With the rise of social media, it’s no wonder why organizations are now using these technologies to help their businesses grow. Social media has emerged as a mean of communicating with your audience about your business. Aside from building trust and enhancing your credibility, using social media may significantly contribute to boosting your business sales.
Social media scheduling tools, social networking tools for business, and so many more! The fact of the matter is your business needs to keep up with social media trends if you want to succeed in today’s market. This article will give you an overview on the different social media tools that are available that could be beneficial to you or your business.
Known as the online hub where business professionals converge, LinkedIn continues to be one of the top social sites for those looking for business connections.
Given the nature of the social platform, it gives you a great chance to connect with those truly interested in your real estate business, rather than those who just happen to have a profile for online visibility.
LinkedIn has a total of 467 million users, 106 million of which are active monthly. It also has 1.5 million groups to date. Instead of simply focusing on getting 500+ contacts for your account, you can take advantage of the network by doing the following:
- Fill out your profile: You can’t start sending invites without uploading a professional photo, a headline and a summary. Don’t forget to use keywords that potential clients might look for. In your summary, tell them what you have to offer, how you can help them, and your credentials. Include your portfolio and a link to your website if possible.
- Connect using personal notes: No one wants to talk to a robot. A personal touch to your messages goes a long way in establishing rapport with a potential connection. Post genuine comments about their blogs, a book they wrote, or a status they posted. It is also advised to personalize your pitch when you first message them, and invite them to your network.
- Join groups: Find groups where your potential leads may be. However, instead of hard-selling yourself, be a valuable member of the group and provide insights. Help out when you can. This would show that you know what you are talking about and that you have years of experience you can bring to the table.
With 1.32 billion daily users, Facebook continues to be on the top spot of the social networking tier. Although primarily created for connecting with family and friends, 73 percent of people actually use the platform for professional purposes.
Business owners can take advantage of the social giant to find real estate leads by doing the following:
- Start with your personal profile: If you’re just a budding investor, where else can you start but in your own backyard? Make sure your personal profile is professional. Also, your bio needs to include keywords that identify you as a real estate investor in your market.
- Create a business page: If your personal profile is, so to speak, too close to home, you can create a separate business page. This is where you can post updates about your business, feature your portfolio, include a link to your website or blog posts. Find your audience and engage with them by posting interesting content. If they send a message, make sure you reply promptly.
- Join groups: Similar to LinkedIn, Facebook also has groups for like-minded individuals. You can join these and post valuable information for fellow members.
- Photo contest: This is a great way to help put your name out there and increase engagement for your brand. Word will spread, especially if the prize is valuable. For instance, you can ask your followers to post photos of rooms they designed themselves. The one with the most number of likes will win a free weekend in a nearby resort.
- Video contest: Similar to a photo contest, asking your followers to post interesting videos would help with marketing. Do remember, however, that video contests generally have a high barrier to entry, so take time to work out the mechanics.
Twitter started as an online tool to keep in touch with friends, but has now also become a full-scale business marketing tool. The community of Twitter is built upon following others and getting your own followers. Twitter allows tweeting short messages of 140 characters and is a great platform to quickly update your followers and others with new offers and news etc. It can also be a great way to converse with your customers and increase your website traffic. Since Twitter is an open platform, #hashtags can be used to convey your message to the wider community. A hashtag allows your tweets to be seen not only by your followers but also those who are interested in the topic you have tweeted about. For instance, if you use a hashtag with your product name then anyone interested in your product will be able to see your tweet regardless of whether they are following you or not.
Hootsuite
If you handle plenty of social media accounts, it often becomes time-consuming to manage all of them at the same time. Hootsuite is a social media management platform that helps you schedule and post your content, as well as delegate tasks to your team. It supports all major networking sites, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and Twitter.
You can also automate your posts using its autoschedule feature. Above all, Hootsuite provides analytics data on all social networks, generating reports on clickthroughs, likes, shares, and overall engagement.
Trulia
Trulia is a popular platform for both real estate buyers and sellers to make informed decisions on their purchases. The platform also provides a forum-like feature for people who are looking for answers to real estate questions. (A part of the platform that many people overlook.)
You can use Trulia a couple of ways:
- Trulia Voices: If you want to engage with potential clients, the best way to do it is to provide value. Answer questions posted by house sellers and buyers. Engage and avoid overtly advertising yourself. Not only will you possibly find clients, but you’ll get good research intel about your market.
- Find property estimates: If you’re having a hard time putting a price on your property, all you need to do is browse Trulia’s directory. With an extensive list of homes that just hit the market, this will give you a rough idea of a property’s pricing history, as well as neighborhood living conditions — all of which you can factor in your final estimate.
Headline Analyzer
Studies show that eight out of 10 people will not go beyond reading the headline of a story. With that little time, you need to come up with an engaging and emotive title to generate online traffic and find new leads.
Advanced Marketing Institute’s Headline Analyzer is a free tool that will help you analyze how effective your titles are. You can type your headline on the box, select your industry, and the tool will calculate the emotional marketing value (EMV) of your text. The higher EMV, the better.
But why simply use it for blog posts and videos? It can also be used to check your Facebook updates or LinkedIn group messages, to ensure all your social networking is having the impact you desire.
Conclusion:
These days not having at least a basic understanding of social media marketing and how to use it is rather the exception than the rule. This applies even more if your business is SMB or you’re operating as a full-time freelancer. It’s just as true if you happen to be running your business as a side project.