Monthly Archives: March 2016

Why is Facebook So Important for Real Estate Social Media Marketing?

You might have heard a few people complain over the last few months about the decrease in reach their posts have had on their Facebook pages.

If you’re following a social media posting schedule, in which monitoring your insights is important for understanding how much of your audience you’re reaching, then you might have seen a drop in reach and, therefore, a drop in engagement and traffic to your website.

Facebook has made several changes and updates to their algorithm. The Facebook algorithm is basically a fancy way to describe how Facebook decides what to show in users’ news feeds.

Before we talk about the changes, let’s talk about why Facebook is one of the top five social media sites to master and use for real estate social media marketing.

• As of March 2016, there are 1, 440, 000, 000 users on Facebook
• That number is a 12% increase from 2014 to 2015
• People spend 640,000,000 minutes on Facebook each month
• 1 million links are shared every 20 minutes

Facebook’s News Feed

Facebook’s news feed is designed to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time. There are thousands of stories waiting to show up in the news feed at any given time, which is why Facebook has developed an algorithm to determine what to show. Initially, the algorithm determined what was shown in news feeds based on:

• How often you interacted with a page, post, or friend who shared a post
• How many likes, shares, and comments a post received from your friends and Facebook at large
• How much you interacted with this type of post in the past, including the format (link, photo, video).
• Whether or not the post is being hidden by other users

With all of these variables, business pages in the past still had decent organic reach and therefore more engagement. In 2013, Facebook made an algorithm change which they admitted would cause a decline in organic reach for businesses. The online marketing world went into panic and, after a while, just assumed that this was how it would be going forward without considering that Facebook would continue to alter their algorithm on a regular basis.

Rightfully so, many businesses were outraged, because they had already spent hundreds or thousands of dollars growing their followers and platform now to be told that their posts would be shared with a smaller percentage of their audience.

Facebook then released a document outlining how brands could more effectively target their audience—those who have liked their page—through Facebooks ads and still be more effective with their marketing budget. Businesses were still upset that this didn’t address the issues of them having to pay for the majority of their fans to see their posts.

In 2014, in an effort to improve the user experience, Facebook once again altered their algorithm based on founder Mark Zuckerberg’s own experience where he saw a post about a co-workers birthday over a post about the birth of his niece. Due to this, posts that receive a ‘congratulations’ in the comments automatically receive an increase in organic reach.

Facebook’s algorithm has continued to change many times with the most recent change occurring in March 2016. Competing with live stream platforms such as Periscope, Facebook has now rolled out Facebook Live videos. They began rolling it out for iOS in December and for Android at the end of February. Now that more and more people are engaging with video and watching live video, they are adjusting how to rank them in the news feed. At this point in time, Facebook Live Video is ranked higher in the news feed when those videos are live compared to when the video is no longer live. This means that if you’re on Facebook Live from your business page, you’re receiving preference in the news feed.

Facebook has learned that—on average—people spend three times more time watching video live compared to when it’s not live, even if they don’t react to or like the video. While they don’t say that pages will see significant changes due to this update, it presents an opportunity for higher news feed rank while live.

What do the algorithm changes and Facebook Live Video mean for real estate marketing, and what types of posts will improve your reach?

What the continued algorithm changes mean for real estate agents and real estate businesses that have Facebook pages is that you have to be more intentional with your posts in order to achieve the highest organic reach without paying to boost a post.

You’ll have to experiment with link posts, video posts, photo posts, and Facebook Live to determine what gives you the most engagement and reach. If you don’t already monitor your insights on your Facebook page, have a look at them. The best times to post depend on your audience and you’ll see the times of day when you get the most engagement.

Generally speaking, posts where you share a link directly typically get the most clicks and posts where you share a photo and then add a link in the posts typically get more engagement (likes, shares) than link clicks.

Facebook also gives preference to some publishers before even looking at engagement, because they’re considered a trusted source. So, if you’re sharing content from different online news sites, have a look at which ones receive the highest reach. You might find that it’s better to share real estate market news from one particular site as it seems to perform better.

Timeliness is important, so if you blog about or share something that becomes big news, Facebook may increase your reach if your fans haven’t seen it. If you’re one of the first ones to post, you might be able to ride the wave.

Facebook also shows ‘trending topics’ in the right hand side of the news feed. If you post about these topics, it can increase your reach, but timeliness is also important here. If a topic has been trending for hours, you likely won’t see a difference.

Now, it’s more important than ever to follow a social media posting schedule and to have a strategy in order to get your content seen and to drive traffic to your website.

If you’re regularly posting the right content at the right time, chances are you can continue to ride the momentum, so you keep your reach up and grow your audience in the process.

Should you continue to use Facebook for real estate marketing?

Facebook still remains a valuable platform for marketing, but like any platform that isn’t your own, you’re subject to changes that might harm your business should you depend on them entirely. You’ll have to make that call, but a good strategy is always to leverage what’s popular, to be where the people are, but to ultimately drive the traffic back to your website and find a reliable way to generate leads and capture emails.

Have you noticed a change in your Facebook reach? Do you still regularly use Facebook for real estate marketing? Let us know in the comments.

For more helpful real estate tips and information like this, check out our blog. You can also follow us on Facebook.

At iProperty, we provide leading online property management and real estate software, responsive websites, and more.

People of all ages are spending more and more time on social media, disproving once and for all that social media is just a trend.

If you haven’t implemented real estate social media marketing into your advertising strategy, you’re missing out on a tremendous opportunity to connect with, engage, and attract your target audience.

Along with blogging, actively engaging and marketing on social media is one of the best things you can do to build your real estate business and drive traffic to your website.

Each social media network is unique, offering a number of benefits depending on your approach. You’ll need to determine which one is best suited to your goals, audience, and skills.

Here, we’ve included the top social media networks for real estate advertising and provided some helpful advice for how to use each one better.

Pinterest

Pinterest is all about visual images, so the better your graphics are, the more people you’ll attract. Canva is an excellent site for creating free high-quality graphics. It’s a user-friendly platform that is almost as good as having your own graphic designer.

In a recent post about why Pinterest is one of the most effective real estate marketing platforms, we discuss how visuals are important, but how great content is equally important as well. You can read additional tips on how a real estate agent can effectively use Pinterest by clicking on the link above.

Twitter

Many real estate agents don’t utilise Twitter as an effective real estate marketing tool, but it is still a very valuable way to attract followers, connect with those followers, and generate leads. To be successful on Twitter, you have to engage with your audience. Reply to comments, ask questions, retweet your favourite tweets, and share helpful, concise real estate information

In order to gain a following on Twitter, you’ll need followers who are willing to share your content, which means you have to share valuable content and build relationships, in a sense. Those agents who fail at Twitter basically use it as a broadcast system. When people share your content or retweet it, try your best to reply back to them and thank them.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is also another misunderstood platform. Many see it as just a place to get a job when it is also an incredibly helpful tool for getting your content noticed and for networking with other professionals.

You can share your blog posts as well as expand your network for future referrals. To succeed on LinkedIn, read our post “The 6 Most Important LinkedIn Tips for Real Estate Consultants.”

Facebook

Facebook is the largest social media platform and is a network that real estate agents should be staying up-to-date about and using. When using Facebook, it’s also important to remember not to overwhelm people with just your content and your content alone.

Share a mix of diverse content that includes your blog posts as well as others. You can make quotable images on Canva with real estate advice and share market and neighbourhood news. Experiment and watch your page insights to see what content works best to attract likes, clicks, comments, and shares, and tweak accordingly.

Google+

Google+ is another misunderstood social media platform. Many real estate agents don’t use the platform or even have a profile on it. Not only are Google+ posts given preference on Google, but it’s also a great place to create and build a community of loyal followers and potential clients. You can create both a business page and a community within the platform, making it another great place to connect with potential leads.

Read our post “Leveraging Google+ for Successful Real Estate Marketing” for deeper insight and more tips on how to successfully use the platform for real estate.

Instagram

Instagram was recently bought out by Facebook and marketers are increasingly interested in the platform. Organic engagement is higher on Instagram than on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. As the real estate industry is positioned to capitalise on this image-rich network, it’s to be expected that this is a real estate social media marketing tool you should be using.

Read our recent post “5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Instagram Following in 2016” to learn how to successfully market on this platform.

If you still haven’t put together your real estate content marketing strategy, we’ve written a series on how to effectively create a complete strategy, including social media. You can read step one in the series by clicking here.

If you are on social media and are struggling with scheduling and organizing your social media posts for maximum effectiveness, we’ve created an in-depth social media schedule for real estate professionals to save you time and energy. You can read it by clicking on the link or by clicking here.

Another important tip is to make sure your bios are polished and updated on all of your platforms. Read our post entitled, “10 Must-Read Tips for Writing Great Social Media Bios” to craft top-notch bios.

For more helpful real estate tips and information like this, check out our blog. You can also follow us on Facebook.

At iProperty, we provide leading online property management and real estate software, responsive websites, and more.

Creating your social media marketing strategy is the first step—now you have to manage your social media marketing strategy, which means posting, replying, measuring, and refining. Managing your strategy involves everything from monitoring mentions to promoting posts to analyzing metrics.

Many believe that social media marketing is incredibly time consuming and that it doesn’t generate a high ROI.

However, if you put together a time management schedule, spread it out, and automate your social media marketing, you can spend 20-30 minutes here and an hour there tweaking, monitoring, and getting it just right.

See the below social media management schedule and use it as an example to create your own. Once you have a plan in place and do the work upfront, you’ll be able to manage your social media accounts on your lunch break.

Monday: Create New Content and Automate Your Posts

Estimated Total Time: 1.5-3 hours

• Use social media automation tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule updates, property pictures, and blog posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, and other platforms.
• Create new blog posts, infographics, eBooks, etc. to share across platforms.

You can hire an assistant or a social media manager, but automation may just be the missing link to easily implement your social media strategy.

There aren’t any hard and fast rules for how much content to automate or when to post. There are suggestions, but you’ll need to experiment and see when you’re getting the most engagement and when your target audience is typically online.

If you need real estate content marketing inspiration, read our blog post, “20 Time Saving Real Estate Blog Topic Ideas.”

Tuesday: Find Other Professionals’ Content to Share and Automate

Estimated Total Time: 45 minutes-1 hour

• Browse online and other social media platforms to curate content. Look for tips, advice, and guides from other reputable sources that would be helpful to your audience.
• Research keywords and Google terms your audience searches for on a regular basis. Share this relevant content on your own social media page.

It’s important to share the content you create, but it’s just as important to share an excellent selection of really helpful advice that your audience will find useful.

Any form of content (video, posts, or infographics) on home buying tips, home staging, how to prepare for a mortgage, etc. that is evergreen is great to share.

Wednesday: Platform Maintenance

Estimated Total Time: 20-30 minutes

• Update images, profile pictures, social media bios, etc. that need tweaked.
• Make a note of any spelling errors or poor quality images or glitches in automated content.

The most successful real estate agents and companies use their social media header images to promote current listings, so their images are always up-to-date with attractive properties for sale.

Their about section or bio section is also filled with important information and their contact details. This information doesn’t need to be updated every week, but it should be reviewed regularly to make sure everything is current.

Switching out your header image on your social media profiles can be done once every couple of weeks. One thing to note when switching out your header images is that the images still need to abide by the image dimensions recommended for each social platform.

If you’re not sure what the correct image dimensions are, click here to read our guide entitled “How to Select the Right Social Media Images for Your Content.”

If you’re not sure what information you should be putting in your social media bio, we’ve also written a guideline post entitled, “10 Must-Read Tips for Writing Great Social Media Bios,” which you can read by clicking here.

Thursday: Connect with Influencers on Each Social Network

Estimated Time Total: 45 minutes-1 hour

• Reach out to other professionals, bloggers, industry leaders, or online businesses to network and create new opportunities.
• Seek out and follow influencers who regularly share valuable content your audience would enjoy. Spend some time “researching” what they’re doing online that appears to be working and learn from their strategies. Are they using certain hashtags? Do they comment frequently? How often do they post? What do their posts look like?

Connecting with online influencers, local businesses, or local reporters can help you establish a PR plan. Networking online provides a vast array of potential resources you can tap into for free marketing, brand awareness, or collaborative giveaways to increase your online reach.

Look for the businesses and individuals who will help you broaden your exposure and over time engage with them.

One of the best ways you can get your name out there is to offer to guest post or provide insights and quotes they can use for articles. You can also return the favour by giving them a guest post spot on your own blog.

Friday: Monitor Your Mentions Using Brand-Listening Tools

Estimated Time Total: 20 minutes

• Use brand-listening tools such as Mention or Talkwalker to see who’s talking about your brand online and what they are saying. You’ll be able to see both positive and negative comments across social platforms.
• Once you’ve “listened,” you can draft your response, whether it’s a thank you, an answer to a question, or an apology for a bad experience.

As you gain more and more recognition in the online world, you’ll need to monitor what is being said about your brand. You should have a strategy formed for how you’ll deal with any negative feedback. If, for example, someone comments on Facebook that you’re far from the best agent, it might be best to leave it, say something to diffuse the comment, and send a private message. If someone attacks you as a person—rather than your skills—it might be best to delete it.

Social listening tools will help you monitor what’s being said very efficiently, so you don’t spend a ton of time monitoring.

Saturday: Engage With Your Audience and Follow New People

Estimated Time Total: 30 minutes

• Start conversations with followers who regularly like or share your content and engage your core audience.
• Conduct a Q & A, get input from your audience, and answer questions.

Connecting with your audience directly is a great way to keep your core followers engaged and to gain new followers. The best way to market isn’t to spam your following with links, but to comment on and like their posts.

While engagement is great, be careful not to overstep personal boundaries. Don’t comment on every post, so you’re not labeled a “creep.”

Upbeat and lighted-hearted posts, replies, and comments are a great way to make a personal connection with your audience.

Sunday: Take a Look at Your Google Analytics Metrics and Reports

• Look at Google Analytics and each social network’s analytics tools to see how your strategy and content have performed throughout the week.
• Modify your plan or strategy based on what you learn from your metrics.

The big social networks have individual analytics per platform that you can access to see how your page or profile is doing.

If you see high reach or engagement levels, lots of new likes, follows, and shares, and increases in your clicks, that’s an indication that your content is helping you achieve your goals. If you see the opposite, you’ll want to tweak what you’re doing.

Google Analytics can give you an in-depth and incredibly helpful look into your page views, traffic, sources of traffic, and more. If you’re not familiar with it, click here to read our post “13 Must-Know Google Analytics Reports for Your Real Estate Website.”

Daily: Reply to Comments, Share Content, and Plan Out Future Social Media Content

Estimated Time Total: 30 minutes

Use the “get in and out quickly” method to daily reply to comments, share content, and save any links you might find helpful to your audience. Log in with the mentality that you’re there to “do business” as opposed to browse and play around and you’ll have a better chance of not getting sidetracked and wasting time.

If you’re a buyers’ agent, constantly share new listings for homes for sale intermixed between other content. As a sellers’ agent, also share new information about your listings on a regular basis, but keep the balance between your content and other helpful content.

Experimentation is a big part of learning how to thrive and grow your audience and following on social media. Get creative and find new ways to engage. If you have an idea or you read about a new strategy, test it out and see how it works on your audience.

Do you have any social media tips or tricks that have helped you grow your online presence or manage your social media strategy? If so, share them with us in the comments section.

For more helpful real estate tips and information like this, check out our blog. You can also follow us on Facebook.

At iProperty, we provide leading online property management and real estate software, responsive websites, and more.