Saturday, October 12, 2024

tiktok

    In real estate, as in other businesses, it’s important to remember that you need to know who your “audience” consists of if you ever hope to effectively target them with your marketing. Many agents target “anyone who is breathing,” and that’s understandable. 

    It was how they generated leads as a newbie. They had little other choice. But, think back to those days. That type of marketing is not only expensive but time-consuming as well.

    As we grow into our business, we know better than to shoot arrows and hope something sticks. Target marketing is far saner and more efficient.

    Who is your audience on social media? It depends a great deal on the platform, first. Some are chock-full of folks you should be reaching out to, while others simply waste time and effort.

    It’s time to update our social media recommendations for real estate agents, and we begin with TikTok.

    First, let’s nail down your target audience 

    While it was somewhat lucrative to target first-time buyers in the past, you may want to change your strategy this year. They made up only 26% of last year’s real estate consumers, which is a huge drop from the previous year’s 34%, according to the folks at the NAR.

    With the country’s current wonky economy, don’t look for that number to improve this year.

    If you plan on sticking with the first-timers, you’ll be targeting folks in their mid-to-late 30s (NAR calls the 36-year-old “The typical first-time buyer.”) 

    Repeat buyers are always worth an agent’s consideration because of the very real chance that they also have a home to sell. This target’s age is 59 years.

    Your largest buyer pool will be the baby boomers, who comprise 39% of all buyers. Millennials have dropped to 28% of the pool.

    Finally, if you’re after listings, stick with older Gen X folks and baby boomers. “The typical home seller was 60 years old,” according to the NAR.

    When it comes to social media marketing, spend your time on platforms with the robust participation of baby boomers (folks age 59 to 77).

    Does that include TikTok?

    Not at all. Let’s take a look at who hangs out on TikTok.

    According to the platform’s survey of its users:

    • 80 million Americans are “active users” of TikTok.
    • The largest share of these users (60%) are age 16 to 24. “80% are between the ages 16-34.”
    • Although Gen X (age 47-58 in 2023) “is highly active on social media … less than 5% of them are on TikTok,” according to digital content provider Gitnux.com.
    • Baby boomers are almost invisible on the platform. Those who are age 55+ make up 5.1% of users. Throw in the next youngest demographic (age 45-54), and that number nudges up to about 13%, according to Oberlo.com.
    Your TikTok takeaway

    Unless you love hanging out there, we believe other platforms are far more worth your marketing time and effort (Facebook is one).

    Wherever you decide to market on social media, remember that your post needs to be relevant to your target audience.

    Check back soon when we look at Instagram and whether it’s worth your marketing time and energy.


    PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.

    1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine

    Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts and engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you. Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card!Click Here

    2. The Free 12-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

    The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

    3. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

    The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals.  – Click Here

    4. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook 

    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Become-A-Listing-Legend-3D-Book-White-274x300.jpg

    Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here


      Without a strategy, your social media marketing plan may just be both a huge time suck and utterly unsuccessful.

      Without a strategy, you are more likely to chase all those shiny objects that make social media so enticing.

      Discipline is what it takes when you’re using social media to promote your business.

      Do you have a social media marketing plan?

      A social media marketing plan will help you stay focused on the reasons you’re using social media for your business. These reasons might include:

      • Consistent exposure for your brand. 
      • To keep in touch with those in your sphere and remain top-of-mind with them.
      • Generate new leads.

      The first step in your plan should be the judicious choice of which social media platforms you’ll spend time on for marketing purposes.


      The Animal Series is shown above. To see more, Click Here.


      Sure, it’s easy to fall back on the ones you most enjoy personally, but if you research those platforms, you may find that the audiences don’t at all fit those you should be targeting.

      “… demographic data is key to understanding which networks and campaigns deserve your attention,” cautions Brent Barnhart at sproutsocial.com.

      For instance, we’ve seen several online real estate agent advisors tout Tik Tok as a place to market your services. Yet nearly half of TikTok’s users are members between 10 and 29 years old.

      More than half of Instagram users in the U.S. are between the ages of 18 and 34.

      I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had a 10-year-old or an 18-year-old reach out to me with real estate needs. 

      As a real estate agent, your target demographic is age 33 and older for buyers and age 43 and older for sellers.

      Here’s a tip for you: While slightly more than 23% of Facebook users are between the ages of 25 and 34, 53% are aged 35 and older (statista.com).

      Choose your social media platforms carefully based on the user demographics most similar to your target client.

      Put that social media marketing plan to work

      Schedule your social media marketing just as you would door-knocking, cold calling, or any other marketing activity. Determine not only what days you will post but how much time you will allot.

      If you need help with setting up a strategy and then implanting it, visit hootsuite.com, sproutsocial.com and digitalmarketinginstitute.com.Remember, it’s called social media for a reason, so be social, not salesy.


      PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.

      1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine

      Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts combined with engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you.

      Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card!Click Here


      2. The Free 12-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

      The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

      3. The BusinessBase, SOI building system

      The most effective thing you can do to build a real estate business is to become more visible, more likable, and remembered more often. The BusinessBASE™ not only checks all of these boxes but is also a business-building machine. In two easy steps, you can begin to build a robust sphere of influence that will provide you a lifetime of repeat business and referrals. – Click Here

      4. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

      The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals.  – Click Here

      5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook 

      This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Become-A-Listing-Legend-3D-Book-White-274x300.jpg

      Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

      6. The Take a Listing Today Podcast

      Watch the ProspectsPLUS!, Take a Listing Today Podcast for actionable content to help you get more listings. – Click Here


        A few months ago, we began to sift through the various social media platforms and whittle down which were most worthy of a real estate agent’s time. At that time we compared Instagram and Facebook.

        We promised to continue this quest in a “part two” article down the road.

        And, right now, with stay-at-home orders in place, and many agents focusing on social media, we decided there was no better time than the present to complete this topic.

        The following statistics define what additional social media platforms to focus on and what to avoid to ensure the best ROI.

        Always start with the demographics

        In their attempts to pitch their services to real estate agents, social media marketing companies are notorious for using vague statistics.

        For instance, one company gives agents “10 Reasons Why Every Realtor Needs An Awesome Instagram Account.” Reason number one is that Instagram

        “… boasts over one billion active monthly users and over 500 million daily users.”

        While that’s impressive, unless you sell real estate internationally, this number is completely useless to you. Why pay to advertise to someone who lives on the other side of the globe?

        What you need to know is how many Americans use a platform. In Instagram’s case, it’s 116 million, which is only 11 percent of the total active monthly users.

        Then, you should find out the primary age groups that use the platform. Instagram’s largest user group (64 percent of all users) is between the ages of 18 and 34 (Gen Z and younger millennials).

        Remember, NAR’s studies show that the largest group of homebuyers are those between the ages of 25 and 43 (millennials) and baby boomers (age 56 to 74) make up the largest group of sellers.

        Realtor marketing postcards for neighborhood updates
        The Neighborhood Update postcard is available in the Neighborhood Update Series under Postcards

        The average age of each, however, is 47 and 57, respectively.

        Thinking of Pinterest?

         Pinterest is wildly popular with American women, or “deciders” as the folks at Pinterest call them. Here are the details you need to know to determine if it’s a platform you want to spend time on:

        • 83 percent of American women between the ages of 24 and 54 use Pinterest (Pinterest.com)
        • 43 percent of these users say they’ll buy a house sometime between now and 2025. (Pinterest.com)
        • When looking for information on buying a home, 21 percent of Millennials use Pinterest (Better Homes & Gardens survey of homebuyers)

         You may want to do a cost-benefit analysis before you jump on the Pinterest bandwagon. It’s quite time-consuming so unless you have a dedicated marketing person or social media manager on the team, it could end up eating much of your valuable time.

        When your pins and boards are optimized, however, Pinterest can be a powerful way to steer traffic to your website.

        How is Twitter for real estate agents?

         Because it’s in the media so often, Twitter seems a lot more popular than it is – at least with adults.

        •  Nearly 80 percent of all Twitter users live outside the U.S. (Omnicore Agency)
        • More than 65 percent of Twitter users are males
        • Nearly 40 percent of users are between the ages of 18 and 29

        Real estate agents should look long and hard at the first and third Twitter facts in the above list. The U.S. audience is small and it’s composed largely of people outside the home buying and selling age range.

        The Looking For Expert Advice postcard is from the Get More Listings Series under the postcard section

        If you love Twitter, there’s certainly nothing wrong with using it for personal stuff, however.

        TikTok

         Just what every real estate agent needs: yet another social media/video app to consider as a marketing tool.

        Since the majority of real estate agents aren’t in Gen Z and aren’t even Millennials, an explanation is probably in order here.

        TikTok is “The app where Gen Z vies for 15 seconds of fame,” according to Slate.com’s Heather Schwedel. She goes on to describe it “as a social network for amateur music videos.”

        This newcomer to the “Oh-my-God-you-need-to-be-using-this” video-sharing platform has become an obsession with teens. In fact, half of TikTok’s users (globally) are under the age of 34, with the vast majority of them between 16 and 24.

        When was the last time you had a 16, 17,18 or even 20-year-old real estate client?

        Then, 80 percent of the app’s most frequent users reside in China, but India accounts for nearly half of all new users.

        Are you licensed to sell real estate in China or India?

        What you’ll hear from marketers trying to get your business:

        • Users spend about 52 minutes each day on the app
        • The app is the most downloaded from the Apple App Store
        • “One of the great reasons why it’s so great for real estate is because, simply, not many people in real estate are using it”
        • “You see a lot of people like Gary Vee . . . talking about how TikTok is something you need to be going all-in on.”

        We had to laugh at that last one, since Gary Vee sells, among other things, sneakers. TikTok supplies the ideal targeted audience for that product.

        You, on the other hand, hopefully, sell HOMES. TikTok, at least right now, is an utter waste of time for real estate agents.

        What’s not a waste of time? Facebook, whom we highlighted in our last article on social media marketing and LinkedIn.

        The Neighborhood Update Free Offer postcard is available in the Neighborhood Update Free Offer Series under Postcards.

        For buying ads, we would seriously consider NextDoor.

        Send the Neighborhood Update Free Offer postcard from the Neighborhood Update Free Offer Series to your Farm or an area where you want more listings.
        Keep them informed about what’s going on right now in their marketplace.

        Need help targeting a specific niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

        PLUS: When you have time…here are some Free resources we’ve made available to support your success.

        1. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

        The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Get More Listings, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence. –Click Here

         

         

        2. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

        Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan.  – Click Here

         

         

        4. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook 

        Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

         

         

         

        5. The Free Online ROI Calculator

        Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! –Click Here

         

         

         

        3. The Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT” 

        The “Crush It” Guide includes easy steps to launching an effective direct mail marketing campaign, how to create a targeted mailing list, the perfect way to layout marketing materials for success, seven opportunities available to target in your area right now. –Click Here