Starting Social Media: An Overview of Social Platforms

Welcome to Starting Social Media An Overview of Social Platforms.

We appreciate you being here since this program is optional and discusses best practices for your consideration. If you are thinking of adopting any of them, please make sure to review the requirements in your area region with your broker, branch manager or manager, including those related to contacting consumers. We do want to highlight the importance of the Telephone Consumer Protection act, better known as tcpa. The general rules are that it's okay to call people if the person recently gave you their phone number, but remember to check the DNC lists regularly if they haven't spoken to that person in a while. You will also want to check the DNC list any time you don't have permission. Automated calling texting platforms should never be used. Pre recorded messages in artificial voices should never be used. You will be personally liable for any violations of the tcpa. We'll mention the TCPA a few times throughout this presentation.

Today we will be discussing a few things including why social media is important, a few of the social media platforms that are most relevant to real estate agents, identifying which platforms work for you, and then we'll talk a little bit about optimizing your profile and content planning and management. What is Social Media? So social media consists of websites and applications that allow users to share information. It is a huge way that people stay connected in today's day and time, and it's also very important to businesses as they try to grow and market to their target demographic. So what are some of the benefits of having a social media platform for a real estate agent? Social media is the most versatile marketing platform available today. So in terms of how you can reach people and how many people you can reach at once, social media does give you a lot of different options Lead generation. So in terms of being able to reach those target clients, social media gives you access to clients that you may not have reached otherwise. So clients that are not local to you, clients who you may not reach through mailers or going to different neighborhoods and door knocking, social media may give you access to those clients, adding value. Social media can strengthen your reputation by gathering client testimonials and offers clients an easier way to connect if they were to google your name. This is an amazing way for people to be able to see work that you've previously done and find out a little bit more about you as an agent. Meeting clients where they are looking for homes which is online. So over 90% of people start their home search on websites and platforms and you definitely want to meet them where they are. According to the National association of Realtors, 89% of agents are using social media for their business. So what does that mean for you? That means that you should have a presence on at least one social media platform to stay competitive in the real estate market. Before you decide on what social media platform you're going to use, you want to think about three things. Decide on your why. So why are you choosing that specific platform? Define what your brand is, what are you going to look like, sound like, feel like, and what is the client experience going to look like for you? And lastly, building your online community. So not just chasing followers, but actually building a community of people who understand who you are and identify with you as an agent. A few of the platforms that agents use so Facebook is going to be one of the largest ones. Facebook is a website and mobile application that allows users to create personal profiles, connect with friends and family, and share content such as photos, videos and links. Users can also join groups, participate in events, and follow pages related to their interests. Facebook is still one of the largest platforms and is the largest platform in terms of social media. Users demographics on Facebook range between 35 to 44, so older millennials and other age groups average at about 20%. A great thing about Facebook is the content diversity. So the different types of content that you can put out, articles and blogs, video or reels, photos and also text based status updates for your Facebook strategy. What you want to think about is not only posting on your Facebook business page, but also posting on your personal page and reminding your sphere of influence, family and friends that you are an agent. And lastly, finding groups. Facebook groups are amazing for networking, so find different groups that are relevant to you as an agent. It could be a local group, it could be a PTA group, it could be any group that is relevant to who you are and what you do and you can feel free to network there as well. Instagram so Instagram is a popular social media platform that focuses on photo and video sharing and it is known for its visual centric nature and it has become a popular platform for individuals, influencers, businesses and organizations to connect with audiences that share visual visual content. So Instagram is a very popular platform. It is visual based, which means that the type of content that you put out and the quality of the content is going to be super important for the demographic of Instagram. It's going to be a preferred platform for ages 16 to 20 to 34 and 85% are under the age of 45 for the content. Again, it is highly visual so you definitely want to focus on the quality of it photos and videos which are called reels or Instagram are going to be very important for the strategy. On Instagram you definitely want to focus on a combination of different types of content. So you want to not only put out reels and not only put out photo, but the more of different diversity pieces of content that you can put out the better. So the more content that has a combination of video, a combination of photos, a combination of stories using every piece of the platform, it's really going to help you be able to further your reach and get new eyes on your page. LinkedIn so LinkedIn is designed for individuals to connect with colleagues, professionals in their industry and potential employers. It is thought of as almost like a digital resume, but LinkedIn is newly becoming a platform for creators so it's a great place to keep people updated on industry industry trends and to be able to network with target clients. For demographics is definitely going to be ages 25 to 34, so you have Gen Z and a little bit of millennials with older ages not far behind. For content you definitely want to boast this is the place to brag about yourself. So professional accomplishments, things that you are doing in and outside of the real estate industry, blog style text posts and also real estate market updates. And lastly for your strategy you want to make sure that your profile is optimized and completely filled out. And the great thing about LinkedIn is that it has a low maintenance upkeep so you can post one to two times a week to stay active. Lastly, this is a great place again to show what you know, show your industry expertise. TikTok so TikTok is a very popular social media platform that allows users to create and share short form videos. TV typically set to music and trends. So this app does allow users to create videos up to three minutes long and provides a variety of tools including filters, effects and a vast music library to enhance creativity. TikTok was very popular with the pandemic area because people had the opportunity to be home and they had the opportunity to be able to film a lot of videos and connect with others. So since about 2020 TikTok has started surged in popularity and it is a video based platform. So if you are Comfortable with video, TikTok is the way to go. It does have a younger demographic so 25 of users are between the ages of 10 to 19 and 47.4% of users are under the age of 30. So your first time home buyer is probably going to have a TikTok account for this strategy. You want to be posting videos daily and community building and engagement is going to be crucial on TikTok. Posting consistently. So when we think about how frequently you need to post, this is just a guide. Do not feel pressured to post exactly by this guy, but this is just going to give you a little bit of insight into what the platforms want you to do in order to optimize them. Again, you only want to be posting consistently on one to two of these platforms. And for example, if you use Facebook you can connect it to your Instagram business page and you can post on both at the same time using the same content because their content strategy is very similar and they are both owned by Meta. So definitely something to think about when you are building your strategy. So what to post and when the best times overall to post on social media is going to be Tuesdays through Thursdays between 9 to 10am Again you do not have to stick with that time. This is just a suggestion based on data. The best days to post again Tuesdays through Thursdays and the worst days to post historically have been Sundays. But again you may post on a Sunday and find that your post performs well. So it does. It is determined really by your specific followers. However, this is just what social media industry professionals have seen across the board. On Facebook you're going to see photos, educational graphics videos, client testimonials and property pictures. So this is a great place to post those photos of your property, to make reels and videos about your property, to do infographics. And Instagram, if you can see it's going to be pretty consistently the same. You want to do a lot more video on Instagram because that is very crucial to the strategy on Instagram. For LinkedIn, this is a place where if you enjoy to write, this is going to be the platform for you. So written educational tips, client testimonials, real estate success or inspirational stories are always going to work well on that platform. And then lastly, TikTok educational tips are going to be crucial. Local content and local reviews, property tours and Q and A. So really engaging with the audience and what questions they have about the buying or selling process. So what platforms do you actually need? So one crucial thing to remember is you only want to have business platforms that you will use consistently. It is better to have one active profile on one platform than to have three inactive profiles. So don't have too many profiles just for the sake of having them. Only have profiles that you can actually keep up with. Next you want to think about who is your ideal client so you thought about what you want to do on social and now you're trying to narrow down, okay, what platform should I go on? So think about who your ideal client is, where do they live currently and where do they want to live, what are their interests, what is their stage of life, what would be their price range, their profession and that home type. And that is going to help you start to narrow down possibly what social media platform they may be on. Now, when you have these platforms, do you actually need a business profile or can you keep it as a personal profile? Our answer is always going to be yes, you want a business profile because it will give you the opportunity to track the performance of your page. The better that you can actually track, the more that you can see what your state, your strategy is doing and you can narrow down potential leads for your business optimizing your profile. So now that you decided what platform you want to be on, how do you actually optimize the profile to reach the right people? So your profile should be professional, but should also be informative and have some personality. So best practices, you definitely want to have a clear and professional headshot using high resolution photography and making sure that you are showing your personality in your headshot. One pro tip that we have is to keep the same profile picture across different platforms because this helps to strengthen your branding and people will start to identify your photo and know you by your photo, your logo, your colors and your overall branding on social media. Next is to make sure that you have a professional bio. So your bio can include the following your name or the name that you do business as if you are a part of a team. You can also include your team name, the brokerage that you are with. So you will put Cold Banker realty your location, which is going to be very important. You want people who can actually work with you and are in your state or relocating to your state. Also any areas that you may specialize in. So if you work with commercial real estate, if you want to attract first time home buyers, if you are part of Cold Banker global luxury, this is the place to put that. And then lastly, you want to make sure that you have ways for people to contact you off of the platform. So that includes your contact information, your co op, anchor website or any other websites you have related to real estate and then any links to other social media profiles that you want them to be able to follow in terms of activity and what you're actually posting. You want to make sure that you are using those times that we gave you previously on the frequency of posting, but you want to think about these best practices, so don't go against compliance rules. You want to make sure to get permission from listing agents before posting any properties, and check the property posting rules in your state because they do vary. Ensure to always have Coldwell Banker Realty listed as a brokerage somewhere on your profile. Whether it's in the bio, whether it's in the About Me section, make sure you have it listed. Do not post anything related to politics, religion, or a topic that could be seen as offensive or controversial. Be aware of your actions on your profile. And also that includes any comments or responses to other accounts, and even other accounts that aren't real estate related that could be tied back to you. And any account that you have on social media can be tied back to you personally.