Do you have your finger on the LinkedIn Pulse?

LinkedIn should be an essential tool in your real estate marketing arsenal. Learn more about the content you should be sharing, the tool they call LinkedIn Pulse and how you can use it to maximise your brand and your business.

In short, LinkedIn Pulse is LinkedIn’s self-publishing tool and daily news digest. For real estate agents, this means it can not only help you stay abreast of what’s happening in the property industry by delivering customised content to you, but also enable you to showcase your own expertise and promote your own content.

Tap into Industry updates

By editing your own LinkedIn profile or visiting the Interests pages, you can decide who and what you follow – such as industry leaders, companies, LinkedIn groups and publishers. That way, you can tailor your feed so it serves up news and information that’s timely, relevant, and of interest to you.

Some publishers that share great real estate marketing advice are:

• Hoole Marketing (that’s us!)
• Elite Agent Magazine
• Real Estate Business Online
• Real Estate Uncut
• Inman News

Use LinkedIn for competitor intelligence

You can also gain competitor intelligence, on nearby agencies or agents you compete with. By connecting to those companies or people you’ll receive their network updates, and be able to see how high or low they’ve set the bar in terms of regular updates to your clients and prospects.

So, basically LinkedIn Pulse does the hard yards for you, filtering through today’s endless content overload and delivering only what’s important to you as an individual. Ultimately, it will bring you the latest industry news, reveal what your peers are reading (and sharing), highlight what’s trending in the property industry, and notify you when your connections are in the news. In other words, it keeps you in that all-important loop.

Use LinkedIn to increase your own brand exposure

You should also be publishing your own content using LinkedIn Pulse. By doing this you gain exposure to a broader professional audience, that has a higher propensity of home ownership. Thus, you know that a high quality audience is reading your content and you can begin to engage with them and build new connections.

LinkedIn’s Pulse articles also allow you to use social media’s three magic words: like, comment, and share, and your audience can also like, comment, and share in turn. What can this mean for you as a real estate agent? It translates to regular connectivity with your contact database, stronger and more professional connections, vendor lead generation, referrals, and eventually new clients.

Are you making use of social media’s three magic words: like, comment, and share?

Indeed, it’s the ideal platform for sharing your own expertise and demonstrating your unique value proposition through your own articles. In fact, I recommend starting here with your content marketing strategy before you even think about launching your own real estate agent website. It’s the perfect way to dip your toe in the digital water and start producing content that’s readily findable and shareable across the web.

What to avoid when publishing to LinkedIn

Make sure you use the Pulse tools as LinkedIn intended. It is not your own personal sales tool. It’s not the place, for example, to post your property listings. The LinkedIn Pulse community does not want to be constantly pitched to and you’re in danger of them disconnecting from you if you do. The content you share should inform, entertain, motivate, and add value to your audience’s home sales experience.

Audience-friendly content

So, as a real estate agent on LinkedIn, you’re ideally targeting vendors, homeowners and home sellers. Remember, you’re not looking for home buyers here; use this platform for your own vendor lead generation purposes, not to sell houses. This is a mindset that many real estate agents struggle with when doing their own real estate marketing.

“Your content should inform, entertain, motivate, and add value for your audience.”

So, what types of content should you be publishing that adds value to your highly desirable audience? The following list gives you a good place to start:

• Real estate trends you’re seeing in your region, city, or suburb, and your take on those trends.
• Highlights of and local insights into the nuances of the suburbs you serve, your experience of the neighbourhoods and communities.
• News from the local media publishers, impacting local home sellers and homeowners.
• Advice pieces on topics such as preparing your home for sale, mortgage financing, conveyancing and all the tips and tricks you know about the selling process.
• Opinion pieces on the state of the market, be it a buyers or sellers affair.
• Client success stories or other positive real estate experiences.
• Articles to your industry peers about your own best practices.

Remember, you’re not looking for home buyers, LinkedIn is for attracting home sellers.

How we’ve helped clients succeed with LinkedIn content

Scott Thornton, for example, a partner at Simeon Manners in Mosman on Sydney’s lower north shore, publishes a diverse and compelling mix of content for his audience on LinkedIn Pulse. With articles ranging from stories centered around working with the local community and why it’s so important and interior design tips, to real estate advice for the likes of retirees and downsizers, Scott provides valuable information and insights to his readers.

It’s much easier with professional help!

Like Scott, you’ve probably already figured out that you need to become more active on LinkedIn, but you also know you’re already too time-poor in your busy real estate business. That’s where my team and I come in. We can produce high-quality content targeting your ideal vendors to get you off and running on LinkedIn in record time. So get in touch to find out more about our content programmes and how else we can help you build your personal brand and attract more business.

Written by Melanie Hoole

My team and I specialise in helping real estate and property professionals perfect their personal brand, build a first-class digital profile and implement inbound marketing activities to attract leads. If you are unsure which direction to take with your digital marketing contact me for help.