by Marco Piña
Sometimes it’s useful to take a step back and look at what other parts of the industry are doing to generate business. At The Ibis Network, we work with the entire real-estate value-chain, and we thought it might be interesting to show some insights from the real-estate agent side of things.
As we go further into the 21st century, social media marketing has progressively become more relevant in the field of buying and selling homes. With each passing year more homebuyers detach from previous methods of home searching for the easier access of the web and social media. Today 9 out of 10 house-hunters begin their search for a home online.
As of 2013 buyers are 253% more likely to simply go online to see what their local real estate professional has to offer compared to 2008.
Now is the opportune moment for Loan Officers to get on that potential customers’ radar.
So, where are home buyers? What are they doing? What do they see, and how do they get there? Knowing this will help you understand where you should go, and what you should do.
Here are 5 insights that show how social media is affecting the way homes are sold.
- Video-sharing — Real-estate professionals that use video-sharing to their advantage gain 403% more inquiries according to VideoBrewery.com. However, only 12% of the real estate industry has a YouTube account and even fewer actively make videos, even though 73% of homeowners prefer to list with agents who actively make videos.
- Real Estate Listing Sites — More than 650,000 people go on realtor.com and similar sites daily. Seventy-two percent of consumers take reviews from these pages the same as they would a personal recommendation.
- Social Networking Sites — Homebuyers are 71% more likely to go through with a purchase having social-media referrals that sites like Facebook, Twitter and many others make accessible.
- Search Engines — 89% of consumers conduct their research for any relevant topic on search engines, and being active on sites like Google+, YouTube, and Facebook, just to name a few, help improve internet presence overall, and placement on search engines in particular.
- Professional Networking Sites — 74% of home buyers rely on the knowledge of others to make decisions prior to making a purchase or settling with a specific company/agent. Sites like LinkedIn and ActiveRain are two of the more popular sites consumers go to for advice.
When asking LOs or Agents “are you active in social media?” most of them will say “I don’t have the time” or “I’m not interested” — even if they’re well below quota. Many people believe that social media is not required to be successful. Maybe that was the case five years ago but the consumer base is drastically changing. If you don’t get ahead of the curve, or at least participate at a basic level, you’ll soon find yourself left behind. So ask yourself- are you one of the real estate professionals getting in on social media? If not, why wait? Here are six steps you can take to gain that social-media presence you desire and need.
6 Steps Towards Increasing Your Social Media Presence
Be Social
It’s important to realize that social media is not an advertisement billboard. As most successful Realtors and LOs in social media will tell you, a large portion of their posts are not directly tied to business, but are geared towards relating and connecting with their prospects. The main purpose for doing this is to seem more approachable to your potential clients by letting them know that you are friendly and open while at the same time being a top class professional.
Going the Extra Marketing Mile
As with any other marketing tool, the more you give, the more you get back. The only difference with social media is that instead of investing more money you have to invest more time. By taking a few minutes out of your week to either record a video and upload it to YouTube, or broadcast a podcast, you can dramatically increase your traffic and lure in potential clients.
Take Advantage of Social Media Site Ads
Advertising yourself has always been the key to success for the mortgage industry, and social media is no exception to this rule. Take advantage of the useful tools every social media site provides. These simple tools like Facebook ads and Google AdWords can have a huge impact on your traffic, directly leading to more business.
Reach Out and Partner with Agents
Partnering up with real-estate agents is the way many top producing LOs reach the top. Now, the question is, how can you use social media to get an edge on this? It’s not as hard as you might think. Everyone in the industry is out there on social media, trying to obtain presence and build brand. Don’t be shy about collaborating, and by all means, share great content you see from your peers. This helps build presence for both you and them.
Don’t Become Spam
This takes us back to our initial point — social media is not a billboard, and shouldn’t be used as such. If you’re continually trying to sell to your audience, you’ll end up with the opposite of your desired result — losing followers and potential clients. More than anything, quality content will keep them coming back for more.
Stay on The field
Social media has great ways to attract new prospects with tools like hashtags and sharing. Whenever posting an article or anything that might be relevant to certain fields or individuals, be sure to tag them in the post to create a network effect that will give you more traffic. Also taking some time to look at groups or pages where potential clients may gravitate. If you’re social in these places, you’ll get much more attention.
The Bottom Line
In order to succeed in social media, you need to be willing to take an hour or two out of your week and invest it. It will be time well-spent.