What’s the best social media for estate agents?

Should your estate agency be flaunting it on Facebook or inspiring people on Instagram? Should you be tweeting on Twitter, parading yourself on Pinterest or finding another way altogether?

The best place to start is to question what you want to from your social media presence. Specifically, what can you do with your social media  that you cannot do with your website or Rightmove? Do you want tens of thousands of followers? If so, why? What do you think they are going to do?

I’ll deal with Twitter first. Twitter is an absolute sea of gossip, tittle-tattle, trolling and desperation. Millions upon millions of people commenting on someone’s tweet, hoping the mainstream media will pick it up. A moment of vindication for their life, perhaps, but I suggest staying away.

It can be a nasty place and, you need to have a lot of things to say, many times a day, every single day to get noticed. It’s really hard work unless you are either already famous or are absolutely committed to being the loudest loudmouth. Otherwise, really, you’re never likely to get anywhere. So unless you’ve got the most extraordinary person in your office who spouts golden nuggets of property enlightenment every minute of the day, avoid.

Now let’s talk about Instagram. Your Instagram page simply needs to look beautiful OR, if that’s not possible, arrestingly unique. But in the main, people are on Instagram for pictures of pretty people or pretty things.

If you can do that, have a go, BUT DON”T TRY TO SELL THINGS! Just provide a nice little description of what people are looking and then get in as many hashtags as you can that relate to it. Keep them relevant (people hate being led up the garden path) and keep at it. Patience is key: allow at least a year before your audience hits the thousands, but people tend to stay loyal.