Real Estate Agents Balk at Social Media as Revenue Tool
Most residential real estate agents don’t feel at home with the money-making potential of social media.
Only 26 percent of agents rank social media as an important source of business, according to a survey by Movoto.com. However, many agents are heavy users of social media. More than 90 percent of them reported having LinkedIn profiles, 45 percent said they’ve got Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, and 52 percent reported having Google+ accounts.
Of agents with Facebook pages, 69 percent had updated them within the past month, while 52 percent of Twitter users had tweeted in the past month.
“Even though agents are investing in social media,” Movoto.com said, “Facebook and other social sites are still not a major source of business for most agents.”
According to the survey, 81 percent of agents value web leads and 59 percent value online advertising for reaching home buyers and sellers. Ninety-seven percent of agents said they count on previous clients for customer referrals, and 68 percent said they value yard signs.
“Internet technologies are critical for agents,” Movoto.com said, “but old-school techniques of leveraging personal relationships and yard signs are probably still the most important business generation tools for real estate agents.”
Other findings of the survey include:
• 89 percent of real estate agents use smartphones, with iPhone and Android devices well ahead of other brands.
• 80 percent of agents have personal websites.
• 27 percent of agents maintain blogs.
Movoto.com connects home buyers and sellers with real estate agents and listings. For the survey, Movoto.com questioned the agents in its network.
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