5 Ways Real Estate Agents Fail At Social Media

Apr 1, 2013 // by Bill Gassett // Social Media // 26 Comments

Using Social Media Properly

The way we communicate on a daily basis has changed radically over the last ten years. In our ever changing world of communication, social media is what’s in vogue. Everywhere you turn you can’t escape it whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Linkedin or one of the many others that are cropping up daily. Social media is a way of keeping in touch with the world around us just like reading the daily newspaper used to be. How many people actually sit down and read a newspaper cover to cover anymore? Probably not nearly as many as there were going back even five years ago. How we deliver news is no longer the same.

With new forms of communication, come new rules of the game. While social media is an information delivery mechanism, it is also a way of socializing as well. Those that are really good at social media will tell you being “social” is what matters most. Building relationships is a big part of what social media is about.

Real Estate Agent Social Media Fail

There are countless industries that are really lacking when it comes to social media skills and Real Estate has to be right up there at the top. Having been a Massachusetts Realtor for the past twenty six years, I was immediately intrigued when social media started to catch on. This new way of being able to capture an audience fascinated me.

In fact I was one of the first Realtors in Massachusetts to have a Real Estate blog. Seeing some immediate success only enhanced my desire to use social media as it should be used. One of the best ways to do that was of course to emulate what other successful people were doing. By trial and error I could see that those that were having the most success followed some very simple rules of etiquette. They were not necessarily in the Real Estate industry but clearly had a grasp on making it work for them.
Some of the common denominators of success include thinking of social media as a way to form successful partnerships with others by providing information that could help them learn, laugh, think and possibly reciprocate. Those that do social media well are givers not takers. They do not look at social media as an advertising billboard. The it’s “all about me” mantra does not work well in social circles.
Real Estate agents unfortunately are some of the worst violators of many of these simple social media skills. There are many popular social media channels that Real Estate agents are using improperly. I am going to illustrate some of the more common social media blunders below and hopefully if you are a Realtor reading this you will adjust your thinking. It is also certainly possible you are not even in the Real Estate industry and have made the kind of mistakes illustrated below.

Facebook Social Media Fail

Facebook has to be one of the top social media sites for Real Estate agents making silly blunders. Social media failure here comes in what can best be described as SPAM! One of the more popular Facebook features is the ability to invite people to an event. This of course is terrific if there happens to be a local event that those who ARE LOCAL to the area will want to attend.

A good example of the proper use of a Facebook invite would be a band asking those in their local contacts to come check them out. Using Facebook in this manner is a big win for the band to get the word out and also great for those on the invite list who may enjoy good music.
A Facebook invite however is not for your entire list of Facebook friends! I can not even tell you how many times a week I get the most silliest invites from other Real Estate agents. Hey Bill please come to my pancake social next week in California. Sorry Jeff I am busy selling homes and will not be able to make it. While I am sure the pancakes will be delicious, I won’t be flying from coast to coast just to try them.
Kids birthday parties are another Facebook failure that agents just love. Hey Molly the Realtor I am sure your daughters birthday party at some Virginia bowling alley is going to be a blast but Bill the Realtor from Massachusetts won’t be able to make it. Seriously folks it doesn’t take that much longer to invite people who will want to attend your event. Do you know how absurd you look when you don’t think about your actions in social media?
Guess what happens after people get tired of constantly seeing your foolish invites? If you guessed people hit the blocked button it’s Bingo for you! The thing is you will never get a notification that you are blocked it just happens. Obviously this is not something you want!
Another thing that Realtors love doing on Facebook is boasting about how busy they are. It goes something like this “OMG I am so busy out showing homes for the third time this week blah blah blah.” A quick check of the agent boasting how busy they are reveals they have sold 5 homes all year and it is September. Please if you are going to talk about how wonderful you are doing, at least have the stats to back it up! Other people certainly will and show your competitors to boot.

Google Plus Social Media Failure

Google plus is the newest social media site on the scene and rapidly becoming one of the most popular. One of the neat things about Google Plus is how you are able to create “circles” for those that you follow. A circle is just another name for a category or group of people. If you are a Real Estate agent you could have circles for a number of things including other Realtors, family and friends, people who share an interest and any number of other possibilities.

What is really neat about Google plus is that not only can you share something “public” which will put your post into anyone’s stream who happens to follow you but also directly to a circle as well. As an example let’s say I want to share a fantastic post about why Realtors should claim Google authorship. It would make sense if I had a group of Realtors I knew well and interacted with daily, they may want to see a helpful article like this. Google plus allows me to send this directly to them. Since those in my circle know me, it is not unusual for them to get notified of a post I have created. You could certainly call this an instant notification of content worthy of viewing.

One of the ways sharing posts directly with someone in Google Plus can be considered a no-no is when you do not know them. It is not appropriate for one Realtor to send another Realtor their latest and greatest “share” if they don’t know the person. Even worse is when a Realtor sends someone outside of the Real Estate industry a direct posting.
It is really a poor assumption to think everyone wants to read or look at what you have posted. There are tons of people who could care less about Real Estate and don’t want to see pictures of the home you just sold or what is happening in your town USA. So many Real Estate agents just don’t get this. This would be akin to a dentist sending a bunch of Realtors pictures of a cavity they just filled. Most dentists wouldn’t even dream of doing something so stupid. Realtors on the other hand, make mistakes like this all too often because they think of social media as one big advertising bulletin board.

Linkedin Social Media Failure

One of the terrific features of Linkedin is the groups that you can become a member of that regularly share great information within a certain niche. Real Estate being no exception. There are quite a few Real Estate groups where fantastic ideas for growing your business are shared. As a Realtor looking to gain a new method to grow your business or finding some cool new technology, some of these groups can be a great place to visit. This of course is the case until some agent comes along and drops a bunch of his or her listings into the site.

Groups on linkedin are NOT for Real Estate listings! Seriously why on earth do you think someone in Massachusetts or anywhere else for that matter would want to see your 3 bedroom Ranch in Oregon? THEY DON’T. A professional group where you discuss ways to improve your business is not an open invitation to SPAM your listing. This again goes back to the billboard mentality that many agents have engrained into their head.
Unless you are marketing a Hollywood superstars property or some other extravagant home owned by a famous millionaire nobody cares about your dam listing. Stop putting listings into a professional Real Estate group unless of course you want to continue looking unprofessional to everyone else!

Twitter Social Media Fail

Twitter is another place that some Realtors fail miserably at. The problem here is that Realtors far too often just drop in content and then don’t respond if someone has a question. The best example again is the Realtor who will drop one of their listings into the site via a tweet and then when they are lucky enough to get someone to respond it goes unnoticed.

The thing about social media is that you need to use these sites daily if you expect them to work as intended. There is no point in dropping a link into Twitter if you are not going to respond in a timely fashion or at all.
If sharing your listings on Twitter is what your focus is then I guarantee you have failed at this social media site. Twitter is for providing great content that others can use. It is not about YOU! Your focus on Twitter should be sharing valuable information that others can benefit from. The content doesn’t necessarily have to be your own either. Sharing other peoples articles on Twitter is what builds relationships and increases your following!

Share Button & SEO Social Media Fail

Real Estate agents are notorious for using social media sharing tools that are embedded into their websites as plugins to send their content to various networks and then doing nothing else. Social media is about being social! It is NOT about personal promotion. Stop dumping your content and doing nothing else. Interaction and reciprocation is what makes social media work! All of the social media sites mentioned above are tools to build relationships with people. They are not link dumps! So many Realtors confuse the benefits of social media by thinking it is some kind of exercise in SEO.

In fact one of the more awkward things that you see from Realtors is posting their website address like this —> http://www.sellmyhomeinmetrowestma.com <—- as part of a signature in various social media sites when they make comments like there is some kind of magical SEO benefit for doing so. This is incredibly stupid and does nothing for you other than making you look like a buffoon.

Most Realtors know very little about SEO. This is illustrated very clearly when those in the industry add widgets from sites like Zillow and Trulia to their websites effectively helping those sites outrank agents for their own local keywords. For those that don’t understand what I am talking about here is an explanation of how Realtors help Zillow and Trulia gain better web position. SEO is actually a vital part of any Real Estate agents marketing arsenal. There is no doubt what so ever that having your website appear on the first page of Google for competitive Real Estate search phrases is going to help your business!

If you are a Real Estate agent reading this or anyone else in business for that matter, I hope some of what you have discovered here about social media to be an eye opener. Keep in mind that successful use of social media starts with engaging others. Provide great content of your own and share others content as well. Make sure you reciprocate and say thank you to those that help you become more visible. Do these things and you will see the long term benefit of business growth!