Editor’s Note: Social Skills is a bi-monthly feature in RISMedia’s Daily News focused on social media and digital marketing tips, trends and solutions for agents and brokers.
Being successful in your social media marketing is not just about frequent posting of good content, you have to balance the styles and types of content you are sharing to reach your highest lead-generation potential. One of the best ways to do this is to follow the 70/20/10 rule.
The 70/20/10 rule is a marketing ideal that applies a little differently depending on the industry and intent, but it essentially breaks down as such: 70% of your content should be brand building, 20% should be content from other sources and 10% should be self-promotional.
For real estate specifically, it translates to something more along these lines: 70% lifestyle content, 20% educational and market insights and 10% direct pitches.
The lifestyle content (70%)
Real estate has always been an inherently relationship-based business. Clients choose to work with you, to repeat business and recommend you to others based on the strength of the relationship they build with you, and that relationship centers on trust.
In order to build trust with potential clients on social media, you have to be authentic. You have to demonstrate to people that you are a relatable human being, along with being an expert in your job.
This comes in the form of lifestyle content—the behind the scenes, nitty-gritty of your life as a real estate agent and person for your community.
One of the top things you’ll want to showcase is the “unglamorous” side of real estate: you doing the actual nitty gritty details of your job. The coffee runs, the baking cookies and the set up for open houses, the (possibly mountains of) paperwork, the dealing with lockboxes and more. Think of it like being a vlogger, showcasing your daily life in the job of an agent to show potential clients what you do and how you do it. While this sounds boring, it doesn’t have to be. You make it interesting by adding in your personality, being yourself and having fun while doing it all.
While the focus is going to be quite a bit on your job, you should also take time to showcase your life and who you are. A bit of your hobbies, your daily routine, your life outside of real estate. You’re showing that you’re a person like your client, and while you have a pretty different job than most you still have a life like they do.
This content ends up being the major lift for your socials because it is highly interactable and will build “parasocial” relationships (psychological bonds through social media). Potential clients will already feel like they know you before they even hire you.
The educational and market insights (20%)
The educational and market insights is where you will prove your knowledge more, also building that essential trust through showcasing your expertise.
While a lot of this section will be sharing other content in the form of data reports, news or advice articles, and more, you will be serving that new-age social media role of the news explainer. You will be the person that people on social media turn to when they want the news broken down into simpler terms, because they trust that person to understand things they don’t and translate them into terms for the everyday person. Especially since so many people have so little knowledge of real estate before their first transaction (and sometimes even after), this is a vital role.
The content you are sharing here, as mentioned, will be other content that you are presenting through your lens. You can share market data, such as home sales, down payment amounts and prices, in your area as well as through a national lens, economic data on inflation and interest rates, jobs data on unemployment and salaries, budgeting advice and more. Anything that is relevant to the housing market and what people need to be educated on in order to make a transaction, financially and economically.
The direct pitches (10%)
Here is your final piece: What you are actually selling, so to speak. For other industries this would be the actual ads for the product your company makes. For real estate, this is your listings.
While it may seem like your listings should be top of the list in your content sphere, they aren’t necessarily the most important. Yes, you are helping to sell and buy homes, but no one wants to hire someone who all they know about them is their listings. You have to put your personality and expertise forward to build that trust; then your final piece to secure your leads is to share your listings.
In addition, by limiting the listing posts down to 10% you will actually receive more attention on them because they won’t be white noise all over your profile.
Just because this is the smallest portion of content also doesn’t mean you can get lazy—creativity will continue to reward you, even here.
Showcase your listings with creativity and you will continue to reap the rewards. Make your walk throughs with high-energy and good humor, adding in the personality you’ve been showing off. Continue to have fun with what you are making, because that will always be the best kind of content.
