We attended the ActiveRain “Raincamp” seminar at the Boston World Trade Center earlier in the week, and wanted to share some great social media facts and tips that we learned. With 94% of all home buyer consumers starting their search online and Facebook just hitting over 500 Million users, Realtors who are effectively using social media are at a huge competitive advantage over those who aren’t. Thousands of leads are being generated online today, and you have to tap into that to be successful selling real estate today.
Here are a few of the lessons learned from the ActiveRain Camp…
Social Media Sites are Dominating the Internet
- 74.1% all consumers are online today, spending 32.7 hours/week online!
- 32% of time online is spent on some type of social media site
- The fastest growing demographic on Facebook are females over 55. Yes, the grandmothers have figured out the best way to see pictures of the grandkids is on Facebook!
- The top websites: 1. Facebook 2. Google 3. Yahoo 4. Youtube 5. MSN 6. Bing
- The top social networks: 1. Facebook (55% market share), 2. YouTube, 3. Myspace, 4. Twitter
- Facebook has over 500 Million worldwide users and 150 Million U.S. users
- Facebook has 2.7Million users in Massachusetts
- 85% of available traffic come from search engines, namely in order, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Bing
Real Estate Internet Traffic
Top Real Estate sites:
- 94% of 24-44 year old’s search online for home buying
- 32% of buyers found the home they actually purchased online. (I found this to be one of the most impressive factoids).
- Consumers don’t care anymore about big agency websites. They use Google as their home search start. They type in exactly what they want: “MA homes for sale”
- 61% of internet searchers think natural search results are more reliable. They know what are ads and what aren’t.
Blog Writing Tips
- Write for the major search engines. That is, write articles you think potential customers are searching for on the Web.
- Position yourself as expert for field or geographic location
- Longer search engine searches account for 80% of search engine traffic. Ex: “Bellingham MA homes with waterfront” instead of “Bellingham MA homes.” Write posts that are hyper focused on those longer search terms.
Blog Post Ideas
- Town School Rankings/District
- Town Crime Statistics
- Town Restaurants
- Town Home Values/Trends
- Town playgrounds, park and rec, lakes, ponds
- Town sports
- Town traffic, commute to Boston
- Town neighborhoods/villages
- Town shopping centers
- Condos
- 55+ retirement projects
- 365 things to do
- 100 places to go
Feeling A Bit Overwhelmed With Social Media?
Starting a social media campaign for newbies can be very overwhelming and complicated because there are so many options especially for the technologically challenged. It’s best to consult with an expert before venturing out and making mistakes.
Since social media has been so successful for us as real estate attorneys and we have developed an expertise in the area, we have been giving very popular seminars on Social Media For Realtors at real estate broker offices across the state, and we have already helped numerous agents set up their own blogs and social media sites like Facebook Fan Pages. It’s been so much fun and successful that we’ve launched a new and exciting service for real estate professionals called HubConnected where we develop, build-out and manage all the various social media platforms for busy real estate professionals. That way, you can generate tons of online leads while concentrating on doing what you do best: selling real estate! Please contact me at [email protected] for more information, and look for more information here at the Blog.
