Online Real Estate Technology

Last week I spent time in Adelaide South Australia and presented to a number of real estate groups, and it was for me an interesting exercise. Social media is not going to be for every agent or business owner, of that there is no doubt, because each person within the office needs to commit to the discipline of social networking.

It is vitally important that social networking is seen as a long term strategy and not a short term fix. It takes time and commitment to really work social media, to create the handshake and work the room. Traditional real estate marketing models are quickly becoming obsolete as the internet takes over so real estate businesses need to start to think more long term and think about marketing to the customer of tomorrow not just today.

This is the word of mouth brand building of 2020, so when deciding that a social strategy is part of your marketing plan, make sure that all staff are committed to its success. Social media very quickly sorts out the committed members in your office.

So where to start: First of all make sure you put a realistic time line in place,when integrating social strategies into your office, plan to have it integrated over the next 2 years. This allows you sufficient time to get it in place and build on the network.

Decide on who will be your target market - Because this is, in reality, what social media is, a corporate communication strategy for your business, and you need to plan what information will be shared by you and your company/staff.  This is really about people!!

Decide on the objective, what do you want to achieve and more importantly what do you want out of it as a business or sales person. Is it instant leads or sales or is it a long term plan to provide good quality content to your prospective clients, so that when they decide the time is right to buy or sell, you are the business they choose.

Plan your strategy, will it be combinations of social networks or just one, how often will you post to your blog, what type of information will be included and what is your ultimate plan?

Finally, decide on the technology you will use. Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, blogs etc or do you intend to use them all. If so, then make sure you have a plan and strategy in place for each one.

Once you have all of that laid out as part of a corporate communication strategy, then and only then, is the time right to start to implement your plan.

As always, if you would like my help on getting your strategy started, all you have to do is ask or send me an email via this blog.