SAN FRANCISCO — Social media is an integral part of many, if not all, real estate professionals’ marketing plans. But how exactly do you break through the noise of everyone making Facebook Live videos, Snapchat stories, and Instagram ads?
Social media marketing expert Katie Lance shared five of her greatest tips for streamlining daily processes, making long-lasting impressions and capitalizing on your online presence offline.
1. Systematize your business
Lance suggests using Asana, Trello and Slack to make day-to-day business transactions and communications smoother.
Asana is a tool that allows managers and team members to easily track progress on projects — no email chains and unnecessary phone calls needed.
Simply create a board for a project, and then create highly detailed and customized cards that track every detail. This is great for long-term projects where details, documents, and ideas can easily be lost or forgotten about.
Trello is similar to Asana, and it’s better for short-term project tracking or keeping track of day-to-day tasks.
Simply create a board for a project and then populate it with lists and cards. The checklists, comments, color labels, and archiving system make it perfect for keeping your office on task.
Emails and phone calls aren’t always the most efficient way to communicate with office mates, and it can be annoying to rummage through email chains and voicemails.
Well, here comes Slack!
Slack is a tool for interoffice communications that claims to reduce email usage by 48.6 percent, giving you more time to be productive. Create channels for various topics, and use threads to comment directly to co-workers.
2. Stop being vanilla!
Lance says it’s important to remember that you’re not the only one making Facebook Live videos, producing YouTube video content or blogging about the most effective ways to sell a home. She suggests “leaning in” and fully owning your personality instead of trying to be a carbon copy of someone else.
3. 10x your content creation
Lance uses Later, Medium and Boomerang to keep the content flowing without over exhausting herself. Lance says consistent content creation is the best way to become the “digital mayor of your town.”
Don’t have time to post on Instagram 2 to 3 times a day? Then use Later, a platform that allows you to create Instagram posts in bulk and schedule them to go live whenever you want.
Blogging can be a highly effective way to become a trusted expert, extend your digital reach and bolster your online reputation. Lance uses Medium to write blog posts and lauds the easy-to-use interface.
Boomerang is an Instagram tool that enables users to make mini videos on a whim. Capture community outreach events, a special moment at a conference or day-to-day office goings on for easily likable content.
4. Create snackable content
Canva, Word Swag, and Together are apps that allow you to create “snackable” content — the pithy name Lance uses to describe content that’s quick, easy to read and super easy to share.
Canva is a platform that allows you to create content for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and any other social media account you have. You can keep your designs simple, or get super creative with various templates, fonts, colors and backgrounds.
Want to share a motivational quote or do a quick advertisement? Word Swag is the app for you! Simply type your content, choose a style and background, and hit save for eye-catching graphics with little effort.
Together is an app that allows you to edit, splice, cloud-store and share videos all from your phone or tablet.
5. The gold is in your email!
Lance suggests using MailChimp, BombBomb or Infusionsoft to create memorable emails that offer major results.
MailChimp‘s platform offers a plethora of email templates, automated scheduling and data insights that help email marketing newbies. The interface is relatively simple to navigate and walks you through each step of creating the perfect email campaign.
Scrap long, wordy emails in favor of personalized video messages with BombBomb. BombBomb says users get 81 percent more replies, convert 68 percent more leads and 56 percent more referrals. You can create the video, track results, schedule and craft canned responses all from the BombBomb platform.
Infusionsoft is an email platform that offers all-in-one sales and marketing for small businesses. Infusionsoft’s platform includes a CRM, automatic email and social media marketing, and new customer lead scoring.
6. (Bonus!) Lastly, take the online offline
Lance had a little time to throw in a sixth tip! She says it’s important to take online connections offline to create meaningful experiences and results. She suggested making phone calls, sending handwritten notes or inviting new connections to lunch or dinner.
