The Future of Social Media Marketing
I cannot explain this more bluntly. The future of real estate marketing is social media for the time being. The future of social media marketing is not Facebook. If your immediate concern is ROI on your advertising budget, then use Facebook heavily for the short term 3-5 years max. I have a feeling that the MLS is about to go global and the era of real estate agents will come to an end. It will end incredibly quickly (more later, I have a pending email response I am waiting for). The industry will cease to exist as you know it today.
The end of an entire industry will create a ever greater need for great marketing strategies. REI's will very quickly learn that those agents were nothing more than commission paid REI's, who just learned they can earn a lot more with their knowledge than the typical REI. The increased competition, especially those with sales experience will make obtaining leads so much more precious.
It will become these leads that will generate all your profit models in the future. Why? The REI's only hope is to get to the deal 1st. Otherwise, all profit will be lost. Social media gives you the access to the deal. You will need to be engaging, sincere, and above all else, honest with clients.
This is a prediction, that will come true!
"Alexa, find me a home in Phoenix, Arizona; 5 bedrooms, three baths for under $300,000."
Beep-Beep.
"Ok. There are thirty-seven listings within a ten mile radius of downtown Phoenix, Arizona."
....And so it goes.
People that are planning to sell their homes will soon be selling them on Amazon. All those 3% commissions for listing and 3% for selling properties are about to become a 4.5% listing on Amazon. Don't believe me, it is already happening in the Tiny Home movement. It is just a matter of time.
Social media will become the go to place to locate off market deals. Those that have refined their marketing strategies will perform the best.
Comments (2)
Steve, your targeting what is becoming rare cases. As the baby boomer generation begins to die off, you will see the transition rapidly unfold to voice searches being completed on devices like Alexa and Google Home. I will agree that there will be hold outs that don't advance with tech trends, but they die too, and their techie family will go the route that they know to off load the properties they inherit. I would suspect that Gen Xers or Gen Y's will be the last of the holdouts of using land lines, and must use RE agents. Millennials could become the first generation to move away from paying the broker and agent fees if they can sell a property just as quick elsewhere.
Why, you don't see it more now is that sites like eBay and Craigslist are hotbeds for scams and thieves. There is a trust factor that needs to be built up with the people. What is Amazon doing? They are building their trust factor. In all honesty, would you have ever thought their would be one click shopping of anything you could ever want or need in your lifetime at one place? Amazon is working it's way to becoming that place. Like Wal-Mart did in the 1980's and 1990's in becoming the place to buy everything under one roof (Wal-Mart does sell cars, too).
Richard D., almost 7 years ago
While I agree the current agent commission model will change, pricing properly will still need experts and first time buyers and sellers will always need more handholding than Alexa can provide.
My target off-market seller is a boomer+ plex owner that's self-managed since the Nixon administration. They don't know what social media even is. We still do business belly to belly or on their landline phone. Good for me since I don't instabook or facechat either.
Thanks for the reminder to get with it on the tech front!
Steve Vaughan, about 7 years ago