Remember the old days when a real estate agent put printed advertisements in their shop front window to attract interest in a property?
That now seems pretty quaint and old-fashioned in the face of major listings portals like realestate.com.au and domain.com.au. And now we’re seeing even more changes.
The growth of social media advertising is opening new doors for real estate, which brings huge benefits for buyers and sellers alike.
The best real estate agents all have a presence on social media.
Most savvy real estate agents now have at least a Facebook and LinkedIn profile. These can be great for connecting with our target audiences, highlighting interesting properties, and talking about real estate issues and what’s happening in our area.
At Madeleine Hicks Real Estate, we promote our weekly articles and Properties on several social channels and we find it a great way to have conversations with local homeowners and reach new audiences of people interested in living in our area.
But this is just the start of how social media is changing real estate, and the opportunities for connecting with potential buyers and sellers.
Why social media is becoming essential
All agents routinely advertise their properties online on the major listing portals – realestate.com.au – it’s where most active buyers go to look, the modern day real estate shop window.
But social media is the new game changer when it comes to advertising properties and targeting buyers. That’s no surprise given these key stats:
- According to Social Media News, of the 24.3 million people living in Australia, more than 16 million have an active Facebook profile. This means over 65% of our country’s population is on Facebook.
- And according to the Sensis Social Media Report, these Australians spend an average of 10 hours a week on Facebook.
Instagram Is Now Becoming More and More Important for Marketing Your Home.
On the listing portals, we are waiting for people to come looking for us, but when we go to social media we are going looking for people – people who we know are interested in buying a specific home – before they are actively looking for property. It’s direct and proactive marketing without being intrusive, and it lets us spread the net wider, catch people earlier in their property search. Best of all, it lets us be very targeted in the way we go about it.