What’s Your Audience Worth?

Why your audience is your most valuable asset, and how to look after it

I posted this picture on Twitter the other evening.

It opened up a bit of a debate.

Some agents insisted that it works for them, generating enquiries and viewings.  Others, including Julian O’Dell, estate agent and fellow trainer agreed with me: “We have never tweeted our properties and never will”.

I have a question for you – what are you trying to achieve?

When you advertise in the local paper (if you do), your objective is clear: you want to attract more vendors.  When you canvas an area with ‘Sold in Your Street’ cards, it’s because your goal is to generate more valuations. Stock is worryingly low in most parts of the country right now and most agents are spending a huge amount of time on trying to simply get more quality properties on their books.

When you’re on social network sites, it’s easy for you to lose sight of your objective. Perhaps because you’re searching around for something to post, and all too tempting to reach for your properties as an easy form of content.  But is it what vendors want to see and read?

One agent asked me, “What harm can it do?”

Quite a lot, actually.  You see, your audience is the most valuable asset you have.  I would argue that you are abusing your audience by broadcasting a message that is all about you – not them.

So what does a vendor want to see when they come to your social channels? Lots! Tips and advice about selling and moving; local information about your local area; lifestyle information – Northfields is great at this – take a look at their Twitter account here and you’ll see what I mean. Here’s one of their latest tweets:

Guess who they are trying to attract?

Another agent argued, “Even Tesco tweet sales stuff”.  Actually, they don’t.  They tweet really engaging, funny, informative stuff about eating, living and well – anything really. Check out their Twitter stream here. 

Here’s a good example of a tweet that worked for them.

Another brand you could be forgiven for thinking tweets sales messages all the time, is Everest Double Glazing.  Whilst their Twitter account isn’t great – certainly not up to Tesco’s standards – they also tweet lifestyle tips and information, like “With summer just around the corner, take a look at our top tips to get your patios spruced up for the season”, and “What’s the weirdest energy saving tip you’ve ever heard? Read these 5 energy myths”. Not bad for a rookie account.

Tesco never tweet, “Come on in and buy our bread”, or “Oranges are buy one, get one free today”.   Everest don’t post an update on Facebook saying, “Our double glazing is half price this month”. Because if they did, they know that they risk losing some of their precious audience.  And you’ll never see on the Northfields’ account tweets like these:

(Sorry, Lords.)

If I add up my social audience across all the platforms I use, it tots up to a total reach of around 17,000. That’s 17,000 people who have decided that my posts and messages are worth reading.  If I want this figure to continue to rise, all I have to do is keep posting relevant and engaging content.  The first time I tweet “Buy my product for just £50”, my audience may forgive me. If I persist in bombarding their newsfeeds with sales messages however, they will leave in droves, off in search of a more relevant social account that values their attention.

I want my audience to stick around for the long term. I’m leveraging the technology that’s been made available to me via social media to build deeper and more meaningful relationships with my followers.  It’s just not worth a potential sale or two to risk losing any of my audience. It’s too great a sacrifice. I’ve paid for my audience, in time and effort, over several years, making sure that each post and update is worthy of them.  Of course, some rubbish sneaks in from time to time; I’m only human.  But never a sales tweet. I want to make sure my audience knows how important they are to me, by only sharing with them stuff that is relevant, useful and entertaining to them.

Jeffrey Rohrs has just written what is probably the best book around on the subject of valuing your audience – Audience: Marketing in the Age of Subscribers, Fans and Followers

Who better to leave the last word on this blogpost to?

“Attention is the precious natural resource that all companies are struggling to acquire and retain.”

Thanks Jeff for inspiring this post.

Let the comments begin……. 

What to read next: What are you worth?

What to do next: Do you get my Supertips? They’re jam-packed full of great tips and marketing strategies just like this one, and best still – they’re free! Get yours here ->www.samashdown.co.uk/samsupertips

Speak to Sam: If you’d like to know how I think you could improve your marketing, just answer a few short questions here and I’ll tell you if and how you could be more effective.

Sam Ashdown

Sam is an industry-renowned marketing strategist to estate agents. She helps agents grow and flourish, using her unique smart marketing techniques and strategies. Sam works with agents throughout the UK to help them gain more valuations, win more instructions and sell more properties.

You May Also Enjoy

Damaged timber from Dry Rot
Estate Agent Talk

Mould and damp – what you need to know ahead of winter

With the winter months just round the corner, problems with damp and mould can become far more prominent. Autumntime is when many people turn on central heating systems and choose to close windows, preventing fresh air ventilation needed to allow damp air to leave a property. Unfortunately, the combination of warm and damp air can…
Read More
Breaking News

Rental price and average salary tracker – September 2025

London and South East see biggest dips in required rental salary year-on-year London and the South East saw the sharpest dips year-on-year in the average salary needed in order to rent the average home in that area. London saw a 4.2% drop, whilst the South East saw a decline of 2.9%. Yorkshire and Humberside saw…
Read More
buying at auction uk
Breaking News

The cities where buying beats renting – with just a 5% deposit

British first-time buyer mortgage payments are typically 17% cheaper than renting, even with a low 5% deposit The average 5% deposit is £11,412 based on a typical first-time buyer property price of £228,233 Among major cities outside London, the biggest gap between owning and renting is in Glasgow, where buyers could save more than £4,750…
Read More
Rightmove logo
Breaking News

Rightmove’s Weekly Mortgage Rates Tracker

Average rates for 2-year and 5-year fixed-rate mortgages   Term Average rate Weekly change Yearly change 2-year fixed 4.51% +0.00% -0.37% 5-year fixed 4.55% +0.01% +0.01%   Lowest rates for 2-year and 5-year fixed-rate mortgages   Term Lowest rate Weekly change Yearly change 2-year fixed 3.77% +0.05% -0.07% 5-year fixed 3.97% +0.10% +0.29%   Average…
Read More
Rightmove logo
Breaking News

Data and commentary from Rightmove on stamp duty reforms

Colleen Babcock, Rightmove’s property expert said: “We’ve been calling for stamp duty reform for some time now, as it’s a significant barrier for many people moving home. Abolishing it completely would remove one of the biggest barriers to moving, unlocking more moves at all stages of the property ladder. “Our data shows that only 5%…
Read More
Breaking News

Second-time buyers dominate demand for longer term fixed mortgage deals

Second-time buyers are dominating demand for longer term fixed mortgage deals, fresh data from Moneyfacts Analyser can reveal. Of those looking for fixed term deals on moneyfactscompare.co.uk: Almost two-thirds (58%) of second-time buyers who compared mortgage deals using the moneyfactscompare.co.uk website were considering terms of three years or longer in the 30 days to 1…
Read More