With the world wide web becoming a major player in a whole host of industries these days, real estate agents need to be able to take advantage of it. A measly 9% of agents use social media to promote their property listings. A well-connected agent however, uses the online world to generate leads.
Building an engaging online network however, is not an easy task – so here are 5 easy tips and tricks to get your online network up and running.
1) Making A Good First Impression
Most agents tend to be quite charismatic, sociable people. Sometimes though, your online presence might not reflect this. Incomplete or poorly written profiles can come off as pretty boring or disinterested. There’s no need to tell your life story, but a couple of solid paragraphs should do.
Include key words such as terms for your local market and specialties. This will bump up that professional profile of yours to the top of the search engine results. In turn, this will make it easier for people to find you online.
Having well optimised content is the key to a great introduction to your potential consumers. You should also include a professional photo for your agent profile, so people can identify you clearly – not to mention that visual content is highly engaging.
2) Using In-Person And Online Contacts
Now that you’ve got a solid introduction to your profile, add in colleagues, clients and other in-person entities to your portfolio. Perhaps ask colleagues to follow your professional Facebook page. This is useful for people you don’t see on a daily basis.
If you reach out to contacts online, it shows an interest in maintaining a lasting working relationship. In turn, this creates a bond that means people more likely remember you when they need an agent.
Having a strong online following shows to potential clients, that you have a wide-reaching database of contacts to draw from. Clients are likely to understand the value of a contact database – searching to find agents who are well connected.
3) Using Online Communities And Professional Groups
It’s now time for you to start expanding your online network. This doesn’t include firing away a couple of random friend requests though – you’re unlikely to create meaningful relationships here.
You should aim to mingle in online communities and professional groups. You need not commit a huge amount of time to this, but it’ll ensure you move within the right circles – keeping abreast of real estate goings-on.
4) Keep Clients In The Loop
Use your social media profiles to keep clients in the loop. This will create a deeper relationship with your clients – maintaining an engaging presence and keeping your network active.
Tagging people can be an effective technique, as it shows your followers that you are following them personally.
You can use this time to ensure that you create and put out engaging content for your followers to enjoy. This is a great opportunity to keep up to date on current real estate issues, and to impress your audience with knowledge.
5) Use Word-Of-Mouth Advertising
According to the stats, nearly 3 in 4 people will make a decision to buy based on word of mouth alone. This concept goes hand-in-hand with social media, as it’s so easy to share information via platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
There are a number of ways of harnessing the power of word of mouth on social media, but the two most effective are as follows. Creating amazing posts works well with listings, and can be shared directly with your contacts.
The second way is to actively chase down leads online. Following up the posts of your followers with a comment, can lead to action. This all relies on a strong portfolio of colleagues and potential buyers/sellers though, so make sure to be always expanding your network of contacts.