The Big Social Media Mistake Sellers Can't Afford

Social media hit the real estate industry like wild fire, transforming almost every aspect of listing and selling real estate. However, along with tremendous opportunity for success comes opportunity for failure.

One example of the latter can occur when sellers must decide who to list their real estate with. Their Big Social Media Mistake may be not investigating what social media will do for their particular real estate transaction, rather than counting on what social media could do in theory or has done for others. Unfounded or exaggerated seller expectations when listing can set sellers up for disappointment and lower financial return.

Social media can speed up identification of potential buyers for specific properties and accelerate the process of bringing those buyers into transactions with sellers, but this is not an automatic outcome. Even at its best, the social media aspect of a listing service should represent part of your reason for selecting a particular brokerage or salesperson, not the only reason for signing a listing.

Social media is not an "it," but a crowded, free-wheeling, wide-ranging digital environment generating interactions - good, bad, and misdirected - that number in the millions every day... and no one knows the net outcome until it has happened. Social media from Facebook to blogging also causes problems because unintended consequences of posts, videos, and comments can undermine communication and sabotage results. Selecting the best communication option from the range of social media choices and creating attention-catching content to connect with a specific subset of buyers requires skill and experience - both valuable in a listing agent.

Listing On Target
Selling your home, cottage, or income property for the best price, in the shortest possible time, with the minimum hassle is what most sellers aim for - dream of. The essential elements for achieving this real estate goal are simple:

1. A pool of prospective buyers who are fully qualified, that is, [short bullet list begins]
who would add your real estate to their "dream home" list and
who have the financial wherewithal to pay your price.

2. Real estate professionals who can convert qualified prospects into committed buyers using the seller's criteria for selling their real estate.

3. Sellers with reasonable, achievable expectations regarding the sale of their real estate, who make a reasonable effort to ensure their real estate "shows well," that is, is at its physical best according to the criteria of qualified buyers.
4. Mortgage lenders who agree with the seller's opinion of real estate value and the buyer's opinion of their ability to repay debt, and have the required funds, that is, lenders intent on financing well-grounded transactions.

Individually, these elements may seem simple, even obvious, but they are neither. Successfully defining your specifics for each element and bringing qualified buyers, the reasonable seller, and money together is what listing real estate professionals do to earn their commission and gain repeat business.

Merely, posting your listing or a virtual-tour video of your home on social media like Facebook, Pinterest, or a Real Estate Blog does not automatically guarantee that even more qualified buyers learn your real estate is for sale in a way that impresses them enough to seek out the property and buy it. Effective listing services involve selecting the best set of relevant buyer-centric social media options to reach specific buyer markets. These are then integrated into the full range of marketing and sales options, including signage and agent open houses, that have proven effective for on-goal sales in that local market and for that type of real estate.

Avoid The Big Mistake
Ask prospective listing agents to address these issues when explaining their marketing services to make it clear what you can reasonably expect. Adopt the following social media misdirection's:

1. Wrong people...If the social media selected and the content created to showcase your real estate are not considered relevant and valuable by buyers qualified to purchase the real estate in question, what's the point? Creating buzz or traffic that is not qualified and committed to buy your type of real estate does nothing to get your specific property sold.

2. Wrong exposure...Exposing other real estate professionals to a listing that is outside the specific location, price range, or buyer market they work does not significantly further a seller's cause. Some types of buyers are not as attracted to online marketing variations as experienced professionals can tell you.

3. Wrong place...Digital listings or video marketing packages that are expertly targeted to the ideal buyer are of little value if these qualified buyers don't see it because their typical real estate search does not include the social media chosen to display this information.

4. Wrong emphasis...Concentrating the entire budget and work effort on online may miss out on street-level opportunities for promotion that are also favored by qualified buyers.

Social media can make the difference when on-target for a seller's qualified buyer market. Most real estate listings automatically incorporate social media activity, but stellar results are not a given. When interviewing real estate professionals to decide how best to achieve your selling goals, get down to specifics about social media to discover how it will integrate with traditional marketing to attract qualified buyers to your real estate.

Resource: What's Your Point? Cut The Crap, Hit The Mark & Stick!
Published: August 6, 2013
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