SOCIAL MEDIA
FaCebook Facebook is currently the most widely used social site. It is used by individuals and businesses to share news, pictures and videos and to post links and, crucially, ask questions. Someone wanting to know “Who is a reliable estate agent in Leamington?” could use Facebook. It’s important that your business has a
Facebook page that you regularly update with news and links to your latest blog posts. If your page is useful and interesting, people will ‘like’ you. This brings all sorts of benefits – not least that Google will rank you higher in its searches.
Use Facebook to build communities. Create a group for ‘Leamington flat buyers’ and add helpful questions and answers, you’ll reach your targets and display your expertise and build trust: something that expensive press advertis- ing simply can’t achieve. Join other related groups, too. Get your name out there.
linkedin LinkedIn is a business-orientated social networking site, with over 100 million users. It works by building a contact network of users’ direct connections (the people they know); the connections of each of their connections; and the connections of those second-degree connections. LinkedIn can then be used to find people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one’s contact network. It’s a very powerful job-seeking and
recruitment tool, but it’s much more than that. Two features are particularly noteworthy. LinkedIn Groups are collections of people with similar professional interests: there are already several for estate agents, but there’s nothing to stop you starting your own regional or other special interest group. Remember, too, that companies relocating to your region are likely to be LinkedIn users. Create a high profile, and you could become the agent that can help them.
TwiTTer Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service, enabling its users to send and read messages called tweets. Tweets are posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the user’s profile page. Users subscribe to other users’ tweets – this is known as following. There are over 200 million regular users. There are plenty of advanced ways to use
Twitter. You can monitor words and phrases, and use them to generate sales leads, for example. It’s also a great platform for customer service.
140 characters doesn’t sound like much, and it isn’t. Yet it’s a great way of getting your blog posts and longer pieces known, because you can post short links to your website content. The links are trackable, so you can analyse who’s visited your content, and when. You can nurture these leads using social media, too.
Cross-publiCise You can use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter (and lots of other social media) to cross- publicise your blog posts, conversations and activities on other platforms. This quickly builds momentum. You can post pictures of properties on Flickr, using keywords to make them easily searchable... add videos of new lettings to your own YouTube channel (you can get a good HD camera for under £125)... the list is almost endless.
Go mobile. With the explosion of smart- phones and other mobile devices, it’s vital that your website works well on the move. Over the next couple of years, location- based augmented reality will become commonplace. When a homebuyer points her smartphone at a property, you want your details to come up. Ensure your web designer is up to speed on this!
Two final points. First, ensure that you
make good use of all the new leads and activities. There’s no point spending time on social media if you don’t track and follow up. That said, there are plenty of
24 MAY 2011 PROPERTYdrum
Join us on 15 June at Savoy Place in London to find out how you can use search and social media efficiently to gain a huge competitive advantage.
tools to help you to automate a lot of your social activities. And second, start now. You still have
time to build your social presence before your competitors get a look in. Whether you’re a large chain or a single office doing nothing is not an option. If you ignore social media, your competitors will trample all over you – and more quickly than you thought possible.
Social media accounts for: 22% of all time spent online 75% of the UK’s active internet population access social media daily
79% of Fortune 100 global companies who use at least one social media platform
25% of search results for the world’s top 20 largest brands that are links to user generated content
41% of web users read blogs 47% of the time people spend on the internet is spent looking at content and
33% spent communicating
www.powershift.tv
Add your own tips and ideas online at:
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