Everyone’s heard of social media, right? Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. It seems like everyone and their stray dog has a Facebook page or is tweeting their head off, but is it right for your business? The reality is this. There’s no sense in diving head first into social media unless you know exactly what social media can do for you. In other words, what are the benefits? Trust us, if you can’t nail down a few specific benefits, all you’re doing is goofing off when you could be spending time on actual business activities.
So what exactly can social media do for your company? First let’s make sure we know what we’re talking about. There are essentially two components we refer to when we say “social media.” The first includes outlets like blogs and podcasts (both audio and video). These are safer choices because the message can be strictly controlled by the business. The second component is where the true “social” part of Web 2.0 comes in. This is where people gather to talk about any topic under the sun and refers to services like Facebook and Twitter. A real estate business considering establishing a presence in this wild and woolly “socialsphere” should be aware of the risk versus reward ratio.
A real estate company wants to always put a professional face on for the public. Purchasing a house or investment property might very well be the largest single expense in a person’s life, and they want to know that they aren’t working with a hipster doofus. For example, say you upload a promotional/informational video to YouTube. That’s all well and good but you have no control on what video pops into the rotation immediately afterwards. For all you know, it could be promoting cat juggling in South America. Like it or not, in your potential client’s mind, you’re inadvertently approving this black market sport. For those who might be concerned – the only cat juggling we actually know about has been confined to an old Steve Martin movie, and we’re pretty sure they weren’t real cats.
When it comes to deciding whether or not to dip your company’s toes in the social media pool, there are a few things to consider.
1. Define your target market: There’s a world of difference between marketing to Gen-Y’ers and stockbrokers. They probably don’t hang out in the same places. While Twitter might be a great place to introduce yourself and make friends to potential casual customers, not everyone will be amenable to that approach. Are your clients more stuffy, buttoned down, and wear three-piece suits? If so, LinkedIn could be a better option.
2. Return and investment: It takes time to establish a presence with social media, and time is money. The question is whether the time spent is worth the return on your investment? Lots of businesses get into social media precisely for the reason that it is less expensive than other traditional methods of advertising. There’s no crime in that, but consider how much time you can afford to spend daily in the socialsphere. Monitor the returns. Does it generate new business? That’s the bottom line.
3. Hard selling: There’s a huge difference from the real world when it comes to social media marketing. People can be QUITE resistant to blatant advertising in cyberspace. While getting flamed in a forum is no fun, the larger problem is that hard selling simply doesn’t work in these new venues. The goal here is to contribute to the social network; don’t just market to it. People smell marketing coming a mile away and avoid it. Learn from the example of Text 100, a global public relations firm that didn’t even have a marketing agenda when they took to social media, but rather simply wanted to scope it out in order to reduce risk to their clients.
The bottom line is that if you’re just in social media to push your wares, you’re probably in for a rough ride. Good luck out there making your real estate business more social. Let us know how it works out.
The AIPIS Team
Flickr / AslanMedia