To TikTok or not

Not enough agents are looking beyond the social media giants of Facebook and Instagram to build up a following, according to a media marketing expert.

Bespoke Media Group's Nic Fren believes the recent Facebook ban on news should have been a “good wake-up call” for agents who are used to solely focusing on Facebook and Instagram marketing.

“If Facebook decides to pull another stung like this again… there’s a lot of platforms agents are missing that could be costly,” he said.

The CEO has acknowledged Facebook’s history “of acting out and asking for forgiveness later”.

“Their history shows patterns of knee-jerk reactions and dealing with the fallout after the fact,” he continued, noting it as starting to leave a bitter taste in the mouths of many Australians.

While he does doubt that would happen, with millions of dollars of revenue at stake, Mr Fren said “they would most likely continue to play with the algorithms or up the promotional costs, charging us more to reach the same people we do now”.

“Back when I started marketing on social media in 2012, my followers saw my content,” he reflected.

“Now, I have to pay a fortune for the same, if not a lesser reach. I’d expect that to continue or become more expensive.”

The CEO said that, as a result, many Australian marketing agencies are looking to other platforms for clients — and especially when it comes to where they are spending their money.

It’s why he argues that TikTok should be top of mind for Australian agents.

While many would be of the view that it’s a social media platform for kids, Mr Fren said many people would be surprised at what they find if they take a look.

“While a lot of it is entertaining, it certainly can be used to promote property and grow your brand,” he said.

“The most important thing at the moment to remember is, NO ONE is really using it.”

Having looked up Sydney real estate on the platform, the CEO said there’s only a handful of agents in Sydney who have a TikTok presence.

From his perspective, it offers up agents a previously untapped method of marketing: “It’s a great place to get in and build your audience while you have a clear airspace to beat your competition.

“It’s free (at the moment), so you have a great chance to start building your audience on another platform and owning that space in the industry.”

He admitted that as a man in his mid-30s, even he’s “pulling away from Facebook and Instagram and spending more time on TikTok”.

“TikTok has been around for a few years now and, personally, I’m finding myself spending more and more time on the platform for entertainment purposes,” he said.

“Since the pandemic, with the flood of agents really taking to social media, I’ve just found [Facebook and Instagram have] become very stale.

“There are platforms to sell and market property/your brands and there’s social media.”

Expressing that many people “would be surprised at how many under-30 are no longer on Facebook”, he said they are on platforms like TikTok and Snapchat.

“So, that’s where you want to be.”

This article first appeared in REB