Making Sense of Social Media for the Real Estate Investor/Professional

Hi everyone. I initially posted this as a response to a forum post on social media. 

There seems to be a lot of people here who feel social media is a big waste of time. Well it can be, if you don't know what the heck you're doing. You don't need to spend hours on top of hours on social media to make it work. But much like real estate investing, you're going to have to put in the consistent work in the beginning in order for it to pay off for you.  It's not enough to do it because everyone else is doing it. 

I'll be referencing BiggerPockets.com throughout this article to give you guys some context. I don't claim to know their strategies. I can only speak from my observations.

I don't agree that social media is a waste of time or too much. It's only a waste when you try to play the numbers game or go in without a plan and a target market. Interesting, consistent content and a target market are key to social media success. Remember, it isn't about "hey look at me, click my link, buy from me". It's about building a community and engagement. Look at BiggerPockets.com. Yes, this is considered a social media site. They follow the rules to doing social media right (consistent content, user interaction, community engagement) without forcing you to choose which social media outlet to use to consume their content. Everything always leads back here.

Well you can do the same with any of the others, provided your target market regularly use that medium. I started using social media as an alternative to the more expensive online mediums and tools before it became known as social media. I started with forums, then moved to chat, then as each social media tool developed, I tried and experimented. I'm not going to tell you which social media site you should use. You have to figure that out for yourself based on your message, purpose and audience.

There are six things you must know going in to make it work for you AND streamline it so you're not spending hours per day, but still making regular use of it.

1. What is your strategy and what would you like the end goal to be? You have to determine what you want the people who engage with you to ultimately do once they've found you and began engaging.

2. What kind of content will you be sharing? You can't just post pictures of homes and expect people to fall all over you. You can't just share deals because people will accuse you of spamming. People search for content to answer questions for them. What questions are you answering?

3. Who exactly is your target market? Who cares if there are over a billion users on Facebook? They aren't all your target audience. Trying to justify using it based on the population is like saying the whole world is your market. It could be, but it isn't. You have to get super focused and figure out if your people (your market) are using a specific tool. If you choose Twitter, but none of your people really use it, you're wasting time. If you choose Pinterest or Instagram just to post photos but there's no context or conversation, you're wasting your time. What are your people looking for and why are YOU the one to give it to them?

4. What will you do to make them opt in voluntarily? Look at BiggerPockets.com. I can almost guarantee that the free ebook, podcasts, and downloads were the first reason people opted in, followed by the educational blogs and forums. I was searching the internet for information on real estate investing. I took to social media first and nobody really caught my interest. They weren't having interesting conversations to make me want to follow them. But a Google search lead me here and I was hooked. It's not enough for someone to friend or follow you. You want them to connect and engage. This is where your own website and/or blog and email opt in are so important to link to your social media efforts (which I won't get into now). Podcasts and video channels are also huge social media draws.

5. How often will you communicate with them? Some people, depending on what they're sharing, have an audience who crave the next post or share from them. Look at the podcast 'Serial'. People were so intrigued, they couldn't wait for the next installment. Let's look at Twitter and the show Shark Tank. People look forward to Friday nights because they can chat with others and live tweet during the show sharing opinions, critiques and laughs. Almost every week, #SharkTank is a trending topic. Don't believe me? Check for yourself. It's all about building momentum and popularity within your community. Sharing tips, a journey (like a rehab project or getting into real estate investing from your point of view or whatever), frustrations, are all popular because you will always have people who relate, commiserate, or aspire. So gauge how receptive they are to you and your content and that'll determine how often you need to share. I chose not to over share in my social media efforts because when I did share, I really gave a lot. Instead of every day of constant content, I chose to space it out, but make each engagement more robust.

6. What is your core message or common interest that they will be searching for, and how can YOU be the one they want that information from? People want to know what makes you the expert. They want to know that you've been through what they've been through or how you can help them solve a problem, pain or validate their path. Not saying this is your responsibility to complete strangers. But if you want social media to work for you, you have to put in the work initially then keep it going with a system that still allows you to remain authentic and interesting. Addressing people's pain or problems or helping them find validation drives engagement. And no, posting and praying isn't a strategy! It doesn't have to be hard. Just give your people what they're looking for.

7. (Bonus) Where will you lead your new found target market so they will continue being your loyal engaged community? While Facebook, Twitter, etc. aren't going anywhere any time soon, you have to always think in terms of Myspace. People rarely use it any more and it met its demise because Facebook came and kicked butt. Always operate with the end in mind. You want to funnel your social media following to your own website. ALL social media should lead people back to your website. Nonnegotiable. You can register your own name or whatever name you choose for $15 per year. And some places will have coupons bringing it down to $1.99 for the first year. Hosting service can be inexpensive as well, especially if you set up a basic Wordpress or Joomla site. So there's no excuse to not have a place to lead people back to. Don't believe me? Do a search on Twitter, Facebook, etc for conversations about BiggerPockets. I can guarantee you many of those people end up right back here on this site.

When you tie social media together with a website, blog, video channel, podcast, community, and even products (such as ebooks, tools, etc) and let's not forget SEO, amazing things can happen. So remember, this isn't just about tweeting and posting. It's not that hard. Have a strategy, implement a plan, and remember, quality over quantity when it's in front of the right audience.

Hope this helps!