CRE Brokers: Step Up Your Social Media Game in 2018 with These 5 Tips
Could you say that you have a solid social media following? If so, are they simply following you or are they actually engaging with you? The answers to these questions will tell you whether or not you need to step up your social media game. If you are underwhelmed by your social media strategy, we have 5 tips to help you make a bigger splash on social media in 2018.
#1: Get On the Right Social Media Sites
Agents have heard for years that they need to get on social media and have an online presence. The problem is that too many are using the wrong social media sites for their professional goals. In order to reach those in the CRE industry, LinkedIn is a great place to start.
There are also industry specific social media sites that you could open where you can reach a more targeted audience. The beauty of LinkedIn is that you can network with other professionals, highlight your experience, engage with your followers, and post your own content to show off your expertise and promote your brand.
#2: Step Up Your Content Game
That brings us to the most important part of your social media strategy – your content strategy. It is not good enough just to have dozens of static social media pages that never change. You have to give people a reason to continually come back to your social media pages and that starts with having good quality content.
Maybe you aren’t the best writer, but you know your business. You can practice writing your own posts or you can pay a professional to write industry specific content based on your input. It’s a bad idea to use social media to brag about how many deals you close. Your content is better used giving your followers useful information about your industry that both shows you as an expert and gives them something of value.
Now that you’ve written some posts, you need to get people to read them. There are several ways to increase your audience’s response to your content, including:
· Being a guest blogger on a popular industry website
· Infusing the right keywords into your content to improve your search rankings
· Adding high quality photos to your posts to get more likes and shares
· Including industry-related hashtags with your Twitter posts by creating your own or using a trending hashtag
The bigger your following, the more impressive you will look to new visitors to your page. Remember to be brief but not too brief and keep your content focused on issues relevant to your followers.
#3: Keep Your Social Media Pages Fresh and Current
The worst thing you could do is be a once-in-a-blue-moon poster. You need to keep your content current, posting and commenting at least once a week. Also, keep your profile up-to-date. Have you learned a new skill or earned a new certification? Make sure that people who view your profile know about it.
Speaking of your profile, keep in mind that your social media picture makes the first impression on visitors to your social media page. You want it to be professional, high quality, and current. If you’ve used the same profile pic for years, it’s time to change it.
#4: Be a Leader and a Follower
If you are only putting out content and never commenting or liking other people’s stuff, it is considered rude and selfish in cyberspace. While you should always be working to present yourself as an industry expert and leader, you also want to reciprocate for your followers. Take the time to read and share other people’s posts on your page and you’ll see your engagement and your following go up.
#5: Measure Your Audience Engagement Regularly
Lastly, engagement is the key. All of these efforts are to ensure that people aren’t just scrolling by your posts but are actually reading them. What you really want is high engagement where your followers are commenting on your posts and asking you questions to get your insight.
When you regularly measure your engagement, you will be able to see what posts are getting the most attention from your followers and which ones are not, who’s downloading your CRE guide, and who is signing up for your newsletter. This will help you tweak your strategy to find the right balance.