Real Estate Agent Digital Success Formula ~ Be a resource not a listing.
Recently, I met a few folks that were in the Real Estate business in my hometown of Buffalo at a local coffee shop. It’s interesting and sad to see the state that many of these professionals are in. Some blame the economy and some blame local sales being down for their woes while others seem to be doing just fine or even flourishing. I asked myself how could social media help these folks stabilize or even improve their success in the local real estate market. So I hatched what I believe is a framework that any agent or broker can use and implement into their daily workflow. In my opinion those that give this a try will have a massive edge over local competition.
Fact #1 – 80+% of Home Buyers use the web to research schools, location, pricing, and gain general knowledge before they even talk to an agent.
This means that 80% or more of your potential home buyers are searching the web way before they contact you as an agent. They are researching the area and getting a general sense of the market well before you have the chance to advise them. My advice to you is to BECOME THE RESOURCE. Stop thinking of yourself as a listing in the local yellow pages or a line item in a directory of possible realtors, but rather as the key resource in your target regional location.
Fact #2 – Realtors, Brokers, and Agents in general have a perception problem. The only time you talk to one unless they are a close friend is when you are going to be spending a lot of money. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like doing business on that scale unless I have a huge amount of trust for that person. It’s sort of like the local gym membership. The only time anyone on staff approaches you is when your membership dues are coming due. USE DIGITAL CHANNELS TO BUILD TRUST.
Solution: Search is the Key
As we stated above a huge amount of research takes place online before a realtor or agent is ever consulted with. This says to me that YOU as a realtor or agent better be spending a huge percentage of your marketing budget and personal time mining the digital space. Yep, no more wasting your time with a scan of your business card in the local newspaper or church bulletin. That is thinking like a listing again. What would compel someone to use you based on your head shot in a publication?
Solution: Become a Resource
I have no doubt that any 101 real estate marketing you learned early on was very much what everyone else was doing. Print cards, make cold calls, ask for referrals, submit to directories, direct mail, and of course the business card scanned and placed in local papers and bulletins. All of these things are tactics to get your name out there, but they fail in helping you build relationships and really just present you as another option on the list. How do people find out about you anyway? Right, referrals from friends. In the system I am about to present to you I will show you how to become resource rather than a listing.
Solve Search and become a Resource ~ How this might look
Above is a graphical display of how an agent might approach the social media space. The entire solution hinges around the REA Blog. This is the blog of the agent herself. In this blog she is a resource to people who are looking for information about the area she sells in. In her blog she would cover local events, craft fairs, schools, crime stats, and local stories of interest. The density of the information and keywords will surely position her in search as a local resource. Of course this blog will have her contact info, as well as a bit about her and the service she offers.
The Yellow dots located and interacting with the REA Blog are actually domain names of the homes that she is listing. With each home that the agent is listing she will purchase that domain. It might look like www.145tomtomavenue.com. The home URL will also have a small blog that gives info about the house, maybe some pictures or video and note from the sellers. The content on each of the home URL’s will be unique to the seller and is really only limited by creativity. The key here is in understanding what is going on from a digital perspective, With each new URL purchased you have a small sales device for each home and the linking back and forth from the REA Blog to the home URL’s will create a massive digital footprint over time. This large digital footprint will push you to the top of search engines and position you as a resource in your local area.
I have been asked quite a bit in the past few months to share this formula and to most of you who understand the digital and social media space this will make a lot of sense. For those of you who are looking at this a bit cross-eyed please leave your questions in the comment section and I will do my best to answer them. If I have enough interest I will write an e-book that really starts at the very beginning and works you through all the steps and theory. Real Estate is not a specific focus for me and there are many other industries that can take advantage of this outline. How might it work for you?
If you would like me to provide a workshop or keynote for your agency or organization please feel free to contact me.
Keith Burtis is a social media and digital marketing professional. If you or your company are looking to REV THE ENGINE on your digital efforts contact Keith today! Specialties include: Blog design/Integration, Custom Facebook Pages, Social, Digital and Interactive Content strategies.
Comments
Keith, the great thing about this strategy is that there are so many realtors using the old thinking that if someone actually put these ideas into practice, they would kill it! Great insights!
Sean Stefan´s last blog ..FORA.TV 
Michelle, you are such an awesome ambassador. I thank you for your frequent smart comments and tweets. Much appreciated. I hope this cliff notes version is understandable by most. I tried to give a bit of the why and then a bunch of the how.
Sean, I know it’s my framework but i have to agree with you in full! Think about the possibilities over time. If you were an agent for say even just two or three years you may very well wind up dominating local search results. To that end you will have hundreds of micro-sites that are doing your selling for you 24/7.
Keith, although I’m not in real estate I do know a few people who are and will retweet this so they can read it. One I know uses flickr to build out the content for each home but using the address as a domain name is a real kicker – I love it.
A lot of this can be ported to other business models as well and be very helpful in building ones presence on the web.
As always great stuff and thanks for sharing. – Bruce
Bruce Flinn´s last blog ..4 Things To Remember About Adversity
The really great thing about this model is that it can be applied to many other businesses. See ya Monday nite!
Keith,
This is a great plan. I like how you have laid it out. I will be recommending it as required reading for the Real Estate people in my life, along with them calling you to work with them.
Michelle Gillies´s last blog ..REMEMBERING