With so many different platforms available, the idea of establishing and maintaining a social-media presence can be daunting. It’s no use trying to do it all—you’d never have time for anything else. Instead, pick just a few different social-media platforms on which to focus your efforts.
Before you start, decide what your goals are. Are you looking to drive traffic to your website, establish yourself as a land industry expert, build a professional network, or spread the word about property you are selling or services you offer? Knowing what you hope to achieve can help you determine which platforms to focus on and what sorts of things to post.
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Platforms to consider
Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube can all be useful tools for building your brand and reaching potential buyers. Facebook is casual and conversational, while LinkedIn is more formal and professional. You’re unlikely to find your customers on LinkedIn, but it can be a good place to establish yourself as a land expert, build a professional network, and earn referrals. Twitter is like diving into a stream, seeing what’s floating past, and tossing your own content into the water. Conversations happen, but if someone is really interested in what you’re offering, the discussion will most likely quickly move off Twitter.
Social media offers great opportunities to show off your land’s visual appeal through beautiful photographs. Facebook is good for this, as is Instagram, which is almost entirely photo-based. If you are able to make high-quality videos on a regular basis, YouTube offers opportunities to stand out. Remember to keep videos short and include subtitles since most people view videos on mute.
Listing of the Day: A versatile tract of 87 groomed acres between Central, Pendleton and, Clemson, this farm's open fields are planted to foster wild quail habitat, while its hilltop features an established dove field. | https://t.co/N1lP8TlOm9? via @JenksIncRealty pic.twitter.com/OYXfWtfDo1
— Land.com (@landdotcom) September 6, 2018
Focus on engagement
Social media is all about engaging with people. Your goals may be professional, but not every post has to be business-related. Overt selling will quickly turn people off. Most people will follow you because they are interested in you and what you have to say, rather than what you have to sell. By posting interesting content in a non-marketing way, you may well attract interest that will lead to further discussion.
A big part of engaging is commenting on and sharing interesting content that other people post. If you share someone’s content one day, they may share yours the next. By engaging consistently and effectively with your followers and others in your industry, you’ll build your brand and establish yourself as a go-to land professional.
Be personal but professional
One of the reasons social media is so effective is that it’s personal. Feel free to post photos and stories from your personal life on more casual platforms like Facebook and Instagram so your followers can get to know you. Just make sure you don’t post anything that makes you look unprofessional. Personality is good, personal drama is not. It’s also best to avoid posting about your political opinions or other potentially controversial topics that might turn prospective customers off.
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Consistency is key
Social media requires consistency. Studies have shown that posting once a day is generally best on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. On Twitter, three to five times a day seems to generate the most engagement per individual tweet, though more tweets per day can make you more visible overall.
Keep in mind, however, that what works for one business doesn’t necessarily work for another. There’s no law that says you need to post everywhere, every day. The quality of your posts is infinitely more important than the quantity.
Post when your audience is active
Although there’s no magic time to post on social media, studies suggest that 12 to 4 p.m. is a good bet for Facebook, while LinkedIn users generally check in midweek early and late in the workday, and during lunch. Instagram users are most active just before and after work, and late in the evenings. Twitter is all over the place.
How applicable this data will, of course, vary depending on your audience, but you may want to start out posting during these times. Once you’ve built up a following, it’s worth experimenting with posting at different times to see which result in the most engagement. Most social-media platforms have built-in analytics that track audience engagement and can help you evaluate your success.
Use time-saving tools
Perhaps the biggest problem with social media is how time-consuming it can be. You may think you’re just going to post something quickly on Facebook, but one click leads to another, and before you know it, an hour or even an entire morning has passed.
To keep social media from becoming an enormous time suck, consider using tools like Hootsuite or Buffer, which enable you to schedule posts in advance on various social media platforms. You can plan out several days’ or even weeks’ worth of posts at once. That said, an important part of social media is the social part, so make sure to check in regularly to engage with your followers, answer questions, or respond to comments.
