Marketing 101: Your social media primer, part 1

Written by on July 22, 2015

There are a number of excuses you might use to avoid putting your business on social media:

“It’s a waste of time. I get all my jobs from lenders.”

“My competitors don’t do it.”

“I don’t have time for it.”

“I don’t know how.”

“I don’t know where to start.”

As tempting as it is to use these lines as mantras, they're actually holding you back from being more lucrative. Even if you get the bulk of your business from lenders, there's an entire market of non-lenders that you're missing out on by not engaging with them. Building a base of non-lender customers will help keep you busy when mortgage work slows down, and social media is a great way to do that. A study by the Pew Research Center showed that in January 2014, 74% of online adults used social networking sites. By getting your business on social media, you're putting yourself in front of your audience and expanding your brand to a bigger market share.

Still not convinced? Here's more food for thought. Homeowners, the ideal target audience for PMI removal or tax assessment challenges, are getting younger. More millennials (roughly born between the early '80s and late '90s) are buying houses or are in the market for one. According to Pew Research Center, 52% of them use at least two social media platforms. And they're not just using them to connect with high school friends.

Ryan Lundquist, a full-time Sacramento appraiser with a very active blog and social media pages, discusses this in in this 2013 interview. He talks about how social media involves time and effort, but is essential for today's market because that's where people are looking for services. No one searches the Yellow Pages anymore. If it can't be found through Google, it may not be found at all.

Unless, of course, someone refers them to your business. This is yet another tally mark in the pro-social media column. If customers are satisfied with your services, encourage them to connect with you on social media platforms and even rate your business. It's a way to boost your reputation online and provides an easy way for someone to refer you by sharing or directing others to your Facebook page.

This is especially effective if others in your area aren't active on social media. That means there's more opportunity for you to capitalize and reap the spoils. Being active on social media will help your business appear in Internet search results more often, so potential clients will perceive you as an (if not THE) active and accessible appraiser.

And what if your competitors are active? Then you can't risk being the last one in your area getting a piece of the pie. It's better to start now than get left behind.

In our next post, we'll go over how to develop a social media attack plan, from what platforms to use to what kind of things you should post. Until then, spend some time looking into what your competitors or other businesses you use do for their social presence. See how often they post, what they post about, and what kind of responses they get. This will give you an idea of what you can do as well as give you a feel for which sites you prefer and what kind of posts you might be interested in doing.

If you need a place to get started, you can get social with us!

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