WWW.AGENTMEDIA.CO.UK

IN ASSOCIATION WITH Growth Social

THE ESTATE AGENTS GUIDETO FACEBOOK AND TWITTER Discover how to get started in social media

and how it can win you business

agent media

A little bit about us….

Our team is made up of digital marketers, engineers, designers, social media experts and customer service

professionals who are all committed to helping with your success.

Whilst traditional advertising like newspapers and canvassing have become far less effective, we recognise that

for many, newer digital solutions like social media, can often be complicated to learn.

We’re big believers in the power of keeping things simple. So our goal is to take the best digital marketing tools

available and making them easy to use with little or no effort needed, enabling you to free up more of your

time to run your business.

We hope you enjoy this guide!

Ian Watson Founder and managing director

Unless you find a more cost effective way to get your message out, your business is doomed. You can no longer survive by interrupting strangers with a message they don’t want to hear, using methods that annoy them. Consumers have too little time

and too much power to stand for this any longer.

Seth Godin

Everyone is talking about how Facebook and Twitter can drive traffic, leads and customers to your

website. But how much do you really know about Social Media?

Who is actually using it, and for what? How can you best optimise your Social Media presence to get

the most return on your efforts?

Social media has changed how we think about advertising like no other form of marketing has ever succeeded

in doing before and by knowing who your audience is, you will be able to engage with them more effectively.

As an Estate Agent, you have to jump into the fray because if you don’t, you will miss out one of the

greatest marketing phenomenon to hit the advertising world as we know it. This is NOT a fad that will vanish

in time and it is here to stay.

In this eBook, we reveal some interesting insights, surprising statistics and effective tips to help

you in your campaigns.

An Introduction

So you may wonder how an account with a social media site like Twitter would benefit your business.

The answer is simple because how else could you build up a solid following in such a short space of time

and for so little money?

The Twitter phenomenon is going from strength to strength and is one of the easiest forms of free marketing

Estate Agents will ever come across!

Facebook is slightly more complicated but just as effective. It is a powerful marketing platform to interact

with your audience and if used wisely, offers an enormous opportunity to establish yourself as the experts

who know what they’re talking about.

With social media you have everything at your fingertips. It’s a fantastic and cost effective way of

leveraging the web to enhance people’s awareness of you and your company whilst increasing your

direct leads and referrals.

Let’s take a look in more detail at how they work.....

So how can Social Media help?

FactYour customers are already talking about you and your competition on Twitter.

Understanding what they’re saying and why users follow businesses will help you build better,

more lasting relationships. Go to search.twitter.com to search for your product or business name

and see what people are saying specifically about you.

We’re not going to run through the set up process here as there are plenty of articles and videos on line

and we want address strategy, however, make sure that when setting up your account, that you choose an

obvious username so your firm can be easily found,

So many people‘s first reaction to Twitter is, “No one needs to know what I‘m up to,” or “I don‘t care what other

people are doing” and these opinions are very common among agents that don‘t understand the value that it

can provide for business.

Twitter is a useful communication tool that allows you to interact with people in many different ways:

What is Twitter and how can I best use it?

• To send a short message to a number of people publicly

• To send a short message to a specific person publicly

• To send a short message to a specific person privately

• To develop and promote your firm

• To Interact with your clients

• To generate leads

• To develop relationships with journalists for potential PR

It is also referred to as a “micro-blogging” service, allowing you to post short updates limited to 140 characters

or fewer. Why? Originally, it was originally intended to make Twitter compatible with mobile phones and text

messaging but now, it’s a useful characteristic that allows users to receive quick and concise information.

It is a relationship-building tool and the most obvious business use is to meet potential clients

the same way you would by networking.

Fact69% of users follow companies to find out their latest news.

We recommend experimenting with different types of Tweets to see what works

for your business, and what doesn’t.

When you first join Twitter, it’s tempting to start tweeting right away. But before you begin, it’s a good idea

to follow and observe competitors to see what they’re doing well, and learn from their mistakes.

Building your network is the hardest and most time-consuming part of using Twitter.

By following people, you’ll be able to view their updates in your Twitter stream and this is your chance to learn

more about them and the people that they interact with. Following a decent size and interesting community

can be valuable and fun!

A best practice is to follow no more than 25-50 people a day, because there will be a time gap between

following people and when they follow you back. If your profile says you are following 2,000 people and you

only have 30 followers then it appears that 1,970 of the people you followed chose not to follow you back.

This unfavourable ratio won‘t help boost your credibility and may negatively affect people‘s decisions to follow

your firm. Therefore, give your followers some time to follow you back before finding a new batch of

people to add to your network.

Engage your audience

FactGoogle loves social media sites, ensuring you get increased targeted traffic to your

website. Make sure that you tweet original and relevant content as search engines will rank

you higher if you can provide their users with the best answers to their queries.

Following people and viewing their tweets is great, but in order to have valuable interactions, you need to

regularly broadcast your messages and give value so that they follow you back to view your tweets too. That’s

why it‘s so important to get your profile fully set up before making new connections. If you follow someone

who doesn‘t already know you, you need to display sufficient information about your company in your profile

so they can make an informed decision of whether to follow you back.

We regularly get asked how often you should tweet, but there isn’t one “right” answer. Tweeting every five

minutes might be too often and tweeting only weekly is very likely too infrequent. At first, make a goal to tweet

once a day. Over time, you’ll see what works best for your business.

Reply when people tweet about you and make sure to thank those who are praising you. All of these actions

will help you build stronger relationships with your followers — turning them into loyal clients.

Attracting followers is important because they will serve as your network who will view your tweets. Think of

your total number of followers as your reach.

Get people to follow you

#

Fact42% of marketers say that Social media is critical for their business. If you’re not doing it, the

chances are that you are missing out on new business to your competitors.

We all know that the property portals charge a great deal of money and all of the visitors will be exposed to

your competitor’s instructions as well as your own. Use Twitter to drive people to your company’s website

instead. Tweet about the latest property news and thoughtful tips to demonstrate your knowledge and

establish your firm as experts.

Do you have a newsworthy instruction or a special offer? Tweet about it by linking back to the relevant page

on your website and if the content is truly remarkable, people may start re-tweeting about it on their own and

sharing your resources to their followers on Twitter. Simple tactics and free publicity!

Drive traffic to your website

FactCompanies that are successful on social media promote their Twitter @username online

and offline including, business cards, signage, advertising, vehicles, email and your website etc.

Anywhere your customers interact with your brand is an opportunity to encourage them to

follow you on Twitter.

Monitor activity Go to the Connect tab on your Twitter navigation, sign up for email updates, or use software to help you

monitor all activity. If you find someone tweeting about your area or a person who is looking for a property,

you can get in contact.

Be the expert Make your tweets useful resources so people need you. You are what you tweet. People will want to follow

you if they think they’ll get value from your tweets and be sure to avoid making your Twitter account a purely

promotional tool. Would you subscribe to a newsletter if it didn‘t have anything useful to say?

Respond Respond to concerns people tweet about your company or services and designate a specific person in your

company to track your company name in Twitter Search so that person can address any negative comments,

and help solve problems in real time.

Use Twitter to grow your online presence

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Promote Make Use of Follow Buttons by placing them on of your website and on your emails (You can do this by using

the Growth Mail software from Growth Track).

Experiment and have fun! Users follow companies for a variety of reasons. Test out and monitor different types of Tweets to see which

generate the strongest response for your business.

But be careful what you say... Try not to engage and comment on debates relating to politics, religion and controversial news items as this

may affect your present and future relationships with other users. Many people make this common mistake,

but it is better not to show allegiance to football teams. An Estate Agent stating a passion for Spurs is going to

no doubt lose some trust and respect from an Arsenal fan and it could be the difference between winning a

new valuation or not.

Use Twitter to grow your online presence...

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As with Twitter, we’re not going to run through the initial set up steps as there is so much advice already online,

but there are a number of critical things you must get right from the outset, or it could affect your ability to run

a useful campaign.

Facebook is a very powerful platform and like Twitter, the first thing you need to do is to brand your page. It

should be inviting and give a positive reflection of your company and its values.

Once this has been done, ensure that you reserve your brand URL. When you sign up for Facebook, your fan

page is still set with numbers and therefore you are making it harder for potential clients to find.

For example, instead of www.facebook.com/12345678abcdef, our link is www.facebook.com/AgentMediaUK

Facebook first steps

Fact45% of people in the UK use Facebook as part of their daily routine.

It is critical for Estate Agents to get seen by more people and expand your brand for what is termed by

marketers as “increasing your reach”. When someone becomes a fan, all of their network can see the content

that they interact with. So for instance if you have 1000 fans and they have hundreds of friends you can reach

across a vast network of people – and for free!

However, increasing the number of your Facebook fans isn’t enough to drive business results. You will need

to convert these followers into leads by getting them to view your properties where they can gather relevant

information and find out more about your company.

Unfortunately, many agents do the hard work getting people to interact with their company and visit their

social media sites but then they allow them to leave and go to visit the portals to do a property search –

where your competitors are. To stop this happening, we created Growth Search. Growth Search is a bespoke

Facebook application which allows your clients to view your properties, book viewings and valuations, all

within your Facebook page.

Spreading the word

Fact67% of consumers trust information and advice they read on Facebook.

If you are new to Facebook, there are aspects that may seem complicated at first, but the same can probably

be said for all of the other marketing resources that you now are so glad that you have.

If you are comfortable with talking to your customers you’ll find a lot to like on Facebook. The ways in which

Facebook can be used for marketing and the tools, resources and modifications are only just being exploited.

For instance (if you produce monthly newsletters) you can make them available on your Facebook page in

exchange for someone’s details so you can contact them and see if you can help. This is a simple and an easy

way to try and generate more valuable leads.

In as little as 10 days, you can substantially improve your marketing campaigns and the time invested in

learning more about Facebook will help you generate more traffic to your website, more sales and better ways

to connect with potential clients.

Perhaps most important of all is a figure you cannot measure, the level of engagement and loyalty to your

brand that only social networks can generate.

Using Facebook for marketing

Fact67% of consumers trust information and advice they read on Facebook.

Traditional advertising – referred to as outbound, is one-way. It relies on you taking out expensive

advertising typically in a magazine or newspaper and once you put your properties out there, you hope it

resonates with potential clients and that they see it, remember it, and care enough to act on it. Very often, by

the time the ads appear, the properties have been sold, withdrawn or else are appearing with another agent

before they even turn to your page.

Facebook, on the other hand is advertising where people are coming to you to see your news and

they have already done the hard work. Your audience tune in every day because it’s become a part of the

fabric of their lives. People connect and share, just like they say on the homepage and from a marketer’s

perspective, this is a dream come true. You get to have a two-way relationship with your clients and all you

have to do is spend some time connecting and updating them with your very latest and most relevant news

that they would find interesting.

Little cost, large results

Fact5 new Facebook profiles are made every second.

Post every day That may seem excessive but as people make more friends and “Like” more pages; your posts may be missed.

If you are only posting once or twice a week then it could be a long time between posts if your community

misses one or two of them.

Focus on engagement You are trying to connect and get a response from your community. Post helpful tips, links to articles that

your audience will like and share. When you make the posts, focus on helping rather than selling and you will

develop a richer and deeper relationship with your community.

Best practices

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While there aren’t any hard and fast rules, there are some general “best practices” and ultimately you

will have to work out what works with your audience and what they need from you.

Here are some good general rules:

Have a call to action Tell people to click the Like or comment on the post. Or have them go to your website.

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Don’t oversell or undersell No one likes a never-ending sales pitch. By the same token, make sure you do highlight your wares from

time-to-time! Use the 80-20 rule for sales messages vs. content/connection posts. So if you decide to post

five times a week, one of the posts should be a sales message and four posts will be other helpful content

for your community.

Get permission Ensure that you have full permission to share and use any image and video content that you showcase.

It is best to keep a separate private account on Facebook, especially if it is being used to highlight all the

good times you are having in your social life as an embarrassing photo or two could adversely affect people’s

respect for you. Also try not to exhibit religious, political and football beliefs on your Facebook account in

case it offends current and future clients.

These rules are a good place to start but watch what works for you. There is no one “right” way to do

everything on Facebook.

Best practices...

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Social media has changed the way many things work. This includes clients behaviour, as today they have a

new perception and a different outlook on how they shop for anything they want or need, whether it be hotel

recommendations or their dream home and Social media allows you to continue a conversation with targeted

audiences’ right up to when you make a sale and then beyond.

Using it is not difficult, it just takes a bit of thought, time, effort and planning and ultimately, your goal is to be

the first person any client thinks of when they’re considering selling, letting, buying or renting.

Not every follower in a community will buy from you – BUT – they will recommend you to their friends if they

like what you’re saying and this is what social media is all about. All of a sudden you are the ‘savvy’ agent that

people know and can trust. The result? You have just successfully got into social media networking!

Conclusion

We hope that this eBook has given you an insight into what is a valuable form of easy

and direct marketing that can help grow your business.

If you don’t have the time to manage your social media then get experts to help.

At Agent Media we can look after your Social Media and it is the one option that guarantees

success and takes all the strain out of the process.

To find out more about our services, visit us at www.agentmedia.co.uk

or call us on 0330 333 6699 or email us socialmedia@agentmedia.co.uk.

We look forward to helping you build a larger and more profitable Estate Agency!

agent media