CONTRIBUTORSElite AgentTECH + SOCIAL

Imogen Callister: Don’t fall down the ‘scroll hole’

To say social media platforms can be a time-waster is an understatement. But they can also help you build your brand, generate leads and build relationships. Imogen Callister explains how you can get the balance right and ensure you're kicking social media goals every time you log in.

Do you often find yourself hunched over on the couch with your mobile device glowing back up at you for lengthy periods of time?

More importantly, are you spending the time building your brand and generating leads or are you in a ‘scroll hole’ consuming hours of mindless content?

The world of social media and digital platforms have made us much more efficient, but they have also reconfigured the work-life balance.

The working 9am to 5pm world is truly gone. So, it’s important that when you are on one of the many social media platforms, you are spending your time constructively building your brand and business.

There is no denying it, some agents slay social media marketing, and accumulate countless likes, clicks and leads without so much as the blink of an eye.

Other businesses don’t fair quite so well. But why?

These are the three key factors you need to master to rock social media and catch the eye of potential clients everywhere, without falling down the scroll hole and wasting time.

1. Have a paid, earned and owned media strategy

Facebook is a play space. Just posting now can pretty much be a waste of time. What’s key is a world-class strategy that allows people in your marketplace to see your content.

Spend time not scrolling the platform but focusing on these three pillars:

  • Owned media – what three posts can you put out about your brand this week?
  • Earned media – who can you ask for a review or support in your community for shareable content?
  • Paid media – what’s your monthly marketing budget for content and are you using social media vendor paid advertising to drive leads on property campaigns?

2. It’s not all about likes and followers

Are you sitting there waiting for likes on a recent post or to see if it’s done well?

Remember, people are not their accounts on social media. There are many metrics in the market to measure a campaign’s success.

Likes, shares, comments, followers, reach, impressions and engagement are just some of the ways you can measure a campaign.

Just because someone likes your post doesn’t mean they are the right conversion of your post. Friends like posts, clients sit and watch.

A whopping 89 per cent measure effectiveness based on ‘likes’ and only 24 per cent on sales conversion.*

You should focus on content that brings you direct leads.

Posts about you and your results create brand awareness and bring you more likes, but it’s content about the market or the consumer reading the post, that will equate to more leads.

Even if you’re doing a great job curating your social media feeds, your follower numbers will go up and down.

Focus on building great conversations not how many likes and followers you get.

3. Assess your platforms

Is that product really working for you or have you just signed up for the sake of being on the site?

The worst mistake you can make is being on a platform but not regularly contributing to it.

It means your brand is constantly out of date.

I find a lot of agents sign up to LinkedIn, which is such a powerful tool for your brand, but then never use it. Refine your platforms and apps on your phone.

Clean them up and set up the ‘do not disturb’ reminders to ensure you’re not obsessing and waiting for a notification to pop up. 

A Harvard study on smartphone addiction noted constant notifications can alter your brain chemistry, creating a chemical imbalance.

The study also showed a link between constant smartphone use and anxiety, depression and impulsivity.

Your notifications constantly being on can also cause a pattern called ‘switch cost’. This is when an interruption, such as a notification, distracts our attention from a task. 

So if you set your reminders to ‘do not disturb’, you will be far more efficient at tasks.

It’s a hard game in real estate to have balance, but ensuring you’re working to live, not living to work, is the key for long-term success.

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Imogen Callister

Imogen Callister is the owner of The Media Coach.