Social media can be a valuable part of your marketing strategy. If you're thinking, "but we've tried Facebook before and it didn't work for us", you're being left behind. More than 1 in 4 of the entire global population use Facebook alone, and that number is growing all the time.
Is that really a market you can afford not to be in touch with? Fortunately, social marketing need not be difficult or complicated and - by setting aside a few hours a week - any company can use it to increase the number and diversity of their clients and, ultimately, bring in more business.
Our top tips for social media marketing:
1. Be Yourself
Success on social media is about engagement. Your Twitter account might have a million followers, but if they're not clicking on your tweets they're no use to you. Allowing your style and personality - or that of your company - to shine through will help build a relationship with your customer base and new clients alike. Property purchases are significant business decisions and social media can be a great place to build that personal connection and give potential clients a reason to come to you and not the competition.
Don't be afraid to have fun! Social Media isn't the place for corporate business speak. Remember that word "social", and don't be afraid to get involved in trending topics, post some memes, and crack the occasional joke.
2. Educate Your Clients
If you use every post you make on social media to promote properties you're trying to sell, your social media will be boring. And nobody spends time looking at boring. You're an expert on your business, your clients aren't, so show off that expertise by using your social media platform as a place to share what you know and offer property buying tips to your customers.
Posts like this are an excellent way to drive traffic to your website – where you can create a blog and talk in depth about the topics you post about on your social accounts.
3. Video, Video, Video
Property is a visual business; potential customers want to see the kind of properties you sell and video is the perfect way to show them off. More than 45% of people watched at least an hour of online video last week, and YouTube is the world's second most popular search engine, so posting there can help your business be found by even more future clients.
4. Be Scientific
Tens of thousands of businesses around the world - including estate agents - successfully use social media as a marketing tool. The one thing they all have in common is a focus on data: analysing the statistics that their social media platforms provide (which posts get the most engagement) and listening to their users about what they want in order to better target their posts.
It is better to take a little more time and invest a little more money in your social media marketing to get it right than it is to rush it and not make the most of the opportunity.
