Property blog: Social media tips for Estate Agents - It's a whole new world2nd July 2013

A few years ago, estate agents were all doing the same things to sell properties: newspaper adverts and property portals, combined with mailouts and phone calls. Fast forward to 2013 and it really is a whole new property world.

When in a recent management meeting, social media was suggested as a way to reach more buyers and sellers, it’s fair to say the general reaction was one of wary cynicsm. After all, looking around the room, we didn’t really have a wealth of knowledge or technical ability. In fact, it would have been very easy to dismiss social media for these reasons and think of it as a passing fad or something that we will let other agents waste their time on.

But we, as a company, are always striving to be proactive and innovative, so we decided to launch Wilkie May & Tuckwood on Twitter.

I have to admit that those first few Tweets I made were pretty awful. I had only sought some basic advice and with absolutely no experience, was struggling to know what to say, and who on earth I should be saying it to.

However, after only a few weeks, I started being more successful in working out how to engage – initially with local people and businesses, but also with other property professionals, not just in the UK, but all over the world.

Only a few months after those first hesitant tweets, I am genuinely amazed at the level of engagement that social media can produce. Not only have we started to build hugely enriching relationships with local businesses and learn from other property professionals, we have even used Twitter to successfully promote Open House events. Our initial conservative goal of just getting on Twitter, has been surpassed substantially, and I truly believe that we have already greatly enhanced the service that we provide. We can better succeed in our ultimate goal of selling our clients properties for the best possible price by listening, learning and engaging with the wider community, and Twitter gives us a perfect place to do this.

Even though we are relatively new on Twitter, we are thrilled that we have already been included in Zoopla`s most influential top 100 uk estate agents on social media! What a great achievement in such a short time. It just goes to show that social media is about the quality of the relationships you cultivate on there, not the number of tweets or followers.

I am delighted, and not a little surprised, that only a few short months on from that original meeting, I now find myself immersed in a whole new property world that I was previously so unaware of. 

About the author

Kevin James MNAEA is an Associate Partner with Wilkie May Tuckwood in Minehead, Somerset and has worked in estate agency for 12 years. He can be found tweeting at: @WMTMinehead