Don't Waste Your Time On Social Media

 

Almost every estate agent has a social media account and those that don’t have thought about setting one up due to all the hype, however very few of you have found success though these social channels.

The reason they haven’t found success is simply because they have jumped in too quickly without thinking or doing the research. Most agents simply think because their competition is on every social network that they have to be too. But social media isn’t for everybody!

There are many factors you should consider before getting involved with social media. Social media isn’t right for every business. Here are some questions you should ask yourself before you get started:

1) What do you want to achieve from social media?

Having a purpose or goal is critical for any business getting involved in social media. Plan out your goals, time frame and a strategy to achieve them. Be as specific as possible.

Overtime you will begin to see what works and what doesn’t, once you have learnt what your customers want from your brand you can evaluate your goals and plan out new strategies.

Your plan doesn’t have to be complicated. It could be to simply post one interesting article regarding your industry a day or to gain 100 followers. From your posts you will be able to see what your followers like and respond to, which can help you to gain more followers over time.

2) What do you plan to post?

Most estate agents pretty much only post their property listings on their social accounts, thinking it will expand their reach and drive sales. I have never seen or heard of this strategy working, or at least how the agent expects it to work. People don’t use social networks to be bombarded with self-promoting posts. It is a sure-fire way to fail.

Instead try to post things that your audience will want to see and read. Do some research and experiment to see what your audience want you to post.

3) Who is your audience?

Don’t say everyone! You need to aim for 3 primary targets and identify which social channels they are using so you can connect with them.  

If the majority of your target audience is 18-24 then LinkedIn isn’t the right channel for you to focus your efforts towards. It's vital you pick the social network your audience is on. 

Pick one or two channels to begin with, managing these accounts will take up a lot of your time and require some effort. You don’t want to stretch yourself too far. You can always expand once you’ve got the hang of it.

4) How much time will you invest?

As I said above, managing these accounts does take time specially to start with. If you are an extremely busy person that barely has anytime then social media won’t be for you. It is a commitment you have to stick with to find success, allocate a certain amount of time each day to focus on your social accounts.

5) How will you measure success?

Defining goals is crucial to any marketing campaign and social media is no different. Plan achievable goals and determine a realistic time frame. Don’t expect too much too fast, if you only have 150 Facebook followers and 400 Twitter followers you can’t expect to get 1,000 leads or 10,000 website views a month from your social efforts, especially if you aren’t engaging or giving them what they want.

 

Once you have answered all these questions then you are ready to get started. Plan out your social media strategies and get going. If you have been using social media for a while and getting nowhere then it may be time to put a new strategy in place.

Remember there is no right or wrong way to approach social media, different strategies may work for some and not for other but you have to have some sort of purpose and goals set to be able to achieve success.