Mistakes to avoid in Estate Agency Social Media

Social media is big, huge even, in fact I would say that it is almost the most important part of any business activities online and key for driving target traffic through to your website from selling wines to selling houses. A question that is commonly asked though is what makes it a success for some people and not for others, why have some big following and lots of activities yet others seem to be simply sharing their content to a silent crowd?

There are many tips on how to succeed and benefit better from social media activities, but today we will look at mistakes to avoid for Estate Agency Social Media.

Spamming: OK, so you will not be actually spamming in the sense we all know and hate, ie countless adverts trying to sell goods that we are simply not interested in, but by not using your social media accounts correctly and thinking just your latest property listing updates is sufficient will soon get you seen as a ‘spammer’. Think about it, if people want to see countless property listings they will visit Rightmove / Zoopla or go to Google and see the results of estate agency websites and explore them knowing full well they’ll be viewing just property.

Social media should engage people, no problem that you share your best and most exciting properties on your books, but keep it as an add on such as counting for just around 20% of your total updates. The rest of your posts should engage, education and entertain so think about sharing local news and facts, tips on how to sell your property for over and above the asking price, the best mortgage rates, how house prices are holding up locally etc.

Using social media to voice your opinion: Fine, yes OK, you can of course have an opinion and living in the UK we are very used to, though in recent years it is being policed more, having freedom of speech. What we must think about though is if what we say, though fine to us, could possibly effect our followers and persuade them not to take up your business services or if you are getting involved in a deep topic you may even arouse the interest of other media channels who will be delighted to report on a local business owner getting in to arguments on social media on current trending topics.

Think before you update I say, what are you getting involved in and how could it effect your business profile? Yes, we all want to make comments and react and today’s news gives us many heated topics such a Donald Trump, Brexit, Conservative vs Labour, online vs traditional estate agency and even Manchester United vs Manchester City – If you are posting on your business social media timeline then you are conveying the message of your business.

Stick to factual content, stick to comments that are neutral or positive, bite your tongue, ignore, let is pass you by and keep those debates and arguments to the dinner table or your evening visit to the local pub!

Active and alive and kicking: People now expect your social media channels that you use to be active, even missing out a few days between posting could turn people away as they will not see you as being live on social media. Just like I would recommend websites that are selling products and services to use live online chat, you should also take care to be live on social media too.

Many websites will have their social media icons placed in an important eye catching location such as following the browser on the side of the page or at the top right side of the home page. What I see on many occasions is that this prime location to advertise social media channels is then wasted as when the browsers heads to the likes of the Facebook / Twitter channels they are not updated or even worse, the links may not even work and usually contain a link like www.yourestateagency.co.uk/# as the web designer has not bothered to make the links live!

People expect social media accounts to be active so make sure you give them what you want and increase your chances of them increasing your share of business online.

Christopher Walkey

Founder of Estate Agent Networking. Internationally invited speaker on how to build online target audiences using Social Media. Writes about UK property prices, housing, politics and affordable homes.

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