One of the biggest questions we get asked as Real Estate Virtual Assistants maintaining social media for our clients is, “What’s my ROI?”
This is a valid question. As an agent, you want to know where your money goes when you've hired us to maintain your social networking presence. Thankfully, we’ve found something that might help answer some questions about what your social networking efforts are really doing for you!
The first study that directly showed social media success metrics comes from Business.com’s “Social Media Best Practices: Question & Answer Forums” report. In the midst of all the statistics and analyzing there was a hidden gift: a chart below which listed social media success metrics!
This might not seem like it’s a big deal. You’d think that there would be many more studies that show how successful social media is in marketing. Because social media is such a new medium for business, there aren’t many studies that can show a quantified list of how successful social media really is in the business world. This could possibly be the first cut-and-dry, quantified list of what social media can really do for your business, and we’d like to share it with you:
According to the results of this study, the three most powerful things that social media does for your business are:
1.) It drives traffic to your website: According to this chart, 61% of companies said that social media led to an increase in their website traffic. A Facebook fan page or Twitter profile is just an introduction to who you are as an agent. If people are interested in hearing more about your business, they will click on the link to your website from your fan page to find out more.
2.) It allows you to engage with prospects: The whole idea behind social media is to engage with your network. Having a Facebook fan page and Twitter profile allows you to interact with local businesses and your fans and followers in an easy, accessible way. The more engaging you are on your pages, the more fans you’ll get, and the more fans you get, the better-known you’ll be in your community. You never know, the owner of that local dry-cleaners you’ve been interacting with on Facebook could be looking to sell their house, and your Facebook relationship could lead them to want you as their agent! In this study, 57% of companies said that having a social media presence increased their engagement with prospects.
3.) It builds your brand: Since social media is the trendiest, most popular medium for networking right now, it’s important that you have a social media presence to build your brand. There are more than 400 million users registered on Facebook and over 190 million users on Twitter. The more active of a social media presence you have, the more fans you’ll get, and more fans means that more people on these social media sites know who you are and what your brand is. 54% of the companies in this study said that having an active presence in social media led to more people being aware of their brand.
Those are the three top things that having an active social media presence does for your business. The common theme that they all have is that they would give you more positive exposure in your community, and that leads to more business! 
While these are the more powerful things that social media does for your brand, there are aspects of marketing where social media won’t do as much for you:
1.) It won’t always lead to lead-generation: According to this chart, only 36% of companies said social media led to prospect lead volume and only 33% said that social media led to prospect lead quality. Unfortunately, while interacting with your fans and followers on social media builds your brand and can sometimes lead to client-gain, it doesn’t happen as often as we’d like. Most people still use Google to search for real estate agents, and while having a presence on social media can help increase your SEO, many times future clients are still led to your website, not to your Facebook or Twitter page.
2.) You may not get useful feedback from your customers: Only 23% of companies said that having a Facebook or Twitter account got them useful feedback from their customers. While it’s good to know that there’s less of a chance you’ll be getting negative posts, it’d still be ideal to receive the positive ones! Many people would feel strange about posting their experience as your client in a public medium like social networking, which is why there might not be as much success in this area of social media marketing.
While there are some parts of social media marketing that might not do everything you’d want it to for your company, the results that it can produce are undeniably important. As the times continue to change and social media continues to become a bigger part of our every day lives, eventually the parts where social media marketing is lacking will become just as successful as the areas where it has excelled.
There’s no doubt that brand awareness, community engagement, and website traffic can only positively impact your business, and right now, that is what social media can do for you. The more active you are in social media for real estate, the bigger your brand becomes in your community.
At least now you know what your real ROI is when it comes to social media. We still think it’s a positive and very essential component to your marketing efforts and online presence. Best of all, your real estate virtual assistant can maintain this presence for you!
Thank you,
Erica Lawrence
Operations Manager
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