Social Media Blunders Real Estate Agents Should Avoid
Social media has become a critical component to every real estate professional’s business. In fact, there’s probably no greater marketing tool for real estate agents than having a strong social media presence, but how you use these platforms makes a huge difference in how well they work for you.
Your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram profile may often be the first impression that prospective clients have of you, so make sure it’s a good one.
Here are some social media mistakes that can put a damper in business.
Having a Bad Profile
Your social media profile is not like any other personal page. It speaks of your professionalism and should accurately reflect that. Yet so many real estate professionals tend to skimp on this critical component.
For starters, let’s talk about images. This is certainly not the time to use stock images or a selfie. Your profile photo should be taken by a photographer and should depict your professionalism.
Next, the information you provide on your social media profile should be detailed and current. It’s essential that you take the time to include accurate, up-to-date information about yourself, the services you provide, and what makes you different from your competition.
Not Branding Yourself Well
Social media provides the perfect opportunity to generate positive brand recognition so that your target audience easily recognizes you and what you do. Failure to properly brand yourself can make it difficult for people to remember you and keep your services top of mind.
It’s important to ensure that you maintain consistency with your branding on all of your social media platforms, whether it’s Facebook, Linked In, Instagram, or Twitter. To do this, try to keep your profile picture the same throughout each platform, and use an image of yourself rather than your company logo. Keep the colors consistent as well, and make sure your contact information is up-to-date.
Keeping things consistent across all the social media platforms you use will help you more successfully blanket your brand.
Not Posting Consistently
A common blunder that real estate professionals make is failing to post on a regular basis. They may fire off a few posts in a couple of days, but then it’ll be a while before a new post is up.
Again, consistency is key. There should be some sort of regular flow to your posts, as your audience will likely be expecting something from you. In order to make your social media advertising and branding successful, you need to post on a regular basis.
To make things easier on you and help your audience get more familiar with what they can expect from you, create a schedule that you can easily work with. Come up with a posting schedule for every social network you’re on, then get into more detail about the exact topics you will be covering. As an agent, there are literally dozens of topics you can cover, such as buyer and seller tips, infographics, seasonal posts, mortgage advice, open houses, your blog posts, and much more.
Not Posting Enough
Consistency in your posting is critical, but exactly how much should you be posting? Ideally, you should have at least one post per day. As far as what time of the day to post, that’s something that will vary from one social media platform to another. Facebook offers a tool that will provide you with insight as to when your post engagement and reach is highest. Use that information to help you gauge when you should be posting each day, and make sure to stick to that schedule.
Not Engaging
Social media is all about engaging with your audience, and if you’re not using this to your full advantage, you’ll be losing out. It’s important for you to engage with your readers to really maximize your social media efforts. Just posting something on your social media profiles just isn’t enough. Instead, it’s how you interact with people on your page that will heavily influence how much activity you’ll see down the road.
Be sure to check your notifications, respond to comments, participate in conversations, share other people’s content, and visit the pages of those that visited your page. Be open minded about the connections you make on social media to help ensure these networks positively affect your business.
The Bottom Line
Every business person knows the importance of having a big presence on social media. But if you’re going to use this innovative type of platform, be sure to use it wisely. Done right, your social media presence can do wonders for your business, but the opposite is also true. Do your best to avoid making these mistakes on all of your social media outlets.
