Regardless of the industry, the number one question we are asked about social media marketing is, ‘How do you measure the ROI?’ The answer? Before you can measure, you need to align your social media marketing strategy with your overall business goals. Once the strategies are aligned, it’s time to develop an integrated measurement program that evaluates success by channel. Now, let’s talk about how best to leverage each specific platform…
YouTube and Vine as real estate sales tools
Virtual home tours. Snapshots of what it would be like to work out of a specific space. It’s all about helping prospective clients to envision themselves in the space that you are selling. With YouTube ranking as the world’s second largest search engine, creating a robust repository of videos to market your listings can help drive sales. These videos can also be embedded in blog posts, e-newsletters, online news releases and online advertising to drive views and, ultimately, conversion.
Twitter as a media relations tool
Interested in having your current listings and recent transactions noted in relevant local, regional and trade media? Eager to solidify your reputation as a national real estate expert? Twitter is a powerful tool for helping to build and strengthen relationships with key media. Whether ‘@ replying’ with an answer to a question posed by media or sharing a recent transaction or business milestone, Twitter is an opportunity to get on the radar of reporters to whom you can be both a source and resource going ahead.
The benefits of blogging
Adding a robust blog to your website is a great way to make your site both more content-rich and more valuable to prospective clients and lead generators. Whether blogging about the top five questions to ask before hiring a commercial broker or sharing a case study on how your firm helped a client with unique business needs to secure the optimal office space, you are demonstrating your industry expertise while showcasing the culture, creativity and achievements of your firm. (For tips on how residential real estate agents can leverage blogs to generate ROI, check out our recent blog post.)
Building a network of lead generators on LinkedIn
With content now generating six times more engagement than job updates on LinkedIn, brokers and agents have a unique opportunity to leverage this b2b tool as part of their online sales strategy. Start by updating your profile – from experience to accolades – and honing your summary to clearly demonstrate why your firm is the ‘go to’ for clients and lead generators alike. Think about not only what you do, but who you are, what you have achieved and what value you can bring to new business relationships.
Once your profile is optimized and up-to-date, it’s time to join some new groups – be they those run by a real estate trade publication or a local business council – and begin conversing with the folks who are important for you to connect with. A core – and often counterintuitive – part of your LinkedIn strategy should be knowing when to take the conversation offline – when it’s time to move from inMail to e-mail, and when coffee is the best way to take your newfound business relationship(s) to the next level.
It’s all about integration
With a social media strategy outline for your firm and parameters for individual social media marketing in place, it’s time to integrate online and offline marketing for optimal ROI. For example, if you’re hosting a brokers open house to showcase a prime new listing, tout the event on LinkedIn, share some photos on Facebook and tweet ‘thank you’s’ to folks who came. If you have the opportunity to snag some video footage, upload it to YouTube, share it on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and drop it into an e-blast to contacts who may have missed the open house for brokers. With many brokerage firms having large teams of brand ambassadors marketing their listings and themselves, it’s important that the integrated marketing strategy supports a cohesive corporate brand and demonstrates the depth and breadth of the full team’s expertise.
Social media marketing is a powerful tool for helping to drive real estate transactions and fill the sales’ pipeline with leads. Regardless of the channels through which you choose to share your listings and expertise, ensure the strategy guiding your efforts is research-informed, nimble and measurable.
