McGrath Joins Facebook, How To Sell A Property Using Social Media? + E-Ave Wrap Up

6 minute read

In what has been a long awaited and highly anticipated arrival, yesterday McGrath made the strategic marketing move to join the Facebook conversation by launching their McGrath Estate Agents Corporate Facebook Fan Page.

Virtually overnight their following on Facebook has begun to take-off with over 500 fans liking their page already.

Whilst McGrath have been surprisingly slow to adopt Social Media previously, the Timeline functionality on Facebook Fan Pages has meant that a history of their company could be uploaded, featuring images and company milestones that took place even before Facebook existed. This helps to give the impression that McGrath have been on Facebook for a long time.

It will be interesting to see what McGrath do next. I think the real estate industry will be watching this page very closely.

(Disclaimer: I have previously consulted directly with John McGrath and have presented on Social Media to some of the McGrath team)

Social Media looks set to continue to change the way real estate agents market themselves, their business and their listings.

In fact, earlier this week, there was an article that featured on the national news.com.au site that was compiled by Victoria Craw and Sonja Koremans about “How To Sell Your Home On Social Media’ and I shared this insight into “How To Sell A Property Using Social Media?”

Now whilst some people may interpret this to mean that instead of using the major property portal sites like realestate.com.au, signboards, print media, window displays, etc, or even an agent for that matter and that a property owner could simply put their property up onto Twitter, Facebook or YouTube and it will sell. If that did happen and the buyer paid the market price or above market price then that would be what I’d call an “Epic Real Estate Fluke!”

Selling a property for the right price in today’s market requires a strategic approach and as more and more property seekers are now spending so much time researching the web before buying a home, the effective use of Social Media should definitely become part of the property marketing strategy.

As I mentioned in show, the initial results speak volumes for the effective use of Social Media in marketing a property the way that Laura & Rohan Bell have adopted it…

“‎48 groups is very rare in our area. We normally average 12 groups through an open house. The open house before this one had 21 groups through and is that same price range and 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment. So there is the comparison. More than twice the attendees.” ~ Braden Walters, True Property

The Erskineville Apartment has it’s own (blog) website ErskinevilleApartment.com.au which “attracted more than 600 page views within hours of going live” as reported in the article.

There is also a  Facebook Fan Page, Pinterest page featuring numerous boards of photos, Google+ and a Twitter account @Ersko_Apartment where they can share some of the real time happenings at and around the apartment and tweet out their Instagram photos (another Social Media application they’ve incorporated).

Below are a couple of the apartment’s Social Media profiles…

Twitter Profile @Esko_Apartment

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Erskineville Apartment Pinterest Boards

As Braden Walters from True Property Erskineville said in the news.com.au article…

” the online approach has been an instant success.”

“We were a little bit nervous about people passing the property around and saying what they like but it’s full disclosure and if you’re honest with people, it’s easier for them to make a decision,” Mr Braden said.

He said social media evoked attachment with potential buyers.

“On social media, people can ask the owners questions so they can portray what they love about the property versus what the agent writes in his marketing.”

As I mentioned in today’s show and was quoted in yesterday’s article…

“A lot of agents use a standard approach to marketing, whereas this involves a lot more of the feeling around the home because it comes from the owners’ perspective.”

But he warns that while social media exposes listings to a new audience, it requires a well-planned strategy.

“The biggest thing that needs to be done is that the agent has to have some sort of ability to administer the site … the agent has to be very careful the property isn’t misrepresented.”

…and I must say that it was really pleasing to see that amongst the numerous “TIPS (from home owner Laura Bell)” she said…

Know your limits: “Ms Bell directed all inquiries to her real estate agent. “That’s not my field of expertise, best to leave that to somebody who knows.”

Content:  “The number one thing is populating the blog with great things.”

To read the whole news.com.au article Click Here

What else can Real Estate Agents and Sellers Do?

Another way that I have seen agents using a similar approach to get the sellers involved in some of the online context and what it’s like to live in their place is by interviewing the sellers via video and uploading it onto YouTube.

Here’s one that I saw the other day by real estate agent, Tony Santolin of Griffith Real Estate.

Electric Avenue Wrap-Up

Monday’s Show was about “Embracing Change in Real Estate” and also featured a mini-movie designed to help agents navigate the changing maze.

On Wednesday’s episode, I posed the question “Why Not Try A Mobile Property Inspection?”

Yesterday’s Electric Avenue Show featured a “Real Estate Video Marketing Tip”

…and today, the show featured “Some Do’s & Dont’s of QR Codes for Agents”

I hope you enjoy this week’s Electric Avenue Wrap-Up 🙂

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5 Comments

  • Ryan O'Grady
    Posted August 24, 2012 at 8:25 am 0Likes

    Another great article Greg, also great to see agents like Braden looking at innovative ways to market property.

  • Peter Ricci
    Posted August 24, 2012 at 9:21 am 0Likes

    Nice little article Greg.

    Although getting the hype out of it. It’s just a fan page?

    There are no listings, agent profiles etc. I like to see Agencies on Facebook and the like, but it must have a purpose. This has some nice little articles and some interesting notes, but stripped away it is just another fan page.

    And really McCrath can do better than this, they are lucky they get so much publicity (and we give them that here too)

    As for what they should do next? Actually probably catch up to their competitors. Harsh? Maybe, but this is McGrath after all.

    Here are just some of the Agents we helped on Facebook
    https://www.facebook.com/ljhookerbalmain
    https://www.facebook.com/profwant
    https://www.facebook.com/ljhookerlanecove

    As you can see these are full of information including local area information, property listings, photography, videos agent profiles etc etc.

  • Peter Konidaris
    Posted August 24, 2012 at 12:08 pm 0Likes

    Hi Greg,

    Thanks for this! Great find regarding Tony Santolin’s property video. This is the first ever property video I have seen which has grabbed my attention start to finish. I might need to adopt these techniques and re-introduce property videos into my marketing schedules. I stopped using property videos last year as they mostly seemed cheesy, repetitive and frankly a bit of a yawn-fest (only my opinion).

    Also, McGrath is up to approx 700 facebook “likes”. The amount of likes is not a surprise, but this is long overdue. I created a page as an individual sales agent and have reached almost 70 likes. 700 would be nice!

  • Keneza
    Posted September 11, 2012 at 11:55 pm 0Likes

    Had been wondering why they werent on it..
    just browsing the page now and noticed that most likers from Turkey.. At 6000 fans ..
    I question if its would be worth buying fans to get your numbers up and a bit of credability..
    lots of services available..but then hampers the use of knowing your real data..
    Few others I have seen I like but not at these sorts of numbers –
    http://www.facebook.com/cunninghams.property
    http://www.facebook.com/cityquarter
    http://www.facebook.com/prudentialelliman

    • Greg Vincent
      Posted September 12, 2012 at 9:33 am 0Likes

      Disappointing to see that they decided to buy FB fans, especially since their page had grown very well organically. (It could come back to bite them).

      Always better to adopt an authentic approach to Social Media.

      Golden Rule of Social Media: “Never, ever, ever be tempted to buy Facebook Fans!”

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