Social Media for Real Estate: Time Waster or Money Maker?

In today’s tech-savvy society, having an online presence is vital to business success. But trying to create an effective social media strategy for your company can be daunting to undertake and often comes with a steep learning curve. Where should you start? How much time should you dedicate to it? How consistent do you need to be? Social media can be a powerful business tool, but to work properly it must be harnessed and leveraged in the right way. To ensure that your online efforts don’t turn into a time-wasting exercise, you have to be structured and focused in your approach. Here’s how:

Provide value

It’s important to post photos and details about your latest property listing online, but providing supplementary content for your clients is also critical. To really make an impact you must offer valuable information—links to online articles that your clients might find useful, advice about mortgages, or details about events in the area, for example. You could even blog about your best tips, statistics, or other local information. You don’t have to be an expert to do this, just write what you know. Bear in mind that a good rule of thumb when devising content is to apply the 80/20 principle—80 percent of what you post should be pure value, 20 percent should be business promotion. This way, you can be helpful while simultaneously reinforcing your expertise.

Include your clients in your posts

Including your clients in your social media posts is a great way of staying connected to them—and it’s also an extremely effective sales strategy. When you help clients purchase a home, why not suggest taking their picture in front of it or as you’re handing them the keys? With their permission, you can then post this picture on Facebook and tag them to say what a pleasure it was to help them find the home of their dreams. Whenever you tag clients in this way, it shows up in the newsfeeds of their connections, providing a subtle opportunity to get on other people’s radars without being aggressive.

Be consistent

Just like with all your marketing activity, the more consistent you are with social media, the better your results will be. It should only take a few minutes every day to update your status, post a photo or comment on a follower’s page. You could block off 10 minutes of your time in the morning and the evening to do this. Scheduling social media into your work day in this way will ensure you stay in continuous contact with your clients and know what’s going on in their lives but it will also put a limit on the activity, so that you don’t waste time. If you’re always on the go, be sure to download the social media apps to your smart phone so that you can touch base with your followers when you’re away from your computer.

Social media marketing is a powerful and relevant resource, but, if not managed properly, it can become a black hole that sucks up a large amount of your time and productivity. If you follow these tips to increase your effectiveness and be more intentional, then you can get off the computer and get in front of your best clients…where the real lead generation magic happens!

For more tips, download our free “Social Media Survival Guide.”