Samuel Leeds of Property Investors explains how social media is becoming the most important tool for realtors who want to attract prospects.
If you haven't heard of social media, you may be living under a rock. The days of connecting with loved ones through platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or YouTube are long gone. We can do more. Today, social media is a powerful tool that can also be used to leverage almost any economy. Because these channels are free; engaging and taking advantage of what they offer is simpler. The pandemic also played a critical role in bringing social media to many marketplaces. Industries you would never have imagined existed on social channels are now actively using these platforms to broaden their audience and attract more customers. Out of the many sectors becoming increasingly active on social media, real estate is one of them.
According to the latest National Association of Realtors research, 77% of realtors use social networking sites, and 99% of millennials start their home search online instead of in-person recommendations. Samuel Leeds, the founder of Property Investor, says, " Whether you're buying, selling, or looking to rent a home if you're not using social media, you're seriously leaving out many opportunities."
One of the most effective strategies that realtors can follow to garner interest in real estate listings and connect with several prospective buyers is through advertising the property on social media platforms. Samuel, who owns a 20-bedroom castle, a £3m mansion outside London, and a former art gallery that he is converting into 48 apartments says, "Today, social media has redefined business. Instead of doing business the old-fashioned way, where I go out for coffee with a prospect to discuss an investment opportunity, I post content on social media that reaches thousands of people, all of whom get to know me at the same time."
The London-based realtor proceeds by recalling that he began advertising his products on social media platforms in 2015. Samuel describes how he would document his deal sourcing process, which included finding property investment opportunities, packaging them, and selling them to investors. He'd then upload the video to YouTube, where he aimed his clients would find him. He began to notice that, despite only having 200 investors on his list, he was receiving more views over time. That's when he realized that people were organically finding his content. As of right now, Samuel has more than 320k YouTube subscribers. He attributes this huge number to his consistency in posting valuable and relatable content.
Samuel is not just an investor, he is also a two-time best-selling author, YouTuber, and property investment coach. Apart from this, he also runs one of the largest property investment training schools in Europe. He says, "The biggest challenge I faced was the pandemic because thousands of students come to our live events. But during the pandemic, we pivoted and put all of the courses online which made our business go international with students from over 50 countries."
Now, Samuel is using his official social media handles to educate people on how to invest in properties to become financially independent. He believes that the goal of your content should go beyond simply educating your audience. His secret to engaging his target audience is the amalgamation of entertainment with education. "Giving viewers only information can bore them, but blending it with entertainment allows you to reach out to more people. I host several shows, one of which is Property Pitch, wherein people pitch property deals to me and I invest money if the deal is good. When I show these videos to people, I am not only entertaining them but also providing them with useful information. As a result, you are not only garnering people's attention but also nurturing your relationships with them. To get people to do business with you, you have to get them to not just know you but also trust you."
Samuel notes that people today have shorter attention spans, and TikTok's algorithm is so unique that it pushes content from creators with even fewer followers, making it the ideal platform to begin with. So if he had to start his social media marketing journey from scratch today, he would start with TikTok.
Currently, social media platforms account for 50% of Samuel's business, which he believes is due to his ability to reach more people with his content and nurture relationships through his SMM efforts. Finding a strategy that's best suited to you and your business model will prove to be the nail in the coffin for your success. Brand establishment through SMM efforts will create wider awareness of your property deals. Samuel encourages others to use it to its full potential to make their asset more appealing and achieve financial independence by investing in real estate as he did.
