Why Social Selling is an Important Tool for Real Estate Agents
Most real estate agents have a robust social media marketing strategy. According to the National Association of Realtors, roughly 77% of agents use social media in some form, with Facebook topping the list of most-used tools. The goal of most social media marketing campaigns is to increase brand awareness, and it’s usually considered a top-of-the-funnel tactic.
Now, more and more agents are using social media further down in the sales funnel, which is a tactic called ‘social selling.’ The goal of social selling is to increase sales and revenue; it doesn’t focus on awareness as social media marketing does. For example, an agent that wants to increase likes on their Facebook page is using social media marketing. An agent that connects directly with buyers and sellers through Facebook is using social selling.
The increased popularity of social selling
Now that social media usage has become so commonplace, it’s no wonder the sales world is moving away from traditional offline tactics to online ones to convert leads. Social selling focuses on lead nurturing on social media channels, essentially taking the real estate sales funnel and applying it to social media.
Social selling is not, however, simply sending out mass messages via LinkedIn; this is spam. Social selling is used when the agent already has built a connection with the buyer or selling and uses social media as a touchpoint to nurture them down the sales funnel. This could be sending a useful article on LinkedIn about a pertinent real estate topic or replying to a tweet that complains about moving with helpful advice.
Social selling uses a massive amount of insights that prospects regularly share on social networks. Most people post often and useful information that can help real estate agents understand their clients’ needs better. This tactic also produces more quantity and quality leads. Agents can use information from social networks to provide thoughtful, useful information that not only nurtures the lead, but that also helps them with their real estate needs.
Staying in touch with clients
Referrals are one of the most useful tools for real estate agents. And, 90% of buyers would use their agent again or recommend their agent to others. The problem is that real estate agents tend to drop off and forget to keep in touch with clients, so 90% of buyers certainly do not use their same agent again. Social selling helps keep these relationships going and much easier to manage.
Social selling will gain in popularity as more and more business is done online and on social networks. Certainly, as the millennial market grows in buying power, we can expect to see a surge in social selling. Agents that start now can gain a competitive advantage and begin to create lasting relationships with current and future clients.
Author Bio
Adrian Fisher is the Founder and CEO of PropertySimple, a real estate technology software that helps agents build their personal brand and marketing their business online. His company has created the only social CRM for real estate agents to help them master social selling.
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