Establishing a social media brand attracts more clients. According to the Content Marketing Institute, brand awareness is the top priority for marketers. More than 3 billion people have social media accounts.
A survey by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), found 84% baby boomers and 94% millennials used social media platforms to search for their future homes.
As you can see, social media branding is crucial for online business success.
A social media brand is an image or idea of a specific service or product consistently seen on social media platforms.
For real estate agents, a successful social media brand creates a recognizable image of your services to more viewers than your competitors. This is known as “brand recognition.”
In 2017, a survey by Sprout Social, a business and customer communication platform, showed real estate agents only responded to 11% of incoming messages. Their second survey disclosed real estate agents ranking as the 4th Most Annoying Profession on social media. They concluded that while real estate agents promoted their services on social media, they failed to engage with potential clients.
Failing to respond to incoming messages. Being one of the most annoying professions on social media. These are formulas for failure, not success.
Read on to learn how you can create a successful social media brand.
Social media platforms exist for all types of people, businesses, industries, and regions. You can take advantage of specific social media to promote your real estate services like:
In addition, real estate social media platforms for salespeople exist like:
You can learn how to build your social media brand from general business marketing sources:
Here are the best from their tips:
Too many people and companies have similar names. This confuses social media users. You need to come up with a unique user name on social media to avoid confusion.
Use tools like Namechk or KnowEm to search the most popular social media platforms to see if your desired username is available. Always use the same username across every social network.
With hundreds of social media platforms, you must find the ones that best align with your brand.
Facebook is the largest and most popular social network with over 2 billion members. Most large brands appear on Facebook.
However, young consumers prefer Instagram and Snapchat. Tumblr appeals to teenagers and early twenty-somethings.
Selling to other businesses makes LinkedIn popular.
Women outnumber men 3 to 1 on Pinterest.
Decide which demographics your target audience comprises and find their most popular social media platforms. These social media demographics can help you choose the best social networks for your brand.
You should create a unique photo, avatar, or logo for all of your social media channels. This helps people remember you. Over time, people seeing your photo, avatar, or logo immediately associate it with your brand. Think of the McDonald's Golden Arches and the Nike Swoosh. Every time you see them, you think of their brand.
Always fill in your bio/profile on social media platforms. This helps build your brand by letting viewers know who you are and what you do. Treat your profile as a promotional piece. Describe what type of business you do within two sentences. Use your profiles on your blog, website, and social networks to promote yourself on the other channels.
Develop a social media voice. This article explains how to develop a social media brand voice.
Your unique voice communicates your brand across all social networks. This requires speaking to your audience in a manner that connects with them. Buffer, a social media management company, shares their voice and tone guide with useful tips.
The number one trait consumers want from social media brands is honesty. An authentic voice promoting your brand enforces honesty leading to trust resulting in more business.
Social media branding requires being active. You must engage with other people on social media. A weekly Twitter post or a monthly Instagram photo fails to properly engage.
Here is what some social media experts suggest:
Focus on two to four social media platforms and become very active on them.
Promotional blurbs about your wonderful services and your brand’s benefits are not engaging.
Jay Baer, President of Convince & Convert, recommends posting about things that interest your targeted potential clients without overtly promoting your brand. That’s why food companies post recipes using their products. For example, you can post about household budgeting tips.
Besides posting your own content, share, like, and reply to others’ posts. Always thank a person for liking or sharing your posts. Answer every comment on your posts, and offer to rectify any negative comments or reviews.
Visuals are important for social media branding. Posts with photos get stronger engagement rates than text.
Different colors impact the way viewers identify your brand.
Pepsi and Coca-Cola are good examples of color and design consistency. Pepsi primarily uses the color blue, while Coca-Cola uses red wherever you see their products.
Look at your logo to see the dominant colors. Make sure your dominant colors always appear with your brand. People will eventually associate those colors with your brand.
One study reveals that 60% of U.S. millennials expect consistent social media experiences. Your branding must be consistent in every channel to help people recognize you.
Consistently use your brand name and photo/avatar/logo the same way in your posts. Every post must support your brand-building strategy.
Find established social media participants you can piggyback on. This is called influencer marketing.
Look for active social media influencers with many followers. Share, like, and post comments to posts from their connected participants. Always thank them if they like, share, or reply to your posts.
Creating a strong social media brand can have a huge impact on your business.
But keeping up with your daily social media obligations can become a hassle. Consider hiring a virtual assistant to keep up with all of your followers and handle other tasks to free up your time.
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