Social Media Marketing Tools - Back At You

Facebook is quite simple.  Work hard to build your audience and then engage them.

Most businesses are not building the right audience and are not engaging them.  Let’s keep it basic and focus on only 2 things small businesses need to focus on when marketing online:

1. Build your Facebook page with relevant and targeted people.  It’s better to have 200 people that fit your targeted demographic than 1,000 people who don’t.  Work hard to get the right people. Your page is not about the number of people, it’s about the quality of people. Quality over quantity.  This is usually the biggest mistake businesses make on Facebook.
2. Once you have the right people, you must engage them.  There is a reason why virtually every major brand promotes their Facebook page and not their web site they have spent millions of dollars building.  The reason, major brands know that engagement is what sells.  People are 50% more likely to buy a product from a brand that they Like on Facebook than one they don’t Like.  Talk to your users, post interesting content and images, and show them you care.  Engagement sells.

It’s easy to say to a business to find the right people and then engage them.  But that’s the key.  Marketing to someone that is not interested in your company is a waste of time.  Find the people that you think fit your demographic, find where they are online and then go after them.

Facebook is not difficult, it just takes time and consistency, and if you focus on these 2 tips, your efforts will be rewarded.

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The Real Estate industry is playing catch up when it comes to technology and online marketing. Like most small businesses, Real Estate professionals are focused on marketing methods of the past. These methods are usually highly competitive, expensive and not very effective, especially when compared to when they were first introduced. For example, ads in the local newspaper, at the bus stop or in the grocery cart, these were all very effective when first started. However, like all marketing channels, change is required to maintain an ad’s effectiveness. Unfortunately, these same channels today are exactly the same as they were 30 years ago.

Fast forward to the Internet. Banner ads are the rage of advertising. Real Estate professionals who were the early movers experienced great success with this new way to advertise. As ad networks became smarter with better targeting, banner ads started to replace traditional advertising. Many of the Real Estate professionals who were the early adopters became the industry’s top sellers of property.

Now 15 years or so later, banner ads are being ignored. Consumers have been flooded with ads over the years and have built up immunity. Today, for an ad to be effective, it not only has to have a good call to action and look sleek, but also it takes multiple viewings of an ad before anyone will click. Meaning, you have to spend a lot of money on design and buying ads in bulk. Even then, it’s a tough sell for most.

Today, Social ads are what banner ads were 15 years ago and newspaper ads 30 years ago. Social ads are refreshing, engaging and encourage a call to action by the consumer to engage with your business. According to Wikipedia, Social advertising is the first form of advertising that leverages “offline” dynamics, or social influence. Facebook is a great example of where businesses can leverage a social platform and target people according to their stated interests and actions.

Imagine targeting people to “Like” your Page that are interested in real estate, or are following similar businesses as your own, or have stated they are interested in buying a home or investing in real estate. All of this is possible through Social ads. Facebook is the dominant social network allowing for this rich base of data to be mined through targeted Social ads. Real Estate professionals have a significant opportunity to build a targeted base of customers using Social ads and over time, will likely never need to pay for advertising again.

Research conducted by Ignite Social Media looking at the effectiveness of Social ads vs traditional banner ads was quite conclusive. It demonstrated that social ads attracted 5.7x more visitors than display ads, cost per visitor was less expensive, bounce rates were half and customer conversations occurred 4.0x more. Consumers are becoming more savvy and have a shorter attention span than ever. Thus, engagement becomes important when marketing online.

Researched conducted by Pilot, who surveyed over 200 marketing professionals, asked how satisfied they were with their Social advertising. Only 1% said they were not satisfied. Meaning 99% said they were somewhat to very satisfied. These are professional marketers, so Real Estate agents and other small businesses, take note, Social advertising is going to be the greatest marketing channel to build a pipeline of customers for the long term.

Real Estate agents, like all small businesses, need to approach marketing with a long term focus. The key question one must ask is “how do I build a long term pipeline of leads?” or asked another way “how do I build a business online that I can market to over the long term?”

According to Back At You (us), most Real Estate agents tend to have a short term, transaction oriented focus. This line of thinking encourages banner ads and buying zip codes or emails for marketing. There are many big businesses selling these old products, but they dominate the industry.

We see a shift occurring with the top brokers and agents it works with. These early adopters are re-allocating their budgets and placing up to 50% of their marketing spend into building a long term pipeline of clients through Social advertising. They are beginning to understand why virtually all the Fortune 500 brands market through their Facebook page and not their own websites.

When was the last time you saw a commercial of a large brand where they were promoting their web site and not their Facebook page? Why is that? Mainly because Facebook provides a place for users to better engage with the brand. Engagement means loyalty and loyalty means a likely customer.

According to one Real Estate broker, Ron Marshall, “I know I will be on Facebook in the next year or two, so why wait, if I start building a targeted audience now and ahead of my peers, I may not need to spend money on advertising in the future. The opportunity is too big to ignore and I am really excited about the prospects. Today, I have 500 people who I have targeted to Like my Facebook page, I have half a dozen leads and one confirmed sale assignment.”

The proof is in the pudding.  We love testimonials like the above!!

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At Back At You we encounter all walks of life when it comes to social media.  Unfortunately the social media industry is full of blowhards and desperate consultants looking to prey on unsophisticated companies. It’s easy to use social media speak to impress a business. But, if you are a business, don’t be fooled by fancy language and empty promises.

Most social media consultants have been consulting for just a few years and pretty much regurgitate what they read on popular technology blogs. They rarely have a unique thought and have never written code or worked with software developers. Understanding code, APIs and the inherent viral loops on social networks are crucial to successful management of social media.  More importantly, if you understand how these all work together, only then can you have a unique and differentiating value-added perspective.

We, along with our partners at Brainy Social Marketing, put together 5 clues that you have hired the wrong social media consultant:

1. Were you asked “What are your goals?” If not, fire them. Your goals are what counts, not the consultants. Once you state your goals then the strategy should be created on how the goals will be achieved.

2. Are you receiving monthly updates that include detailed statistics on the strategy that was crafted for you? If not, fire them. Data is what matters, whether you like numbers or not, data is measurable.

3. What else are they doing besides putting content on your page? Are they actively reaching out to fans and followers (what else besides a wall post or Tweet), is their evidence of increased “engagement,” are they doing any promotions or contest or creating and managing Facebook ads? If not, fire them. To be successful, a social media consultant needs to mix things up to keep the Page fresh and content new. Also, mixing up the tactics is important to see what is working best at that time.

4. Has your consultant been involved in building any technology or software? If not, fire them. Social media is the confluence of technology and marketing, you need to understand both to have a value-added service.

5. Is your consultant taking advantage of the current trends of your industry and business? If not, well, you know what to do. Content is king for your social media efforts. Your business’ best chance to increase the number of customers and their loyalty is stay on top of the latest trends and news so you are seen as a thought leader. Are you proud of the content being posted every day and can you do better?

Odds are you have the wrong person running your social media. If not, congrats you are one of the few. Your social media consultant needs to express a clear vision of how your goals will be achieved. Content is king, mixing up the content is crucial, providing detailed monthly reports on the achievement of those goals is key, understanding how technology plays into marketing in order to create a good bang for the buck scales and you must be proud of your content. If all these are not satisfied, then search for someone new that can make a difference for your business. Social media is too important and can have a huge effect on your business, so do it right and do your homework.

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