How agents can avoid social media extinction

Agents who aren’t active on the app could face “social media extinction”, according to one real estate marketing expert.

The platform recently surpassed Google as the most popular website in 2021 and has taken the top spot of the most used form of social media from Facebook, according to Cloudflare.

Nic Fren, chief executive of real estate marketing company Bespoke Media Group, said he’s not surprised at the video platform’s surge in popularity.

“We have been prepping our members and the real estate industry for this day for over a year now,” he said.

“I’ve seen the writing on the wall for a long time. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram, while still hugely popular, are losing the younger generation. We need to be mindful that the younger generation are growing up and buying, selling and leasing property as well,” he observed.

Agents, he said, should take the recent change in rankings as a warning and get themselves accustomed to the platform quickly, as getting in early may be key to your success.

“It’s such a clean airspace at the moment and isn’t flooded with agents,” Mr Fren said. “This gives agents a great opportunity to become the leader in their area on this space.”

He also believes it currently offers some of the best organic (i.e. not paid) results of any platform out there.

And perhaps because of its relative newness, the space doesn’t yet feel dominated by promotions and ads, which Mr Fren said agents should be aware of.

Viewers, he said, will quickly tune out when they feel they’re being fed sales content and “never ending ‘look at me’ self promotion”.

“They are there to be entertained, not watch you boast about simply doing your job. We need to remember to put out content that viewers want to see, not what we think they do,” he said.

This article first appeared in REB