What's the social media strategy for your brokerage?

Jose Perez of PCMS Consulting says:

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, blah, blah, BLEH!

Unfortunately, that is the general attitude of our industry when it comes to leveraging social media. It is a complete and total shame that our industry squanders one chance after another to embrace new ways of communicating with real estate consumers (email, the internet, and now social media.) How can we continue to ignore how our customers want to communicate with us?

Two important statistics that should be front and center for every broker and agent:

• 87% of consumers start their home search online; and,
• 41% of consumers still rely on personal referrals to make their choice.

Both of these stats underscore the importance of developing a social media strategy for your brokerage. Reaching out to consumers (instead of forcing them to come to you) generates revenue. If you can catch (and then engage) a consumer early in their online search, you position yourself and your agents as the brokerage that understands the needs of the modern consumer.

Furthermore, establishing yourself in the preferred social media channels of your consumers generates referral business. Your visibility in your clients' social media feeds becomes a tacit endorsement of your services – the very best type of referral!

If you don't embrace social media and implement a real communications strategy, someone else in your market is going to figure it out. Don't let that happen! Social media is not that complicated. It just requires focus and investment - like any other public relations, marketing, or advertising effort you freely invest in today.