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property market a social media boost
Facebook – giving the
Include your property listings on this new Facebook property network and you will engage a whole new audience.
F
acebook is one of the most powerful websites in the world, yet the property sector has been slow to adopt it. This
now is changing and estate agents are recognising that social media is opening an extra channel for marketing on top of traditional methods. Property Place is the first app to take full
advantage of the Facebook platform. It allows estate agents and lettings agents to upload properties on to Facebook and then users can search, share and like properties and communicate with agents through the Facebook interface that so many users are familiar with.
Why is Facebook important? The last five years have seen the natural grouping of the millions of internet users into clubs and memberships, a little bit like the pubs, restaurants and nightclubs of the real world. People want to share experiences; where traditionally it was over a drink and some food it is now usual to do so by pictures, comments and other forms of exchanges. These new virtual pubs and clubs are called social networks – and the biggest club in the world is Facebook. The beauty about Facebook is that it’s pretty much open to everyone. The great thing (from a marketer’s perspective) is that in order to sign-up users have to share their identity with the site which opens them up to engagement for marketing and data capture. Has this put them off signing up? Nope, it certainly hasn’t put off the 35 million UK Facebook users or the 800 million worldwide. Facebook is a well managed and policed.
But more importantly than that, today’s consumer is intelligent and marketing-savvy.
24 l April 2012 l TheNegotiator
‘Using Facebook’s social media platform is a brilliant idea. Isn’t it what
we have all been
waiting for?’ Robert Ulph, Pennington
They are less likely to respond to a simple Facebook advertisement, just check the conversion rates for Facebook advertisements to verify this. The only way to effectively engage with the existing membership is by showing users something that is relevant to them at a time when they need it most. All the information to achieve this is already available on Facebook. Every property in the UK is built with a
target demographic audience in mind. Just like every product is manufactured with a target market. Being part of a social network means that you have to share your profile
information to become a ‘member’. This profile information shares your name, email address, mobile number, location, marital status, interests, places of work and education. The agents that are currently having success with social media are able to interact with Facebook users at certain trigger points and lifestyle changes and recommend properties to suit their demographic.
Where to start The great thing about using Facebook is that agents won’t have to employ specialist staff or replace resources to use it as the Facebook platform is globally used and recognised. But social media is so much more than just
creating a Facebook page to sell services to your existing audience. It’s about engaging with a larger network to offer services and assistance (when relevant). As data capture for estate agents is so
crucial, a ‘Facebook Like’ or a ‘Google Click’ will only get you so much information. By including your property listings on an existing Facebook property network which has more resources and many more visitors to capture information from you are going to engage a new audience. Facebook property networks like Property Place (the first Facebook property app in the market) are the ideal place to start uploading your properties to in order to take advantage of this wealth of information. Marketing on Facebook should be part of all
Estate Agents’ long term strategy as it offers up a whole new realm of communication and marketing opportunities. Social media has shown that it is here to stick around and by ignoring this channel you may be cutting off a whole network of clients that need properties.
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