This article was originally published on raleighrealtyhomes.com.
Snapchat is not going to make you consistent money as a real estate agent. Facebook Live is.
There are many reasons why, so let’s dive into the data:
Why real estate agents should ignore Snapchat
Any agent who is focusing on Snapchat right now should stop and turn his or her focus to Facebook.
The average age of a homeowner is 55 years old, according to a report published by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Only 2 percent of the audience on Snapchat is 55 or older. This means the average homeowner is not on Snapchat; 60 percent of the audience on Snapchat is under the age of 24. For Americans under 25, the homeownership rate is around 21.5 percent.
When you consider the audience on Snapchat, it’s a big reason to ignore the social media network altogether.
[Tweet “The average age of a homeowner is 55 years old; only 2 percent of Snapchat users are 55+.”]
Growing a following on Snapchat
Did you know that it’s nearly impossible to grow a following on Snapchat?
There is no easy way to connect with other people on the social media network, at least not easy enough for your typical homeowner to understand how.
We use Snapchat daily and only have 100 or so connections. It’s simply too difficult to build a following large enough to support agents.
So knowing that your audience is unlikely to own a home and that it’s not easy to grow a following, why would you focus your time on Snapchat?
The lifespan of a Snap
Here’s another reason Snapchat is bad for real estate agents: If you post a snap to your story, it is there for 24 hours. After that, it’s gone forever.
Even Pinterest is a better social media platform than Snapchat because users tend to be over the age of 25. Pinterest has generated over $20,000 in GCI for my real estate company in 2016; Snapchat has generated $0.
Content on Pinterest has a lifespan of forever, meaning the content you produce will compound over time and work for you long after you’ve created it. Snapchat stories are gone after 24 hours so that time you spent snapping is gone forever.
So the three big reasons to ignore Snapchat:
- The audience is unlikely to own a home or be buying one
- It’s really difficult to grow a following
- The lifespan is only there for one day
If Snapchat is not a good social media network for real estate agents, where should they spend their time?
Turn your focus to Facebook Live
Facebook Live is something real estate agents should be focusing on. Check out the audience on Facebook.
More than 63 percent of the people on Facebook are over the age of 30; it’s much more likely you will be reaching an audience of homeowners.
[Tweet “More than 63 percent of the people on Facebook are over the age of 30.”]
If the audience on Facebook isn’t enough to convince you to use the platform, the engagement statistics are crazy:
On average, people spend 50 minutes using Facebook daily.
That is a crazy amount of time when you consider there are only 1,440 minutes in a day. This means nearly 3 percent of people’s days are spent on the social media network; that percentage is even higher when you factor in time spent sleeping.
Facebook Live also has the ability to go viral because people can like, comment, share, follow and subscribe to your videos. Snapchat is limited to the number of people in your group of friends and cannot be shared.
There is significant opportunity for real estate agents to master Facebook Live and sell more homes because of it.
That opportunity does not exist on Snapchat.
Ryan Fitzgerald is owner and Realtor at Raleigh Realty. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Facebook.
