first time home buyers, testimonials, short videos that are helpful and knowledgeable regarding your business.
- Do a series of short videos of local restaurants, businesses or community features so potential home buyers get a feel for their future neighborhood. .
- Let your personality show through with a humorous video.
- Set yourself apart from your competition and connect with clients on a personal level.
- Remember attention spans are short so keep your videos short and sweet!
Local Marketing
Email Marketing Tips
- You will need a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system.
- Hubspot is free and easy to use for any business but you can find a paid CRM like BoomTown that is customized for real estate agents.
- Monthly Newsletters, personalize your emails with branding, automate email and keep track of ROI.
- Mail Chimp (Free)
- Constant Contact (Paid)
Analytics and Tracking
Keep track of your followers and popular content.
Marketing is now a highly data-driven process. It is important to use analytics to determine the outcome of your marketing campaigns to guide your decisions for consumer targeting. Learn the demographics, age and buying habits of your customers to help you with your marketing strategy. Google Analytics is a free tool to track the visitors to your website, page views and behavior flow.
Additional information:
Real Estate Marketing Skills Agents Should Master by Lynn Pineda
Real Estate Social Media Marketing: Do’s and Dont’s by Bill Gassett
5 Important Facts About Internet Marketing and Selling Your Home by Sharon Paxson
How To Use An Influencer Event (Market Luxury Real Estate) by Joy Bender
Join the Real Estate Bloggers Group On Reddit by Luke Skar.
© 2018 Eileen Anderson Realtor®, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services NE
Eileenandersonrealtor.com 860.966.2112
Social media marketing lends credibility and authenticity to your business!
If you are looking to downsize your home and don’t want to sabotage the sale of your home contact me for guidance.
ABOUT EILEEN:
REALTOR® since 2000 – Servicing State of Connecticut: West Hartford, Farmington Valley and beyond. Mentor new agents.
Seminars: Home Buying, Social Media Marketing, and Landscape Design/Gardening.
Personal: Master Gardener, Musician, Cyclist, Webmaster, Photographer.
Business background: IT Programming/Consultant, Software/Hardware/IT Solutions Sales IBM +, Director of New Business Development, Web Design, Social Media Marketing.
Eileen@eileenandersonrealtor.com
860-966-2112
www.eileenandersonrealtor.com
www.eileenandersonphotography.com
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