The digital landscape is constantly going through monumental changes, and in today’s world it is not enough just to have a website and hand it out on a business card like an email address. You need to market your website, increase web traffic, and make your website relevant enough so that it appears within a quick google search.
Realtors have always been at the forefront of new technology. After all a realtors business is getting their face and business in front of as many people in their local area as possible, so that when they are ready to buy or sell a house, people choose them.
Establishing your online presence, might seem like a daunting task, honestly its the first task every realtor should outsource. In this article I’m going to share with you my online presence checklist. How to get started, so that you can easily hand the task over once you know what it is you want and are looking for.
Establishing your Online Presence:
- If you do not have a website, you need one this is the first step to establishing your online presence. Check out this article on why you need a website and not just a social media page.
- If you already have a website, make sure you are blogging regularly. Not sure what to blog about? I offer a customized blogging calendar, where I outline 24 blog posts for you! It is 100% customized so no one receives the same two outlines (even if you work in the same city. ) Click here for the order form.
- Once you have a website set up, it is time to pick your ideal social media network. There is no right or wrong when it comes to choosing a social media program, it is all about how well you market yourself on the network you choose. We will discuss this in more detail later.
- Determine your purpose for using social media, are you trying to get more leads for your real estate business? Do you just want more traffic to your website, so that its more likely to show up on a google search? Maybe it is a combination of these things.
- Start building an email list, Hubspot has a great free CRM option, that allows you to keep track of all the communications you have had with each of your contacts.
- Create multiple calls to action. As a realtor you are selling houses, helping people to buy houses, maybe you are even in the business of flipping or renting out houses. As a realtor their are multiple ways for you to build your email list, but a call to action that makes people want to sign up for your list and provides them with something in return is proven to have the best return on investment.
- Here is a list of some great calls to action you can use to increase leads.
- Post often, set yourself up as an expert in your field, but also provide content that is helpful. You do not want all of your posts to be about how you can sell someone’s home, or how you can find someone their dream home. You want your posts to be helpful and informative, so that people keep coming back for more, and remember you in the future when they are ready to buy or sell a home.
Choosing a Social Media Platform as a Realtor
There are many social media platforms, and they all work in a similar fashion. Below, we’ll explore some of the more popular social media platforms (FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, LINKEDIN, PINTEREST), and briefly talk about what each of these platforms does best.
Facebook:
Facebook has approximately 1.8 billion users worldwide and is growing. As far as social media platforms go, facebook is ideal for building relationships and brand loyalty. With the ability to build a business page, group, and set up automatic chat response bots, facebook is truly the most interactive and automation friendly platform available. The best part is you can build a following 100 percent for free if you know what you are doing and put in the time to build it. Don’t have the extra time to spend growing your following? Not a problem, through facebook’s business ad program its very easy to grow a profitable following through facebook ads. Facebook is useful for those who are very text and video heavy in their promotion, with no real limit to the number of words and characters an individual can use it is great for providing a lot of detail and information. You also have the ability to share web links, videos, and images.
Instagram:
Instagram is a subsidiary of facebook and is graffic heavy, allowing its users to showcase stories in image form and 1 minute video increments. Instagram is more about branding than relationship building. If you want to showcase yourself as a expert in your field, and develop a solid brand for people to remember you by, Instagram is the platform to do it on. There is also the option of connecting your instagram and facebook accounts in order to share posts simultaneously to both platforms speeding up your scheduling time. As a realtor Instagram is a great place for sharing virtual tours, flip projects, and homes currently available for sale.
Twitter:
Twitter allows its users to share pictures, videos, and weblinks similar to facebook, the difference is it has a character limit of 280 for its posts. Like facebook, twitter is about building relationships. If you really want twitter to work for you, you need to direct your tweets at specific individuals. Make sure you use an image or video on every tweet as you increase the likelihood of your tweet being seen by 5x vs not having a image at all.
LinkedIn:
Linkedin is a professionals social media platform geared toward building relationships with a business to business mind frame. You could use linkedin to connect with people who will be moving to the area because of a new job, or leaving your area and needing to sell their current home as they move out of the area. Linkedin allows for similar sharing to facebook and twitter. Your reach improves with how consistent you are with posting as well as with how relevant your content is to your business and business goals. Linkedin like facebook also has groups you can join in for networking and conversation.
Pinterest:
Pinterest is an excellent option for building web traffic to your website. Web traffic is very important if you want your website to rank in the upper pages of google, as web traffic helps to mark you as a expert in your field. Items to showcase on Pinterest as a real estate agent would be renovation before and after images, blog posts, and printables. Each pin should directly link to your webpage or a call to action landing page.
When it comes to choosing a social media network, the first thing to consider is what social media program you already use regularly. From there consider your business needs.
Content Creation for Realtors:
There are three forms of content Images, video, and written. While each content type showcases better on different social media networks, it is easy to re-purpose one piece of content into multiple content forms.
Here are some great content topic ideas for realtors:
- Describe the history of a neighborhood, city or town
- Review a local restaurant or place of business
- Describe the home-buying process
- Describe the home-selling process
- Explain the benefits and/or drawbacks of a open house
- Tips for improving curb appeal
- Tips for improving resale value
- Suggest day trips within 50 miles of your city
- Moving tips
View this list of 100 real estate blog topics from zillow for more great ideas.
To establish your online presence as a realtor you need a website, calls to action, an email list, and one to two social media networks. If this sounds overwhelming it can be, but there are plenty of online tutorials and virtual assistants available at a variety of price ranges. Here at L.M.V.A we offer a range of services to help you with all of your online content needs.
If you found this post helpful, or have any questions please feel free to comment below.
Leeann Minton: Virtual Assistance 