Face it; the goal is to sell properties, so it’s tempting for a real estate agent to focus on showing their properties. However, according to Lucid Press, the online buying process shows that creating trust and providing the opportunity for two-way conversations are keys to building the relationship that leads for a successful agent/client relationship.

Online marketing is great for its vast number of ways to reach prospective clients, but it can also be too many. You need to take into consideration the size and lifestyles of your marketplace and then your ability to commit to the process. You don’t need to be everywhere because you’ll be spread too thin and likely will not be able to generate any traction.

Here’s the full Lucid Press 1-4, and a recap of the points that you can address first:

• Choose the right platform
• Build 2-way conversations
• Post consistently (and strategically)
• Remember past clients!

Type of content: It’s not all about house listings. Create Evergreen or “how-to” content. You can recycle over time. This could include DIY and decorating information for both the buyer and the seller. It might also be an opportunity to create a professional guide of other businesses in the area that you work with to show your involvement and standing in the area.

Another type of content especially is your listings focus on a certain area of town is to write a local guide or even make informal videos as you walk around the neighborhood.

Market to past clients: General marketing research across ALL products and services show that creating repeat and referral prospects are your #1 and #2 most effective prospecting. This can be via email updates or using newer ChatBot technology. Even people that just bought a home may refer a friend if a home in their neighborhood is on the market, so it worth the effort to keep these channels open.

In this article from Kipp Bodnar, CMO at HubSpot, covers “10 Real Estate Social Media Marketing Strategies That’ll Bring in New Business.” It comes from the marketing point of view (vs the real estate) as Hubspot is a leading CRM and Inbound Marketing platforms. I use Hubspot (I have a certification in Content Marketing and can set up Hubspot for small businesses) to manage client contacts and follow-ups. They also offer website and social media tools.

Here are three of Kipp’s points. It’s important to note that his list for connecting with prospective buyers does not include pushing a stream of properties; his steps focus more on building trust early in the process.

Promote the town, not just the house: This goes beyond the “Location, Location, Location” adage, and gets more specific with some how-to. Some examples are to use location ad services and tagging features built into each platform such as using @TownName and @SchoolDistrictName in order to push your Town information to people researching that location.

Respond to comments, good and bad: First the obvious – never miss a chance to say thank you for positive comments or actions. They can be about you, a property, or a project that you are working on. For instance, if a positive comment is made on the local school district site, a follow-up that compliments the people responsible or gives some history as to how the town bonded together to make it happen goes a long way to pushing goodwill around. Just be honest and give credit to where it’s due.

On the other side – bad comments: There are two types: 1) Sometimes things just don’t go as planned. If this happens and you can address the situation, then you should step up and provide an explanation and it helps to say how you can help make things better or prevent them from happening again. Then. 2) Trolls. These are people looking to bait you or those that you just can’t satisfy – don’t take the bait. Others readers know who these trolls are and even they don’t want to cloud up their feeds so stay clear.

Avoid talking to yourself – Share and Collaborate:  This takes in pieces from the above, but it starts by ensuring that you have content that people want to read and engage with. That’s probably not a house listing, but more related to the positive compliments about the town and the people that are making life better. It can also be resources for buying homes, like banks, mortgage brokers and contractors – to name a few people in the buying process – that can reciprocate by sharing your information.