The Corcoran Group – Real Estate Social Media
Over the past 12 months I have interviewed some of the best in the business about social media and online marketing for real estate agents. I interviewed Matthew Shadbolt, Former Director of Interactive Product & Marketing at the Corcoran Group, to gain some insight as to their stunning success in all things digital and social media.
Matthew is now the Director of Real Estate Products at The New York Times.
This is what we discussed when Matthew was still employed by Corcoran.
In 1973, Barbara Corcoran took $1,000 and started a real estate business. In 2001, she sold the Corcoran Group for $66 million. Corcoran Group is now the largest residential real estate firm in New York City. They also happen to invest a good deal of time, effort and money in social media, and it is paying serious dividends.
Matthew, tell me about your Facebook following – it’s pretty impressive, isn’t it?
Yes, we have a massive following, nearly 70,000 fans! We only started on Facebook about four years ago and now we get a lot of interaction from them, so that’s great.
What other social media do you use?
We initially started with Twitter, because it seemed a great way to interact and communicate with the public. Then we started to share content, and now we use Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Foursquare, plus a few others like Google Plus, Pinterest, and so on.
How long does it take you to maintain your social media presence each day? Do you outsource it?
It only takes about an hour a day – sourcing content, posting updates or communicating with fans. We make sure we post something every single day. At Corcoran we are very aware of our online branding and we would never outsource our social media to anyone outside the company. It’s all about authenticity. We want people who care about our brand, who live and breathe it, to influence our online presence. We are also very conscious about the human element and personality in our social media brand.
What about offline? How does it compare with your online presence?
We still believe in advertising in newspapers, magazines and on billboards, but less so than five years ago. We make sure that our online and offline marketing complement each other. I don’t think social media will ever do away completely with offline marketing. There will always be a need for newspaper advertising, especially in New York. On the train you see commuters reading the New York Times; it’s part of the DNA of the city. It’s their way of life. So, although I realise that advertising models are changing, and although a lot of papers and magazines are progressing to digital, I still believe in the paper version.
When you are planning your marketing, do you think about the culture relating to your area?
Morning is very different to afternoon in New York. Winter is very different to summer. Moods are also different. Put content into your presence that reflects this; for example, don’t give breakfast tips at dinner time or pictures of swimming pools in winter.
How do you generate leads on social media platforms?
We target each source differently and use them in different ways. I believe that Twitter is the most human of the social media platforms, and it’s where we get the most lead generation and business from. Facebook seems to be more about brand awareness.
Your social media presence needs to have stopping power in the news feed. It needs to gain people’s attention.
How does data analysis help you?
Corcoran are big on analysing their data. We use Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, and so on. To give you an example how Google Analytics statistics could be used effectively, they might show Corcoran have a big presence in, say, California. We will then target and promote online to the Californian market.
How does social media help you know your buyers?
In our area, buyers in the market are looking, on average, for about two years. During that time they do a lot of research; the consumer is becoming smarter than ever, and we know that buyers are very well educated in the marketplace. They know about pricing, neighbourhoods and so on. Corcoran makes sure we communicate a lot with potential buyers and sellers during that two year period.
Buyers are not looking at properties as such to start with; they are getting to know the area first. In our promotions, Corcoran go beyond the four walls of a property. We let the buyer know what it feels like to live in and around a property that’s for sale. Most agents share Neighbourhood information. You have to know your market and know your area.
Corcoran have over 3000 venue tips on Foursquare, a popular platform in New York. These tips give advice on that particular venue or something that’s close by. We also run Facebook ads, because we believe it’s cost effective and it’s targeted.
How can you track the ROI?
It’s difficult to actually track how many customers we get via social media. We use what we call sentiment metrics. There is a hierarchy of engagement, which gets analysed and then acted upon. For example, the hierarchy on Twitter could be in this order:
New follower
Retweet
Retweet with comment
A comment that’s positiive
A conversation develops
The client sends a direct message
What’s next in your strategy?
The next thing is mobile marketing. The web is now a mobile experience. You want to be putting your services into people’s hands via their phone. Statistics show that people using a mobile phone are on the site four to five times longer than desktop users, and of course if your buyers are on their phone they are ready to call your office, so Corcoran have developed an Android app, iPhone app and an iPad app.
What are your thoughts about staff promoting themselves individually?
Our staff are independent contractors who work under the Corcoran umbrella. We invest a lot in training the staff about our brand, but they have their own websites and they are encouraged to have their own personality. Having said that, we do have guidelines for them to follow.
Finally, what is your advice to new starters in social media?
If you haven’t embraced online yet, look at your data. We still get about 60 to 70 per cent of our business as offline referrals, but that statistic was much higher a few years ago. Now customers research online. You can provide a much higher customer service experience using iPads and so on, and you can be more impressive and more responsive – for example, you don’t have to go back to the office to get a contract. The result is that the end user’s experience is greatly improved.
Why do people choose agents? Overwhelmingly, research shows it’s the one that got back to them first. You want to provide more tools to make that happen. If you are just starting out in social media, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. We made a lot of mistakes before we found out what works in our market.
I wrote this article for The Sold Magazine – Please find original article here.
Lisa B. helps real estate agents to use the internet to kick butt online.
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Lisa B. Real Estate Social Media Trainer
