Article defines social media for the B2C real estate sector and identifies effective social media tools that can be used to communicate effectively to create awareness and generate leads

1. Social Media in B2C Real Estate
Term Paper
Shakil Alam
MB 8507 Special Topics : Real Estate Development and Urban Planning
Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University
18 April 2011

2. Table of Contents
Executive Summary 1
Social Media Defined 3
General confusion about Social Media 3
Types of Real Estate Social Media 4
Types of Real Estate Social Media Users 12
Real Estate Social Media Strategy 14
Conclusion 16

3. Executive Summary
The third Industrial revolution which invited the internet age completely changed the way
people do business today. Businesses are looking for new niches through the internet which are
no more possible to reach using traditional media. While some sectors have verged on internet
marketing right away, some have decided to wait for a better time. Real estate sector is such an
industry where the adoption rate of internet technologies is relatively low compared to other
industries. However, the recent success of various sectors using online social media has caused
some entities in the real estate sector to reconsider the implications of social media. With a
growing number of client base looking for information online, real estate agents and companies
are trying to figure out the most effective means of engaging customers through online social
media. This paper defines social media and explores the various social media tools that can be
used in real estate B2C sector and provides the reader with a rich knowledge base on what
social media has to offer in the real estate industry. The paper will provide the reader with a
framework to classify the real estate social media channels available and also classify the types
of real estate social media target consumers which can be used to better strategise a real estate
social media marketing and awareness campaign. The overall purpose of this paper is to provide
the real estate companies and agents in the B2C sector of the real estate industry with
guidelines and tools to engage in social media marketing strategy.
The paper attempts to tailor the classification the types of social media channels available for
the real estate industry and provides the reader with information on the latest social media
tools available for each category. The paper goes on to provide the reader with a classification
of the types of users based on their actions on different social media platforms and how the real
estate companies and agents can strategize to engage each group of user. Finally, the paper introduces
the reader to the Groundswell Profile Tool which can be used to profile the dominant types of social
media users to set a social media marketing and engagement strategy.
1

4. The third Industrial revolution which invited the internet age completely changed the way
people do business today. Businesses are looking for new niches through the internet which are
not possible to reach using traditional media. While some sectors have verged on internet
marketing right away, some have decided to wait for a better time. Real estate sector is such an
industry where the adoption rate of internet technologies is relatively low compared to other
industries. However, the recent success of various sectors using online social media has caused
some entities in the real estate sector to reconsider the implications of social media. With a
growing number of client base looking for information online, real estate agents and companies
are trying to figure out the most effective means of engaging customers through online social
media.
This paper defines social media and explores the various social media tools that can be used in
real estate B2C sector and provide will the reader with a rich knowledge base on what social
media has to offer in the real estate industry. The paper will provide the reader with a
framework to classify the real estate social media channel available and also classify the types
of real estate social media target consumer users which can be used to better strategise a real
estate social media marketing campaign. from a The overall purpose of this paper is to provide
the real estate companies and agents in the B2C sector of the real estate industry with
guidelines and tools to engage in social media marketing strategy.
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5. Social Media defined
In a rapidly changing digital world where new online communication channels are developed
every day, an average user often finds it difficult to draw a fine line between the social media
tools and other internet tools. In order to get a clear understanding of this paper, it is important
for the reader to clearly understand the types, classifications and boundaries of social media
and social media users.
According to Ron Jones, President/CEO of Symetri Internet Marketing, social media essentially
is a category of online media where people are talking, participating, sharing, networking, and
bookmarking online(SearchEngineWatch.com). Most social media services encourage
discussion, feedback, voting, comments, and sharing of information from all interested parties.
He also defined social media as an enabler of two way communication in the digital world
which is very contrary to the traditional marketing world.
General confusion about Social Media
People often confuse social media with internet marketing. It is important to understand the
distiction between social media and internet marketing. Search engine optimization (SEO),
google adwords, google adsense, e- commerce newsletters, banner ads, emails, online
magazines, company website and social media together can be termed as internet marketing
media. Therefore, social media is only a part of internet marketing. However, social media
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6. makes a major part of the overall internet marketing strategy. The successes of many
businesses organizations in recent years have made social media a major online marketing and
awareness creation tool.
Types of Real Estate Social Media
It is very important for a for a real estate social media marketing strategist to understand the
types and classifications of various social media tools out here to efficiently design an
awareness and lead generation campaign. Social media in the real estate sector can divided
into six different types which are described below accompanied by a list of relevant social
media sites that can benefit the real estate companies and agents involved.
1. Collaborative projects: These types of social networking sites allow joint and
simultaneous creation of content by many end users. Some collaborative social
networking sites include wikis1, social bookmarking sites2, social news sites3, Social
events site4 and forums and message boards.
Wikis are free and can be used for B2B or B2C communications by developers and real
estate agents respectively. Sites such as WikiSpaces, TWiki, PBWiki and Welpaint are
ideal places to start a wiki. Developers can use wiki for internal communication between
1
Websites which allows multiple users to add, remove, and change text based content (Kaplan and Haenlein 62)
2
Enables users to bookmark and share favourite websites with an entire community (Evans 18).
3
Allows members to submit new stories, articles, blog posts, videos, and photos to the community and rate the
content (Evans 16).
4
Facilitates offline group meetings and events in various localities around the world through an online social
platform
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7. project teams and can also open it up to public for comments and feedbacks. A real
estate agent can use the wiki to create a personalized network of colleagues for internal
communications and can also create wikis to communicate with current and potential
clients.
Social bookmarking sites can provide tremendous boost to the site ranking of a real
estate company. Participation in various bookmarking sites such as Delicious, Magnolia
and Diigo will allow the real estate company or agent to increase site traffic which could
potentially generate leads. However, it is important for the real estate company or
agent to carefully tag their the bookmarked sites since most users search websites using
the tag feature due to occasional overload of bookmarked sites in the community or
subcategory.
Social News sits such as Digg, Rediit, NewVine, Kirtsy and BallHaype are great
communities to post latest news on the real estate market tends. Users who find the
information useful have the option to rate and vote for the post which will in turn
increase the ranking of the news with better chances of the news appearing on the front
page of the site. This will increase the credibility of the real estate company or agent.
Social event sites such as Eventful, Meetup and Yahoo!’s Upcomming are great
communities to schedule public events such as upcoming information sessions and
seminars among business clients and general consumers. However, Upcomming
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8. provides the added feature of integrating pictures from photo sharing sites to create
awareness and entice potential clients to attend the events.
Needless to say forums and message boards have been around since the inception of
internet and have been heavily used by real estate industry. This medium of social
media is still an effective channel for consumer engagement and raising awareness.
2. Blogs and microblogs: While blogs are special types of websites that usually display
date-stamped entries in reverse chronological order (Kaplan and Haenlein 63),
microblogs such as twitter are abbreviated blogs consisting of short messages (Evan 19).
Blogs have always been a useful tool for generating site traffic. By regularly updating the
contents in a blog and ensuring appropriate key words are used in the blog, real estate
companies and agents can ensure better chances of the blog to be found through search
engine optimization. Quality information and content will lead to regular visitors and
loyal followers who can acts as evangelists for the real estate brand promotion.
Moreover, quality content will lead to backlinks5 and potentials of greater participation
in the social bookmarking sites. By adding a comment box, a real estate blogger can
further enhance engagement with the consumers. EBlogger, Wordpress and Typepad
are ideal sites for initiating a blog. However, San Francisco based Justin.tv took blogging
to a whole new level. This new form of online blogging site allows users to create
5
Users and companies sometimes link the blog to other sites when they find the information on the site useful.
This enhances SEO and results in higher traffic.
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9. personalized television channels within the blog and allows real time image
broadcasting to other users (Kaplan and Haenlein 63). Real estate companies and agents
can capitalize on this novel innovation by enriching their blogs with real time pictures of
real estate properties on sale. This will further enhance client engagement and site
traffic due to high quality contents and higher rate of activity on the site.
Microblogs took online blogging to a different level by allowing for real time short
message that can be shared with thousands of followers. Twitter is currently the most
popular and widely known microblogging platform and can be used for engaging
consumers with real time updates and advice on the real estate industry. More
importantly, the twitter can be used for listing purposes where the real estate company
or agent can list their offerings to the market. Corcoran Group, the largest real estate
firm in New York City, uses one twitter account to update the community with local and
industry news while uses another twitter account strictly for new listing to
accommodate for the rising demand. One challenge while using twitter is getting the
message across to the right person at the right time. An overwhelming number of
tweets are being continuously bombarded on to the main page of the users twitter
account from various followers which can reduce the effectiveness of communication.
Moreover, there are users who are only active during certain time of the day. Educated
guesswork was the way to solve this problem until two outstanding twitter
communication enhancement tools came along. Tweriod is one such tool that can
identify the most active time slots when people on a certain twitter account network
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10. are online (Lance, Inman News Company). This helps the real estate company or agent
to enhance efficiency and result by tweeting during times of high traffic for maximum
engagement and awareness. Formulists is another twitter communication enhancement
tools that allows the real estate company or agent to filter and network with people
based on location, bio keywords, twitter activity and so on (Lance, Inman News
Company).
3. Content communities: These sites allow users to share media content between users.
There is minimal display of personal information on these sites (Kaplan and Haenlein
63). Content communities take the form of text, photo, videos and power point
presentation sharing sites.
Photos sharing sites such as Flickr and Zooomr allow real time photo sharing options for
the users. Flickr alone has more than 1.2 million members as of 2010 who add up to
200,000 images daily (Kim et al. 136). This shows the power and the potentials of
creating engagement and awareness in photo sharing sites. Real estate companies can
regularly upload and update photos of venues under development or venues for sale
onto these photo sharing communities to create engagement and awareness through
comment, reviews and ratings.
Video sharing is anticipated to be the most powerful tool for real estate social media
engagement and awareness. YouTube alone entertains more that 2 billion visitors per
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11. day with an average person spending about 15 minutes a day (Lance, Inman New
Company). Lance (Inman New Company) also argues that video posts have a 50x better
chance of ranking on page one of goolge search. ComScore survey in April 2008 reveals
more interesting facts on how social media channels are taking over the traditional
search engines. A comparative ranking of search engines and social media networks
together ranked YouTube second after google and before yahoo in terms of the site
where users search for information the most (Evans 18). Corcoran Group, the largest
residential real estate firm in New York City, has a vibrant presence on YouTube and
Vimeo (Lance, Inman New Company). Keller Williams Realty International, a real estate
franchise company, maintains YouTube channels which contains regularly added and
updated videos on monthly real estate report, real estate advice and current company
news. Currently, the company boasts nearly 400,000 video views, 100,000 channel
views and 2,000 subscribers overall (Lance, Inman New Company). The statistics on the
number of videos, channels and subscribers is clearly a sign of superior engagement and
awareness capabilities of video sharing.
4. Social Networking sites: These sites are applications that allow users to connect by
creating personal information profiles.
MySpace and Facebook are the top social networking sites in North America. Therefore,
it is extremely important for real estate companies and agents to engage in these
media. Facebook currently also offers the opportunity to engage in the community with
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12. a business page. Real estate companies and agents can capitalize on this feature to
promote themselves with the community and build credibility through a vibrant
Facebook presence. Facebook allows various features such as status update, wall post or
comment feature to communicate with the audience which can greatly benefit both real
estate companies and agent in term of engagement and awareness. However, it is
important for the real estate companies and agents to also engage in niche social
networking sites such as professional networking sites, social networking sites specific
to the real estate industry, social networking sites specific to a certain ethnicity or
demographic and neighbourhood based social networking sites.
LinkedIn is one such professional site where real estate companies and agents can
network with variety of other profession in various industries. Real estate companies
also have the privilege to form groups and engage with the professionals who opt in to
stay updated from the company (Ford and Lim 49).
Architizer, Active Rain and the Flipping pad are some of the real estate specific
networking sites that allow communication between various professionals within the
real estate industry. For example, Architizer is the largest crowd sourced database of
architecture online which contains over 10,000 finished and proposed projects from
fans, owners and architects (Swallow, Mashable 2010). This is an ideal site for real
estate developers and architects to find each other.
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13. MiGentre, BlackPlanet and AsianAvenue are some of the ethnicity and demographic
specific social network sites that real estate companies and agents can use (Evans 18).
HomeElephant is social networking site that segments user by neighbourhoods. The site
has built in communication tools that all center around a map of the street of a certain
neighbourhood (Lance, Inman News Comany). The idea behind forming this site was to
improve the way neighbours know each other and respond to each other’s
emergencies. The potential for this type of social networking site is yet unexplored.
However, it is obvious that the presence of real estate companies and agents will help in
attracting sellers looking to sell their homes and buyers looking to purchase homes in a
certain neighbourhood. The site and concept is fairly new. Further improvement of
features and functionalities of the site could make this category of social networking site
a major social media tool for the real estate companies and agents. Localism and
Neighborpeida are two more sites that that allow social networking at a micro level
between local merchants and people.
5. Classified Advertisement sites: These sites allow the community users to share job
postings and buy and sell products. Craigslist, kijiji and eBay are some of the most
popular social networking sites where real estate companies and agents can engage to
generate leads. However, there are many real estate specific social advertisement sites
that are classified by the type of service, type of house and so on. RealTown, Zolve and
Zillow are some of the classified social advertisement sites that serve as a meeting place
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14. for real estate buyers and sellers (King, Realty Rankings).
6. Virtual worlds: These are social networking platforms that replicate three dimensional
environments where users can appear in the form of personalized avatars and interact
with each other as they would in real life ((Kaplan and Haenlein 64). Although social
networking sites such as Second Life has take virtual reality to a newer level, the use of
avatars is yet to be seen in the real estate world. However, the concept of virtual tour
has been used in various sectors or real estate with success. Cindy Clare, CPM and
president of Kettler Management, AMO says “We also have touch screen kiosks in our
leasing offices to allow residents to ‘virtually’ walk the building and checkout amenities
in the surrounding area. (Alter 14)”. Virtual Tour Cafe is one such community that allows
real estate companies and agents to provide a virtual tour experience to the clients.
Types of real Estate Social Media Users
According to Evans (42) there are six distinct groups in social media based on their
actions on different social media platforms. It is important for the real estate companies
and agents engaging in social media to understand the type of audience being targeted.
The categories below explain the types:
1. Creators: These are socially active users who create the content such as blogs,
YouTube videos, forums and so on (Evans 43). Real estate companies and agents
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15. can capitalize on this user pattern by enticing the users to create contents and
share through various social media campaigns.
2. Critics: As the name suggests, these users stay active in social media by
commenting on blogs, writing reviews on products or services and responding to
threads and forums (Evans 43). These users can serve as evangelists for the real
estate companies and agents by communicating effectively and ensuring quality
customer satisfaction.
3. Collectors: Collectors engage in social media by finding and sharing things such
as bookmarks on social media (Evans 44). These users can dramatically improve
the ranking of a real estate company’s’ or agent’s sites by sharing them on
various bookmarking sites. Therefore, real estate companies and agents should
ensure regular post of updated material in their blogs and sites for the collectors
to find them useful.
4. Joiners: These users like to stay connected to a certain online community by
joining social network sites as Facebook, MySpace and so on (Evans 44). A fan
page or group can create enough engagement and awareness in these sites.
5. Spectators: These users like to sit back and watch. They engage in social media
by reading blogs and occasionally subscribe to RSS feeds (Evans 44). Real estate
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16. companes need to ensure quality web content to engage this group of social
media users.
6. Inactives: These users keep themselves limited to general internet use only and
do not participate in social media sites (Evans 45). Real estate companies and
agents should focus on their own website, SEO and pay per click advertisement
in this case since social media is of little relevance to these users.
Real Estate Social Media Strategy (Groundswell profile tool)
This tool solves the last bit of social media marketing strategy puzzle for real estate companies
and agents. The Groundswell profile tool6 is a social media profiling tool that uses data from
Forrester’s surveys to help users understand where their target demographic lies within the six
types of social media users discuss above. Real estate companies and agents have the option to
profile the target consumers by age, gender and country. However, the tool does not specify
the specific social media sites the users use. To get a better understanding on the use of the
tool, let us look at the figure and example below.
6
http://pathwaypr.com/groundswell-consumer-profile-tool
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17. Figure 1. Groundswell Profile Tool
The figure above shows the social media classification of Canadian males between the age
group of 25-34 years. Let us imagine a real estate company targets this sector of consumers for
home sales and is planning a social media marketing strategy to reach the audience. From the
data provided in the figure it can be seen that Spectators ranked highest, while Joiners and
Critics ranked second and third respectively. Therefore, the real estate company needs to focus
on blogs to engage the Spectators. Coincidentally, blogs also cater to the social media usage
pattern of Critics who engage by commenting on blogs. Therefore, it is also important to have a
comment option on the blog sites. In order to engage the Joiners, the real estate company
needs to create fan page and groups on various social media sites.
Overall, social media is a fairly new marketing and public relations tool in the real estate sector.
Many possibilities and potentials are often difficult to understand due to the complexity of
using certain social media sites. However, many companies have taken the courage and effort
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18. to understand the implications of social media use in real estate business and had outstanding
results. Matthew Shadbolt, Director of Internet Marketing at the Corcoran Group, says,
“The main thing we’ve seen is that the quality of the referral traffic back into our main website
has significantly increased. Not only are we seeing more traffic coming in, but visitors coming in
from social media sites are staying longer and looking at more things — something we had also
seen with search engines but not in such large numbers. We have generated business through
both Facebook and Twitter, primarily on the rentals side. People engaging with us directly on
Facebook in particular has been increasing significantly over the past two months. ( Swallow,
Mashable 2010)”
The results of implementing social media are clearly evident and should be practiced by all B2C
real estate companies and agent to enhance business. After reading this paper, the reader
should have a clear understanding of the social media use in the real estate industry and should
be ready to explore social media in real estate at an advanced level.
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