I thought it would be interesting to give you some stats about the use of social media sites (courtesy of Craig Smith of Digital Marketing Ramblings)
- 1.19 billion people use Facebook each month (30th October 2013) – 24 million daily active users in the UK
- 1 billion users for You Tube with over 4 billion views per day (20th March 2013)
- 500 million users use Twitter (3rd October 2013)
- 300 million people use Google+ (26th January 2013)
- 259 million users use Linkedin (29th October 2013)
- 150 million users use Instagram (8th September 2013)
- Vimeo has 100 million unique users (September 2013)
The use of Social media by Estate Agents is relatively new; this is the first year that the prestigious Estate Agency of the Year Awards have included a Social Media Category (shameless plug for our GOLD AWARD) and Sewell & Gardner have been active on Facebook and Twitter for approximately 3 years, Google+ for about 8 months and Linkedin as a business page for less than 6 months, but this year we have seen some surprising results.
- Mobile Twitter and Facebook are the top referral sites to our website along with Rightmove.
- People like to talk about their home moving plans on their Facebook page, and this is where stories about ‘great, good, bad or terrible’ Estate Agency experiences happen, along with referrals for the good ones. We have received numerous referrals through Facebook and we encourage our customers to rate us on Facebook or Google+.
- Twitter tells us what is happening in the local community, and this is hugely important for us to pass onto our customers. We like to share local information and reciprocation is rife on Twitter, so we are delighted to receive a lot of brand awareness through our community interations.
- Our customers love to know what is happening in the property industry, and news travels faster on Twitter than anywhere else, so we listen and share. Sewell & Gardner can be relied upon to offer the most up to the minute advice on the property market in the UK and, of course, locally.
- Linkedin is a fabulous place for sourcing great staff. As an expanding business we are always on the look out for great talent and we have (not only) sourced staff on here, but can look up people’s achievements to date before we interview them!
- Google+ is great for our SEO, of course it is going to be a huge platform (it is Google after all) and it is growing daily, we are already seeing the benefits of being active on here through our website traffic and you can easily categorise your connections into ‘circles’ so that the right connections receive the right information.
- Videos get watched, every blog, newsletter, post or tweet that we send with a video link has more engagement than one without. Just recently our Head of Property Management, Reagan Bradley, was filmed for ‘A day in the life of a Property Manager’ and this has received so many views via social media, take a look HERE. Video is the way forward for us and we are taking steps to ensure that video content features higher and higher on our social media platforms. If anyone asks us a ‘How do I…?” question, we are making plans to provide a video answer, so please get your questions into us on marketing@sewellgardner.com.
It is worth pointing out that we do have a clear strategy for what we post and what we aim to achieve from our social media. We are a community 
focused agency, so first and foremost the emphasis is on customer relations and providing a community hub with all the information required to enjoy living in our wonderful towns. We run a Reward Card scheme for our new customers moving into the area, where they can receive offers and discounts from a range of local businesses. If those businesses are also using social media, it is a great way for us to interact and promote the offers they have given to our customers who are following us on Twitter or have liked our Facebook page. Giving our customers a Reward Card to use once they have moved into the area is our way of saying thank you for using Sewell & Gardner and we want to keep in touch because we hope that we have given an exemplary service and that we are at the forefront of our customers’ minds when it is time to re-sell, re-let or invest in more property!
In addition, we are tremendously proud of our locality and we know how important it is to promote the businesses within, to encourage community spirit, to welcome new comers and inform them of all the events happening, of the great schools, clubs, sports teams, transport services, so that the towns remain as friendly, busy & relevant as they are today, if not more so! We want to encourage others to consider our area when looking for a new home, and to stay local when upsizing or downsizing. We need to keep our property prices high and a huge factor is the great location we are in, the brilliant town centres, all of the activities and events going on. Property prices in this area held pretty steady, even in the adversity of the recession, and this has a lot to do with the bubble of community spirit which abounds in our area. Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Croxley Green, Abbots Langley, Kings Langley & Watford: Great places to live and work. Social media enhances the social aspects of our town, offers us the support of our residents and fellow businesses.
We thank you for your support.
JANE GARDNER, FARLA, MNAEA, CRLPM
OPERATIONS DIRECTOR