Generating Real Estate Leads Through Social Media
March 18, 2010
By: Justin Britt
Author's Website: http://www.hawaiilife.com/
The question constantly being asked by agents within my brokerage is, “how do I use social media websites like Facebook and Twitter for real estate lead generation?”
At a recent Inman conference I had the pleasure of sitting in on a presentation by Bill Tancer of HitWise (check out his book Click). During his talk Bill shared some interesting statistics:
- Social media accounts for 3% of online business.
- Of that 50% comes from Facebook (or 1.5%).
With so little opportunity coming from social media sites why are agents worried about using them? For one thing, it has been a successful traffic driver for other business models. So it’s natural for agents to jump in, not knowing how to apply it to the real estate industry.
Personally, I’m banking on social media becoming a big time search engine ranking factor. Google and Bing will certainly figure out how to use links passed by users within this space and apply it to their algorithms. Is it possible that we’re already seeing this integrated in organic search?
A recent post on my Hawaii real estate blog titled “Maui Condo Bargains Appeal To Buyers” received several retweets and a few social bookmarks. Did this help to drive the post to the first page of Google for the longtail keyword “Maui condo bargains”?
If the answer is yes, that means more reads for the blog post, and, if we’re lucky, it may even generate real estate leads for the author.
Here’s how it works…search engine spiders (robots Google sends across the web) are interested in fresh and newsworthy content to place in their search results. As people share your blog post through social media sites, the conversation around your topic grows. This “discussion” or “buzz” is heard by the robots who are excited to share what everybody is talking about on the front page of Google’s searches.
So how do you create a conversation around your posts? With interesting content. Blog about your intimate knowledge of your niche real estate market, and people will bookmark and share the content naturally.
Oh yeah, you might want to make it easier to share blog posts and help get that discussion started.
- Stumble it!
- Categories: SEO
Enjoy this post? Subscribe to the Geek Estate Blog feed or get updates via e-mail
Comments
View Comments
Robert Luna on March 18, 2010 4:30 pm
Justin Great stuff as always…Mahalo!
Make It Easier To Share Blog Posts & Create Buzz Around Real Estate Articles | Real Estate Industry Blog on March 18, 2010 2:44 pm
[...] a recent blog post regarding generating real estate leads I spoke about creating a “discussion” around blog posts using social media. I theorized [...]
Justin Britt on March 18, 2010 6:35 pm
Thanks Robert, I'm just sharing what works for me.
Mark Menconi Jr. on March 19, 2010 7:18 am
I'm curious, since my site is '”static” as opposed to a blog, what would you suggest would be a good way to frame additional content to get “Buzz” ?
Fresno CA Apartments For Rent on March 19, 2010 9:08 am
All of this will work only if its targeted around keywords that real estate prospects in your niche can see. Case in point: I paid $1 to for a guy who promised to drive over 1,000 visitors to my video in less than 24 hours. He did it, sure enough I got 1,200 visitors. When I backtracked the links to the video to see how he did it, I found to my horror that he had promised porn in my video! Did it work? No. Not one lead was generated because they were not highly qualified leads within my real estate niche.
mlbroadcast on March 19, 2010 11:10 am
SEO shylocks will tell you that quantity is more important than quality. It's a load of crap. I love watch Guy Kawasaki on a panel discussion. Inevitably, someone will ask him about SEO. He gives his standard answer. SEO means “Write Good Shit”. Look, there are some important things to do to maximize the “searchability” of your content, but in the end the content has to be better than the next guy or gal. It has to be engaging and targeted. If it doesn't get an immediate call to action, nothing else you would have generated would have either. At least you've given someone a reason to remember you when they are ready to do so.
Justin Britt on March 22, 2010 3:01 pm
You can build new content using static pages. You can also add widgets like “share this” or “add this” to make it easy to share that content.
Justin Britt on March 22, 2010 3:02 pm
Great answer. Content rulez, SEO's interested in quantity drool.
waikoloavrm on March 22, 2010 3:08 pm
Good article! You are my SEO hero!
Chris Fyvie on March 29, 2010 4:19 pm
Good stuff. I just finished my first deal from a Twitter referral. The deals do happen through leads from social media but you're right… not very often.
jprezzi on April 2, 2010 7:02 am
Sometimes it does seem like the return rate doesn't justify the time that we put in, but I think you have to be in it for the long haul.
I think our social media strategy keeps our “name” in front of everyone and when they think of local real estate, hopefully those we are connected with, think of us.
What I like about social media is that the more you put in, the more you get out. I can see the results.
Justin Britt on April 8, 2010 4:07 pm
Good to hear it does work.
Justin Britt on April 8, 2010 4:08 pm
My point is not to say that social media doesn't work. Just to be mindful of how much effort you put into it with regards to other types of marketing that have a higher ROI.
Justin Britt on April 8, 2010 11:07 pm
Good to hear it does work.
Justin Britt on April 8, 2010 11:08 pm
My point is not to say that social media doesn't work. Just to be mindful of how much effort you put into it with regards to other types of marketing that have a higher ROI.
gucci on May 31, 2010 3:53 am
“Well , the view of the passage is totally correct ,your details is really reasonable and you guy give us valuable informative post, I totally agree the standpoint of upstairs. I often surfing on this forum when I m free and I find there are so much good information we can learn in this forum!
gucci on June 3, 2010 2:24 am
Well , the view of the passage is totally correct ,your details is really reasonable and you guy give us valuable informative post, I totally agree the standpoint of upstairs. I often surfing on this forum when I m free and I find there are so much good information we can learn in this forum! http://www.oneor-more.com/
Elizabeth Delgado on August 14, 2010 4:27 pm
Great Info! Helpful hints and tips! Thank you for sharing it with all of us!
Christina Catana on August 16, 2010 4:38 pm
Great points about generating “buzz” through social media. I haven’t used social media for lead generation. Facebook has been a way for me to let my existing relationships know about my creative methods in selling real estate. You’ve just inspired me to create more buzz-worthy content for people to share. It’s all about adding value.