Social media hub-bub

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Social media hub-bub

It’s the talk of the digital tinsel town - Social networking and social media marketing are buzz words for the online industry. Most have heard of these phrases, but not all Estate Agents have decided to embrace this frenzy.

Clearly it is up to them, as a business, Estate Agents should evaluate whether their time is better spent in this new frontier or to stick to more traditional marketing techniques such as newspaper advertising.

If you are an Estate Agent thinking about moving into social media jungle, take some time to mull over these points.

Social media is not only about generating leads. Estate Agents that only promote via Facebook and Twitter quickly find themselves with as much traffic as the steppes of Mongolia. They will then deem their strategy a failure and never open Pandora’s Box ever again.

Remember that a tool is only as powerful as the person who wields it.

Estate Agents, what you must realise is that using social networks for your business is not for the short term. It is not a magic spell or potion that in a puff a smoke will instantly save your Estate Agency from the depths of ruin.

It is however a means of generating exposure, creating a loyal customer base, establishing yourself as a local expert, producing regular traffic for your blog/news articles, networking with the local population, providing an SEO boost and sharing ideas and links with people in the industry.

There may even be smaller unmentioned benefits such as, simply put, it’s free – something that will make some of your ears prick.

With so many benefits for the social online Estate Agent, it is widely accepted to treat social networks as spokes of a wheel which funnel traffic from Facebook’s 24 million UK users and Twitter’s 4 million UK users to your Estate Agent website.

This allows Estate Agents then treat their website as a hub for all their activity allowing a whole variety of information, features and functionality that is not possible on one single social network.

So what should Estate Agents expect from social networks?

As mentioned above, Estate Agents should take their social strategy objectively and realise that all these benefits, as great in number as they are, take time to mature.

Try this cheesy takeaway - Every single magnificent oak tree germinated from a humble seed.