The Takeaway: Decide what you want from your real estate social media marketing efforts.
Your social goals may be similar to those of other agents in and around your housing market.
The specifics of your strategy, though — like the content shared on each social network — will most certainly differ.
There is one key takeaway from the Simply Measured report (and other ROI-related social surveys) that stands out to us:
- Brands continually struggle with determining not only how to measure their ROI on social, but where to even begin in collecting data.
In other words, you ought to outline a few simple data points you want to measure on social as you build out your strategy.
For instance, if you simply want to build brand awareness, you will want to track how many people like your posts, follow your pages, and share your updates.
Over time, you’ll probably want to step up your game and monitor how many people end up on your website from a Twitter post or Facebook ad. But starting simple is ideal.
Develop a detailed content plan for each social account you have set up so you know what you’ll post over time as well. Without content, you’ll have nothing to post and measure.
Once these two steps are completed, it’s simply a matter of crafting articles, guides, reviews, and other assets, then publishing each steadily to every social network you use.
If you’re looking for some words of wisdom to guide your ROI tracking, you’ll find plenty from the marketing experts below:
- “If a brand isn’t showcasing their personality and bringing value with their content, there will be very little in the way of sales.” — Empty Desk Solutions Owner Brittany Hardy, via Huffington Post
- “Experimenting with different types of analytics will be crucial for businesses seeking to attribute monetary value to social.” — Wandera VP of Marketing Joel Windels, via Brandwatch
- “If you want to measure social media ROI, figure out what you want to track, where you can track it, think about both current customers and new customers, and go do it.” — Convince & Convert Founder Jay Baer
- “If you’re measuring your social media ROI for the first time, take it slow and keep your goals to a limited number to avoid confusion.” — Entrepreneur Brian Zeng, via Moz
- “Compare your social media efforts to your competitors and you can uncover areas of opportunity for your organization to stand out and be heard through the noise.” — Hootsuite Director of Customer Analytics Graham Gullans, via Ad Age
The common thread among these tips and tricks is obvious: Social media can generate traction for your online marketing — but don’t overdo your analysis.
Share a wide variety of different content on a wide variety of social channels, see which work and which don’t, then amplify your sharing on the social networks that appear to be giving you the most value.
In a matter of a few months, you’ll know where to focus your real estate social media marketing efforts.