Realtors in Miami are using more social media – but 140 characters are not enough

A recent survey of Miami’s top real estate professionals indicates that, although social media use is generally being accepted and welcomed, the type of social media is a factor. While Facebook usage in real estate is up, many feel that using Twitter for selling real estate is not the way to go.

Conducted in May 2015, the three-question survey queried 97 members of the Master Brokers Forum, a networking organization for South Florida’s elite residential real estate agents. The survey asked about their use of the two leading social media platforms, and the effectiveness of social media for selling real estate.

Things of note from the  Master Brokers Forum survey:

• More than half (58 percent) of the Master Brokers surveyed use Facebook for business. Roughly 30% use the platform only for social networking, and 11% don’t have a Facebook account.
• More than half (53 percent) don’t have a Twitter account. 17 percent use Twitter for social networking, and 28% responded that they use Twitter for business.
• Nearly half (49 percent) find social media “somewhat useful” as a sales/marketing tool, and another 11 percent find it “very useful.” Nearly 32 percent have never used social media for sales/marketing, and only 7 percent say they have tried to use social media and it has not helped their sales efforts.

Facebook Better for Real Estate than Twitter

“The results also illustrate the sharp differences between Facebook and Twitter,” said Jeff Morr, Miami Master Brokers Forum chair. “Facebook is relatively easy to use, and it is populated with more people who are in the market for homes. It is also an inherently visual platform, which allows Realtors to easily add multiple images and to describe a home with as much detail as they want. Twitter is less easy to use, it doesn’t lend itself to images nearly as well, and its user base is much younger. And of course, there’s the character limitation issue – it’s very hard to describe a nice kitchen in 140 characters, to say nothing of an entire residence.”

Acceptance of social media – even Twitter – among Master Brokers has risen sharply in six years. In 2009, a similar survey of Master Brokers revealed only 25 percent of members using Facebook for business (an increase of 33 percent six years later); 34 percent of members without a Facebook account (a decrease of 23 percent); and nearly 77 percent without a Twitter account (a decrease of 24 percent).

See below for the full infograph of the results (Click for full size).