I consider myself someone who is ‘in the thick of it’ – in terms of social media. I manage all the social media channels for Inman News and because of that I always keep one eye on what real estate agents and brokerages are doing in the social media world. I currently follow about 500 real estate pages and close to 400-500 real estate people on Twitter plus I have another 200-300 LinkedIn real estate connections. Through all of these ‘connections’ – it gives me a birds eye view on who is really mastering this marketing tool.
As you all know, simply creating an account on Facebook or Twitter rarely equates to being plugged in. The most common reason for not spending time on developing a social media strategy is that real estate agents and brokers fear there will be little to no return on investment – and that frankly ‘it’s just too much work’ or ‘I don’t have the time.’
Here are 3 common mistakes that I see real estate agents and brokers doing all the time:
1. Doing too much at once. For people in real estate, it’s often best to start with a small social media presence. Check out LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter – which one appeals to you the most? The one that makes the most sense to you should be your starting point. Start there and then set goals for when you will branch out onto other channels.
2. Giving it to the intern. Too often, social media responsibilities will be piled on the most inexperienced assistants or worse, someone who detests social media. If you are going to hire someone to help you manage your social media, make sure you hire someone who is not only savvy in communcation, but comfortable with exposure to the public. Social media needs a personal touch and someone who is aggressive and strategic.
3. Making conversations one-way. Too many real estate agents and brokers just see social media tools as just another way to push out information. Bombarding people with listings won’t earn many followers, there has to be a dialogue that keeps the audience engaged. Remember, less about you and more about the people receiving the information – always ask yourself, ‘what’s in it for them?’
So, now what? How do you know if your successful or not? One of the easiest things to do is to monitor your web site and blog traffic. Make sure you have Google Analytics set up on your site and that once a week you are looking at where your traffic is coming from.
Here are a few real estate Facebook pages that in my opinion are doing a great job!
- The Corcoran Group
- Contra Costa Association of REALTORS
- The Dawn Thomas Team of Intero Real Estate Services
- PMZ Real Estate
- The Robin Milonakis Group, Official Fan Page
- ERA Real Estate
Bonus: Want to see an agent doing something fun and different on social media? Check out this great video from Ben Balsbaugh, an agent from PMZ Real Estate in Modesto. Awesome job creating something that is about him but in a fun way that makes people want to share it!
(Can’t see the video: click here to view on YouTube)
What mistakes are you seeing real estate agents do with social media? Would love your feedback, please leave me a comment below!
Written by: Katie Lance, Marketing Manager, Inman News
July 6, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Katie — I agree with the 3 common social media mistakes that Realtors/Brokers make that you mention in your blog. During my speaking engagements, I notice so many Realtors are overwhelmed with where to start because social media is so big. I agree with you, and share the same advice: choose what feels most comfortable meaning most likely you will do and start there. Before taking action, I recommend training and coaching to learn and understand how the tool works as well as learn the dos and don’ts before practicing on their network. There is always great advice presented on Inman News as well as plenty of trustworthy vendors that can help.
I also notice Brokers want the easy way to cope with these new technologies and practices and think they can ‘hire’ it through interns or low paying marketing jobs. Social networking is about building relationships….a Broker wouldn’t send an intern unfamiliar with the industry to a networking event and expect positive results…they shouldn’t expect any more from their social media networking and relationship building.
To your final point, I too see Realtors using social media as the new ‘personal brochure’ from the Hobbs Herder days. In this day and age, the consumer doesn’t care about the glamour shot agent and the golden retriever in a narrative all about ‘me’ the agent. They care about what they care about, so the first place to start in social media and networking is to reach out and talk about what the consumers care about most….themselves.
Thanks for sharing a great post. See you at Inman Connect next week.
July 6, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Hey Katie, nice post. Probably the biggest mistake I notice agents making with social media is not asking “who is this information helping?” before posting something online.
It sounds simple, but I think just taking a few seconds to consider that question could make the difference between a wasted update and a piece of content that actually draws people to you.
July 6, 2010 at 8:25 pm
Nice Katie. Being new to social media, I am finding it hard to find good content to share. Plenty of negative info…..but it’s better to share positive stuff. Any recommendations?
July 6, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Great stuff! It is true-social media takes a lot of skill and effort. Thanks for pointing out some of the biggest offenses!
July 7, 2010 at 1:25 am
Aloha Katie,
Tuesday, my favorite day of the week. I concur with your points, specially #3. Too many agents (and others in different industries as well) use SM as a way to keep blasting their listings without really engaging their audience. If I’m following somebody who does that, I quickly unfollow them. It just lacks any type of personal touch.
July 7, 2010 at 6:09 am
Katie! You nailed it again!
Sometimes I find social media easiest to understand when I compare it to “real” life or in-person experiences. And boy, did I have a whopper of a bad experience the other day.
So, I called to schedule a showing for my client. The agent insisted that she must be there. I conceded, and spent the day worrying about how this agent might act around my client.
Immediately upon arriving we were handed flyers, business cards, and a 5 minute presentation. None of us wanted any of that. First, we just really wanted to see the house. But she would have none of that. What she wanted to tell us was more important to her than what we wanted to know. UGH!
When she ran out of things to call “exquisite, grand, elegant” or “breathtaking” she proceeded to tell us how she knows all the important people in the area.
OK, I couldn’t resist any longer. I threw up just a little in my mouth.
If this agent had acted like this in social media, what would have happened? Well, she wouldn’t attract many fans. And of those she did attract, they would likely hide her comments so they wouldn’t have to subject themselves to it. The only reason she got away with it was we were experiencing this in person, and we felt like being polite.
In this case, she had violated rules #1 and #3. As soon as we met her she barraged us with information we didn’t want, and then she proceeded to talk about herself. There was no 2-way communication.
Don’t get me wrong. She’s a nice agent. She just turned me (and my clients) off. This is the type of person I would never invite into my social media-land.
I’m sharing the story because I think it is an excellent example of what not to do in social media. For me, social media is simplified when we try to mirror real life…at least, in most cases. =)
Best,
Tony
July 7, 2010 at 7:20 am
Very well said. Social media are still something very new and most of people simply don’t know what to do with them. First of all, they are a great two-way communication tool and it’s important to keep that it mind, especially the “two-way” part.
Keep up the good work,
Jay
July 7, 2010 at 8:31 am
Katie,
Great article. We are currently trying to build a little discussion community via blog at http://www.superstarcommercialbroker.com
It was nice to run our content versus your short test here (items 1 through 3).
It’s a challenging road, but we are glad that at least CRE and RE professionals are jumping aboard, regardless of skill or depth level.
July 7, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Good points here…it’s taken me a while to figure out how to “get in the conversation” with social media. I was hesistant & didn’t want to come across as salesy or bragadocious.
Thanks,
Kim
p.s. funny video
July 7, 2010 at 1:24 pm
I will join the appreciation society and say I totally agree! I always think the biggest mistake people in real estate make is failing the what’s in it for me formula, i.e. why would a potential seller or buyer want to know your life history…ALL they want to know is the benefits of doing business with you. I have been using social media successfully for about a year now and my memeories of my old website which was just a mass of confusion keep me up at night. Seriously, I did all the about me stuff and it just doesn’t work, online sales especially is all about calls for action, clear, direct messages about how your services or product can add value to their lives. A few months into i seriously nearly gave up, I was doing all the right stuff, pay-per-click, article marketing and all the rest, but I really was not seeing a cost-benefit ratio. I just was not asking myself, what the customer wanted and also not asking myself what exactly I wanted out of social media. In short it was a bit of a mess. I pulled it back frankly, but I see people making the same mistakes I did. People seem to not realise that yes, social media is an amazing opportunity but you need to strip it down and properly look at what you are doing and what you are looking to get out of it, you see so nmany people attempting to do the hard sell, without making any attempt at establishing their authority or any other type of relationship with propsects. Going to do a bit of a push now, just as it helped me out and I wanted to share the love…I use Open Road which is a automated online sales package, maybe not appropriate if you are very early on on your business or have not sorted it out your strategy, but I am a bit obsessed with it! Anyway, they are doing a free giveaway for their launch and are giving away Sellpoint which is a syndication tool, which can really, really help with upping lead conversion levels. It usually costs $90 per month so its a bit of a stunning offer. Anyway, here is the link if you are interested: http://ht.ly/23rN6
July 7, 2010 at 5:25 pm
I see a lot of real estate agents enter the social media world, start to plug in and then after a few weeks seemingly grow tired of it and rarely post or reply. That’s definitely a great way to kill your personal online brand.
Also, great video at the end, really enjoyed it.
July 7, 2010 at 6:11 pm
I do consulting work for a lot of different areas, and have done it for friends of mine who are agents and brokers as well. Those areas you listed are typically at the core of why their social presence is not effective.
One thing that I stress is the creation of their brand, their style, and then do what people in the real estate fields do naturally: talk and connect with people.
Deciding on which social media technology is best is up, and in what format (text, video, tweets), is up to the individual person to decide on what they are most comfortable with.
Another point that a solo professional or independent contractor (like many RE agents and brokers) is to do all social media themselves, as then the brand and message is correct.
Good article Katie!
July 8, 2010 at 3:42 am
All valid points and points of view. We would add the following:
1) (Some) Real Estate Professionals Don’t Understand Social Media
2) (Some) Don’t have Social Media Strategy and wonder why it isn’t working
3) (Some) Real Estate Professionals Don’t see the Big Picture. Building relationships that create referrals and clients!
July 8, 2010 at 4:12 am
Great article! I am the Director of Communications at ERA Showcase Properties & Investments and it’s a challenge getting our agents to embrace the value of social media, even more of a challenge helping them understand that you don’t post your listing, like it’s an ad in a real estate rag. As their ePro Real Estate Advisor, I am urging them to go through past clients and friend them on Facebook. Many of our agents feel awkward and don’t know what to say, their horrified about doing a You Tube video and shutter with learning the next new thing with technology. They just want to list and sell real estate like they did back in the day. I am sharing this article and know that it will help them grasp the here and now of social media. The examples you sited were excellent. Glad to see ERA Real Estate was one of them, helps me with my cause.
Agi Anderson
Director of Communications
ePro Real Estate Advisor
ERA Showcase Properties and Investments
July 8, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Social media is very important. We actually interviewed someone very familiar with the real estate industry and he mentioned how important it was for him to connect with customers via twitter, facebook and other social media channels. You can read the interview: http://www.inspirest.com/interview/house-fax-report/ .
July 8, 2010 at 6:55 pm
As an intern working on social media stuff, I completely agree!
July 10, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Couldn’t agree more with a lot of what has been stated here. I’ve had a social media campaign going since 2004 and have received a lot of attention and business from it. It helps that me and my team aren’t intimidated by the Web but embrace it instead. We know our future clients are online and we should be too, in more places than just where our broker’s got a website. Just yesterday I ran into a friend of a friend at a local restaurant who told me he loves my Facebook posts (RSS fed from our blog) because they make him feel up to date on the Seattle real estate market. That’s really great to hear, I’ll tell ya!
Reba Haas
Team Reba of RE/MAX Metro Realty, Seattle WA
July 12, 2010 at 12:15 am
I think the photo on Robin Milonakis facebook page is way too sexy for a Realtor. Does not look professional at all!
July 12, 2010 at 10:42 am
While smartphones are technically not ‘social media’, they can’t be overlooked as part of any progressive RE professionals toolkit. I am heavily involved in setting up applications that display property information on iphones, and android smartphones. Have a look at http://bit.ly/9bte80 for an idea of what I’m talking about. Contact me at royce@tdandt.com for more information!
July 26, 2010 at 6:09 am
Very nice article. We just published a 4 part series on social media and real estate. If anyone is interested, here’s the post:
http://bit.ly/ce2Xfo
January 7, 2011 at 8:59 am
We have a great solution for Realtors looking to manage their listings and social media. Check out http://www.esolist.com – an easy to use web app that realtors can use to conquer social media marketing! Esolist can help you manage ALL your social media newtorks in one location. You can post comments, your listings and keep track of all your leads, and much much more!
February 2, 2011 at 7:21 am
Thanks for the post & an even bigger thanks to all of those who commented! I give social media presentations on how to help small business owners/real estate agents/brokers grow their business online using FREE avenues. I wanted to give a “common mistakes” list and reccommend some tips for them to explore @ an upcoming event, rather than hashing on about why they NEED to be online & how to do it.
You all helped me out a lot. I’m a Life Insurance Specialist & host the seminars to educate, build relationships, and build trust; not easy coming into the business at 22.
Below is a link to show my Social Media “Cred” if anyone is interested.
http://www.insurancejournal.tv/videos/4217/
February 22, 2011 at 8:14 am
Yep, this is true. When I see agents who *only* post listings online, or *only* do the 1-way “hey lookie here I am” convo… I cringe. Yes, they’ll get some clients. Will their client base grow? well likely not.
When I consult agents on social media, I say listen first – start small – and don’t just post your listings. As an early adopter who ‘got it’ from day one, it’s evident that building relationships (biz and friendship) means the most to people in social media, then it’s education on the tools etc., then doing business.
@shelisrael recently interviewed @jasoncrouch and me about this very thing. Jason, as a broker, had an eye on recruiting. My long term view was oriented to relationship-building and client and referral business as well as interaction with those agents who were also early adopters. This strategy has served me well both personally as well as in a business sense, resulting in sales and in friendships all over the world.
Shel’s article is on American Express’ OPENforum: How Real Estate Pros are Capitalizing on Social Media @OPENForum: http://bit.ly/dW9VdR