Social Media and Real Estate: Make the Connection!
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Social media, when used properly, connects the properties available to their target audience—increasing the chances of a bid and successful closing by providing consumers with the information they’re looking for: photos, testimonials, feedback and the hottest new listings. Here’s an overview of the available social media and their benefits.
- Facebook. Facebook is the most well-known and user- friendly of all the social media networking sites, with individuals and professional businesses equally rep- resented. Facebook enables users to upload individual photos, albums, real-time updates, notes and links to outside websites, giving users the most options and visitors the highest ease of access.
- Twitter. Twitter is a scaled-down, “ticker-tape” social network that provides frequent, brief updates. Twitter’s capacity for photo viewing (“Twitpics”) is limited, redirecting to an exterior hosting site and often compromising photo quality.
- Yelp. Yelp allows businesses the ability to link to their official sites and social networks, with visitors able to look up businesses by loca- tion and read impartial testimonials and feedback from other users. It is important to note that a business has no control of moderating or responding to reviews on Yelp.
- LinkedIn, Active Rain. LinkedIn and Active Rain can be seen as “Facebook for professionals”— while excellent for Realtors® networking with other local agents, the casual visitor may be discouraged from using these sites, as one must create an account in order to view a professional’s profile.
- WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, Blogspot. Blogging sites are orient- ed towards text rather than social networking and provide the user the opportunity to provide more information, but limit the amount of interaction available with visitors. Blogsites are best utilized in con- junction with Facebook or Twitter, where once the visitor’s interest has been “hooked”, they can link to the blog and read more at their leisure.
