If social media wasn’t part of your marketing strategy it is likely that the past year’s events have changed that. Social media has a vast array of benefits in the real estate industry. It’s relatively low cost, helps to build brands and it’s easy to quantify return on investment. When compared to traditional marketing like letterbox dropping or cold calling these benefits become obvious. With a tightening in listings, agents need to maximise the time they spend growing their following and having meaningful conversations with people in property mode. This is where social media marketing can help. 

 Over 70% of people check their social media profiles at least once a day.  Meaning if you are not actively involved in growing and engaging with your social media community, you are missing out on business opportunities. However, we understand that social media isn’t always straightforward.

Challenges real estate agents have with social media:

We get lots of questions from real estate professionals about social media. Commonly we uncover that agents see the value in social media but either:

1. Don’t have the time to post 
2. Don’t know what to post 
3. Are posting and not seeing growth or the benefits

From that we discuss what they want to achieve from social media. Their answers: 

1. To not not have to worry if they don’t have time to post 
2. To be more consistent 
3. To increase the level of polish on their posts 
4. To grow their following – ‘become the most followed/liked agent in my area’ 
5. Want to see measurable growth and ROI 
   

Do any of these goals sound familiar?

Social media solutions:

The good news is there are plenty of options available when it comes to embarking on social media improvements. 

The DIY option

This is a great option if you have the time and resources to do so. If you are looking to implement a social media strategy in-house, here a few simple tips to make your life easier. 

1. Plan your content in advance  – start with a week of content and identify how much you want to post. Your goal might be to post 3 times in the first week. So your posts could look like this –
   Monday – Welcome to a new week – out and about this morning to grab my morning coffee at (tag your local coffee shop) 
   Wednesday – New listing coming soon – with a sneak peak picture of the property 
   Thursday – You read a great article on an industry publication – Share that with your own thoughts on the article and how it relates to your local buyers and sellers. 

2. Utilise technology that makes creating and sharing posts simple. Marketing platforms will be a great helping hand for the implementation of your social media strategy. Select a platform that is integrated with your property portal so you can easily select listings without manually adding images or captions. iRealty’s social media builder facilitates agents and administrators to easily post and boost, properties, calls to actions, property lists and more. 

What if I don’t have time? 

If you are someone who sees the value in social media but may not have time, that is okay. You can enlist the help of a dedicated account manager to create and post content on your behalf. This is a great option if your goals are consistency and variety on your social media channels. You can also opt to take it up a notch with vendor paid property campaigns or lead generating ‘just sold’ promotions to build engagement and secure appraisal opportunities. 

If you are wanting to really make an impact and transform your social media into a growth and lead generating tool, why not try a specialised campaign to boost your brand. iRealty’s brand boosters are 2 month specialised campaigns aimed to grow your brand and business on social media. Work with a marketing account manager to discuss your goals. They then work with our team of marketers and designers to create content and divide the budget in order to achieve your desired outcomes, All content creation, management and advertising is covered in the one-off cost.