A Strategic Approach to Using Social Media for Sales & Marketing
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This document provides guidance on using social media strategically for real estate sales and marketing. It recommends creating quality rental and owner content and determining target customers before establishing a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. For each platform, it discusses considerations like objectives, relevant content types, and key metrics. General rules of engagement include being helpful, respectful, and honest while avoiding confidentiality breaches. Companies should establish social media policies to guide appropriate use.
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A Strategic Approach to Using Social Media for Sales & Marketing
- 1. Getting Social in Real Estate A Strategic Approach to Using Social Media for Sales & Marketing
- 2. Michael Cunningham Social Media Manager, RealPage Managing Editor, PropertyManagementInsider.com
- 4. Agenda • Create the Center of Your Universe • Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Rules of Engagement
- 5. The Age of Connections
- 6. Before you can walk… CREATE THE CENTER OF YOUR UNIVERSE
- 10. Quality Rental Content • Professional Rental Content – Property Titles & Descriptions – Brochures – Email or Newsletter Subscriptions • Media Content – 3D Floor Plans – Video Walkthrough – Professional Photos
- 11. Quality Owner Content • Content Information – Articles & Blog Posts – Announcements • Events, News, Rentals – Whitepapers & Surveys – Testimonials & Press Releases • Media Information – Videos – Podcasts – Info Graphics
- 13. Rental Content
- 14. Owner Content
- 15. Other Content
- 16. Who is Your Customer? Demographic Location Service Exp. Mobile/Social Younger working Interested in Lower expectations Lighter usage of class families that proximity to schools, of the sophistication mobile and social in are starting out with activities and of services provided. their daily lives as fairly limited convenient retail compared to other disposable income options. demographics.
- 17. Why are You Doing Social Media? • Increase leads at a lower cost • Present yourself as a thought leader • Engage customers, prospects, and influencers • Better understand, identify, and engage potential customers • Improve customer service and satisfaction
- 18. Let’s Review • Before going social you need: – A website – Content – Know who your customers are – Why you’re going into social media
- 21. The Big Three • Facebook- more than 900 million users • Twitter- more than 500 million users • LinkedIn- more than150 million users
- 22. FACEBOOK
- 23. Facebook Fan Page Considerations • Strategic objective • Number of posts per day • Determine the type of relevant content you’re going to share • Promote upcoming events (create them in the events tab if applicable) • Engage with customers, prospects, and influencers • Can your website easily be found
- 24. Facebook Fan Page Considerations
- 25. Examples of Facebook Fan Page Content • Available Rentals • Photos & Videos • Blog Articles • Press Releases • Events & Announcements • Promotions • Testimonials • Awards & Honors
- 26. Determine the key Facebook Metric Vs.
- 27. Tips for Engagement • Publish useful tips or facts • Engage in social conversations • Ask questions • Have fun • Social etiquette – Reply to and acknowledge others comments – Say “thank you” & like their posts – Introduce yourself (photos)
- 29. TWITTER
- 30. Twitter Considerations • Promote your content • Promote other (relevant) content (think local) • Listen to relevant conversations • Contribute to relevant conversations • Build a reputation as being helpful • Does your Twitter bio make it easy to find your website?
- 33. Determine the key Twitter Metrics • Followers • Mentions • Retweets • Retweet Reach • Replies Reach • Number of lists you’re on • Number of potential prospects sent to sales • Number of Posts
- 34. LINKEDIN
- 35. LinkedIn Considerations • Strategic Objective • Join relevant groups and participate • Create your own group • Monitor and participate in Q&A • Build a reputation as being helpful • Is your profile complete and informative?
- 38. Determine the Key LinkedIn Metrics • Followers • Number of members in your group • Number of discussions you participate in • Number of questions you answer
- 39. The Rules of Social Media Engagement
- 40. General Rules of Engagement • Use your common sense • Mind your manners • The Internet is a public space • Honesty about who you are • Respect and humility in all communication • Awareness that what you say is permanent
- 41. Specific Rules of Engagement • Be helpful • Use the 80/20 rule: 80% of the time be helpful, 20% of the time self promote • Make sure you know the facts before posting • Don’t share confidential information • Respect the privacy of offline conversations • Your actions and words reflect on your company
- 43. Create a Social Media Policy Source: Dell http://dell.to/KCnoPc
- 46. Questions? Thank you! michael.cunningham@realpage.com
Editor's Notes
- Property Management Insider provides information on apartment market trends, news, marketing tips and operational strategies for apartment professionals.
- Living in an age when most of your customers and prospects are connected to friends and family and complete strangers. As a real estate professional, how do you connect with the connected generation? Today, I’m going to share with you some strategies you should consider that will hopefully give you a better chance to succeed when using social media.
- Before you can enter into a universe full of connections, you need to create the center of YOUR universe. You have a physical premise, whether it’s a home office, a regular office suite, or the trunk of your car. But you have to create and manage your digital premises.Much like our own galaxy has a sun at the center, so should your business have a “sun.” And that sun is…
- Your website. At the center of your digital universe is your company website. There is no better place—no Internet listing service, social media site, blog—no better place to credibly talk about your properties or company than your website. It’s your 24/7 store. And like our galaxy, if there is no sun, the Earth becomes Pluto. So before we can talk about social media, we have to talk about your website. If you only take away one thing from this presentation today is the importance of your website. But what makes a website great?
- Content. Bill Gates coined the term “content is king” many years ago and it’s never been more true today. Without great content, nobody has a reason to come to, or stay, at your website. And what are you supposed to do with anybody who comes to your website if you don’t have quality content to keep them there are transact with them? All social media roads should lead to your website…make sure there is something there for people to do when they get to your kingdom.
- All social media roads should lead to your website…make sure there is something there for people to do when they get to your kingdom.
- Here are some examples of the type of content you can have on your website. Think about what you want potential renters to access. Then put that there.
- Reaching out to your owners should be a core function of your website and general web strategy. Trusting your property to another individual is hard, so it helps to have the piece of mind that you are involved with someone who has experience in the industry, with the testimonials and referrals to back it up. How many of these items do you have, and how easily accessible are they? Do you have a brand that you are promoting, or a tag line for you customers to remember?
- Here is an example of some great content, our friend Melissa Prandi of Prandi Property Management in California. Melissa has really mastered the art of great content, but when you have pictures of your properties on the backdrop of San Francisco and the Golden Gate bridge, it’s really an unfair advantage. However, she wanted to get a little bit of help on the strategy of how to reach her audience. At Propertyware, we actually have a team of specialists that does nothing but support property managers in reaching their target audience. It really began with creating solid, optimized Craigslist postings. Take a look at those photos above. They professionally done, calling attention to all the right areas within her properties. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen an advertisement for spacious kitchens, only to feel betrayed by the property’s picture of what can only be a New York City studio apartment kitchen. But, let’s take things a step further. We all know that everyone clicks on the pictures, so don’t let it stop there. Hyperlink your pictures to your website, making sure that they only see your inventory. They should be immediately taken to a place where you have rich, actionable items, like neighborhood profiles, professionally written content, videos of your properties, and an application form if it’s exactly what they’ve been looking for.
- Here is an example of some great content, our friend Melissa Prandi of Prandi Property Management in California. Melissa has really mastered the art of great content, but when you have pictures of your properties on the backdrop of San Francisco and the Golden Gate bridge, it’s really an unfair advantage. However, she wanted to get a little bit of help on the strategy of how to reach her audience. At Propertyware, we actually have a team of specialists that does nothing but support property managers in reaching their target audience. It really began with creating solid, optimized Craigslist postings. Take a look at those photos above. They professionally done, calling attention to all the right areas within her properties. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen an advertisement for spacious kitchens, only to feel betrayed by the property’s picture of what can only be a New York City studio apartment kitchen. But, let’s take things a step further. We all know that everyone clicks on the pictures, so don’t let it stop there. Hyperlink your pictures to your website, making sure that they only see your inventory. They should be immediately taken to a place where you have rich, actionable items, like neighborhood profiles, professionally written content, videos of your properties, and an application form if it’s exactly what they’ve been looking for.
- FAQs, How-To’s, etc. Owner information
- Newsletter and blog. Now, you’re created a website and you have assembled some great content. Are we talking about social media yet?
- Not yet. Before you hop your starship and venture out into the social media universe, you need to determine who you’re visiting. Renters? Customers? Owners? Presumably, you’ve already done your homework and know something about your customers. Knowing that, you can best determine which social media channels you should use to reach them.
- “I’ll just wing it” is not a strategy.
- You’ve sat through all the boring stuff…
- Ready to get social? Let’s do it!
- Oh dear lord. Look at all the options. Look at all the choices. Where do you begin?Now do you see why I spent so much time focusing on all that other stuff? Social media is simply a tool that you will use to market yourself and your business. It’s your website that will ultimately close the deal.
- Share a mix of engaging content that includes
- Let’s start at the most logical place—the beginning. Every company that is looking to keep up with their marketplace should have a Facebook fan page. This is more useful from a reputational and technology adoption standpoint than anything else. Most of the customers on this page will be your customers. Facebook is about engagement more than it is sales.
- Share a mix of engaging content that includes
- Why do you need to determine and measure metrics? You can’t improve what don’t measure. You have metrics for you business I presume. What are quarterly sales, are you in budget, how many prospects didyou get from that ad in D Magazine, etc. It’s the same thing for social media. You need to define success measurements that fit your business needs.Are you all about be “liked” or are you about engagement. Share story of PMI’s fan acquisition contest. 1,000 likes on RealPage but they’re more engaged than my 2,500 on PMI.
- These tips all seem familiar to me. What about you? Aren’t these things you do when you’re face to face and not on Facebook? You’re transferring you and your knowledge from the physical to the digital. Stay true to who you are online.
- Photos drive engagement, but make them relevant. LOL CATZ are fine but nearly everything you do should have a purpose.
- Share a mix of engaging content that includes. Are you only going to promote your listings every 10 minutes? Or will you be more targeted by listening to relevant conversations and providing help. Is Twitter a one way broadcasting channel or will you engage with people?
- Mine does. Does yours?
- I know I said we were not going to talk about specific tactics, but here is an easy one.
- What’s at the core of business objectives and cater Twitter and other social media strategies to help you meet those objectives.
- This is probably a better place to promote your business to owners rather than renters. It’s an excellent place to strut your stuff and show you’re an expert.Share what happens in your LinkedIn group. I want people to discuss the article that gets posted on the blog that day. I get plenty of spam posts and self-promotional crap. What happens to those people? I ban them. In the world of social media, it doesn’t take long for people to determine your motives and whether or not you’ll be of value to them. And that leads me to…
- This is probably a better place to promote your business to owners rather than renters. It’s an excellent place to strut your stuff and show you’re an expert.Share what happens in your LinkedIn group. I want people to discuss the article that gets posted on the blog that day. I get plenty of spam posts and self-promotional crap. What happens to those people? I ban them. In the world of social media, it doesn’t take long for people to determine your motives and whether or not you’ll be of value to them. And that leads me to…
- Join the NARPM group
- This is probably a better place to promote your business to owners rather than renters. It’s an excellent place to strut your stuff and show you’re an expert.
- Social media is a very sharp double-edged sword. Err on the side of caution and the conservative.
- http://dell.to/KCnoPcYou’re transferring you and your knowledge from the physical to the digital. Stay true to who you are online.
- I hope I didn’t give information overload today so I’ll leave you with this. I wanted to give you plenty to think about it because like I said, “I’ll just wing it” is not a valid strategy.At the end of the day, social media is simply another tool in your sales & marketing efforts. Hopefully, I’ve given you a few things to consider when using those tools to grow your business.
- Remember, all roads lead back to the center of your universe.