Social Agency: Video Marketing is Your Friend

We mentioned earlier in our Social Agency series that the video medium has unique benefits for Real Estate professionals, namely virtual tours and interactive listings. However, video marketing on social media is much, much more than just those two things. It’s becoming the gold standard for content marketing across all industries, and for good reason. Our social media marketing experts at Little Egg Solutions have looked into the rise of video marketing on social platforms and have come to the conclusion that it is your friend. Here’s why:

Do People Really Respond Better to Video Marketing?

Yes – overwhelmingly so. In terms of engagement (likes, shares, retweets, comments, etc.), video just blows other media out of the water. On average, a video has 135% more organic reach on Facebook than a still photograph. On Twitter, a video is three times as likely to be retweeted as a GIF, and double that for a photo. The overwhelming majority of people surveyed would rather watch a branded live video than read a branded blog. It’s clear that, despite the potential setbacks for time, money, and camera-savvy employees, video marketing is an excellent investment. Television ads are nothing new to the Real Estate industry, but more time is spent watching YouTube during prime time than on any cable network.

Why is Video Marketing Effective?

Video marketing builds on the same psychological phenomenon that social media marketing has uncovered: People respond better to other people than to faceless entities. We empathize; we trust those with whom we have a connection. And now, more than ever, people are looking to make a connection with the people behind the brands they trust. The Digital Age has ushered in an unprecedented ease of connection through electronic media. It’s not just people on a screen, it’s people behind a screen.

How Can I Leverage Video Marketing in Real Estate?

If this sounds familiar to you, it should. It’s the same basic principles that go into the face-to-face marketing and networking that go along with being successful in Real Estate. No one wants to buy something as important as a home from someone they don’t trust. The difference is, you need to be able to make that connection before the first face-to-face meeting ever occurs. Use the power of video to showcase your personality, your professionalism, and your knowledge of your industry. Give potential clients a glimpse into what it would be like to work with you and show them the person behind the screen, not just on it.

We know what you’re probably thinking right now: “How do I do that on top of everything else?” At Little Egg Solutions, we’ve got your back. Much like video marketing, we are also your friend. We can take care of your content marketing needs and help you build the perfect strategy to grow your business, one post, picture, or video at a time. Contact us today to learn how a social media marketing expert in your back pocket can lighten the load!

Lead Generation-XYZ: Top 3 Tips for Generating Leads on Facebook

Little Egg Solutions is, at its core, a marketing agency. One of the fundamentals of effective marketing is lead generation – after all, it’s much easier to market to people you know are interested. But how does this principle extend to social media and content marketing strategies? There are many social-media-specific lead generation techniques, and we want to share some of our top picks with you to help you grow your small or medium business and to ease your marketing worries. So let’s kick off this series with the most recognizable name in social media: Facebook.

Via Alan O’Rourke | Flickr

Technique #1: Build-In Lead-Generating Tabs

You can actually create a dedicated tab on your Facebook page that deals only with email and contact information capture. Make the offer to receive your newsletter enticing by offering incentives upon signup – even exclusives for signing up via Facebook. Everyone loves a good deal, and offering special, “available nowhere else” coupons and discounts for receiving emails is a great way to attract leads. You can even set your “like” button redirect for your page to your email-capture tab.

Technique #2: Contests Make People Want to Win

People like to feel special, and they like to win stuff that they want. Take advantage of this by running contests on your page and making the requirements to win liking the page (to boost your reach), commenting on the contest post (to boost engagement), and signing up for your awesome, super-helpful newsletter (which has incentives for joining anyway, if you’ve implemented Technique #1 already). Who could pass up an offer to get extras just for pressing a few buttons and a chance to win extra extras?

Technique #3: Post a Link to Your Landing Page

You’ve probably already got a killer landing page for an equally enticing lead generation offer on the web. Why not make a post with the link instead of creating a whole new offer on Facebook? Make sure the feature image is high-quality, relevant, and is optimized for Facebook so you get the most power from your post. Long-form copy is a great way to get followers invested in learning more. You can also run the link in an ad, though short-form copy is your friend for that approach.

There are dozens of ways to generate leads on Facebook, but these three techniques (used together or separately) are our favorites. Lead generation is important – and these techniques will help you draw them in – but, overall, it’s only one piece of the puzzle. If you’re having trouble working out a comprehensive social media marketing strategy, we can help you. Our experts at Little Egg Solutions know the ins and outs of social media and content marketing, and we can help you implement a winning combination of posts, blogs, copy, and design tailor-made to take your business to new heights. Contact us today to find out more about what we can do for you!

SEO Strategy: The 12-Step Goal-Setting Program

At Little Egg Solutions, we believe in helping small and medium business owners have a healthy, profitable web presence. In that spirit, we’ve set up a 12-step program for rehabbing your SEO practices and setting goals. You can do one a month for a year, or break them into bigger chunks if you’re feeling more ambitious.

1. Get to the Core – What’s Your Purpose?

In order to decide what action steps you’ll need to take further down the road, you need to define what the purpose of your website is. Do you want to attract leads? Sell products? Generate ad revenue? You’ll need to know what your end-game is to get your short-term goals in place.

2. Identify Your Audience – Who Are You Trying to Reach?

This may seem like a no-brainer, but many small and medium business owners don’t define their specific audience before designing or optimizing a site. While there are some nearly-universal design principles and content keywords, you’ll need to tailor your content to some degree for any targeted audience.

3. Keyword Matching – Which Words Will Work for You?

Once you’ve identified your purpose and your audience, it’s time to figure out which keywords are best for your site. The right approach will vary based on what you want your site to do for you and who you want to see it.

4. Scope the Competition – Who Are You Trying to Beat?

When breaking into the online scene, it’s important to understand what you’re up against. Scope out your direct industry competition and take notes. See which strategies and keywords are common to industry leaders and which options seem to be problematic for less successful sites.

5. Schedule an SEO Audit – What Are Your Weaknesses?

A professional SEO audit for your site can tell you exactly which aspects of your strategy are going to cause a problem for you going forward. It’s best to hire a professional rather than using an online audit tool – you’ll get tailored action steps instead of general advice.

6. SERP Results – What’s Your Rank?

One of the main action steps you’ll want to pursue, no matter your niche, is improving your ranking. Use the data provided in your SEO audit to optimize your content and boost your SERP position.

7. Clean Up Your Code – How’s Your HTML?

Little coding errors can cause big problems when it comes to SEO. If you went with an amateur web designer or a DIY generator to save a little cash, you may need to do some code cleanup to make your site more search engine friendly.

8. Drive Traffic – Are They Looking?

If your website is fantastic, your code is stellar, and your content is optimized, what good does that do if no one sees it anyway? Work on driving traffic to your site with your stated purpose in mind. Share your content across different platforms and bring as many “maybes” to your page as you can – the more eyes who see your site, the more you’ll have a chance to convert.

9. Convert Your Prospects – Will They Buy What You’re Selling?

The goal of any profit-based business is to actually turn a profit. In order to do that, your web presence has to actually convert “maybe” prospects into definite buyers. Focus on increasing conversion rates with targeted marketing campaigns.

10. Increase Engagement – Are They Loving It?

Now you’ve got their attention. They’re on your site, they’re ready to make the leap from prospect to buyer. How do you build on that? By giving your loyal buyers and new prospects alike something to love, rave about, and share with everyone they know. Engaging content marketing and social media strategies build on your success in steps 8 and 9 organically.

11. Build Your Brand – Do They Know Your Name?

Branding is crucial in today’s digital marketplace. Consumers want to buy from brands they trust. No matter what your approach entails, branding should be a major component of your strategy. Social media and cohesive content marketing make this much easier, so build on your success in step 10.

12. Profit Margins – What Was Your ROI?

The tell-tale sign of a successful SEO strategy is a profitable return on your investment. Evaluate your profits and what parts of your original strategy have worked the best. Do you need to tweak your approach? Were there any costly mistakes you know you need to avoid repeating?

Via Michael McCullough | Flickr

That may seem like a lot of work, and that’s okay. It is a lot of work. Luckily, you’ve got a friend in the SEO business that just wants to make your life easier. Little Egg Solutions is here to help; contact us today to find out how!

Social Agency: Google Plus Benefits for Real Estate

In our last Social Agency article, we discussed the benefits of using Facebook for Real Estate agencies and how to make the best use of the platform. This time, we’d like to talk about an often-forgotten social media platform with tons of perks, specifically for businesses: Google Plus. At first glance, it might seem like creating a Google Plus account for your Real Estate business is a waste of time. But Google is the king of search engines, and the benefits of using their platform for promotion outweigh the tediousness of adding yet another account to your social media presence.

Why You Should Use Google Plus

One of the reasons that Google Plus is severely underrated is that it’s an entirely different social media concept from giants like Facebook and Twitter. You can’t compare one to the others, just as you can’t compare Yahoo and Tineye simply because they both have a search bar. The second reason is there’s a misconception that no one is on Google Plus.

Google Plus, as of 2012-2013, had between 135-300 million active users. That is a massive userbase, and the numbers vary by what you define as “active”. Why? Because many people have a Google Plus account simply by having a Gmail account. Their circle is their email contact list. And you can reach their list by harnessing this unique native connection through Google.

Google Plus Business Benefits

With the native Gmail connection, Google Plus influences the search results for anyone logged in to their account. Now imagine you have 500 connections on Google plus (like, say, your email list). Now your content has priority treatment when they search for local realtors or property listings. It’s a built-in white hat SEO advantage, just because you are already on their contact list.

Google Authorship also adds a distinct benefit for real estate agents on Google Plus. When your search results get boosted for your contacts, or when they show up on their own, your Google Plus profile picture and details show up too. Along with a link to more pages authored by you, which, if viewed for a certain amount of time, automatically returns more results when the searcher returns to the SERP. It’s a double-whammy of SEO benefits that need only your use of Google’s proprietary social media platform. It’s almost like a reward for doing what you were already going to do, because you’re flattering Google in the process.

How To Get Started

Joining Google Plus is much like joining any other social media platform. And, with characteristic care for user experience, Google will walk you through the process of creating your page and completing a profile. After that, add authorship to your posts to reap the benefits thereof and begin the work of expanding your circle (your email list is a good starting point for this) and joining communities to reach more people. Reciprocity is the key to any social media dynamic, so be sure to +1 and share content from connections. Finally, add checking in to your schedule (at least once a week). The volume and pace  of Google Plus make it much more manageable to deal with than oversaturated networks like Twitter.

Via SEO Link Building | Flickr

We know what you’re thinking: “But Little Egg, I have a full plate already with just the social media accounts I have.” We get it. Adding another social media platform to your overall content marketing strategy can feel like piling dirt on top of an already-growing mountain of tasks and it may seem like a landslide is imminent. That’s why we’re here: to take the shovel and shoulder that burden so you don’t have to. Contact us today to find out how!

#LikeAPro: The Small Business Guide to Using Hashtags

Hashtags are an integral part of effective social media marketing, from Facebook to Instagram to Twitter. But how do they work, and, most importantly, how can you make them work for you? If you’re just starting out on your #SMM journey, our social media experts at Little Egg Solutions want to help. We’ve put together this handy guide to finding and using the right hashtags for your business. Let’s start with the #basics.

Hashtags are relatively new in the marketing world, so you may have some questions about these little blue links with a pound sign that seem to be everywhere. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!

What are hashtags and how do they work?

Hashtags are short, searchable links that are used to tie together related content from multiple sources. They can include numerals or letters, but generally no spaces, and it doesn’t matter if they are capitalized or not. Hashtags can be anything as long as it fits the character restrictions of the platform you’re using (Twitter has a limit of 140 characters per post, but you can “hashtag” an entire blog post on Tumblr).

Think of them as keyword shortcuts. When users click on the hashtag, they can see every use of that tag in real time to easily find related material. A “trending” hashtag is one that shows up repeatedly across the platform.

What are the different types of hashtags?

For the purposes of social media marketing, there are three kinds of hashtags that matter: industry, local, and branded. Other types, like content-specific (#art, #gardening) and humorous (#TGIF, #whydidyoudothat) can be added for variety and flavor, but those three are the main ones you’ll be using.

Industry tags, like #SMM or #massagetherapy tie your content to the rest of your industry. Be careful, though. These can quickly become overused, and your posts can get lost in a sea of industry-related content. Local tags, like #BoiseRealEstate or #SoCalTechnology can generate local search results, but they may trend less often than industry tags. Branded hashtags are entirely new hashtags created by you specifically for your business. Successful branded hashtags often make use of slogans and other brand recognition tools. They can be a great way to gage response to a new campaign and to encourage engagement.

Why is it important to use the “right” hashtag?

Hashtags are a tool that allows businesses to organize their content and reach the eyes of people already looking for it. However, if you use an ineffective or inaccurate tag, it can be as bad, if not worse, than using no tags at all.

If you use a tag with too little traffic (unless it’s a brand new branded tag), you may not get enough engagement. Too much, and you get lost in the background noise. Too few, and you may not reach your audience; too many and you may turn your audience away. If your tags don’t relate to your content, you may disappoint your followers, and if they don’t relate to your industry, you may confuse potential leads. Using hashtags successfully is about finding a balance; for that, you need a plan.

Here’s our simple formula for finding the best hashtags for your business. Follow the plan, and you can #MakeItCount for every post!

1. Brainstorm

Sit down with a pen and paper and make a list of hashtags you think might work for your business in general, and repeat the process when you write a post. Make sure you come up with a few of each type of hashtag, so you have some go-to options if you’re ever stuck. Remember: they’re like keywords.

2. Seek-and-Find

Search for trending keywords in your industry with online tools. You can even search specifically for relevant keywords with tools like Hashtagify.Me. It’s also a good idea to look at the hashtags that leaders in your industry are using, and try to incorporate them into your list.

3. Test it Out

Before you add hashtags to your post, search for them on the platform you’re using. If you’re overwhelmed by the results, it’s probably used too often. If nothing comes up, you may need a trendier tag. After you publish your posts, keep track of which hashtags do best and file them away as your “contingency tags” for when you have no relevant, accurate tags. Research how many tags you should use for each platform (it varies) and find a balance that works for your content.

Coming up with creative tags that set you apart while also finding existing tags that tie you to others is hard work. It’s like adding a two-fronted battle to an already full schedule of entrepreneurship and customer service. We get it, and we’re here to take it off your hands. Our social media marketing experts at Little Egg Solutions know how to hashtag #LikeAPro, and we want to help you grow your business. Contact us today to find out how we can #MakeItCount for you!

Business Networking: Weaving a Web of Contacts and Connections

Social Media Marketing is an important factor in the success of small and medium businesses in the Digital Age. But there is another, equally crucial purpose in having a strong social media presence: business networking. While social media enhances your global reach and widens the “net” of your network, it’s important not to neglect the proverbial pavement pounding that helps build connections and contacts on a local, regional, state, and even national level. At Little Egg Solutions, we understand that digital marketing and content are only one part of a successful strategy, and we’ve put together this list of benefits and tips for business networking, both online and in person.

1. Opportunity Knocks

One of the major advantages of building a professional network is the opportunities that arise from networking with the right people. It really isn’t just about what you know; who you know matters when trying to grow your business or build lasting partnerships. A good connection can open doors that you would otherwise find shut tight, and reciprocity is the name of the game. Be willing to do favors for beneficial contacts, and they will repay you in kind.

Pro-Tip:

Check out your community’s networking opportunities! Your local Chamber of Commerce is a great place to start, but be sure to check out additional resources, like local or state business associations. They often hold events for members to meet and socialize to build your professional network organically.

2. Mentors Matter

Another important benefit of business networking is the opportunity to learn from those who have stood in your shoes and made it work. Industry leaders know the importance of networking and they are exactly the right people to give you the secrets to success. The perspective and guidance of a more experienced leader can be the difference between repeating a common and costly mistake and finding a better way.

For more information, check out this article: Top 6 Types of Business Networking Groups (and How to Find One).

Via Garfield Anderssen | Flickr

Pro-Tip:

Having trouble finding business networking connections on personal social media sites? Try LinkedIn instead! LinkedIn is a networking site specifically geared towards professional and business networking. It’s a great place to get your name out to the right people and build a beneficial network.

3. Grassroots Support

Small and medium businesses thrive on local patronage. Building a professional network allows you to reach the eyes and ears of people who you might otherwise miss by drumming up support from your local community. It’s not just B2B connections and mentorships that you’re building when you add connections to your network – it’s lasting partnerships and potential leads as well.

Pro-Tip:

First impressions are sometimes the only impressions. Make sure you make a great one with a professional appearance and crisp, new business cards for in-person events and a clean, professional profile or page for online interactions. Books are often judged by their covers (even if we wish they weren’t); what will your or your page’s appearance say about you?

Via Centros Technológicos | Flickr

Just like marketing, in-person networking efforts are only half of the equation. A seamlessly integrated digital networking strategy, combined with face-to-face contact, will help you build your professional network and take your business to new heights. If it seems like networking is just one more thing you have to add to an already-impossible to-do list, don’t worry. The experts at Little Egg Solutions are here to help you reach your full potential. Contact us today to learn how we can lighten the load.

Social Agency: Why and How to Use Facebook for Real Estate

Via Sole Treadmill

Social media and online content marketing can be a challenge for professionals who are accustomed to doing their recruiting face-to-face, and real estate is no exception. But never fear, the social media marketing experts at Little Egg Solutions are here to help you understand why social media is so important to success and how to get the most out of your online marketing efforts! In the previous installment of our Social Agency series, we covered the key benefits of Twitter marketing for real estate professionals and tips to optimize your marketing strategy. This time, we’re tackling the biggest of the “Big Four” social media platforms: Facebook.

Reach, Glorious Reach: Everyone (and Their Mother) is on Facebook

Facebook is huge. Not just in terms of brand recognition, but also in terms of userbase. A whopping 1.94 billion people use Facebook at least once a month, and almost 1/3 of the people who use it are between 25 and 34 (the elusive Millennial buyer so coveted by many industries, real estate included). But the demographics don’t stop there. Facebook appeals to the young and the old, male and female, of all races, income tiers, and education levels. No matter who you’re trying to sell that listing to, or who you want to represent, chances are, they’re on Facebook right now (or they will be shortly).

Pro-Tip: For the highest engagement levels, including click-through rates, likes, comments and shares, post listings in the evening hours and on weekends. High-traffic hours (weekdays from 1-3 PM) are best reserved for your other posts, although those should be sprinkled into the high-engagement times, as well.

Video Killed the Radio Ad: Virtual Open House

Video is quickly becoming the gold standard of content marketing, and Facebook (as the only platform with more unique monthly visitors than video-giant YouTube) is an ideal place to utilize it. But video has a benefit unique to real estate: simulating the open house experience with virtual video tours. There are a lot of people who prefer to do both their research and their buying online for one reason or another, but not having to interact with other people face-to-face is one of them. Real estate is usually a mostly face-to-face industry, and video can help you bridge that gap.

Pro-Tip: Use the appeal of video to help draw potential clients to open houses by featuring a slideshow of still images. Or, to fully leverage the video tour for people who would rather not deal with crowds, advertise private showings along with a brief tour of the property highlights!

Post, Post, Post: A Treasure Trove of Information

As we mentioned in our Twitter article, social media marketing should follow the 80/20 rule: 80% of your posts should be helpful, informative, and general, and only 20% should be directly related to sales. The fast-paced newsfeed of Facebook makes it easy to maintain this balance while also getting all your listings on your business page (and you need a Page, not just a personal profile). Local groups are an excellent resource for information to share, as well as the numerous generic real estate groups on the site. A bite-sized bit of copy and a click of the share button, and you’re one step closer to making that magic ratio a reality.

Pro-Tip: Use your business Page’s messaging feature to interact directly with leads or to keep up with existing clients. Contests and comments are also important tools for making potential clients feel special and for increasing your engagement levels by creating a rock-solid personable reputation.

Via Mark Moz | Flickr

Facebook is probably the most important social media platform for content marketing success, but you may find it confusing or frustrating to navigate the business features and to keep up with the fast pace of the news feed. Professional support is critical to fostering and maintaining sales success. That’s where we come in! At Little Egg Solutions, our social media and content marketing professionals are experts at putting platforms like Facebook to work for you and your business. Add us to your winning team today!

Benefits for Benefit Brokers: Social Media Marketing in the Healthcare Industry

Here at Little Egg Solutions, we’ve discussed the importance of integrating a social media component into the overall marketing strategy for small and medium businesses. Recently, we highlighted the difficulty in implementing a digital marketing strategy in traditionally print-oriented industries like Real Estate. The hesitation to jump into the social media pool extends across many other industries that historically have relied on television, radio, and print advertisement to attract leads, including health benefit brokers and the healthcare industry at large.

At first glance, it seems like a reasonable reservation. Digital communication can sometimes be viewed as impersonal and even cold: certainly not something that consumers want associated with the people in charge of such a personal matter as health care. However, social media has changed the way these digital conversations take place. Facebook is where friends and family converse, Twitter is where news is broken, and YouTube is where they find their entertainment and other useful information. All areas of life have become digitized to some degree, including the process of finding health insurance.

The vast majority of consumers research healthcare options online.

A 2013 study found that 81% of people looking to make a large or important purchase (a category in which health and life insurance definitely falls) research their options online. A similar study in 2015 found that 69% of Americans – and 81% of American Millennials – seek out the opinions of others before they purchase. These may seem like unrelated phenomenon, but when you realize that they seek these opinions on social media platforms, it highlights a major benefit of social media marketing: a captive audience.

Your potential leads are already there. They are on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and they are looking for help. Healthcare brokerage is about building relationships with people who need help finding their way through a labyrinth of coverage options. It’s about guiding them through the maze to the right coverage and a healthier, happier life. Social media is the entrance to that labyrinth, and they are trying to find someone to help them take the first step.

You can leverage social media to take care of both your clients and your leads.

It’s not just potential leads on there either; it’s your existing clients, as well. They may have questions or concerns, they may be ready to make a change, or they may be looking for someone with authority that they can trust to give them insightful, helpful, and factual information. Social media marketing gives you the opportunity to answer those questions, address those concerns, and share that information, all while drawing in leads as they watch you take care of those who need your help. It’s a win-win proposition.

One common issue that plagues the social media marketing efforts of healthcare brokers is the lack of a hard-and-fast strategy. Often, social media is considered an “add-on” or an “option” when creating a marketing plan. In other words, they dip their toes in the pool when they should be diving in. At Little Egg Solutions, we know that integrating a new marketing strategy can be exhausting, especially one as demanding as social media marketing, but it’s not a choice of sink-or-swim. We can throw you a life jacket and take care of it for you, so you can take care of your clients. Contact us today to find out how!

Social Agency: Three Key Benefits of Twitter for Real Estate

Via Sole Treadmill

A strong social media presence and content marketing strategy is important in this Digital Age, no matter what industry you’re in. For real estate professionals, though, it can be difficult to leverage these online marketing tools to their fullest potential; but, as we mentioned in our first installment of this Social Agency series, it is no less important. Twitter, the widely-recognizable, but often frustrating, microblogging platform, can be especially challenging. But the social media marketing experts at Little Egg Solutions are here to help you navigate this unfamiliar territory; it is our backyard, after all. Below, you’ll find the three biggest benefits of Twitter for real estate professionals and our tips on how to make them work for you!

Local Authority: Establish Yourself as a Guru

Twitter, which is often full of breaking news on both a local and national scale, is an ideal platform for establishing yourself as an authority in your area. As a real estate professional, this gives you an important edge over competitors who are underutilizing the platform. If your followers believe that you know all the ins and outs of your working area, then it follows, naturally, that you would know exactly where their ideal home, meeting their specifications, would be hiding in the maze of for sale signs and online listings that potential home-buyers have to sift through.

Pro-Tip: Tweet about local news, charity events, and even other local businesses. Reliable recommendations for local moving companies, professional cleaners, and even rental trucks can show your followers that you’ve got the lay of the land and can help them find what they need!

Via Flickr

Brand Trust: People Like Putting Faces to Names

One of the primary benefits of any social media marketing strategy is humanization. People prefer to buy things from other people, not giant, faceless corporations. They also do a lot of shopping around online. Real estate is one of the most interactive industries there is, and it requires a huge amount of trust. A professional-yet-personal Twitter can be the bridge between you and the potential client surfing the web for the best realtor in town.

Pro-Tip: People love to feel special, so make that a priority in your approach. This can include behind-the-scenes office photos, celebratory posts, contests, group offers, retweeting your clients’ or industry partners’ posts – anything that adds a personal touch to your Twitter marketing.

Just Like Real Life: Play to Your Strengths

Realtors are often fantastic offline marketers. Of course you are; being personable and persuasive is the name of the game in sales, and sales don’t get much bigger than real estate. But translating those in-person skills to online marketing can be both intimidating and frustrating. Twitter, for all its complexity, can actually make that transition easier, if you know how to leverage it. By tweeting with the same tone, style, and enthusiasm that you would put into a face-to-face interaction, you can bring your personality across in your posts – and personality is your bread and butter.

Pro-Tip: Master the 80/20 rule. Post 80% helpful or interesting information like how-to articles, business recommendations, news, and tips, and 20% sales information like listings and special offers. Think of it like soft-selling versus hard-selling: you’ll always get a better response if your message isn’t just: “Buy from me! Sell with me!”

Studies show a clear benefit to social media marketing in all industries, including real estate. There is always value in going to where your audience already is, rather than trying to draw them out or track them down. At Little Egg Solutions, we help you put down roots on the platforms your potential clients are frequenting, and our expert guidance can become the strong foundation on which the rest of your content marketing strategy can be built. Contact us today to find out more!

Social Agency: How Important is Social Media to Real Estate?

Via Ryan Morse

We know just how important social media marketing can be for various business models, but what about the real estate agency? Traditionally, a Realtor has been a marketing strategy extraordinaire, with the uncanny ability to empathize with potential clients and work together to find them the perfect home. But how does that translate into a time when everyone checks the web before buying so much as a screwdriver; when people can learn everything there is to know about a property at the touch of a button? Social media marketing is the bridge between brick-and-mortar agencies and their internet-savvy leads, and it’s heavily underutilized, or misused, by real estate professionals.  

Many Realtors are simply not used to doing their marketing online.

Real estate has always been a print and personal industry. From classified ads to billboards, it was printed media that drew in leads (with the help of some well-timed television and radio advertisements). But now, many people listen to ad-free Pandora and YouTube Red (or just their personal collection of mp3 files) instead of tuning in to the radio. They have smart TVs, with digital recorders or streaming services that all promise one golden rule: No commercials!

They get their news from Facebook and Buzzfeed and Twitter, and they want to see the people they’re working with and know them before ever meeting them in person; it’s a scary world, after all. These are the people – namely Millennials and some of Generation X – that you are missing by not leveraging digital tools for your business.  The Digital Age is their home; it is what they have always known. If you shy away from it, you will never be able to reach them. Newspaper is for comics and cleaning up, not buying or selling a home.

Quality content is just as important as frequency.

Some of the real estate agents who have bravely made the jump into the digital marketplace aren’t seeing the results they were expecting. They follow all the advice, posting feverishly and with photos, but they just aren’t seeing the engagement they want. In fact, the Real Estate industry led all other industries in both post frequency and multimedia (images and video) posting in 2013, but it also saw the lowest engagement levels. Why?

Because when it comes to social media marketing, there is an important ratio that needs to be followed: the 80/20 rule. Four posts out of five should be interesting and informative. They should establish you as a local guru, build rapport, or just plain catch the eye of those in your feed. Only that last post should be about you, your business, your sales or your listings. Social media marketing is meant to create trust and breed familiarity, as well as to give you a new way to keep in touch with your clients. It loses its power if it’s only used to list properties.

Via Perzon SEO

In this age of technology, online marketing is no longer optional for business success; it’s an absolute necessity. The shift from brick-and-mortar buying to online research and shopping around has left a lot of Realtors behind the times, with their leads drying up and their sales dwindling. If this sounds familiar, social media marketing could be exactly what you’re missing. It can be intimidating, and very difficult to manage it all on your own, especially if your marketing strategy has always been oriented to in-person and in-print techniques that were once the bread and butter of the industry. Little Egg Solutions is here to help you make the all-important shift into the Digital Realm.