Given how important the internet has become in terms of marketing strategy, making use of social media, blogs, and search engines is becoming increasingly important for success in the professional world. With respect to how real estate marketing has shifted online, having a strong digital presence is crucial for those working in real estate. A few basic changes can make a world of difference in creating a digital impact. Social media and online content should never be an afterthought, and these tips demonstrate how investment in your digital strategy pays off in the long-run.
Original content
Sharing content is a great way to generate interest, but an essential piece of any digital marketing approach is creating original content. Copying content found online elsewhere is a poor approach for multiple reasons. Google and other search engines can detect when words have been reused from another website, and as a result, copied content will likely be filtered by search engines. Further, writing original articles emphasizes that your website and social media accounts are being actively maintained.
Synchronizing social media and website content
Making plugs for one social media platform on a different platform is always encouraged. By having direct social media links posted on your website and vice versa, you make it easier to direct traffic across your multiple platforms. Taking advantage of online services like Buffer, Hootsuite, and Mentions makes posting and tracking across platforms easier and keep posting times synchronized. However, these services can be misused when your content becomes too filtered. Having a timeline with only automatic posts takes away from the feeling that there’s a real person behind an account. Also, content created for Facebook–where there is a very large character limit–should be tailored for Twitter—which has a shorter character limit.
Guest blogging
A great way to attract a wider audience is to take advantage of guest bloggers. If a colleague or a client has an interesting experience to share that relates to your business, then this could be an opportunity to really capitalize on a new digital audience. Viewers are interested in both stories and the authors who write them, so having a specific name to associate with an article increases engagement. Guest blogging adds another dimension to a website, representing how the company is more fully engaged with the community. In the real estate world, there’s ample opportunities to build relationships with different community members and have them share their expertise. Besides guest bloggers appearing on your website, the organizations affiliated with those guest bloggers typically share content. Blogging can be a two way street; being featured elsewhere as a guest blogger yourself is just as important as featuring other writers. It’s good blogging karma!
Engagement: 80/20 rule
Sharing content online fills in many of the ‘gaps’ left by a slow week. Inundating a timeline of Facebook or Twitter with shared content is never desirable, but the ratio of 80/20 of shared and original content is a prime target. Shared content–especially an original post with a shared link–is a good way to engage audiences in the real estate world. Topics related to real estate–such as interior design, architecture, and urban development–are still of interest to your online following, and they are great ways to engage with loyal followers.
Keywords and Word Count
Few people realize the significance of keywords in creating articles for online sharing. By using the correct keywords that mesh with the purpose of your website, search engine results will improve compared to competing websites. If a real estate website only posts articles about the ‘trees’ or ‘weather,’ then it will likely be ranked lower than more important search areas such as ‘property’ or ‘homes.’ Using the correct keywords translates to higher ranks in areas where it really counts, such as customer searches for commercial property or site plans. Similar to issues faced with keywords and search engines, the word count of an article can optimize its discovery by search engines. A 600 word+ article will typically outperform a 200 word blurb. With such a competitive market as real estate, having competitive search engine results can greatly increase exposure of content.
