Not Understanding the Social Media Network You're Using
- The Orange Stack
- Feb 20, 2018
- 3 min read
This is the fourth instalment in our 11-part series on the top social media mistakes real estate agents are making that prevent them from winning more business. In this latest instalment, we shall look at how not understanding the social media network you are using can hinder your progress and success on the platform.
Different social media networks cater for different audiences. They also provide a distinct experience for those on the network. For example, users on Twitter are there for short bites of information served up quickly. They will seldom log on to read a long post.
In fact, Twitter’s character limit, recently increased from 140 to 280, makes it impossible to post a long post within one tweet. Facebook on the other hand is built for long-form stories, while Instagram is more geared towards image-centric posts.
To help you understand the social network you are using and how it can impact your marketing efforts as a real estate agent, we shall look at two points to consider:
Pick the Social Media Network(s) You Can Commit To
Each social media network has its own unique characteristics and features. The four main ones, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, can be useful but you must determine what each has to offer.
Facebook is the largest social media network, Twitter leads in terms of timely updates, Instagram has a massive Millennials user base and LinkedIn has well-educated professionals. Each of these represents a potential advantage for your marketing efforts.
However, if you decide to go with all four but struggle to create content, this will backfire on you. Instead, look at each and decide what type of content you can create consistently. Facebook will require personable long form posts with images. Twitter will need a slew of tweets each day that have interesting and noteworthy information. Instagram will need high-quality images to go with each post. Lastly LinkedIn will need deep thought leadership pieces.
Based on this, we suggest you start with Facebook. It’s the largest social media network and perfecting it first will help you branch out to the other networks successfully.
Tailor Each Piece of Content for Each Social Media Network
So, you’ve worked with Facebook for a while and are ready to add another network. At this point, you will need to tailor each piece of content for the next social media network. Most real estate agents make the mistake of using a platform like Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule generic updates. They write one update, and this gets sent to all their social media profiles. This is a big mistake.
Remember each network is optimized for a certain type of updates. While you can still use these scheduling platforms, you will need to create optimized updates for each channel. The content may be the same but how it is written will differ.
This will ensure when your updates go out, your audience will consume it in the exact format they expect from the social media network they are on.
The more you understand how each social media network works and how its users interact with it, the better you will become at optimizing your content. Resists the urge to post generic posts or sales-only-related posts as these will end up putting off your audience. Always remember to be consistent, personable and most importantly, strategic in the content you deliver.
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