What Is The Best Form of Social Media for Real Estate Agents?

        For this service-learning project, I am interested in finding out what the best forms of social media are for real estate agents to use, and the best ways to use these social media platforms. 

            In Finance and Commerce’s article Real Estate Meets Social Media, I was shocked to read that NorthMarq Real Estate Company considered Linkedin a popular and useful form of social media.  “The No. 1 answer to how respondents searched for information about NorthMarq's professionals and about other companies offering real estate services turned out to be LinkedIn” (Arundhati).  Instead of relying only on the bio available on the company website, potential customers were looking at their individual Linkedin profiles as well as the corporate profile to see the agent’s accomplishments, skills, etc.  Admittedly, this is a form of social media I hadn’t considered using as a marketing tool in real estate.  However, it makes sense (especially in higher end markets) that this is a social media tool some people use.

            While researching the use of social media in real estate, the most advice given seems to be for Facebook.  This tells me that Facebook is probably the most widely used and popular form of social media to real estate agents.  Several websites like Placester.com and inman.com, which are dedicated to real estate agents, provide social media tips and etiquette, which almost always includes Facebook. 

            As far as finding the best ways to use social media, Placester.com has provided a fantastic list of social media etiquette rules for agents.  Author Matt Bushery covers most forms of social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and yes- Linkedin) and the best ways for agents to use them.  The following photo is a picture from the article in which he condenses the best Facebook Tips.

Works Cited

Arundhati, Parmar. "Real Estate Meets Social Media." Real Estate and Commerce 23 Dec. 2009. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

Bushery, Matthew. "30 Must-Follow Real Estate Social Media Etiquette Rules for Agents." Placester. 22 Apr. 2015. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.

Analysis of Nest Realty's Social Media presence

The use of social media in a business setting can help build goodwill and persuade the audience to start using your product or service.  Nest Realty (located here in Wilmington, NC) uses two main forms of social media.  Facebook, which allows others with similar interests to connect with you, and Instagram, a photo-based form of social media.  These sites can help the company connect with customers and learn more about their wants and needs are. What kind of posts do they want to see from us?  What areas in Wilmington are they most interested in knowing about?

            When comparing Nest’s two most used social media sites, Facebook and Instagram, Facebook is clearly the more successful of the two.  They have more followers that interact with them on this website.  They have more followers here and most posts get around 50 likes each whereas their Instagram posts get an average of 15.  In my opinion, they have a better platform with Facebook because it allows them to reach a larger customer base, it is easier for them to respond to followers, and a majority of their demographic will be attainable through Facebook.  It looks like Nest will occasionally like follower’s comments, but rarely respond or comment back.

            Customers that engage with a company over social media are 20-40% more likely to spend their money there.  It would be beneficial to Nest to start responding and communicating with their customers more on social media, but more specifically on their Facebook to increase their customer base.  Posting more information that their audience will value like home buying tips or links to interesting info (called content marketing) will also help motivate customers to choose their realty company in the future.  Also, expanding their use of social media to more actively include the use Instagram and other forms like Twitter could help Nest reach an even wider range of potential customers, which would benefit the company.  

Nest Realty's Ethos

This week I am analyzing Nest Realty in Wilmington, NC to determine what their online ethos is like.  I am looking for how they make their audience feel as well as how they are accomplishing this.

        

         To begin, let us look at Nest’s home page.  This is the first thing their audience sees when they visit Nest's page.  A large photo of a sunset at the beach serves as the background with a window over it directing the viewer to start narrowing down their search for a new home.  The colors used on the rest of the page and text is pale as to not be too distracting.  Once you scroll down, you are presented with more information on their team, neighborhoods in the Wilmington area, and statistics on what the current market is doing.  The first thing the reader sees after scrolling down is, “Wilmington’s New Breed of Broker”.  This title alone creates a sense of and uniqueness, which, if you continue exploring their website, is something that Nest aims for.

         The three adjectives that came to mind when scrolling through this were: peaceful, modern, and sophisticated.  These feelings are created through the peaceful sunset photo in the beginning, new breed of broker title, which invokes a sense of modernness, and the text (both the pale color which creates a peaceful ethos and the font of the text which is sleek and modern).  The layout also leads to a modern and sophisticated ethos with its clean and well-organized layout, large photos, and overall color theme.

The ethos that Nest creates on its website is a smart choice.  Most of the time, buying or selling a home can be an overwhelming or stressful endeavor.  This peaceful, modern, and sophisticated ethos will lead potential clients to feel like they will be in capable, knowledgeable hands that will make the process an easy one if the choose Nest Realty. 

Visual Rhetoric- Part III

Recently, I have been looking into the results of the “Tips From A Former Smoker” ads.  My theory is, if the visual rhetoric used in the ads is effective and resonates with the audience, then the results should be a large number of people that have quit smoking.  To finish up my research I need to analyze the smoking facts that the campaign presents to its audience, the visual rhetoric in the images, and the connection (if any) they form with the audience.  In this blog I’ll focus on mostly on the results of the campaign.

According to their website, the Center for Disease Control’s campaign has influenced 1.6 million smokers to attempt quitting in its first year (Campaign).  I would say that’s pretty amazing results even if all of those people didn’t successfully quit long-term.  They also say that over 100,000 smokers successfully quit after 2012 (Campaign).  Keep in mind that these results are from the first year alone, so imagine how large that number is after three years!  They clearly persuaded a lot of people to consider quitting, so I would say that the visual rhetoric and connection they formed with their audience was successful.

I’ve recently found that there was a study done on the results of the Tips campaign that was published in the Lancet Medical Journal.  This is what the CDC references on their website when talking about the people that the campaign has influenced to quit smoking.  I think it’s pretty cool a medical journal has researched the results of these ads.  I hope to find the journal soon to see what other statistics they found that I could add to my research!

"Campaign Overview." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 Sept. 2015. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.