Bev Thorne, chief marketing officer at Century 21 Real Estate, shared her company’s social media strategy with SmartBrief editor Jesse Stanchak at this year’s BlogWorld and New Media Expo.
Thorne spoke about what kind of content the company creates, what real estate agents shouldn’t do with their blogs and how to integrate national outreach with the hyperlocal nature of the real estate business.
Some key points of Century 21’s strategy:
- Engage home buyers and sellers. The company uses social media to address consumer issues using the expertise that Century 21 agents have. For real estate agents, social media is “an extension of the natural marketing and networking that they’re already doing,” she said.
- Tailor the message to customers. National content can be a good jumping off point, but Century 21 tries to connect its social media message to the issues facing people where they live. For example, the company might use a famous person to bring up the topic of foreclosure, but the conversation stemming from that would be how foreclosure issues affect people in their communities. “So we really merge the queries that begin at the national level with the application at the local level,” Thorne said.
- Deliver content, not sales pitches. Social media outreach should not be viewed as cheap advertising, Thorne said. She advised real estate agents who are starting blogs to focus on addressing the concerns of home buyers and sellers rather than treating the medium like a billboard for sales.
For more of Thorne’s tips, watch the video below:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku8rTArAwrw[/embed]