Issue #24 | 12.26.2013 | 253,446 members
Social Media for Real Estate Agents: 2013 Year-in-Review
Social media now accounts for the majority of time spent on the internet. In 2013, real estate agents, home buyers and sellers used sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram more than ever. Social media significantly impacted the way agents did business and communicated with customers this year, and will continue to do so next year.
Here’s a look at the major social media trends that happened in 2013, and how agents put them to use.
Image-centric marketing took center stage.
This year, image-centric content was front and center. Pinterest increased the size of its pins. Twitter added photo and video previews to its feed. Facebook even created a rule stating that text could take up no more than 20% of a promoted post image.
Why the shift to image-based marketing? Social users engaged (liked, commented, and shared) with images more than any other type of content. For many real estate agents, embracing image-driven marketing resulted in more leads. Beautiful, high-res photos of listings, unique properties and home features could be seen across multiple social channels.
Graph Search was made available to all U.S. Facebook users.
In July, Facebook’s Graph Search was made available to everyone in the U.S. Graph Search is a social search that allows users to search through the wealth of data that lives on Facebook. Results are returned based on information people and companies have provided to Facebook.
Homebuyers and sellers were able to start using Graph Search to find agents recommended by their friends. Agents could develop potential client lists, search for people interested in real estate, and determine a personalized closing gift.
Graph Search also catalogs hashtags. Many agents started tagging posts with real estate terms to expand their reach. Examples include #RealEstate, #HomeForSale, #RealEstateAgent, and #TheirCity.
Short videos grew in popularity.
Short-form videos came into the forefront in 2013. Twitter launched its video service, Vine, which lets users post up to 6-second looping videos. Instagram, owned by Facebook, announced its own video platform, which allows users to post up to 15-second videos. Instagram videos offer deep features such as vintage filters and editing capabilities.
Agents were able to take advantage of this trend by posting short, property tour videos with a link to the full video tour. Agents could also post short clips with brand messaging, and question/answer videos.
What’s next for 2014?
Image-based marketing, Graph Search and short-form videos will continue to be important tools for agents to use in 2014. Social media channels, especially Facebook, promise to keep giving agents new and creative ways to market their business, grow their brand and meet new leads.
Look to The Social Agent for your social media tips in 2014! Thanks to all our loyal readers and Happy Holidays!
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