Six Avenues to Capture Attention
There are many people that look for areas to expand their customer base and to grab the attention of prospective clients. In the Information Age the prospective client has a different attention span than they 15 to 20 years ago. They even had a longer attention span than they do now just last year due to the ever-changing technology and information access. We, as business owners, real estate investors, real estate agents, and entrepreneurs, need to keep up with the times. Our focus needs to be directed to the areas that are getting the most attention.
The Avenues
Most small business owners, real estate agents, real estate investors, or brand new entrepreneurs cannot afford large lead generating advertisements, so they have to go into gorilla mode to capture those leads. The six avenues inspired by Gary Vaynerchuk, a social media phenomenon and a very talented author, are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Periscope, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
I view Facebook as the first and best option for anything real estate related in terms of gathering leads on a cheaper scale. The reason that I choose Facebook first is because of the ability of the customer to change the price to fit their budget. Another reason that I pick Facebook is because of ability to market to the specific age groups, gender groups, areas, and time you are publishing the posts. Once these preferences are all set, and after the published advertisement is approved, the poster is able to track all the views on their post. The most intriguing aspect of Facebook is that the majority of the users on this platform are of older generations!
The up and coming platform that will become even greater than Facebook due to the ease and demographic that are using the app now and that will continue to use it as they age. My goal is not to convince a user to pay an entire year of wages in order to post one add on Instagram; I’m talking about posting pictures of a current project, listing, rehab, or office space (just to name a few). When adding a picture, write a longer than usual post below for content. Then follow it up with hashtags that pertain to your post and let the people get drawn to your product or service.
Twitter – the limited character plate form that still has the ability to reach so far, or in a user’s case, so close! Twitter can be used similarly to Instagram in terms of hashtags that can get the client to a post when they search trending hashtags within their neighborhood, or the user could go into the search menu and while using Twitter on their laptop to search a specific radius around the city their business is located. A user could capture conversations around their target area that relate exactly to what their business does. There are multiple ways to market through Twitter and these options only cost a little bit of time!
Periscope
The live feed that is linked to Twitter and can link your business to a prospective client more personally. When a user uses Periscope and broadcasts, it will show up on their Twitter account and notify followers about the broadcast. Once people are looking through a user’s hashtags and see that user’s account, they can watch the broadcast and see the user in live action. This allows clients and prospective clients to grasp the authenticity of the business, owner, or entrepreneur.
LinkedIn – a professional business touch that can connect friends, colleagues, and family and allow users to gain access possible future clients. LinkedIn can add value in a professional setting by transmitting posted information to people that are within the users circle, which in turn share that content with other people the “inner circle” knows, and it turns into a domino effect for the user’s business. A user can add a blog post, publish a full post, or add video/photos. This gives greater content value to the user’s page and personality on LinkedIn.
YouTube
An older form of content giving, and yet a very relevant form of content giving. With the creativity of video that brings the content, viewers are constantly engaged. Photos only bring clients and prospective clients so much, while video can give a prospective client the visual feeling of the project and the real life culture of a company, rehab project progression, or real estate agent’s listing or listings. The best way to capture a client’s attention is to let them watch something themselves since they may not have the imagination that the rehabber does for the project they are working on. YouTube is the biggest attention grabber out of all of these avenues.
Conclusion
Since everyone has their own talents and skillsets, these options can be metaled with in any way the user sees fit for their use; however, I agree with Gary Vaynerchuk when he talks about the decline in the use of TV in the younger generations. Because guess what – those younger generations are crucial because they quickly grow up to buy, use, and consume products and services.
By Peter Mckernan
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