First let’s address the questions that most real estate agents and brokers ask. Can you generate leads and thus revenue using social media marketing? In a word….yes. More signals from social media are used by Google to evaluate trust, expertise, and authority. Making social media an integral part of long-term digital marketing strategies.

What, however, are the elements of Social Media Marketing for real estate?  Here are the key result areas:

• Content
• Branding
• Platforms
• Efficiency

Branding – How does brand affect your real estate marketing results?

Here are the critical things to understand about Social Media and lead generation results.

• While many prospects will FIND you on social media, they will LEAVE you their information on a properly set up website. NOT the social channel, they found you on.
• Having a brand that appears synonymous across platforms increases your chances to build trust and thus gain that critical information once asked for.
• A good social campaign can account for 30-50% of your digital lead generation opportunities.

If you’ve decided to use Social Media as a tool to generate interest in your real estate business then make take some notes from these social branding shot’s of Josh Altman (Million Dollar Listing Fame):

Josh Altman’sTwitter profile

Josh Altman’s Facebook profile

This is an excellent example of branding that identifies speciality,associations, activity and synonymous branding across multiple platforms. All of which you will need for long term sustainable social campaigns meant to support real estate lead generation. As a service provider we can design these pages and steer the messaging conversation for agents and brokers that prefer having an experienced professional assist them.

Content – 20% of all social updates should be original content produced for your audience.

Original means that you or someone who works for you (like inboundREM) create unique articles, whitepages, infographics, and videos aimed at things that actually interest or educate your audience. That’s YOUR content. Long form. The other 80% of your social content is usually brief messages, much of which should be directing your audience to information that educates, entertains or validates other elements of your info branding. Here is an example from our own Twitter feed. Your branding message is not only WHAT you are saying but how often you say it and WHERE you are directing people too. The value of the destination becomes part of YOUR branding making social content just as much about strategy as actual content that you produce. Uniqueness never hurts either and infographics and micrographics are both very useful for increasing engagement and branding yourself online. Here is a link to some examples. → InboundREM’s Pinterest board for Micro Graphics

Platforms – Where should real estate agents be having social media conversations?

There is no set answer to this question which is what probably confuses many not most real estate agents. Here is a brief list of the most COMMON platforms and what they could/should be used for.

Facebook – SEO signals,brand reassurance

Every real estate agent should have a Facebook business page. But not for the reasons you might imagine. Google has been measuring an ever changing set of social signals in an effort to measure authority and trust in your chosen business vertical (real estate). How does Facebook currently facilitate that? Google can see “likes”, comments, and reviews among other things. An active business page signals a serious business owner. Interaction with your audience indicates authority. After all why would someone be liking or commenting on your page unless there was something of interest there. And clearly Google can see the business “vertical” you’re targeting. This not only includes the obvious…again (real estate) but the not so obvious like geography, and additional specialties like short sales or vacation homes. As if that wasn’t enough, Facebook information affects Googles mobile, local, search results. A new category of search still under construction but it does affect real estate agents who focus on geo targets close to home or office locations.

Linkedin – Resume and research support 

If your clientele includes working professionals then Linkedin is something you should consider.  This social platform has become an incredible tool for recruiters. Which means that most professionals get introduced to it at some point during their career if for no other reason than to illustrate skills and abilities to potential employers. Many professionals keep updated profiles as a subtle invitation to recruiters to contact them with better opportunities than the one they may currently be engaged in. LinkedIn is helping drive the new crowd sourced labor force economy. If part of your real estate company or team focuses on corporate moves or transfers then Linkedin profiles go from “can have” to MUST have.

Twitter – Establish authority.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of twitter. Of the micro blogging platforms available currently Twitter stands the best chance of driving new targeted visitors to your website. Clever keyword targeting, a huge user base, easy to use branding options are just a few of Twitters more appealing features. As to the often asked question “is the average homebuyer really shopping for a buyers or sellers agent on twitter?” No. Not necessarily. However many people that have a TON of credibility in the Google sphere or on Twitter and if any of them give you a vote of confidence by re-tweeting your content or just following you in general this can lead to ranking gains on Googles search platform…and close to 85% of most real estate transactions include using Google as a research tool.

Google + – Important for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Google owns and has full access to Google +. Layman’s terms…Google can organize and read Google plus in the ways it thinks are best. Google plus = Good SEO,

• Allows for the creation of editorial links (valuable votes in the eyes of Google)
• Allows for SEO credit on the title of the article.
• Allows you to customize the URL of your Google plus page allowing for even more targeting of content and search results.
• Plus much more .
• Want to see a perfect example of a Google + post ? InboundREM’s Pinterest Board for Google +

Summary:

Social Media and it’s uses for real estate are evolving rapidly.  Follow our blog or sign up for our email list to get the latest news and strategies that affect real estate.