Real estate agents have to be competitive entrepreneurs in the best of times. And these days, the real estate market continues to be in the worst of times. So how can real estate agents get the edge, beat out their competitors, and offer the best services to their clients? In this article, we will show you how easy it is to add social media marketing to your mix. And you how you can create killer social promotions to make you the best real estate marketer you can be. Many real estate agents have shied away from jumping into social media. They have questions about how effective it is, and how to measure results. 3 ways to measure KPI’s using social media platforms:

1. Measure likes/ shares/ comments on your Facebook Page
2. Track retweets, @connects and followers on your Twitter
3. Analyze visits to your main website trackable from your social platforms

5 Benefits of using social media for real estate agents:

1. Reach new customers, through friends and family of current clients
2. Promote your listings to new markets with little to no extra cost
3. Develop longer lasting relationships with your clients
4. Obtain a deeper understanding of your prospective clients through data pulled from Facebook’s Open Graph
5. And ultimately, generate more leads and sales

How do you get the results you want? At Wishpond, we want you to be the best real estate marketer you can be. To do so, we’ve created a whole range of social promotion apps – making your successes a little easier. Our Social Marketing Suite gives you a range of easy to use social promotion apps, provides exclusive analytics for you to track and measure all of your achievements, and enables you to export, import and send targeted, direct emails. All of our promotion apps work on both Twitter and Facebook. 5 Social Promotion Tactics Real Estate Agents can use right now:

1. Vote Contest on Twitter
2. Photo Contest on Facebook
3. Sweepstakes on Twitter
4. Video Contest on Facebook
5. Pinterest Tab on Facebook

Vote contest on Twitter A Vote Contest is one of the easiest promotions to engage your clients. Like all of our social promotion apps, a Vote Contest is a very easy contest to set up. In just five short steps, you can have it live and running on your Facebook or Twitter. And for your followers, they provide a low barrier to entry. All voters need to do is sign in, and then vote for their preferred option. It has the potential to attract a very high percentage of entrants. Once a participant votes, it shows up in their Twitter stream, inviting their followers to vote too. More entrants mean more emails for you, and more awareness of you and your listings. Vote Contests are a great way to understand your followers, and they are some of the easiest ways to get users to interact with you and your marketing strategies. After all, voting is asking your clients for their opinions. Tip: Make your vote contest something that resonates with your clients base. As a realtor you know that connecting with your client is often more important than pushing your product. The same is true online, and in contests. Example: In the example, below, Rick’s Realty (a fictitious name for the purpose of this article), set up a Vote Contest. He put up three photos of a house he has listed. He wants to know from his followers which listing they prefer. He is offering a prize of a one night stay in an exclusive nearby hotel. For Rick, the cost outlay is merely the cost of the hotel. In exchange, he gets marketing for his listing, can compile emails for potential clients, and can base future marketing using the most popular image. Photo Contest on Facebook Photo Contests are another great way to increase engagement. Photos are a great marketing tool for any good real estate agent. Imagine getting authentic, listing related,  user-generated photos from your clients and prospective clients. And imagine them spreading to your fans’ family and friends through Facebook. With cameras on every phone these days, photos and your marketing go hand in hand. And, photos are generally the most viewed posts on Facebook feeds. The Photo Contests through Wishpond are again very simple to set up. For your customer, too, they have a relative low barrier to entry, with fans simply submitting their email, and uploading a photo. You can create engaging contests, with enticing prizes to enter. Tip: Again, make the subject of your photo contest of interest to your clients and prospective clients. A good prize helps, but if the photo topic is something your clients are excited about, and are willingly wanting to share, your photo contest will be more successful. Example: In the example, below, Rick’s Realty set up a Photo Contest. He wants to show how happy his recent clients are with their major purchase.  He sends out an email invite to participate in the photo contest. In the contest, he asks his clients to share their best photos of a stylishly decorated room in their new home. He is offering a weekend getaway to an exclusive nearby resort. Sweepstakes on Twitter Sweepstakes are some of the simplest types of contests. They can be set up in minutes and, like all of our apps, are automatically optimized for mobile. With a low barrier to entry, they are easy for users, which maximizes engagement. Users simply click ‘Enter Sweepstakes’, submit their email, and they’re in. Once signed up, entrants automatically share a post on their Twitter profile, inviting their followers to join too. This generates buzz for your listing and creates a potential viral campaign too. You get to collect entrants’ emails, and you can track results in real-time to monitor campaign performance in our Social Marketing Suite. Sweepstakes can be run for all kinds of products or gift certificates.  You can use them to promote a new listing, a reduced price, or just generate buzz for your services. People like to win. Sweepstakes are a great way to cater to this desire. Tip: The prize is key to making your sweepstakes a success. People are motivated to enter if they see the reward being worth it. And they will be more motivated if the prize is relevant to their wants. In other words, know your market and make the prize relevant to them. Example: In the example, below, Rick’s Realty has a new house for sale. To promote it, he is giving away a $50 gift certificate from Ikea. All contests have to do to enter is submit their email. Video Contest on Facebook Video contests have a higher barrier to entry. But they can be an incredible way to gain interest in your property, make the benefits of your condo shine through, and potentially go viral to markets you would not have reached otherwise. Contestants do need to have their own YouTube account – you may be surprised at how many of your younger clientele have one! Most phones have video capability, with easy ways to share to the contest, so you can get creative about what user-generate content you want your clients to share. With the contest being on Facebook, again, the entrants spread the news very quickly to their friends and family. Every entrant, and every vote in the contest will show up on the participants Facebook news feed. Tip: With the barrier to entry a little more of an effort, make the reward worthwhile. And show your clients the benefits to them. For example, if your video contests relates to your open house, as below, set up simple instructions at your open house, that easily walks your visitors through the process of uploading their videos. Tell them the benefits of making the video – that they will remember the showing better, and can make better comparisons to additional showings. Example: In the example, below, Rick’s Realty set up a video contest. He had clients make short videos showing their three favourite features of the property he was showing. The videos would be shot as the prospective buyers were viewing his hip and  trendy condo. To entice his market to attend the open house, and create positive content for the property, he offered a prize of a weekend getaway to an exclusive nearby resort, plus a $250 gift certificate at a high end furniture store. Pinterest Tab: As a realtor, having a Pinterest Page can broaden your ability to showcase your listings. Pinterest is a very visual site. Successful real estate agents know enticing visuals, well presented are a great way to drive interest and sales. How can you use Pinterest?

• have boards of your listings, categorized by neighbourhood, or price range
• have boards of designer kitchens and/ or bathrooms – to show reno ideas for prospective new home owners
• have boards of beautiful photos of the city and neighbourhoods of your listings

Make sure that your Pinterest Page is easy to access through your other social platforms, like Facebook and your website. Wishpond has easy to make Pinterest tabs. With just a few simple clicks, you can connect your Pinterest Page with your Facebook Page. Tip: Your market are on multiple social platforms. As a successful realtor, you likely do a lot of networking offline. And you may be a member of many social groups. Use the same practise online. Reach your potential clients where they most like to be. Example: Rick’s Realty added a Pinterest tab to his Facebook Page, so clients can view his Pinterest boards with amazing visuals directly on Facebook.   Wishpond also offers the following easy to use apps in our Social Marketing Suite: Pinterest Contest App Photo Caption Contest Social Store and many more… Contact us now for a consultation, or to get started with a free trial today

Written by Krista Bunskoek