24 Feb Don’t Completely Abandon Your Traditional Marketing Yet

With all the talk of social media and measuring its ROI for real estate, I think it’s good to step back for a second and realize that this is not the time to totally abandon traditional marketing strategies.

While the power of social media marketing can be great when done correctly, I strongly encourage companies to not jump ship as quickly as they might want to.  I say this for a couple of reasons.

The learning curve of social media is steep.  While a lot of people will tell you that it’s easy, the truth is that they don’t know your business like you do.  In the beginning, you are going to have to figure out exactly whom you are trying to communicate with, where they are, and what you are trying to communicate.  Plus, you need to understand why you’re entering the social space in the first place.  I say all this to prove the point that there are going to be some growing pains.  Odds are, your new social media strategy isn’t going to work right out of the gate, especially if this is your first attempt in the space.

So why would you completely abandon other forms of marketing so quickly?  Is it because you think social media marketing is cheap?  Upfront costs may be low, but a successful social media strategy takes a lot of time and we all know time equals money.

My other point is this.  Not every consumer you are targeting is going to be participating on social networks, especially in the real estate industry.  Instead of choosing one or the other, I suggest a blend of the two.  This way you will be targeting consumers on several different platforms.  Plus, a strategy that has a constant message with different types of mediums will be more effective.