Love it or hate it, social media is a powerful marketing tool that connects a brand with millions of people worldwide. Almost any business can utilize social media to boost visibility. Social media is especially useful for realtors and realty companies because it allows both text and images related to a listing reach a large, targeted audience simultaneously–and it’s (usually) free. It’s wise to keep a presence on all social media platforms, but they all have different uses, and each has its own pros and cons. From Facebook to Instagram to Pinterest, each social media venue opens doors to a different demographic. Among these, the popular microblogging platform Twitter just so happens to be structured perfectly for the real estate industry.
What is Twitter exactly? You probably know it best as a place where celebrities and politicians go to say outrageous things, but it’s much more than that. As of the second quarter of 2015, Twitter averaged 304 million monthly active users worldwide, and 1.3 billion total registered users. It’s used by businesses, artists, writers, news outlets, and just regular folks. Even the Pope Tweets on the reg! You can post just about anything and talk to anyone, from your friends to Donald Trump to your favorite Game of Thrones star, as long as your post is 140 characters or less. Subjects and topics are organized by #hashtags, which allow people to easily search for and participate in the conversations that grab their interest. Twitter is a fast-paced, conversational environment where almost everything is going on at any given time.
So how does your property benefit from being listed on Twitter? Consult our handy list below.
- Tailored visibility
We’ll start with the most important and most obvious. Having your property featured on Twitter means it will reach a huge audience, instantly: home-buyers of all demographics are increasingly utilizing social media to shop for homes because it allows them to cast a wide net with minimum effort. However, numbers aren’t everything. Being seen is no good if viewers aren’t serious buyers. That’s why realtors and realty companies use appropriate hashtags on all posts to target specific demographics and markets. It works: posts that contain at least one hashtag see twice the engagement than tagless posts do. Realtors are also careful about who they follow on Twitter, and are intentional about curating an audience that is serious about the real estate market. - Instant engagement
When a property is listed on the MLS, the page contains all relevant contact info for the listing agent and their company. But agents aren’t always in the office, and even e-mails aren’t always as fast as we’d like them to be. This is where Twitter has a distinct advantage. People interested in a certain property can retweet about it or Tweet at the realtor, and expect a reply in a matter of minutes. They can also access links realtors post to helpful, industry-relevant blogs (like this one!). Engagement on Twitter isn’t necessarily about 24/7 salesmanship, but about building relationships. Twitter enables the type of online engagement that fosters trust and brand loyalty, and helps customers to know that they’re being helped by actual human beings–which will keep them coming back, and encourage them to buy in the long run. - Picture=perfect
On the MLS and other websites, pictures of properties may only be readily available in preview, or a user might have to click through a screen or two to get to them. On Twitter, uploaded pictures on posts are formatted to be front-and-center and to grab the user’s eye. Realtors can pick the absolute best two or three pictures of your property to upload, giving their audience a crystal clear idea of what your property looks like. Tweets with images have five times the engagement as tweets without. It works!
In the right hands, social media can be a marketing tour de force. By being social-media savvy on Twitter, your realtor can boost the visibility of your property and get it sold faster–which means time, money, and stressed saved for you!
Have questions about selling your home? Contact our team of Marion and Alachua County realtors today.