Social media is a powerful marketing channel that can be leveraged by Toronto real estate agents to increase their exposure to their existing network, demonstrate their expertise, attract clients, and do more deals. Toronto agents who embrace social media will be deemed early adopters, this is a great market position to be in from the perspective of both your existing network and prospects.
This nine part blog series is going to take a look at strategies that Toronto real estate agents could implement to utilize social media tools to move their business to the next level. Each post will cover off a different strategy aspect. Outlined below are the different posts in this series:
Post 1. Strategy overview
Post 2. Taking a step back before moving forward
Post 3. Content/Branding
Post 4. Website/blog
Post 5. Facebook
Post 6. LinkedIn
Post 7. Twitter
Post 8. YouTube
Post 9. Where to go from here
What is Social Media?
Social media are Internet-based tools for sharing and discussing information. Social media sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook make it easy for you to network efficiently online. These sites can help you engage and expand your network by making it easy to share valuable content and engage in conversations. By providing valuable content and demonstrating your subject matter expertise you will be able to build your brand, convey authenticity, build trust, create a following, and fill your sales pipeline. Monetizing Social media works on the premise ‘make a friend now, do a deal later’.
Why is Social Media Important for Toronto Real Estate Agents?
Social media is a powerful tool for real estate agents because it will allow you to leverage more efficiently and effectively business building tactics that you already employ. Social media is all about networking and encouraging word of mouth. It can help you grow your network and efficiently harvest it. These sites will allow you to communicate with a much larger segment of your network with much less effort than before. And since social media networks are opt-in the clients who you are connected to will be more receptive to your message as long as you provide value and contribute to the community. This is achieved by actively participating in conversations, developing relationships, and providing good quality content. It is through this content that you will be able to demonstrate your expertise and encourage positive word of mouth. If your content is good your network will naturally share it with their network, which allows you to greatly increase your sphere of influence.
Strategy Overview
In order to effectively leverage social media to move your business forward you want to use a Hub and Spoke approach. Your website and blog are at the centre of this strategy, they form your Hub. The different social media sites are the Spokes supporting your hub. The goal is to use the social networks to drive traffic to your website or blog. Your website and blog should be geared towards converting that traffic into a lead. To do this most effectively you want to use a pull strategy. Valuable content on your site and blog will attract people and keep them coming back, further reinforcing you as the resident expert.
It is that content that you will use to contribute to the community on these different social networking sites. By sharing bits and pieces of that worthwhile content on the social networks you will be able to not only add value to the community but also drive traffic back to your site where they can review the entire piece of content. A potential client who visits your website/blog needs to hit a certain threshold of trust before they are willing to reach out and become a lead. They need to trust that you will look out for their best interest and that you know what you are talking about. The most effective means to demonstrate your expertise is by having a wealth of rich information on your website/blog.
I would encourage that you focus on one or two social networks to start off with. Depending on your branding and target market you will want to consider the following networks: Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter.
