Developing Your Social Media Marketing Plan
As the New Year unfolds, it’s a good time for us to reflect upon and evaluate our past marketing activities, and determine some new strategies for improving our efforts for the future.
Clearly, engaging in various forms of social media (blogging, social networking) can result in some tremendous returns on our investment of time and resources. However, there is still a lot of misunderstanding and misconception when it comes to the proper use of social media to promote/grow our real estate business.
What is Social Media? // Social Media is a Conversation, not an Ad
First and foremost, remember that social media at its core is an ongoing series of engaging, interactive, connecting conversations. With the advent of Web 2.0, the Internet marketing paradigm shifted significantly. Gone are the days of incessant self-promotion, glamor shots, and annoying ‘interruption’ marketing (thanks goodness!). Consumers have learned to tune out the elevator noise of how great you are, how many designations you’ve earned, or which Million Dollar Club you belong to.
Today’s sophisticated, Internet-savvy consumers want good, consistent, relevant, practical, helpful, and qualified information. They want it served up fresh in formats and social media venues they frequent and use in the course of their daily lives, i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc..
At the turn of the century, townspeople congregated at the corner general store, sitting around the pot belly stove to hear all the local buzz. Later on, it was conversation around the water cooler at work. In today’s culture, people connect, share, and communicate through Internet-based platforms, applications, and mobile technologies.
In order to successfully grow your business through the Internet and make meaningful connections with potential clients, you have to go to where the conversations are taking place, and communicate in ways that contribute to the discussion, building trust/credibility, and adding value to whatever product(s)/services you are providing.
Unfortunately, as creatures of habit, we tend to drag the deeply ingrained baggage of our ‘old school’ marketing methods along with us and attempt to force them into the newer social media landscape. From shopping carts to refrigerator magnets, we’re told to plaster our contact info/website domain on every visible surface known to mankind. What typically results is annoying SPAM and more resembles a one-sided self-promoting advertisement than it does an attempt to impart valued information, or stir up meaningful dialog.
“Social Media is the new Water Cooler. It’s where People Connect, Interact, and Share”
Before we jump into the nuts and bolts of developing a social media strategy, I thought it would be best to understand the bigger picture of why you, as a real estate professional, should be using social media to grow and promote your business.
Here’s one of the best definitions I’ve come across for social media:
“Social Media is the collection of tools and online spaces available to help individuals and businesses to accelerate their information and communication needs.” – Axel Schultze -
If there’s one area that people in our business typically neglect, it’s taking the time to develop and implement a detailed/deliberate marketing plan. Most of the time, we simply mirror what others around us are doing. We fly by the seat of our pants, being reactionary instead of proactive. We get a website, send out postcards, hand out calenders, call on ‘expireds,’ join the Rotary Club, and then cross our fingers, hoping that new business will come our way as a result. Rarely are we intentional in our marketing efforts, nor do we take time to analyze and evaluate which methods are the most effective.
And so it is too with many who venture out into the social media waters. We create a Facebook page, makes some Tweets on Twitter, post a few articles on a blog, and cross our fingers that something happens.
What is needed is a better understanding of why social media is such a great way to grow & promote your real estate business, and how you can effectively implement/employ social media strategies into your existing marketing plan.
Why Social Media? // Expanding Your Digital Footprint
First and foremost, using the tools of social media allows us to expand/enhance our digital footprint. With more and more consumers accessing the Internet for their home buying and selling needs, one of our primary strategies should be to spread and enlarge our web presence. It’s not enough to simply maintain a website. Our end goal should be to dominate a specific geo-targeted area and maximize our ‘find-a-bility’ for select key search terms. In other words, when consumers enter particular key search terms into a search engine, terms that are relevant to your local market, some element of your digital footprint should show up in the search results, i.e. blog article, Facebook page, pod-cast, video, etc..
One of my former managing brokers always used the analogy, “The more hooks you put into the water, the greater your chances of catching the Fish!” An effective social media strategy will necessitate varying levels of participation on multiple platforms, networks, and applications. However, just a quick word of caution. Whatever you do in the social media realm, do it well and do it consistently.
Connecting with Your Sphere of Influence
Leveraging social media empowers you to make meaningful connections/interactions with your Sphere of Influence and potential clients. It enables meaningful ‘touches’ to occur faster, more efficiently than more traditional methods. That’s not to suggest that you should abandon your previous marketing efforts. Utilizing social media should simply augment, not replace the tasks you’ve been doing up to this point, especially ones that result in added business. Nothing will ever replace the value of personal, face-to-face contact. And some people just aren’t engaged in using the Internet on a regular basis. But what you’ll find is that social media can become one of the most cost-effective and results-oriented marketing methods you can use.
How to Engage in Social Media // Taking AIM
The foundational elements of your Social Media Plan and effective engagement can be found in the acrostic A-I-M:
Audience: Who are you trying to reach?
Image: What kind of image are you trying to project? What is your brand?
Message: What information are you trying to communicate?
Your Audience: Who are You trying to Reach?
Identifying your target audience is critical because it determines the nature of your content/message and the particular platforms, tools, or applications you will choose to connect/communicate.
As a real estate professional, I have several target audiences I am attempting to reach/attract. First and foremost, I want to engage potential real estate clients, primarily Buyer clients since more than 95% of all Buyers are accessing the Internet in their home buying process. Much of my social media content is geared towards Buyers, but I also publish helpful information relating to Sellers as well.
Secondly, another audience I want to target is my Sphere of Influence (friends, acquaintances, and past clients in my database) and people in general within my geographic market area.
And lastly, I want to develop and maintain connections with other real estate agents, fostering potential referral relationships.
Your specific audience may vary depending on your particular market niche. The important thing is to deliberately identify that audience and tailor your social media content/engagement to reaching/attracting that audience.
Your Image: What is Your Image/Brand?
Much has been said lately about ‘branding.’ My sense is that many people make it out to be a lot more complicated than it really needs to be. No doubt the stakes are probably much higher for huge billion dollar conglomerates whose global success depends upon effective branding. But for smaller businesses and real estate agents, where our markets are significantly smaller, what exactly is crucial for effective branding to occur?
I think your primary goal in branding is for people to remember you. In the endless sea of real estate professionals, what sets you apart? What distinguishes you from all the rest? How does your branding differentiate you?
It can be a logo, an image, or a catch phrase. It simply establishes your uniqueness among the masses, and helps people to remember you.
Here on the Kitsap Peninsula, surrounded by the waterways of the Puget Sound, a popular pastime is recreational crabbing. Ask anyone about my personal passions, and they’ll tell you that I love to catch and eat crab! So it only made sense to use a crab as my brand. Follow me on Twitter, and you follow the Crab. Read any of my articles on ActiveRain or SoundBiteBlog, and you’ll see the Crab. I even have a blog dedicated to the sport of crabbing!
Understand, that ultimately, your true brand is who you are (your character/integrity/expertise) and the level of service you provide to your clients.
Your Message: What do You want to Share?
Take a moment and read some of the more popular definitions of Social Media:
“Social media is content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies”
“A category of sites that are based on user participation and user-generated content, and are centered on user interaction.”
“Social Media are primarily Internet and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings.”
“Online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other.”
“Software tools that allow groups to generate content and engage in peer-to-peer conversations and exchange of content.”
Based on these definitions, allow me to recommend a few key elements about your message:
- Your message should be your own ‘unique‘ content, not copied and pasted from other sites
- Your message should engage the intended reader and stimulate participation/interaction
- Your message should share your knowledge, experience, opinions, and expertise
Put yourself in the shoes of your intended audience. What information can you share that would be most helpful and beneficial to them? Empower your readers by helping them to better understand your local real estate market and make informed decisions. But don’t forget to convey a sense of your unique personality, passions, and perspectives (The 3 Powerful P’s of Social Media). You’ll bore them to tears if your message is nothing more than an endless litany of market statistics and listings.
A good, effective social media plan begins with the understanding that it’s not about ‘me’ (agent-centric), but it’s all about engaging others (consumer-centric) and sharing information of value to them.
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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional with Keller Williams West Sound, providing knowledgeable empowerment and relentless representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, ActiveRain, and Crabbing in the Hood, or e-mail: kitsapagent@gmail.com
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Tags: audience, branding, message, real estate business plan, social media marketing, social media plan
