Let’s be honest. At times the real estate industry can be a bit cringeworthy when it comes to using social media. That’s because the focus is often on selling a product instead of providing value.
Today I wanted to share two helpful “what to do” lists for social media practices for real estate professionals. These are things I’ve learned and observed along the way after 700+ blog posts and intentional connection with friends and clients on various social platforms. I keep these points in mind when creating content, shooting videos and interacting on Facebook and Twitter. These tips are relevant to a number of industries of course – not just real estate. Take what will work for you and leave what won’t.
10 ways to be a cringeworthy real estate person online:
- Focus on selling stuff instead of building relationships.
- Repost other people’s articles without giving them credit.
- Forget personal updates, just post your listings.
- Post “your referrals are the lifeblood of my business” as your status on Facebook.
- Use Twitter to broadcast your services all day long without having conversation.
- Write blog posts about why you are so great.
- Automate your content so it says the same exact thing in 10 places at once.
- Share at least 10 daily posts about real estate on Facebook.
- Make sure your agenda is to sell instead of bring value.
- Do the same thing online as you would in the yellow pages.
10 ways to bring value online as a real estate professional:
Focus on building relationships with others online.- Listen and then comment on other people’s blogs and Facebook statuses.
- Make other people look good (that makes you look good too).
- Be a resource by writing blog posts that focus on answering people’s questions instead of broadcasting your services as the primary point. Post once a week if you can.
- Share what you know. This helps others build trust with you and it elevates you as the expert (assuming you know what you’re talking about of course).
- If you’re on Twitter, use the “@” reply to have conversation with others.
- Share good news and business successes on Facebook. People love good news. What’s not to “like” about that?
- Create original content. You already have good content in your “sent” email box from questions you’ve been answering via email to clients. If you want to repost someone’s article, share a snippet of the article and then give some of your original thoughts about the snippet (with a link to the original article).
- Tailor your content to your audience. If your content is automated to post to ten places at once, keep in mind your audience in each of these places may not digest the message the same way on each platform. Automated content often lacks a personal feel, which is not helpful. If you don’t have time to engage on 10 social media platforms (who does, right?), then pick a couple you can really handle and engage on those platforms.
- Your passion is real estate, but do your Facebook friends want to hear about real estate 10 times every day? Probably not, so don’t overwhelm them.
Since there is no face-to-face connection online (unless using a webcam), it can be easy to use social media as a tool to broadcast services all day. But it’s not meant for constant advertisements. A good rule of thumb is if you wouldn’t do something face-to-face at a networking meeting, it’s probably not good to do online either. Earning business online is about being resourceful and providing valuable content over time – all in the context of building relationships with others.
Other Articles: For further reference, feel free to check out a few previous articles: “How to develop original blog content”, “Successful Twitter tips for real estate professionals” and “Quick tips for real estate blogging“.
Questions: What do you think? Anything you’d add? What are the most glaring social media “sins” of the real estate community? What are the big successes? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
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Colleen says
July 5, 2012 at 5:39 PMNice article Ryan. Thanks
Ryan Lundquist says
July 5, 2012 at 6:01 PMThanks so much Colleen.
Heather Ostrom says
July 6, 2012 at 7:39 AMSo true about NOT writing about real estate and your listings all the time. Your audience will be so small if you’re only catering to those “moments” in another person’s life. You want to define yourself as a professional in your field, but the beauty of social media is to create an approachable but also trustworthy and reliable source of information for your field. We shouldn’t fear about exposing small parts of ourselves because inevitably we start attracting better suited clients (IMO). ~ So true about commenting on posts (duh here we are) for those that are creating good content and developing important relationships online. Positive actions always lead to good things. And a commitment to good interaction online with others and good e-skills, do not have to be a time suck. Love this post (and sorry for my long comment). 🙂
Ryan Lundquist says
July 6, 2012 at 7:53 AMYou could’ve and should’ve written this post, Heather. You really are a great model for using social media in real estate. I learn from watching you. Thanks for your insight and I always appreciate your two cents.
Liseth says
July 6, 2012 at 10:59 AMI think you are totally right! You must try to give some help to your customers, give them information about different topics they may be interested. If we just focus on our business, publishing the same information we are going to make our clients go.
Ryan Lundquist says
July 10, 2012 at 6:57 AMThanks Liseth.
Arizona FHA Loan says
July 10, 2012 at 10:35 PMGreat post. There are definitely 2 different schools of thought out there when you look at how others use blogs, fb, twitter etc… I agree that the focus should be to provide value and helpful info. In this business the best promotion is helping find solutions to problems for our clients.
Jeremy
Ryan Lundquist says
July 11, 2012 at 10:08 AMI agree. It’s all about helping provide solutions to problems. I’m curious what two schools of thought you see out there.
AZ FHA Loan says
July 11, 2012 at 7:10 PMSeems to be 2 types – the type that is genuinely working to provide helpful valuable info/solutions and then the type that is geared more at self promoting/salesy in nature.
Ryan Lundquist says
July 11, 2012 at 8:18 PMGotcha. I understand completely. One of these types is helpful and the other is not. One builds credibility and trust and the other does not. Kudos to those who are really giving value and providing solutions as you say.
Rachel Massey says
November 21, 2013 at 1:41 PMHi Ryan, I know this is a late to the game comment, but I really enjoyed reading this post about what to do, and conversely what not to do. Thank you for sharing your insights!
Ryan Lundquist says
November 21, 2013 at 1:59 PMYou’re not late to the game at all, Rachel. Thanks for the kind words.