A recent article that I wrote received a few positive comments from estate agents in my email inbox so I thought I would share some of these tips for those agents who do not receive this popular trade industry magazine.
“How should you present yourself to your local community”?
Use social media to exhibit your personality, think about being an estate agent rather than an estate agency as consumers warm more to people than to a shop front. People are generally hungry for news and in most occasions people look for news relevant to their interests and likes so think about being ‘local’ with the news you share and those you engage with most. These local people are likely to be in your target area both in a marketing sense as well as where they live – Look to build a following within this sector.
- Research local and ideally the most recent/trending news across other information/news portals and release the most relevant on your social media channels so to build a news feed of your own for others to follow.
- Research local hashtags and use these in your own updates and also join in on relevant conversations happening on social media though keeping in mind not to get involved in touchy debates etc,
- Think about researching local history and use relevant found information on your social media channels – Maybe even think about similar to ‘local history news daily’ updates to keep people waiting for the latest update.
- Think outside of just pages/profiles for you as an estate agent and think about local/regional pages or on topics which would engage the local community. For example ‘Living in Torbay’, ‘Buy Local from Ipswich’ or ‘Growing up in Ilford’ as these groups are highly likely to build high targeted following and if founded and run by your agency then you can use them to build positive community brand awareness.
- Share good news and success, especially to local activities such as charity work, helping people to find their dream home, selling a property in super quick time or simply take photos of every key exchange that takes place thanks to your efforts.
- Have fun and think about viral. Depending on the style of your agency, you may wish to exhibit a fun and friendly environment within your offices so ideas such as best dressed member of staff of the day, bad hair day, worst car parking in the town, best shop front of the week and much more which engages your target audience, ideal especially if you are targeting younger generations / student lets etc.
Remember that social media can instantly showcase your estate agency to a local or worldwide audience quicker than any other form of marketing – If you can become popular on social media it opens up new potential to connect with new clients, obtain you positive free local PR, build strong relationships with other local businesses as well as with other estate agents across the UK.