Revealed: the importance of personal content on social media

What do Tilly Ramsay and Kim Kardashian have in common?

Other than both having well-known fathers, they’ve both mastered the art of growing their personal brands through consistent social media content creation, and have managed to branch into other areas as a result.

Their combined social media following is in the multiple hundreds of millions across all platforms, and they’ve achieved this by sharing – some might argue oversharing in Kardashian’s case – their own lives on social media to their fans.

Now, we’re not suggesting that our member agents will be garnering millions of followers on social media by sharing personalised content – nor that the Kardashians’ MO is necessarily one to follow – but it does show the value of making social media more personal as people will be more interested in that than endless photos of properties or very generic sounding posts.

Most social media platforms were built to provide that human, personal side, that human interaction in an increasingly digital world, so it makes sense to be true to that ethos.

Content is king

For anyone attempting to stand out from the competition in the online world of social media, your content needs to be engaging. It could be educational, informative, visually attractive or just plain funny, but it needs to be memorable.

Social media is a crowded field and, when scrolling, people tend to have short attention spans. You only have a few moments to capture their attention, so images, memes and videos can all help.

It is, of course, wise to steer clear of anything political or controversial – getting involved with Twitter spats will only cause reputational damage – but being the go-to authority on a subject will really help you stand out and bring people back to your profiles.

You should ensure your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram accounts are up-to-date, clean, tidy and attractive.

Work to grow your followers where you can, and try to engage with other people on the platforms – whether it be local businesses, charities or fellow property people.

As people take only a very short time to decide whether or not they are interested in the content you’ve created, you need captivating, visually pleasing content to draw the audience in.

Video content is also fantastic when it comes to engaging users and maximising organic reach. What’s more, this is something that is simple to do and doesn’t typically require expensive equipment. If you have someone on your team who is a bit of a whizz when it comes to video editing, all the better.

There is plenty of research out there to suggest that video content is the most engaging type of social media content to focus on. According to Invideo, 78% of people watch online videos every week, and 55% view online videos every day. Meanwhile, Social Media Week claimed that 54% of consumers wanted to see more video content this year.

Sharing your latest charity endeavours, a tie-up with a local school, or a personal story regarding you or one of your staff, could really help your brand and business to grow – increasing brand awareness and improving your reputation as well.

When we say personal content, what do mean? Well, anything that can make your brand feel less corporate and show your face to vendors and landlords – even now, choosing an agent is a very emotional decision and people like to have met their agent face to face. This could include in-person video tours, gifts from clients, photos of successful completions, etc.

Better engagement and interaction

Forbes has previously reported that sales professionals who use social media in their sales process outperform 78% of their peers. 

From our point of view here at The ValPal Network, a good example would be a recent case study from one of our member agents who have recently just started to provide personal content, photos and videos. The improvement in organic reach and engagement they’ve seen already has been remarkable.

Some of the highlights include:

• Page likes are up 120%
• Page views are up 93%
• Actions on page up 43%
• Post reach is up 38%
• Engagement is up 66%
• Videos up 103%
• Followers up 116%

Why should I care about personalised content creation as an agent?

In today’s digital world, it’s more crucial than ever for estate agents to create engaging content, along with putting their personal stamp on it. You can achieve this by scaling down on corporate branding and instead share content that people can connect with on a human level.

Once your persona and tone of voice has been established, this will then shape the content you create for your social media profiles. Creating guides, infographics, and posting helpful insider tips will all contribute to educating your audience and provide value to them. 

Your organic reach and engagement will also see great improvements if you include bringing faces to names in your company.

It’s recommended to use the 60 30 10 rule of content creation. This rule goes as follows: 60% engage, inform, and entertain; 30% external sources; 10% promotional.

Using call-to-actions at the end of your posts can also helped when it comes to engagement and responses.

Most importantly, keep it light, keep it local and give your social media presence a personal touch. This could really help to improve both your reputation and your bottom line.

Here at The ValPal Network, we can help you to achieve this and more. For more information on the services we provide, please contact us at team@valpal.co.uk or give us a call on 020 8663 4930.

For information on how we can help to grow your business online and generate leads effectively, you can also check out our social media marketing service.