Tips to Improve Your Social Media Skills

Just the facts!

Did you know the fastest growing market on Twitter is people aged 55 to 64? Or that LinkedIn has the lowest percentage of active users? Before spending your precious ad dollars or sinking your valuable time into social media promotion, make sure to identify which social media site will get the biggest bang for your buck/time. Do a bit digging for some hard stats, you won’t regret it.

Facebook and Twitter and Instagram…oh my!

Social media is constantly evolving. One of the most important things an agent can do to improve their exposure is to stay up on changes to the changes and be contently on the lookout for new opportunities. Emerging social media sites such as Pheed, Bubblews, and Sulia are worth taking a look for promotion and lead generation.

Do it often—just not TOO often

Try to find the sweet spot of the frequency of your posts. Posting too little will have no effect on your business but post too much and you will come off as annoying. According to Track Social, the sweet spot is posting twice a day for most social media sites. Customer and fan engagement tends to drop off significantly anything after that two a day average.

Your email address is an ASSET of your business.

You need to own your own domain, not a domain you may have to surrender some day. What is the value of your future business?

Here are a few thoughts on the use of a permanent e-mail address for REALTORS or any business:

1. Your e-mail address is an asset of your business and you invest in the e-mail address you use every time you give out a business card, piece of marketing material, or run an ad with it included in the ad. You are teaching the world that to communicate with you by e-mail, send e-mail to that e-mail address. If you ever changed e-mail addresses, for any reason, you would probably not receive e-mail sent to the "old" e-mail address. What about a customer who sends e-mail to you at the "old" e-mail address? If you do not receive the e-mail, you can't respond. What is the cost of potential lost business?

2. Anytime you use an e-mail address with a domain you do not own, you are investing in someone else's asset, you are a "renter" and not an "owner"...would you rather rent or own? If you use an comast e-mail address, who owns your e-mail address? If you use an AOL e-mail address (LOL..yes there are a few who still do...and I must mock them), who owns your e-mail address? Not you. The "owner" can raise the rent at their option. Maybe you think that they would never do that, but it is in their power to do so and not yours, whether you think so or not.

3. Who do you want to brand...you or gmail (or any other domain you do not own)?

4. Dot Com (.com) is the "800 number" of Top Level Domains...would you rather have an "888" toll free number or an "800" toll free number? New top level domains represent a risk to your business. Stick to the tried and true.

It makes good business sense for all businesses to own their own domain and to use it not only for their web site address, but for their e-mail address.