- Posted by Admin on November 16, 2009
Social Networking for Marketing
Social networking is also a great way to attract new customers, but let’s be careful here. No Real Estate Agent has ever gone on Facebook, Twitter or Myspace and created a reproducible method of making money just for signing up. It simply doesn’t happen.
The problem is that it is the ‘personalities’ that make the money on these networks. That is, the people that have branded themselves for the purposes of making money on these networks. As such, I have been reminded many times by real estate SEO guru Tim O’Keefe, from Spiderjuice Technologies, “You can’t reproduce personality.” What they have done, you may not be able to easily reproduce simply due to the fact that you are not them.
Find a social networking medium that works best for you and use it often. For marketing you are more likely to use social networks external to the real estate market than sites such as Real Town or Active Rain. The reason for this is as simple as marketing itself. Where is your audience? They are far more likely to exist on Facebook than on Real Town. If you are new to social networking here is a quick overview of the big three to help you find the best fit for you.
Facebook – Facebook just recently overtook Myspace as the number one social networking site. To put this in perspective look at Alexa’s rankings for the top 100 sites in the United States:
1. Google
2. Yahoo
3. Facebook
4. YouTube (social media networking)
5. Myspace
The power of Facebook is quite apparent. You will pay a fee to list your services in the Yahoo directory, but all you need is time and tenacity to have a distinguishable Facebook presence. The disadvantage of Facebook for marketing is that it is such a closed community. You are really only viewed by the people that add you as friends. Best marketing use: Pay per click ads on Facebook can be extremely cheap. Often you can easily achieve over 100,000 impressions for less than $100 per month in a very selective market. You can also create a Facebook Group or Fan page as a Facebook option for a business.
Myspace – Myspace is the closest to what you think of as a traditional website. The big difference is the interaction between users such as chat functions and the ability to leave messages on each other’s walls. Myspace was the king of social networking until Facebook appeared on the scene. Best marketing use: Youth - Myspace has a much younger demographic that may be better for rentals, etc.
Twitter – Twitter is simply a medium wherein you post a short message (140 characters or less) and everyone that ‘follows’ you gets your message – either on your Twitter page or on your phone depending upon your settings. You can also follow other’s tweets. You may recall the use of Twitter by Iranian nationals showing the aftermath of their recent election.
Twitter was not on our list of the top five web sites in the US. It is actually ranked 13th, but you have to take into consideration the fact that there are many people that use Twitter only via their cell phone or smart phone so the numbers here may be slightly skewed away from Twitter in terms of overall use. Best marketing use: Very SEO friendly. Tweet key phrases loudly and often.
Social Networking Success
There is more to social networking than business. I recently reunited with a group of friends from third grade on Facebook and regularly see posts from cousins, aunts and uncles that I would never hear from normally. I spoke with an old friend on a business matter a few weeks ago and we picked up our conversation like we had in fact seen each other in the six year gap apart, simply because we followed each other’s activity on Facebook.
At first appearance social networking looks like a young man’s game and maybe a little scary to break into, but the single highest demographic entering Facebook for the first time is currently women in their 40’s and 50’s. Until recently my oldest friend on Facebook was 93 years old - until he passed away this spring. You are never too old or inexperienced to jump into the world of social networking! It’s good for your business and it’s good for your relationships.