Building reputation through social media strategy

Just three months after moving into a new marketplace, Belle Property Manly Business Development Manager, Ben Von Sperl has devised a social media strategy that’s not only building his reputation, it’s boosting his business. 

Ben moved to the Northern Beaches and joined the Belle Property Manly team three months ago. Having never worked in the area, Ben began to experiment with different ways of engaging with the local audience. Social media quickly became his central point of communication and in just a few short months, he has built up an organic audience of 500 Northern Beaches locals. 

“I hadn’t really used Facebook in the past, but when I moved to Manly after seven years of working in a different marketplace I knew I had to use every channel possible to enhance my profile,” Ben explained.

Ben’s strategy was to create two channels; a professional agent page to connect the Belle Property brand with the local community as well as a generic ‘Northern Beaches Rentals’ page that simply promotes what’s for lease in the area. Ben said he saw immediate results. 

“I didn’t want my page to be full of just listed and just leased posts so I created a second page for people who are actively looking for rentals. My professional page is designed to promote my customer experience through sharing client testimonials and posting content that’s educational and relevant to the community.” 

Since building his social profile, Ben said he now includes boosted Facebook posts as a marketing option in his listing presentations. 

“I’ve got about 500 people engaging across my two pages, so I now offer Facebook as part of my client-paid marketing strategy; we boost the posts to a targeted audience and we reach more people, which in turn is growing my following and enhancing my own professional profile.

“It’s effective because I can pull clear data from Facebook that shows current and potential clients the audience reach and engagement,” he said. 

And while he’s seen some strong results, Ben admits there is still a long way to go with ambitions to build his audience and brand profile a whole lot more and eventually expand to Instagram. His advice to real estate professionals who aren’t committed to regular social media activity is simple: just do it. 

“We should all make it part of our regular tasks each week. I set aside time every Friday afternoon to schedule and boost posts. I’ve learned that people switch to ‘real estate mode’ on Facebook later in the week, when they start deciding what opens to go to over the weekend. So, Friday works for me - that’s when I boost all my current listings on my rentals page and draw in the enquiries over the weekend.

“Agents should also be careful not to only post properties on their professional page – people disengage if that’s all they see. I make sure I’m posting varied, educational content relevant to the Northern Beaches communities.”