I’ll be honest with you.  I’m a Facebook slag.  I have been ever since I bought a smart phone.  It won’t be long before it is cited in divorce cases (hopefully not my own).

Facebook has more users than Google and higher levels of customer engagement.  

The majority of your customers use it and with such reach it is impossible to ignore when planning your marketing activities.

However, I was a little surprised to read this morning that an industry survey in the States found that agents rate Facebook and social media as the most effective marketing channels – way ahead of property portal marketing or search engine advertising.

This is at odds with the survey’s Global edge has done where search engine marketing and portal advertising have always come above social media when rated both for their use and effectiveness.  Assuming the results are reliable, the big questions are why and is the US leading us down a path that we are sure to follow?

In the US, the critical success factor for most agents is building a local reputation and brand.  Social media is an ideal mechanism for this.  The market is hyper local – vendors and buyers are very interested in local property-related content and the agents able to provide timely, interesting and insightful updates are respected and win business as a result.  

There is also a cultural difference in the use of Facebook.  In general, US users seem more likely to accept friend requests from people they have done business with than in the UK and other parts of Europe – making it a more open channel for marketing communication.

The critical success factors for overseas property professionals are sourcing and packaging great product and then generating leads from people who are geographically dispersed but have a requirement at a certain point in time for investment or lifestyle property.  Reputation is important but often only in the sense that a bad reputation (particularly on Google) will prevent a sale.

I still believe that for most professionals in our industry, social media is not a low-hanging fruit.   Having a clear market position, strong website, a presence on a big portals and a competent search engine marketing strategy are easier short-term wins in terms of generating leads and making sales.

However, the big advantage of social media is its ability to facilitate word of mouth – the cheapest and most effective form of marketing.

As I’ve mentioned before, customer referral programmes were MRI’s most effective marketing channel.   If they were around today, their programme would no doubt include social media elements such as a regularly updated and compelling Facebook page on the merits of Sunny Beach in Bulgaria.

Creating interesting content and getting your customers’ to share it with their friends has to be part of the plans of any agency or developer with serious long term plans.

Facebook may never be as effective a marketing channel as it is in the US due to market and cultural differences but if you are serious about customer referrals and building long term scale, it is impossible to ignore.

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