How much time should you spend on social media for real estate each day? This is a common question that I am often asked and so I have decided that I will answer it definitively for once and for all.
You should spend five hours a day on social media. Or fifteen minutes. Or two and a half hours, or forty-five minutes.
Ok, so that isn’t much of a clarification, but it is an honest response. Everyone has a different level of interest and ability to dedicate to their social media and internet presence.
Let us take a look at two different real estate agents who are working on their social media marketing plan.
Example #1:
Ron Realtor is brand new to social media and he doesn’t want to spend a lot of time each day, but knows that he needs to explore a social media plan. Ron could accomplish a basic plan in under a half hour a day.
- Visits Facebook fan page to post a helpful link and respond to any comments. 5 minutes
- Logs into Twitter application. Responds to any replies or direct messages. Tweets something that might get a conversation started. Ron should check back later in the day as well. 5 – 10 minutes
- Goes to Linkedin and updates his status including the same link as above, or something different for this venue. 5 minutes
- Checks his RSS feed for latest news and informative blog posts (like Agent Genius). 5 minutes
25 minutes TOTAL. That is realistic and completely doable as small tasks in between the regular business of the day.
Example #2
Now let us meet Susie Social who already has a social media presence and LOVES all things internet. For her, social media isn’t just a work thing, she has friends all over the world who she loves to chat with and the line between work and play is blurred while online. For this agent, two to three hours a day on social media and internet marketing is normal. How is she spending that time?
- Facebook: Susie has a fan page where she shares real estate news and information, of course, but spends a lot of time messaging and interacting on other people’s pages, as well. Sometimes she will enable the Facebook chat and spend some time chatting with friends. Her personal page is not heavy with real estate, but she makes sure to place subtle reminders on this page to remind her friends and family that she is an active real estate professional. 30 minutes to 1 hour
- Twitter: Susie leaves her Twitter application open all day long and checks it frequently. She tweets her blog posts and other interesting links, but spends most of her time reading other people’s tweets and responding to them. She has an international network of friends and when she has a question she starts by asking it on Twitter. In order to keep things sorted, her application is column based and she uses and follows multiple hashtags. After work hours, she attends Twitter chats and “plays” with her friends. Susie isn’t that interested in television and often spends that time on Twitter. 1 to 2 hours
- Linkedin: Susie uses this strictly for the purpose intended and will change her status and share blog posts in addition to contributing to groups. She knows that it is important to have a keyword rich profile and to be very professional in this venue. 10 minutes
- Blogging: Susie has a real estate blog site as well as a photo blog and she is a regular poster. She shares real estate news, market reports, advice and sometimes just her regular life events with her readers. While she may not post daily, she does spend this time reading other people’s blogs. Susie knows that it is important to read and comment on other blogs regularly. 30 minutes
- RSS: as part of finding new inspiration, news to share with clients and friends and educating herself, Susie keeps an RSS feed in her Google Reader that she checks when she is able. 10 minutes
2 hours, 20 minutes to 3 hours, 50 minutes total.
So how much time SHOULD you spend on social media?
Asking how much time you should spend on social media marketing is akin to asking how much time you should spend on the phone or in the car. These are necessary parts of every real estate agent’s day.
So are you Ron or Susie? There is no right or wrong here. Social media marketing is but one tool in your kit which can be implemented to best suit your personality and interest. The most important thing is that you use it in the way that suits you and remember that social media is not a competition.
