7 Common Social Media Mistakes

Are you one of those agents who is trying ’the social media thing’ but not seeing any results? Don’t give up, social media is one of the most powerful tools in modern day marketing. Here are seven common mistakes and how to avoid them.

1.  No Social Media Strategy

If your social media presence is lacking goals and objectives it is unlikely your efforts will convert to real results. Real estate agents need to have a clear idea of what they are trying to achieve from social media and how they are going to achieve it. You must have a strategy, a roadmap or a plan to achieve your end goals.

2.  Lacking an Objective Behind Every Content Piece

Life is busy and quite often social media posts end up being last minute, posted in desperation just to ‘have something up on the page’. Sadly, this is a huge waste of opportunity for business as social media is a powerful marketing tool. The key is to create content with your audience in mind. Focus on what your audience might like to see rather than what you want them to see. Every image, video, blog or link that you share should aim to engage, entertain, build awareness or inspire your audience.

3.  No Consistency

Building a social media channel with engaged followers is no easy task. It can take 6 – 12 months of consistent efforts to see real results. Regular posting of quality content is a must to get cut through in social media feeds and engagement from your followers. Without consistency, you also overlook the opportunity to develop anticipation from your followers. Have a structured approach to your social media content each month, plan what you will post and schedule it in advance.

4.  Not Dedicating Enough Resources (Time & Money) to Social Media

Social media has evolved into so much more than just a social networking platform – it is now a powerful marketing tool. And one of the cheapest advertising platforms available given the reach you can receive. Agents should not think of social media as a free advertising platform, it requires time and money spent to achieve results and as such resources need to be allocated from your marketing spend to this channel just as you would for any other marketing efforts such as DL drops or newspaper advertisements.

5.  Leaving it to the “Young People”

It’s easy to think that social media can be managed by the tech-savvy millennials in the office. In reality, social media for business is complex and very different to personal social media. It can’t be taught in a one day course and the main channels are constantly evolving and changing. It takes a lot of time to stay on top of the new technology, algorithm changes, and trends to ensure that you are implementing the optimal strategy to reach your target market. If you don’t understand how the social media algorithms work you could be doing damage to branding and social media channels.

6.  Not Connecting with People

So, let’s say you’ve created yourself an Instagram profile that is high quality, value based and well thought out and you may still not be achieving the results you want! Why? Engagement is the key to success!
This is a time-intensive process and to get the best engagement, you must connect and interact with your audience one-to-one on a regular basis. You can’t expect your audience to come to you, you must go to them.

7.  Not Targeting the Right People- or Not Targeting at All

Don’t focus solely on the number of followers you have. You must focus on getting the right followers on your accounts – quality over quantity. Target people who will potentially convert to dollars for you. Some accounts may seem to have a large following – but often they have fake followers or followers in overseas countries who will never do business with that company. If you don’t have the right audience following on your accounts your content efforts are wasted. Your engagement rates will also be very low as the people following you will most likely not like, comment or share your posts. As such, it is paramount for you to know who EXACTLY you are going to target, and the tools and methods you are going to use to reach them.

Thank you to Tiffany Wilson of Chronicle Republic for this insightful blog piece. Agentpoint has partnered with Chronicle Republic to meet the needs of our clients. Chronicle Republic provides bespoke digital marketing to grow businesses including social media, content marketing, blogging, email marketing and SEO copywriting. Tiffany founded Chronicle Republic to combine her love of property and interiors and her drive to make brands shine. Former Marketing Director for an award winning, innovative real estate agency, Tiffany was awarded the first ever real estate industry award for Digital Marketing in 2014. Her unique industry experience means she truly understands the needs of real estate businesses.