When it comes to real estate agents, you don't control your brand, but there are definite methods to follow.
By Anne Hartnett
In a world of expensive advertising campaigns, carefully crafted mission statements and cause marketing, it might be hard for an agent to face the truth – your brand identity, and what you stand for, is no longer owned and created by you or your company.
Today, your past and future clients own and define your brand, both the good and the bad. The days of ad campaigns and press releases magically convincing your potential clients who you are and what you stand for are gone. Now, the consumer decides who you are, what your company stands for and what that means to them and their purchasing/decision power.
Scared yet? You should be.
No one can ignore the role that agent ratings and reviews, online discussions and online communities have played in the way agents and companies are perceived in the current market. However, it isn’t just social media that’s played a role in the transformation of your identity as a real estate professional.
Savvy consumers are basing their decisions on personal and related experiences, and mores than ever before. It doesn’t necessarily mean that ad campaigns aren’t valuable and useful to push out your message; rather, it means that social media and digital technologies support your clients needs, not the other way around. The Internet is now a collective, one composed of your present and future clients and their thoughts and experiences.
This should not be taken lightly. People are leveraging the collective information to come to more decisions than ever before. And it’s only going to increase. For a potential client, “filtering” through one negative review/comment may be easy. But an onslaught of damning comments – not so much.
This doesn’t mean you are completely out of the drivers seat. If you are providing a quality service and an experience to match, then you have at least a few loyal customers who will gladly create engaging commentary/review for you and your company.
Let your social media presence and your customers market for you – that’s what it means to let your customers control your brand.
Read more about customer reviews and online reputations here, here and here.