When it comes to marketing, it’s all about content.  Informative, entertaining, and useful blog posts that are circulated on social media have become a mainstay for businesses.  Along with written content, media such as images and videos have become powerful for businesses as well.

However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach for businesses.  It must be tailored to not only the business, but the industry. 

Real estate marketing is one industry that undeniably lends itself to a powerful area – visual media.  Prospective customers will value written content to an extent, but they are consistently drawn in by their eyes.  As a result, real estate marketing must leverage videos and images effectively to capitalize on each and every opportunity.

Remember that photos and videos are versatile.  Don’t be afraid to showcase media that adds some creativity to the mix.  A video walkthrough or unique photo can be a great change of pace from the standard media interpretations in real estate.  

Other elements, such as the wording that gets the visitor to view the media, is crucial.  Spend some time on your call-to-action (CTA) phrases to get the most of your efforts.

Media can be a major asset to any real estate marketing strategy.  Contact us to learn more about how you can improve your efforts to get the results you desire.

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While the effectiveness of videos on social media is not in question, navigating the best practices of this can be a bit confusing.  How can you make the most of this media?  Chelsea Perry identifies three areas with helpful tips that can help any business owner use videos effectively:

1. Find Your Niche: What is your demographic?  Once you figure this out, you can begin to look at items like keywords, tone, mood, themes, and other items that can guide your video selection process.  Perry notes that for the Purina Beneful dog food brand, it’s simple for the dog lovers – cute dog videos instead of dry material.

2. Serialise Videos: There is real value to serialising videos.  You can keep audiences coming back for more with this spin on social media videos.  Perry recommends a series of videos that depict common treatments for doctors, or supplementary videos for a product manufacturer as examples.  This type of approach can beat the “random video” approach.

3. Examine Its “Shareability”: You need to get videos, shared, retweeted, commented on, and so forth for maximum value.  Make sure that you keep your videos relatively short (under two minutes), and always watch for content and tone.  Entertaining and informative content, Perry notes, are two standards that can be used to gauge shareability.

Interested in learning more about using social media to build your business?  Contact us to find out more on the subject.

1. Your Hashtag Can Get Hijacked: On January 18, McDonald’s created the #McDstories hashtag to inspire customers to share personal stories at the popular restaurant.  However, it led to a flood of negative stories that prompted the chain to yank it two hours later.  It still goes on strong today, though.

2. Don’t Pay for Celebrity Tweets: Snickers paid a popular model and reality star (Jordon, or Katie Price) to tweet about out-of-character tweets such as China’s gross domestic product.  This “prank” led to followers thinking her account had been hacked, and it ultimately led to the wrong kind of attention for Snickers, Shandrow notes.

3. Say No to Mass Marketing Tweets: Nine Twitter accounts were created by Toyota to get the word out about the new Camry during the Super Bowl.  The backlash led to the closing of the accounts.  The moral of the story was clear: mass marketing, impersonal tweets can quickly alienate customers.

4. Remove Insensitivities: KitchenAid, for example, had to fire and clean up the mess of a social media manager after an insensitive tweet pertaining to politics was made. 

   Another example is Urban Outfitters, who on October 29 (during Hurricane Sandy), tweeted: “This storm blows (but free shipping doesn’t)! Today only…”  

   The backlash still continues to this day. 

A new year is ahead of us, and so are new opportunities for networking online. Have you thought about how to continue your social media engagement strategies for 2013?

According to website bootcampdigital.com trends include the following:

• Many think that social search is going to explode. Google is already one step ahead by launching Google Plus, and more networks are ready to adapt.
  

• Experts think businesses will start targeting YouTube more aggressively as it becomes more of a social network
  

• QR codes and other aspects of mobile are really going to explode in the online marketing world.

Taking these tips on board, savvy webusers need to consider our positioning on social networks for 2013.

How many social networks are you currently on? Do you have a presence on Twitter and Facebook? The trend is for customers to search for topics on these sites, not only on search engines. So the wider your net is, the more chance you have of people who are interested in your organisation finding you. As part of our Social Media services, we can help you make sure you're not left out of the loop.

If YouTube is going to be the next boom for marketing online and engaging with people who share common interests, think about videos you could create about your business in general and your community in particular. Videos don't have to be expensive to be engaging, and even a narrated PowerPoint slideshow will help get your word out. Even if video isn't something you're interested in, start thinking about ways you can provide your online networks with varied diet of media on your Twitter and Facebook feeds. It will attract more eyes to your business.

What can you do for engaging people on their smart phones? Is your website mobile optimised?  Now is the time to harness the power of the simple QR code. 

If you're not familiar with this, QR codes are those square black-and-white things that will take you directly to a particular website if you scan them with your mobile device. Use a code pointing to your website or social media of choice on your printed materials--advertisements, brochures, even business cards--to help you connect with the audience you want.

For more information about our broad range of affordable online marketing solutions, you can always contact us.