Social Media for Letting Agents – Does it work?

by | May 27, 2016 | Tech

Hell yes!

But only if you use it properly… and social media on its own, NO.

So many people say “I tried social media for my agency, but it just didn’t work” in most cases, what agents do is post a bit each day, and wait for the valuations to come flooding in, but social media chatting on its own is useless.

Like anything else have a strategic plan and then stick to it.

When I started social media for my letting agency, I admit it was hard, I didn’t really have the tools I needed to make it effective, so I concentrated on connecting to people or businesses in my area, that I felt were a good fit, rather than just connecting to anyone.  I made sure my regional business page and me reached out to local people, property people and associated trades. That way I felt at least my potential audience would be the right one, when I did have the tools in place.

By reaching out and connecting with people I started to learn what they wanted to know, needed and were concerned about too,  which helped me create content for them.

I started to make videos, blogs and downloads that I was able to share out amongst my target market and build my sphere and validation in the market. In fact I came up with a  system of sorts to build my authority online and it goes something like this…

  • Connect with LOCAL people and local businesses on at least 3 platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Linked in.
    • Facebook build relationships and lets people get to know you, it’s a bit like a personal or business website on a social platform.
    • Linked in allows you to make connections with people and you can really see what people are about there too and who they are connected too, a great way to be more targeted in your connecting.
    • Twitter drives people to your stuff, whether it is your website, downloads, blogs etc, it is the best way to generate web traffic.
  • Connect with Property People- landlords and landlord groups
    • You will find on all the social networks that there are groups, forums or lists of property people you can search and connect with. When you find them, become active and engage with them to let the people get to know you.  There is no point being a silent shrinking violet, because no one will know you are there.
    • Get involved in conversations and help people with their issues if you can. Answer their simple queries and offer helpful advice.
  • Start to create content (downloads/videos/blogs) about the subjects they seem to need advice on
    • The NEW style of marketing is giving customers what they want, and in the information age, it’s no surprise what they want is information, so you need to find ways of delivering what you know in the form of content. Blogs, downloads, videos are just a start.
    • Become a content marketer, have a content item for all sorts, any problem, you have a piece of content out there on the internet for it, so when someone Google’s “how to get a tenant out” it’s your page they land on.
  • Share it out amongst your developing network
    • Get your content out there… Share it on your social platforms, promote the posts, share on your personal pages and get your staff to do the same, email it, put it on your websites, direct people to it via twitter.
  • Have data capture for high value content to build your contact list up
    • When you have a good layer of “FREE” FREE content out there for the key “issues” your clients have, then start making some more detailed longer content items, that require their email address for them to download, this will start to build up your contact list.
  • Be consistent, regular posting, reply daily, be active
    • When you start you must not stop. You need to ensure you are constantly tweeting, posting and sharing, but all social platforms are different.
      • Facebook: a post daily is enough and vary these throughout the week to be fun and relaxed at the weekends and industry focused, service focused or motivational during the week
      • Twitter:  a tweet lasts 5-10 minutes, so ideally tweet around every 10-15 minutes (you can schedule this to happen automatically)
      • Linked in: once a day or at most twice a day would be enough, but make sure it’s good quality and professional, they really don’t want to see what you have had for dinner on LinkedIn.
    • Be SOCIAL- be REAL not just a corporate brand
      • YOU must share a bit of yourself, what are you interested in, doing at the weekends, to draw people to you, the consumer now does not generally want to do business with brands, they want to do business with people, they want to know YOU.
    • Continue all of the above
      • Rinse and repeat, just keep going and DON’T STOP.

Following the process above takes time to get going, but when you have all your ducks in a row, it can be done for no more than 1 hour per week, and the results can be pretty mind blowing. You will attract the attention of not only the people in your market, the industry leaders and event the press, asking you for comment, which can do wonders for your business.

So get out there and chat, make a plan and stick to it you will be amazed what comes back…