Why Social Media is Free Marketing

Now more than ever, consumers are relying on social media to find a real estate professional to work with. If you're using these platforms correctly, you could be saving some valuable marketing dollars. Knowing which sites your audience uses and understanding how to leverage those sites are key factors for success when it comes to social media. These are also just a couple of the topics that were discussed during the most recent Homes.com Secrets of Top Selling Agents unplugged interview.

In the second edition of this new podcast series, we sat down with speaker, trainer and working agent Nicole Mangina of Windemere Real Estate to chat about why she believes social media is free marketing.

According to Nicole, marketing is all about building and nurturing relationships with intention, in the sense that you are sending a specific message out there in a repeated way to people who might turn out to be clients. This is why social media is such a valuable tool for real estate professionals, because sending these messages can be done in a more casual manner than traditional marketing tactics like print media.

According to Nicole, "Which social channel should I spend most of my time using?" is the million-dollar question she gets asked all the time. There are two sides to this answer. The first is that you want to be where your clients are. If you are trying to connect with clients on Twitter, but your primary audience is on Facebook, odds are you won't achieve much success.

The next point that Nicole emphasizes is that you need to be dedicated to the platform you are using. If you're only logging on and sharing content once a month, you'll never see any business being generated from social media. If you want to see results from your social efforts, you need to be actively engaging with your followers and giving them reasons to keep up with you.

Another important aspect of using social media is being able to manage the time spent here. Nicole says, in the morning, she pulls up Facebook and Instagram with intention, meaning that she's not just scrolling through and liking every picture she sees. She recommends scanning your feeds to see what people are talking about and finding a reason to connect with them. Pay attention to precursors like a recent marriage or divorce, a promotion or even kids moving out of the house. These all indicate the possibility of moving to a new home and creates the perfect reason to contact them. The good news is that most people share these kinds of life events with their friends and family on social media!

These were just a few highlights from this exciting interview, so be sure to tune in for the full podcast!

To view the original article, visit the Homes.com blog.