Senior writer
Celebrity endorsement drives product sales—think Oprah or David Beckham. These were and remain very expensive endorsements that have a spray-gun effect; you just don’t really know if you are going to hit the mark, but you are guaranteed some form of product loyalty.
However, the broad adoption of social media required little to no investment, and marketers could effectively garner more interest in their offerings and measure the success. Unknown to mass markets, ordinary people started to realise that they too could sway people into buying their own products by being personable, and those with the biggest followers- be celebrities or experts- began to receive, for free, products that they could report on. Of course, they were likely to be pro the product because they’d want more freebies in the future.
Influence or influencer?
There is a massive difference between having influence and being an influencer. For example, someone who has ‘true’ influence rarely uses that term to describe themselves … their influence is often unintentional, and it’s about what they do rather than what they post online. An influencer is the exact opposite – they post or brag online about their choices, actions and attitudes. They intentionally set out to attract followers, and the bigger their following, the more famous they become and can use these numbers to attract brands for endorsement.
What about the property market?
In the real estate market in South Africa, few, if any, property practitioners are influencers in the true sense of the word. You’ll find many influencers who will post about their lifestyles, sharing their homes in the process, and others who post about their property journey, but the majority of real estate professionals are posting listings, brand achievements and so on. It is almost as if the profession has no personality other than professionalism, but one does understand that social media has an ugly side, where comments can be mean or downright inflammatory.
It’s different in the USA, where individual property practitioners intentionally create a following, and yes maybe it’s because they are selling luxury homes that are viewed as aspirational. Their trick is to follow the profiles of their potential clients, to like and comment, and ask all with whom they come into contact, to follow them.
Ultimately, these influencers also share bits and pieces of their lifestyle but the really clever one’s are more creative. There’s the bizarre like a singing estate agent that makes music videos to help sell her properties, to the extraordinary where an agent approached a popular local singer to cut a music video on a property she had for sale. We are well-aware that having an event or famous person associated to a property, attracts more interest.
26-million value propositions
The more common approach by agents and agencies in SA, is to use their social media platforms to present listings, advise of sales, share success stories, etc, but this is not enough, especially considering some 200 000 new users joined social media platforms in our country last year, bringing the total number of users to around 26-million. That is 26 million opportunities to reach potential buyers and sellers, but if everyone is doing the same old repetitive type of postings, you will be lost in the forest.
Most SA social media followers are in the 18-24 age group, followed by those aged 25-34. Together, their activities comprise nearly 32% of the users. This means that the majority of first-time home buyers are in this category, and they like to be influenced….
What makes you different
There’s a rule associated with social media—the 80/20 rule. This rule states that when 80% of your content offers value, you are serving your audience first. The 20% is for spotlighting your brand, your products (in this case, your listings), or your service.
The top takeaways from some of the US’s real estate professionals who are successfully winning through social media are:
- Create a strong sense of ‘place’ in your content by using great, crystal-clear images and wording firmly anchored in the locale of the area.
- Be prepared to share personal content by mixing your personality into captions.
- Use a mixture of video, static images, and slideshows to create a sense of desire by getting your audience to ‘dream’ about living in a property.
- Capture more attention by ‘coming soon’ posts or exclusive walkthrough videos.
- Use strong branding colours to keep your aesthetic postings uniform.
- Showcase your extensive real estate knowledge, from interior design and renovation to financing.
- Show your ego: post about your successes.
- Use text over images to highlight important features.
- Use content that speaks to all members of a community, not just those looking to buy or sell.
- Always be authentic, bold in your bio, and communicate your unique value proposition.
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