Social media for the commercial agents

Social media and social networking have become such an integral part of business life now. According to UK Government research published in the first quarter of 2012, 65% of the population now use social networks.

The perceived view of platforms like Facebook and Twitter being the sole domain of the teenager and twenty something is now hugely inaccurate. 30-39 year-olds accounted for 25% of all UK Facebook users in 2012, with 40-49 making up 17%. Perhaps most interesting is that over 7m users of Facebook are aged over 50.

Social Media for Your Business

One in three small businesses are now using social media on a regular basis. In research at the end of 2011, businesses were asked how important social media would be to their business in 2012. 57% said that they would be increasing the amount of budget allocated to social media activity.

So what of business platforms like LinkedIn? Well in the UK there are now 9m members, with over 2m dedicated company pages. The platform has seen 64% year-on-year growth. However blinkered a view of social media you may have, chartered surveyors and commercial agents really should be on LinkedIn. Staggeringly, almost two thirds of all Professionals in the UK are already.

How Should Commercial Agents Be Using Social Media?

Social media needs to be an integrated element of your overall marketing activity, but you need to be aware that it works differently from other marketing tools. These subtleties need to be understood if you are to integrate it successfully in your overall business development strategy.

Social networking is not a broadcast media for you to bombard your audience with self-centred messages. Its purpose is audience engagement and on-going dialogue. You achieve that by providing interesting and useful content.

The ultimate aim is to establish yourself as the commercial property expert in your target area and your field. A good social media strategy will help to push traffic to your website and with this years changes to Google’s algorithm, will help your Google rankings.

Philip Burrows, Marketing Consultant