Instead of strictly aiming for property sales, Trish Varker-Miles says creating valuable, effective content that educates and builds brand awareness will gather more traction with potential clients.
Developers and real estate agents are increasingly building their profiles and brand image on social media – particularly Instagram.
The property industry’s conversion rate for selling apartments and homes via social platforms alone remains low compared to the fashion and beauty industries, where products are shoppable from the page.
But social media still provides a valuable marketing touchpoint you shouldn’t ignore.
Consumers interested in your brand and products now invariably do their research online before purchase.
Social media is the perfect place to communicate, in a snapshot, your brand positioning, image and product offering.
Whether it’s an event, Instagram post or an experience, the thinking behind everything we do now needs to be: Will someone shoot or share that? How are we going to build the brand visually? And, most importantly, how can we create value for our followers?
It’s this value exchange between you and your followers that’s largely overlooked in the property industry.
The tendency is to post attractive pictures only, rather than offer real value that educates, inspires and ultimately aims to foster long-term relationships, loyalty and, as a result, sales.
Here are five keys tips on how to create value on social media:
1. Change your mindset from promoting your product to sharing your knowledge
Rather than merely posting an attractive picture, consider what knowledge you could impart, or how you can educate and inspire?
You could include, for example, your insights on sales in the luxury market, what suburbs are on the rise, tips for first home buyers or weekly market updates.
Remember to make your content meaningful yet still straightforward and easy to understand.
2. Understand who your audience is
The more you know your audience, the more you can tailor your content.
Ask yourself:
- What do they like?
- What are their demographics?
- What posts are the most popular?
Ensure you’re responding to feedback and questions, and engaging with your followers by conducting polls and reviewing their posts.
Remember, social media is a two-way conversation.
3. Assess which social media platform is best for your audience
Are you investing your time in the right platform?
Think carefully about where your audience spends their time.
Perhaps you only need to focus on one social media platform, not all of them.
4. Don’t just push a product. Communicate a lifestyle
Images that communicate a ‘desired’ lifestyle help you engage with your followers.
Not every image you use needs to be a picture of your product.
5. Curate your feed
While meaningful content that provides value is critical, a curated feed is still important.
Images on your Instagram feed are like a digital mood board.
It gives your followers a feel for what your brand is about in seconds, helping you attract your ideal customer.
You can achieve this by using well-chosen imagery with consistent subject matter, lighting, colour palette, mood and style.
Rather than viewing social media as a tool to sell your properties, look at it as a way for your clients and customers to get to know you and what you stand for.
If you come from a position of looking to give, as opposed to what you can get, or take, you’ll be in a much better place to create valuable and effective content that people want to engage with.
- Trish Varker-Miles is the Director of The Trish Nicol Agency, specialising in property and lifestyle PR, influencer marketing, events and content creation.
