Top Social Media Marketing Mistakes made by Estate Agents
None of us like to be told about things we are doing wrong, but sometimes it does not hurt to read up on mistakes that are generally made – So read the selection of mistakes which are usually made and pick out a couple that you have been doing and remove them from your social media marketing techniques going forward!
I’d say both social media and content marketing are two leading marketing trends in promoting business online, many eyes are fixed on the news and information that is shared online and on many occasions we are seeing the latest news first released on social media. As social media continues to evolve and more users come on board we are also seeing more people trust the information shared on the likes of Facebook and Twitter over traditional media outlets such as TV and newspapers.
So, as social media for estate agents is gaining in importance, are you using it correctly?
Not knowing what you want from social media: Get it set in your mind what you want to achieve from social media and then go about actioning what is needed to get you results. Are you wanting to get the attention of business leaders to your business, then start following and mentioning them on the likes of Twitter, want to engage with the local community, then involve yourself with local business hours or local community groups on the likes of Facebook.
It is no longer just being present on social media that is all on offer, you can use it now in many different ways to achieve many different things. From my many years of using social media I have literally created a brand from scratch on social media to attracting some of the biggest names within that business sector to it – What you can achieve is limitless so start planning out what you need from social media and get about making it happen…
Not concentrating on your Target Audience: It is vitally important to always know who you are wanting to get in front of from social media and make sure that your audience is relevant to the content you share or even better, that the content you share is relevant to your target audience! Make sure that you use social media to deliver relevant content that your target audience will wish to engage with and that by engaging with it they are being warmed to your brand and your services.
Many people, especially those who have been on social media for sometime, can become lazy and trapped in everyday life discussions and chats thus getting away from the topic of driving their audiences to their business, they start sharing irrelevant content, make comments re general news, speak football, debate Brexit etc… Create yourself a personal account if you want to chat off topic!
The mistakes of buying and selling: Do not use social media simply to sell your products and services, it is not what people will want to engage with. Just like banner adverts have lost their popularity and it is all about content marketing, try to limit direct selling on social media and try and engage people instead with entertaining, educating and engaging content which you can still place your products and services offerings within.
Buying is another mistake and this is towards buying followers, likes, views etc. This just does not work and can back fire – People are wise on social media now and if you have thousands of followers when it does not look like you have a brand to justify this you can easily be found out as the likes of Twitter shows people who follows you and bought followers stick out a mile. Maybe you have standard videos on Youtube, do not think that buying 1 million views will make your video a hit, it may grab some quick attention, but it will gather many dislikes when people realise your video does not merit that kind of viewing numbers – You are far better off with 100 genuine views than 1 million fake.
Trying to run too many accounts: Yes, social media is great, but you do not have to master them all. I have made this mistake myself, pile up many social media accounts thinking I can run them all with updated content as I have them all easily accessible on my mobile phone, but you simply do not manage to master it – It takes up too much time. Stick to one or two main social media channels and try and initially stick to one account for your business and spend time on them to grow and feed them with relevant content. Two well managed social media accounts is far better than ten accounts having little to no attention from you.
Typos and grammar: Yes, we are all guilty of it including me, but do at least read through the content you are about to share as simple spelling mistakes can make you look very unprofessional.
Ignoring and deleting negative comments and mentions: We do not want to hear from anyone that’s going to have a moan at us and especially if that is in public – Yes, social media is quite literally in public when anyone shares their comments. When you receive comments on your business then make sure you deal with it politely even if the person sharing negative feedback / comments is aggressive or harsh towards you – People viewing things will hold a common sense view and if you are polite and consistent with replies it will divert any negative towards you and your brand.
Do not try to hide any negative comments such as deleting them as people will be then even more determined to have their feedback heard and simply repeat post or share negatives on other social media platforms. Deal with negative comments and mentions head on and try your best to resolve things and conclude the situation by highlighting all on social media so other people can see the whole situation from complaint being made to customer getting a satisfactory response and outcome thus you are turning negative PR in to positive PR.
Never forget to create a social media policy: Now this is mostly the advice to larger companies who have varied staff members managing their social media of those companies that outsource. If you plan to hand over responsibility to someone to post on your social media accounts and engage with your followers then it pays you to give them training and a social media operation manual so they have guidelines to adhere to keeping in line with the impression you wish to give people on social media – Just one mistake on social media could bring you a lot of grief so make sure you have handled the finer details of how your social media should be run and add to it as your company evolves.
Copyright: What you share on social media must be your own content and especially if you plan to share images / videos / info-graphics / surveys / quotes etc as you will be in trouble with legal issues if you start sharing out other peoples copyrighted content. Yes, many of you know this already, but do not drop your guard on social media as it is still classed as marketing and using third party content for monetary gain – Do not just pop over to Google and grab an image to use on your postings, get your camera out and start building your own portfolio of images!
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