It’s no secret that social media should be a huge part of any company’s (or entrepreneur’s) marketing strategy. It’s the main power that drives most of the service and product industries today. The benefits are endless, and the financial investment involved is relatively low. You can source, research, and build trust with your clients and customers in just a few strategically placed clicks.
One person who’s become an expert in the matter is SetSchedule CEO Roy Dekel. While his knowledge goes beyond one specific niche, he does have years and years of experience in using social media to help real estate businesses grow exponentially. He founded SetSchedule as a way to facilitate lead sourcing for realtors via consumer cloud communication products, AI, and autonomous business flow applications.
We managed to pick his brain about how to leverage the power of social media as a real estate agent.
Let’s start by backtracking a bit. The way social media was used 5 years ago, even 10 years ago, has completely changed compared with how we use it today. What do you think are the biggest differences from a business point of view?
Roy Dekel: I think the biggest difference is segmentation. When social media first started, it was really like everyone jumping into the same large pool at the same time. Now, as different companies have established themselves for different niches, you have a jacuzzi, a kids pool, and an olympic pool for users to choose from. Moreover, you don’t just have people just floating around on their backs - now people swim, dive, and even play water polo. Now that social media has been identified as a hub for potential marketing, different platforms have different learning curves when it comes to getting your message out there. So, even though social media is often passively consumed, every single user has the ability to create, interact and contribute their own voice. That really allows businesses, who already have an understanding of who they are, an extra leg up to make their brand much more human -
Focusing more on social media usage for real estate agents specifically, research has shown that 99% of Millennials start their house search process online. That number is likely going to remain just as high when Gen Z starts searching for homes as well in a few years. Do you foresee any differences between how to cater to each age group as time goes by?
Roy: I’m confident that younger generations will have higher and higher expectations for the services they’ll receive, the knowledge base their agent needs, and transaction data provided by their agent. The industry as a whole needs to be ready, willing, and able to handle the entire sales cycle online, taking an entirely different approach to how we communicate. Ultimately, you have to speak their language - but that’s also the gift of being online - we can learn more about users in real-time than ever before and use that to communicate better online. And that will be the case regardless of which demographic or age range these prospective home shoppers belong to.
When it comes to the best type of content to upload to social media, it seems the equation is a mix between informational, promotional, and interactive for most industries. Do you think this is any different when it comes to real estate? What do you think is the type of content that most resonates with home buyers/sellers as opposed to someone shopping for clothes, for example.
Roy: With real estate, hitting the right tone is doubly important when compared to advertisements for clothing. When someone sees an ad for a shirt, there’s not much room for interpretation - everyone is familiar with online shopping at this point. With real estate agents, what you are doing is online relationship building - that’s where there's plenty of room for interpretation because different people expect different things from the professionals that represent them. So, you’ll still want that mix of informational, promotional, and interactive content. Otherwise, you won’t get engagement! If you’re producing the same type of content all the time, your audience is going to get bored. Plain and simple. At the same time, at SetSchedule we’ve learned that our audience, in particular, is hungry for educational content. The industry is always changing after all, much like social media itself. So, we definitely post and promote informational content while touting the efficiency of our tech while teaching our audiences, customers, and stakeholders exactly how it works.
One of the smartest ways to gain visibility on social media is via the use of hashtags in order to target exactly who’s coming across your content. Do you have any tips for realtors looking to understand the best way to uncover which ones will put them in front of the right leads?
Roy: Simply put - make it count.
As a real estate agent, branding yourself is extremely important, and hashtags do that by placing you in a kind of category, allowing you to differentiate yourself and hone in on a specific audience. So, it really depends where you are at, in your real estate career. Hashtags are something to be used strategically- if you’re just starting out and no one knows who you are, using hashtags with your name (like #RoyDekel) is pointless. You’d probably want to use hashtags that are more industry-specific like #realestate and #socialmediatips. And, you don’t want to use them in your posts only. One of the best things you can do to get in front of the right prospects is searching the hashtags you use - this will help you create a network that can literally generate leads for you. If you’re not using industry-specific hashtags, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
Evergreen content is basically the gift that keeps on giving. You put effort into creating it once, and can then repurpose it as many times as needed. Can you share some ideas for this type of content that readers can use when promoting on social media?
Roy: My favorite type of evergreen content is video because video is highly engaging. It’s more human and is as close to meeting in person as you can get today. Because of the engagement level and speed - it typically doesn’t require a ton of time - you can literally get in front of your smartphone camera and record yourself talking - you can take a 30-minute explainer video you just created, cut it up into 5-minute segments that focus on specific how-tos or continually target audiences over and over again with seemingly different content that came from the same original piece!
Positioning yourself as an expert in your area of knowledge is a great way to build trust. Which we know is a top objective when it comes to real estate particularly. Any advice for new, or even established, realtors on how they can position themselves as such?
Roy: Research and create. Basically, know your industry - study it, love it, live it, and own it, then use your knowledge to create. Write, record, speak, post and share. Get involved with other experts too - that way you are building a long-term network while also positioning yourself for continual learning and self-development. One thing that really helps differentiate you is your own experiences. Your experiences aren’t necessarily completely unique, but they will provide insights that your audience will connect with you on and others will learn from. That’s how you’ll be able to grow into the best local expert in your area.
Let’s talk LinkedIn. While not a lot of homeowners would use the platform to search for a realtor, it’s a prime B2B social media option. Realtors looking to market to business owners would have a lot of potential opportunities there if they know where to look. What do you think however are the potential negatives that could come from choosing Linkedin as a main platform?
Roy: LinkedIn at this point is very saturated. Business owners are being bombarded by people on LinkedIn approaching them with marketing offers - so most people on LinkedIn have turned off their ability to connect directly from what I’ve seen. It’s actually creating more division and disconnect in the professional world, and its intended purpose is to do the opposite of that.
Is there anything you’d do differently if you could start over again to ensure maximum success across all platforms?
Roy: I would spend the time to come up with a user profile per platform I am using. This is something that is incredibly important, no matter which platform you decide to use. Going back to segmentation, it’s kind of like making friends or building a relationship. You can’t treat everyone the same and hope things work out for the best. If you try too hard to address every niche, you will fail to develop a core competency. If you adjust your own brand voice to speak directly to the user types for that platform, you’re going to find better success.
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