Social Media Marketing: “No way a Quick Return on Investment”

Everyone would favour a quick return in marketing investment though most of us know that it rarely works out that way and consistency is key as is patience. Having high expectations for your business is a great mindset, though this must be pacified with realistic goals. Marketing takes up a big portion of annual spend for most companies, lots of this budget will go towards online communication and especially, more and more so, social media.

With many channels of social media to choose from and a continuously growing audience with easier and faster accessibility, getting our brands on to them is quite vital for successful returns on marketing. Social media remains relatively free to use and cheap should you wish to explore paid for marketing opportunities. You can easily target your audiences with social media and all audiences will be using it. The limit of the marketing success that you can achieve on social media is limitless so long as you follow relevant trends as what worked yesterday could be a distant memory today.

Viral was the key word some years back within social media, especially with video content (Youtube more so). Many of us was seeking that ultimate viral video that would explode in popularity and build us fame overnight, there was no guidelines to go by and certainly nothing could be made sense of as to what went viral and why – Who remembers classics such as ‘Charlie bit my Finger‘ or ‘Evolution of Dance‘.

So if social media is such great way to marketing you / your business then why does it take so long to get results?

The competition on social media is huge and even if we are just focusing in on UK Estate Agency usage. It was impressive not long ago to see that an estate agency had bothered to create a Twitter / Facebook account even if they contained zero updates or only a random post here and there. Today we are seeing estate agencies giving a greater proportion of their marketing time (and spend) towards social media with full video tours on TikTok to regular sales tips shared on Facebook. Millions of views, engagements, members, subscribers and more are already happening so you are already going to have to work hard and play big time catch up to stand a chance of standing out and gaining satisfactory results.

Today you will no longer see results by posting a new property listing here or there on Twitter, setting up a TikTok account and remaining silent or securing merely your estate agency name on Facebook. If you want results from social media then the following guidelines you should consider:

 

  • Find yourself / your agency a presence on social media and learn about the audiences you are targeting: Spend a little bit of time to see how your rival agencies are engaging on social media to learn about what competition you are up against. Who is your target audience and what social media channel, if any, are they likely to be using and equally as important, what style of content are they likely to engage with. Also, the importance of when you post can determine your success as our timelines are full of updates so a post can easily be lost or missed. With these initial researches carried out, you should then think about the style of social media posts you should be aiming for ie young and trendy or serious and informative.
  • Quality of content and being unique: You will have researched thoroughly what kind of content your local competition is sharing and ideally you will have spot a gap in the market to deliver something different. Please note that boring, everyday content will just be ignored whereas something clever and attention grabbing will pull someone in – This phycology means that you may come away from sharing what house prices are doing locally (as every other agency maybe latching on to) to sexiest colour schemes for bedrooms or buy to let hotspots locally. Original content is always important so spend time to either outsource to professional content generation agencies or do your own research and share quality relevant content that would engage local readership / viewers.
  • Collaboration: The idea of doing it alone doesn’t sound easy and neither should you put yourselves in this situation – Social media is awash of influencers and you will undoubtedly have many in your local region too. Connect with these people / brands and look to build relationships and organise activities such as interviews / competitions / paid for posts with them. Influencers will likely already have a target audience following them and your focus should be on communicating with them and trying to draw some over to your own following.
  • Engage with your followers / members: Try and get your followers to communicate with you such as asking for feedback / survey replies etc. People like to get involved and especially if they need to get something off their chest. Surprisingly so, either positive or negative, reviews can lead to an improved customer loyalty – Negative reviews that are remedied to the customers satisfaction can increase customer loyalty over those who initially left a positive review.
  • Maintain your presence: I always say that results will not happen overnight and it is sensible to give a campaign a good six months in order to study any results. If you fall off at any time during your campaign(s) then it will hinder your progress and especially if you have built up a loyal audience who come to rely on your content.
  • Study your progress: How is your social media strategy working? Are your followers / members growing? Are interactions (comments / likes) increasing? Are you using analytic tools to see if your social media activities are working / improving? What is working, what isn’t working – Maybe you should be focusing all your attentions on one social media platform over spreading yourself too thinly over three platforms?

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.

You May Also Enjoy

Home and Living

How to Protect Your Property from Flooding and Water Damage

Flooding and water leaks can cause significant damage to your home or office. However, many issues can be prevented by taking proactive measures to protect your property. In this article, we’ll explain how to minimize risks and prepare for potential water-related threats. 1. Inspect and Maintain Your Plumbing System One of the most common causes…
Read More
Breaking News

ONS House Price Index – November 2024

Headlines Average UK private rents increased by 8.7% in the 12 months to October 2024 (provisional estimate); this is up from 8.4% in the 12 months to September 2024. Average rents increased to £1,348 (8.8%) in England, £766 (7.9%) in Wales, and £976 (6.6%) in Scotland, in the 12 months to October 2024. In Northern…
Read More
Breaking News

Foxtons Lettings Market Index October 2024

Headlines October saw the highest level of new stock entering the market, with an 8% increase from last year, the highest increase in four years October’s demand is marginally lower than last October and decreased 32% from September, as expected during this time of year Following a yearly high of £593 per week this September,…
Read More
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 20/11/24

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.   Proptech powered lettings service for BTR developers needing pre-approved, quality tenants at speed gets funding A proptech-driven letting agent has secured close to £500,000 during its first equity investment raise. Property Sense, headquartered in Stockport but operating nationally, secured the half a million pounds in…
Read More
Kerb appeal
Estate Agent Talk

Why November and December are the best and most affordable months to buy

Buyers and sellers looking for the right time to move can consider top reasons from property experts to start the process this November and December. The autumn and winter months may not be the first that come to mind when considering a move, but potential buyers and sellers can be reassured by the experts that…
Read More
Breaking News

Farmers protest outside Westminster today in anger at the IHT ongoing debate – expert legal view

With today’s news about farmers set to protest outside Westminster in anger at the IHT ongoing debate, Tom Gauterin, Director at national law firm Freeths, said: “Although it is good to hear Mr Reed last week suggest that the Government is listening to farmers, today’s protests would suggest otherwise with the extent of their concerns…
Read More