Calling all agents! Embrace social media and don’t look back: Part 1

Competition is as fierce as ever, and with margins being squeezed ever more tightly, we need innovation, and we need it now. There are many factors of innovation to consider, but we’re going to focus specifically on social media within this post.

Embracing social media as an agent is a vital part of how you should operate. Using social media can be a way of making you stand out from the crowd, impacting the way your business is represented and operates in the current market. We have listed our top ten tips when it comes to using social media, which we will be sharing. We will be publishing these tips in three different parts, so keep a look out for part 2! Follow us on Twitter @VTUK or find us on Facebook.

Tip 1: Create a community

It’s vital from your first day on social media to establish a community that will admire you. Always make sure you welcome everyone to your community. This way they will feel part of the community and will want to engage with your material. As well as this, if you’re using Twitter, giving your followers a re-tweet or favourite also helps establish a community. On Facebook, it’s also useful to share and like other people’s content making them aware of your presence.

 

It’s not just interaction with your followers that will help establish a community. Make sure your social media presence is something people will want to revisit. Using engaging backgrounds and cover photos will help draw people to your community, before you even invite them. It’s important to treat every follower as a customer and be polite, as well as re-tweet and reply to them. This way a community will form as you grow on social media. As an agent, by establishing a community that’s relevant to the property sector, you’ll begin to make people aware of your company. We recommend targeting people who are based around your location, who may be likely to rent or buy a house from your agency, as well as the industry leaders.

Tip 2: Challenge normality

Our second tip we feel property professionals should follow, when using social media, is the idea of challenging normality. Don’t post tweets everyday about your industry, this won’t make you stand out. Challenge normality and post material that is more likely to be shared. This may be an engaging photo, video or tweet. The way to identify if you’re being boring is to examine what everyone else is posting and try and be different.

 

Many agent’s make the mistake of posting the same information as everyone else. This only means you get lost in the mist of social media. Posting content that is different and challenges your competition will only make you stand out. What this information is depends on how you brand yourself as a business. There are different types of content you should consider when it comes to being different. Focus on information you produce, rather than copying articles. This will help you establish your brand and become unique. As agents, posting information focused directly on you as a business will help you become more visible. Create a dedicated blog for your business which can separate you from the competition. This can be used as a central point for all the information you produce.

As well as written material, the use of pictures can also prove useful. If correctly produced, pictures can prove powerful ways to get a message across. Publish photo’s that will get people’s attention and will get shared regularly. Posting humorous photos works extremely well and often gets shared. It’s not just pictures that can be utilised, videos can also be used. Utilise YouTube as a way of showing off your property and business to a wide audience. YouTube can provide your business with potentially more views than a television broadcast and should definitely be considered, when it comes to using social media.

It’s not just content you should consider when trying to be different. The way you use social media as a tool, also makes a difference. As agents, you should follow relevant people who are likely to buy or rent houses depending on your business. How relevant your followers are will impact the success of your business. As well as the people you follow, you should try and create a unique way of using each platform. Create weekly events your fans can identify with which will make you stand out as a business. Whatever you plan to do, always consider your competitors and the difference you provide as a company on social media.

3 Don’t be scared to create debate

Don’t be afraid to create debate. That’s our third tip we recommend for agents using social media. Debates are something to utilise around every social media platform, don’t be afraid to use them. They can get your community talking, giving you leads and something that could enhance your social media presence.

 

On the other hand, you should be aware of the topic you‘re depicting, before you send it out. Consider the message and make sure it does not take a biased approach. We feel many agents may be afraid to start debates, as they feel that social media can cause controversy and potentially cause harm to their business, which it can if a debate goes wrong. If you believe debates are too risky, it is only a matter of good planning to really get your followers talking. A well balanced debate and a great argument will only get your followers excited, giving you more shares across your whole network.

Overall debates can provide you with a great way of creating engagement. They can be a way of demonstrating your voice within the industry as you grow on social media. It is quite clearly a great way to establish community engagement.

Keep a look out for part 2! Follow us on Twitter @VTUK or find us on Facebook.

To find out more about VTUK! Give us a call FREEPHONE 0800 3280460 or email info@vtuk.com to find out how we can assist.

Alex Evans

You May Also Enjoy

Breaking News

UK monthly property transactions for May 2025

Headline statistics from the latest transactions data include: the provisional seasonally adjusted estimate of the number of UK residential transactions in May 2025 is 81,470, 12% lower than May 2024 and 25% higher than April 2025 the provisional non-seasonally adjusted estimate of the number of UK residential transactions in May 2025 is 80,530, 13% lower than May 2024 and…
Read More
Breaking News

Construction Skills Mission Board (CSMB) shows the Government has a plan

The Construction Skills Mission Board (CSMB) held its first board meeting today (26 June 2025), where it set out a roadmap for recruiting 100,000 more construction workers a year by the end of Parliament. Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said: “The Construction Skills Mission Board (CSMB) is a recognition…
Read More
Paint Stripper Tools
Estate Agent Talk

5 Strategies to Optimise Your Warehouse for Real Estate

The term fixer-upper can mean many things, from ‘slap some paint on the walls and it looks brand new’ to ‘will this building collapse if we open the front door?’ Indeed, in the dicey world of commercial property acquisition, each warehouse you buy will probably fall into both camps. Thinking about the viability of warehouses…
Read More
Breaking News

HMOs sell for up to 50% above market average

New research from Excellion Capital, the boutique debt advisory and investment firm, reveals that HMOs sell for as much as 50% above the average house price, further increasing their investment potential after it was revealed that HMOs also create rental yields of up to 12.5%. After previous research from Excellion Capital recently showed that the…
Read More
Breaking News

UK buyers struggle while 50,000 homes sit empty

As the UK housing crisis deepens, new analysis by Open Property Group exposes a worrying surge in so-called “zombie homes”- properties that sit unoccupied and deteriorating while millions struggle to access affordable housing. Key insights: 50,000+ long-term vacant homes in England alone 23,000+ of these have been empty for more than two years Estimated £13.6…
Read More
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 26/06/25

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.   The UK is Europe’s second most distressed market despite headline GDP growth Retail and Consumers Goods has emerged as the most distressed sector in Europe, with distress levels now the highest since the global financial crisis, according to the latest Weil European Distress Index (WEDI). The…
Read More