Costly Home Builder Social Media Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

One of the biggest challenges of marketing in real estate and home building is figuring out the best way to stay at the top of your buyers' minds in such a competitive market and creating meaningful relationships with them during the process. Consistent social media interaction is one of the best ways to accomplish this, and it's affordable to manage and maintain.

According to HubSpot, over 53% of the world's population is on social media, meaning you cannot afford to miss out on the opportunity. Not only do 54% of social browsers use social media to research products/services (i.e., their dream homes), but buyers also welcome meaningful interactions and communications with brands — on Twitter alone, 93% of users are open to brands getting involved in the conversation, such as providing help and support.

With that in mind, it’s crucial to know what not to do when engaging with potential home buyers on social media. Here are some costly home builder social media mistakes that are commonly made and how to avoid them, so your buyers experience nothing but the best with your brand. 

Paid vs. Organic Social Media for Home Builders

Before moving forward with your social media strategy, you need to understand the importance of combining paid and organic tactics, similar to PPC and organic search. Organic allows you to engage with current followers, build brand identity, and nurture already-interested prospects through the funnel. On the other hand, paid allows you to boost organic posts, raise brand awareness, and attract new followers who hopefully become leads. Balancing both is crucial.

However, home builders must be smart about what platforms they are boosting posts on. Take, for instance, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. They're great platforms because they're highly visual, and selling homes is a business where buyers expect to see what you have to offer before they make any decisions. Platforms like Twitter are text-based, so they won't be as enticing.

That doesn't mean other social media platforms are off-limits, though. They can also serve as informative spaces that direct current and potential buyers to visual platforms. The key is to have a sense of where and when your target audience is active on a given platform — then be there as well. 

5 Avoidable Home Builder Social Media Mistakes

Like with any strategy, social media marketing requires trial and error to perfect your techniques and improve your results. It's perfectly normal to make mistakes, learn from them, and adjust your future decisions accordingly.

Fortunately, we have the top five most costly mistakes to avoid, so you don't have to learn the hard way. 

1. Overly Promotional Content

One main goal of social media is to engage and educate your followers and prospects. Users go to the site for their own benefit — not yours — so when they are overwhelmed by overly promotional content, they redirect their attention elsewhere. In fact, 46% of users will unfollow a brand on social if they post too many promotional messages.

With that being said, some pieces of promotional content are necessary to inform buyers about your homes, but when all you do is sell, people may lose interest. You want to use social media to educate and entertain home buyers about trends, tips, etc., so they can find value in your company without feeling like their money in your pocket is all you care about.

2. Refusing to Adjust

You should set a social media strategy early, but it's crucial to remain nimble. Too many builders don't look at data and engagement metrics and simply stick with their plan because it's easier, and they've already got it figured out. The problem is it's not always the most effective and efficient way to do it on social media, and platforms are always evolving with the times. 

Take, for instance, what Amrita Sahasrabudhe — VP of Marketing at FastMed Urgent Care — has said: 

"Take a risk and keep testing, because what works today won't work tomorrow, but what worked yesterday may work again."

The only way to know is to track and measure your successes and failures by staying informed and adjusting your strategies based on engagement, time-of-day, specific formatting, etc.

3. Brand Inconsistency

Social media is a great place to get creative with your brand and create a consistent image that resonates with buyers. When you use inconsistent creative elements and graphic design, buyers are less likely to notice you and are more likely to become confused by your message. This can make your brand come off as untrustworthy, fake, and inauthentic.

Why? Because you're clearly not being real if your brand is all over the place in values, messaging, identity, and image.

If that doesn't sway you from making the mistake, consider these two statistics for support: presenting a brand consistently across all platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%, and 30% of social media users unfollow brands that use jargon or slang that doesn't fit their brand.

4. Duplicate Posts Across Multiple Platforms

Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest. 

Using multiple platforms to build consumer relationships, trust, sales, and more is a great idea. Duplicating your posts across all your platforms is not.

Your posts should never be identical across multiple platforms because people engage with posts differently depending on their platform. Some should be more visually appealing (IG, Pinterest) while some should be more informative (LinkedIn, Twitter). Take a peek at how your buyers and competition interact and communicate on the platform and adjust your posts accordingly.

5. Set and Forget

Automation is important to successful social media marketing, but you can't just schedule posts and forget about them. Sure, they're great for convenience, efficiency, and saving time, but if you make the mistake of scheduling posts and forgetting about them, you lose out on the whole point of being on social media — current and potential buyers! 

Homebuyers will have questions/comments/insights about your posts, so use that time to engage with them and create trust. Leaving those consumer interactions unread and unanswered could be as bad as having no social media presence at all (in some cases, it's actually worse).

Stay Ahead of the Curve

It's no longer a secret that social media has a lot of power regarding your consumers' buying journey and purchasing decisions. Social Media Today reports that as much as 77% of consumers say they are more likely to buy from a brand they follow on social media over one they do not. This means you should already be established on social media, or at least on your way to be.

With Milesbrand, you skip the trial and error most home building businesses experience and go straight to enjoying the rewards. Home builder social media marketing is always evolving and changing with trends — having a team of experts at your disposal makes sure you don't fall behind the times, but rather stay ahead of the curve.