Real estate professionals are no strangers to using social media to reach clients. Panelists at the Inman News Agent Reboot conference last week in San Diego shared their best tips for leveraging social networking for business.
To make social networking work for your business, panelists recommended:
1. Be a friend of a friend. It’s the “Kevin Bacon game” of connections on Facebook – aim to get to know the friend of your friends to expand your network, said Derek Overbey, senior director of marketing and social media at Roost Inc. One approach he’s used to do this: Post questions on your Facebook wall. For example, he posted the question “What do you love about your community?” He generated 90 responses in a half hour and only 30 were from his network; 60 other comments came from friends of his friends.
2. Monitor what works and what doesn’t. Learn what content on your blogs and Facebook pages is engaging people the most, said Eric Stegemann, director of business development for the Tribus Group. Google Analytics is a free service that can tell you information such as how many visitors came to your site, how long they were there, how they came to your site, and which pages are the most popular. You can use Google Analytics on your blog and Facebook business pages.
Also, Facebook offers Facebook Insights, which is only viewable by page administrators. It displays metrics about visitor demographics and which content is the most popular on your Facebook page.
3. Get people to ‘like’ you. Set up a Facebook page for your business or community. (Among recent changes to Facebook, people no longer “fan” your page but “like” it.). These pages can surface on Google searches so they also can be great for ramping up your online presence too.
4. Share vs. sell. Resist the urge to blast your listings over your Facebook Wall or post tweet announcements of your open houses on Twitter, panelists said. You’ll quickly get unfriended or blocked by those connected to you. Instead, provide relevant content that others will want to share.
For example, Overbey says some agents have found success on their Facebook pages by posting “365 things to do” in their community, such as listing restaurants and parks in the area. Content like that is much more likely to be passed along and shared than a wall or tweet just stating generic listing information (e.g. “open house at [address]; 3BDR, 2 baths”). It will also help establish you as a local expert on your community, panelists said.
Source: REALTOR® Magazine online, Melissa Dittmann Tracey
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