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…….

I’d love to know your thoughts on this topic – please, leave a comment, or if you’re shy, email me at sam@samashdown.co.uk 

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

Home and Living

Kitchen Trade Expert Shares Five Benefits of Fully Assembled Units

The UK kitchen and bedroom fitting sector is currently facing a number of challenges. The UK Trade Skills Index 2023 report revealed that 937,000 new workers will be needed in the construction and trade industries by 2032 to meet the demands of the sector, impacted by the widening skills loss posed by Brexit, an ageing…
Read More
Breaking News

Why are HMO numbers falling?

The latest research from COHO, the HMO management platform, reveals that despite little change in tenant demand, house share availability has dropped by almost -60% in some parts of England, raising the question of whether we’re seeing an HMO landlord exodus. COHO’s analysis of house share listings data* shows that in England, the number of…
Read More
Breaking News

Only 27% of homes have been fixed in a £1.8bn Govt programme

Report shows only 27% of homes have been fixed in a £1.8bn Govt programme, as red tape and asbestos keep thousands in the cold Thousands of homes will face another winter of fuel poverty due to a raft of failures as scheme to fix them hits buffers Hundreds of millions of pounds of allocated grant…
Read More
Breaking News

UK House Price Index for July 2025

The latest index shows that: – The average monthly rate of house price growth in July was +0.3%. The average annual rate of house price growth in July was +2.8%, down slightly from +3.6% in June. As a result, the average UK house price sits at £269,735.   Director of Benham and Reeves, Marc von…
Read More
Breaking News

ONS House Price Index – Thoughts from the Industry

Thoughts from the Industry about the latest ONS House Price Index. Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark: “It is positive to see the housing market progressing forward in strength. As we move towards the autumn months, hopefully this momentum will continue. “There continues to be two factors that may weigh heavily on consumers’ minds as they…
Read More
Overseas Property

European capitals hold £76bn worth of property potential

The latest market insight from international property consultancy, Astons, reveals that across seven major European capital cities for property investment activity, the current market holds £75.8bn worth of opportunities. Astons has analysed the current property markets in seven major European capital cities* to see which have the most residential listings and therefore offer the greatest…
Read More