Here it is, my first opinion article for the industry’s favourite property title.
I’ve been asked to give my opinion and insight on the latest media trends in the industry.
For those who don’t know me, I have led the media and PR team at eMoov for the past 18 months and before that, I’ve had communication roles for many other successful online brands.
I’m sure many have asked the same question: Why has Foxtons no social media profiles?
I find it completely unacceptable that they have no voice in the media and more importantly on social media.
It’s 2016 and one of the biggest estate agent brands in the country has no social media profiles. In marketing terms, this is criminal.
Every marketeer on earth could bore you to death about the importance of content marketing in the new digital world.
Let’s face it, Foxtons are probably scared of how to handle their customer service profile on social media.
They are worried about potential backlash from angry customers. I get it, I really do, but even Ryanair have ventured on to social media, launching their twitter in early 2015.
For years they avoided it but now understand they need a voice and need to use it as a marketing and customer service channel.
They have an outspoken CEO who can ruffle a few feathers. I too find myself in the same position, but having social media enables any brand to have a voice, a personality and an identity.
You cannot be scared about negative views on twitter. That’s kind of the point.
If you listen, you can understand your customers and give them quick and timely feedback to their views.
Foxtons sell many, many homes and they sit on so much customer data they are missing a trick. How and why do they just sit back and let the other London agents grab all the limelight in the press?
Ed Mead of Douglas and Gordon is regularly featured in the press with opinions. Plus a number of high-enders like Savills and Knight Frank offer data and insight which is world class.
They, like me, use this content to engage an audience, build brand, link bait for SEO and showcase their knowledge and expertise in the property sector.
How can Foxtons sit back and not do the same?
I worked for a number of years in the gambling industry, so if Foxtons think it’s hard answering questions about a house sale not going well, how about answering someone who’s just lost their house because of a gambling addiction.
Foxtons must literally have fantastic content at their fingertips going to waste.
They attract large website traffic to monitor trends on sales and rental data in the capital. London property prices and demand trends are like a crac pipe to the national media titles and, if I were leading the team at Foxtons, I would be utilising the resources that are so readily available.
This article has mentioned some of the big dogs, but the principles are the same for all.
Examples for smaller agents could be Chris Woods at PDQ in Cornwall, who uses twitter to share local property trends, plus Facebook targeting to win instructions and sell properties.
Maurice Kilbride engages with his local audience in the north, albeit with a bit too much Man City talk for my liking, but as he is in Cheshire I’ll let him off.
One of my local agents in Buckinghamshire, Williams, produce a monthly property paper which they distribute via print. I’m sure many others do the same and I like the idea but I think they have it a bit wrong.
I get they have switched their print advertising budget for this, but why not create great unique content which can also sit on their website? It’s also worth noting that in an edition in 2015, four of the news articles they used were created by me with no mention of eMoov!
Anyway, I like the idea of the paper but it’s a bit too generic and also not reproduced in a digital format. Why don’t they take the time to give me some local property news from their data?
I would find it much more interesting reading about property topics from the local area such as HS2 updates, new bypass, new property developments, changes in school catchments or Ofsted ratings, local property price and demand change.
With this in mind my top tip for how to use social media, is to follow my five Be’s.
BE FAST – be first to break a story, no one likes to read last week’s news today. More importantly, if a customer reaches out to you, be fast to acknowledge them.
BE RELEVANT – try and keep to property and your local area content
BE GENUINE – try not to schedule too much. Use TweekDeck not Hootsuite so you have real urls, Owly links look fake. Do not automate tweets via xml feeds for new properties
BE ENTERTAINING – it’s not the place to sell (all the time) and keep it friendly
BELIEVE – everyone in your company from the top down needs to believe and understand your goals.
It’s about time Foxtons, and maybe some other agents for that matter, begin to believe in a social media presence incorporated into a PR strategy, because believe me, it works!
* Stephen Jury is the director of media & communication for online estate agent eMoov.co.uk and has won a number of PR and marketing accolades. From the creation of a TV campaign to sending a simple tweet, his experience spans all marketing communication channels.
His PR work at eMoov has seen the firm become much quoted in the national consumer press.
Why no Twitter for Foxtons?Possibly because connecting emotionally with potential vendors requires much, much more than 140 characters.
A well crafted message that shares beliefs, values and convictions with like-minded London residents can create more affinity and loyalty than having to condense the message and leave out important points.
Do we use Twitter? Yes, but it has as many negative issues as positive. Twitter is rumoured to be shortly relaxing the character limit. That’s an entirely different story.
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It’s not all about “potential vendors”
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To use Twitter properly in a commercial environment requires hours of time. Not a luxury most firms have.
If they do relax the 140 character limit then you might as well kiss Twitter goodbye because it will have lost its current USP and risks losing substantial number of users. It is already impossible to adequately read a twitter stream, so longer tweets will make it all the more so. Especially as it is already clogged with the garbage some people churn out. Yes I do realise the current Twitter model is losing money hand over fist but there must be a more satisfactory way to monetise it.
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I have to disagree. Like any new skill, it takes time to master to a reasonable degree but, the rewards are worth it. in 2014, over 30% of my new business came from social media either directly, or indirectly.
It is not for everyone but, don’t dismiss it out of hand. In the past few weeks, I have picked up an instruction worth over £8,000 in income because “we like what you have to say on Twitter”, another for £3,000 because “I don’t have Facebook but, my daughter said I should come to you because you she is always banging on to me about how good PDQ is”. There is more business in the pipeline for my firm from a major developer for all of their re-sale work due, again, from social media.
It works for me
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Stephen Jury asks “Why has Foxtons no social media profiles?” sorry Stephen but the answer is obvious, they do quite nicely without needing to bother. They have a recognised reputation for selling property (not to everyone’s appreciation) so they don’t need to tell people they exist or what they do.
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Nor, Robert, do they feel the need to tell the world where they are currently
doing their shopping
posting their mail
h*****g their delectable new colleague,
or whatever – and post it up for the world to see. THREE times – each with a new BitLy link to the exciting event.
Never mind – it gets them further up the hallowed Z List.
Never, in my opinion, has a name been more apt…
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You’re name breaks rule #3. BE GENUINE
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I don’t think it does –
I AM PeeBee. I NEVER post as anyone else.
Can you – or anyone you represent – genuinely state the same?
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Oh – and while I have your attention somewhat, Mr Jury –
Your article is clearly a talking point in the industry – congratulations for that.
In fact, it has promoted some off-screen dialogue, of which I would be most interested in your view.
Apparently the social media account for a certain (seemingly self-appointed and promoted) ‘industry commentator’ – one whom I would respectfully refer to in the spirit of good form and New Year niceties etc etc… as ‘controvertial and outspoken, but others would far rather I use more technical terminology involving the human oral cavity and a bodily function occurring due south and to the rear of aforesaid facial feature… – has LESS THAN 7.5% of ‘original content’ – the rest being the usual RTs and the likes.
Please enlighten me – how many of your 5 ‘rules’ that satisfies?
Ta.
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If that’s the case every postbox in the land since 1953 breaks rule #3
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An excellent article by Stephen with some well-made points. Sometimes, though, I believe the wise rules Stephen lays down above have to be broken to test new ways of doing things and to challenge the bull’-merchants. However, in doing so, we find our real ‘voice’ on social-media and, I believe, the public like and respect this as it shows us as genuine, rather than an homogenous beige business with a plastic smile.
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To me, this reads like he wants off the sinking ship HMS eMoov…
A love letter to Foxtons?
….I’m a PR get me out of here!!!!!
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Good to explore this topic!
I once had an hour long conversation with someone who spent 60 mins. explaining to me why he didn’t have time to get involved in social media. 🙂
To say that you don’t have time, is akin to saying you don’t have time to talk. Of course you do.
Social media is nothing new.
It’s existed for over 40,000 years.
It’s called sharing.
The very first social media was a caveman who created a cave painting explaining to his tribe how to catch a deer.
The next form of social media was papyrus. And so on.
It’s a natural human instinct to want to share something that gives value to others.
It’s also programmed into our DNA to be efficient. Why? Because those that are more efficient have more time for procreation!! :0
The social web therefore fulfils two basic human needs:
1. To share stuff and add value to the lives of others
2. To be efficient
It is just a digital sharing of information and ideally the co-creation of value.
It is highly efficient because it is “one to many” conversation, instead of one to one.
Unlike a phone conversation, which is to one person and ceases to exist after the call, it is one to many and everything posted on the web remains in perpetuity.
Unlike other forms of media like radio, TV, magazines, etc. digital media benefits from increasing returns, not diminishing returns.
All businesses should be aiming to build their digital footprint as it means that people find you, rather than you finding them. Marketing nirvana!
The biggest prime mover on the social web is video.
At Property Tribes, we have over 500 hours of video watched per month now. That’s landlords spending over 20 days on our site consuming video.
Any business that is not developing their digital presence is going to find it exceedingly hard to remain competitive and in the business conversation.
For those businesses that want a stripped down and efficient social media strategy, there are four key sites I believe you need to be using:
1. Blog – the backbone of your digital presence
2. YouTube
3. Twitter
4. Becoming known and trusted by sharing in shared-interest communities.
If you are looking for landlord instructions, where should you go? Where landlords hang out!
Shared interest communities like Property Tribes are like a pool of the exact fish you wish to catch. That is why so many savvy estate agents, lettings agents, mortgage brokers, tax advisors, etc. contribute to our conversations. They are all getting business by default – just by sharing and contributing value. This builds trust, and where there is trust, business happens.
Which takes me right back to my original point.
Everything in business starts with a conversation. Your digital presence is making that conversation happen 24/7/365. It ignites serendipity.
Share for the sake of sharing and add value to others. Demonstrate your domain expertise. Document the moments that matter. Create a great customer experience when they engage with your brand in the digital spaces and off-line. Business is the inevitable outcome.
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Does anyone actually care that Foxtons don’t use Twitter? Or am I on my own with that thought
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You can always have fun looking at @hatefoxtons & @AvoidFoxtons I guess these accounts are one of the reasons why
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Firstly let me say I am broadly pro social media marketing (we use Fb, Twitter, Linkedin and blog), however from a ‘devil’s advocate’ point of view I would be interested to hear from Mr Jury about what set of criteria/measurements he applies in order to assess that it ‘works’. He is confident enough to state above – “It’s about time Foxtons, and maybe some other agents for that matter, begin to believe in a social media presence incorporated into a PR strategy, because believe me, it works!” – Now I ‘suspect’ it does work but I’m not hugely confident about it, so firstly how does Mr Jury measure success in this area…in revenue, PR or some other way? Secondly, based on that criteria how exactly would Mr Jury track that success back to social media?
We read a great deal about the importance of social media and content marketing, however hard facts about exactly how it benefits a company’s bottom line are harder to come by so I am always interested to hear about how others approach it.
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See above. 5th B
“BELIEVE – everyone in your company from the top down needs to believe and understand your goals.”
Everyones success / criteria will be different.
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We do ‘believe’ but being a marketing man I’m sure you’ll understand the desire to measure effectiveness of spend/time wherever possible.
In your case, how do you measure success and how do you know ‘it works’?
Just ‘believing’ it works is not the same as knowing it works…and the tone of your article suggests you know it works.
In the end everyone’s aims will be the same whether it be directly or indirectly they will expect revenue to be increased…so I’m curious to know how this can effectively be measured when it come to social media?
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Yeah, Foxtons. What do they know about running a successful estate agency…..
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Once the hang out of hacks from nearby Fleet street, Blackfriars pub, beside the eponymous bridge has a display of beaten copper relief pictures depicting adverbs.
My favourite is “dont advertise – tell a gossip”
Nuff said?
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Rivero asks: Now I ‘suspect’ it does work but I’m not hugely confident about it, so firstly how does Mr Jury measure success in this area…in revenue, PR or some other way? Secondly, based on that criteria how exactly would Mr Jury track that success back to social media?
Could you please tell us the answers to those questions Stephen?
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Now I have had chance to read this I am surprised that ‘Be honest’ didn’t make the list. Be consistent, earn/ reinforce respect are all missing too.
I am really struggling to work out why the vexatious, controversial and quite frankly unpleasant nature of in particular the passive intermediary campaigns of the past 3 years aren’t being recommended. There has been a deliberate trolling of the industry that will be very hard to come back from and any attempt to suddenly change strategy will be an embarrassing climb down that will attract nothing but ridicule. If such a strategy was really worth all of that nastiness and embarrassment why isn’t it included in this helpful how to guide?
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