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Social Media Tips for Real Estate
By Jamie Klemcke | May 7, 2009
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Oh my! We are all looking at ways to use these tools for business — successfully that is. But don’t panic, as the initial “buzz” is starting to calm, I, along with other top marketers in many industries, am seeing that social networks are just another marketing avenue to add to your current marketing mix. If you have outlined your marketing strategy for this year, don’t deviate just because new waves of communication methods are emerging. Instead, review which social networks make the most sense for your current marketing plan and for your company.
So, time to get down to some nuts and bolts. I wrote a post in April called, “3 Tips on Using Social Networks in Real Estate.” At the time, I couldn’t find many resources to pull from, other than feedback we had collected from our real estate clients and other business owners. There were but a few articles. However, companies are now being formed to serve specific niches, like real estate for example. And I’ll tell ya, there are some great tips out there on how to get started and even more information for those of you who may consider yourselves closer to the “expert” level. This collection of resources is housed at AgentGenius.com. (Visit the site, bookmark it and refer to it often. It is a great resource!)
The first article I came across provides some very basic information on getting started on the major platforms, “How Your Business Can Benefit from Social Media Right Now.” The reason I loved this article so much is it gives an explanation of the social network, a tip on how to use it and a tip on how NOT to use it. Genius. An example:
How to use Facebook: Use it to establish yourself as an expert in your community and build relationships with people you already know and also with potential clients. If you are looking for great ways to use Facebook for business, you can find some here, and some real estate-specific possibilities here and here.
How NOT to use Facebook: Remember that if you are going to use one Facebook profile for both business and personal use, anything that you put in your profile should be appropriate. You may have had a great time at that party the other night, but do you want your real estate clients and prospects viewing that photo of you with a lampshade on your head?
In my hunt for compelling information, I also came across an article announcing the launch of the Social Media Marketing Institute. The founders, Jeff Turner and Bill Lublin, both have extensive experience in the Real Estate industry (Lublin being the CEO of a Century 21 affiliate in Philadelphia and Turner better known as the founder and president of the virtual tour company Real Estate Shows) and offer a new designation for real estate professionals upon completion of their social media marketing course, Certified Social Media Marketer (CSM).
Here is another quick tip. There isn’t much use establishing a great blog, website or social page if you aren’t getting the “eyes” to it. I am sure you’ve all heard of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is a core component of marketing plans that help direct prospects to your web site “organically” or through a natural Google search. You don’t pay for SEO, but there are companies that you can pay to help you understand how to better optimize your website. These experts can also help you determine how to gain organic search results to your blog and your Facebook pages (or other social platforms.)
For example, QuantumDigital uses an online publishing platform called WordPress for our blog and I just learned yesterday that there are ways to optimize WordPress pages to help increase your natural or organic search. Leverage Marketing shared this helpful little tip.
If you want more great tips, here are a few straight from Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s anti-webspam team: “SEO Tips from Google to You.”
Whomever you decide to use to help assist you with social networks, SEO or structuring your marketing plan to include pay-per-click advertising, be sure to choose a company that gives you the full picture — Initial strategy, reviewing your goals, outlining a plan to match your goals and budget, and a company that will give you full reporting on the analytics to your campaigns so you can tweak your plan for success.
Next on the agenda? Using targeted direct mail to drive prospects to your website and social pages.