How Agents Can Work With Bloggers and Social Media

Agents spend a great amount of time tending to existing clients. Indeed, that function is a big part of retaining those clients, and the time is well spent. But what about identifying and gaining new clients?  How do agents today grow their business for tomorrow? Word-of-mouth recommendation from happy travelers goes a long way but is limited to a small circle of their friends. Traditional forms of advertising might bring potential clients but the return on that investment is often elusive. Still, those traditional methods of engaging existing and potential clients are well defined as opposed to the vast, unknown world of the Internet, social media, and blogging, right? Actually, ‘wrong’ is the correct answer, as mainstream business is finding its place in cyberspace.

A top reason for agents to engage social media is to establish themselves as experts in their specialty. A Twitter account focused on travel to Las Vegas will indeed draw non-agents looking for information about that destination. Regular posts along with engaging replies, weighing in on discussions, and other efforts will make the time spent worthwhile.  

An agent located in a picturesque part of the world might focus on an Instagram account, posting photos of places they know well and can share advice about easily. Popular with a growing audience, Facebook pages can lend credibility too and make connecting with existing clients easy. Then there is Pinterest, Google +, YouTube, and other social platforms from which to choose.

So what to do?  Pick one?  Do them all?

This is where working with popular local or nationally recognized bloggers can provide a huge benefit to agents. Agents will still need to do the work of setting up and maintaining social efforts via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, some other social platform or a combination of them all. But those same agents can also increase the effectiveness of their efforts by enlisting the help of established bloggers to add credibility to what they do and expand their audience.

According to Social Media Examiner’s 2014 Social Media Marketing Report,* 68% of marketers identified blogging as the most important area to increase. The facts highlight the importance of blogging as a wonderful storytelling tool. It’s the place to start. Once blogged, that content can be shared across any social platform, without any help from anyone. Still, sharing that expert content and someone reading are often two distinctly different actions.

This is where enlisting the help of an established social personality can make all the difference in the world. Instead of an agent sitting around doing nothing, engaging respected social entities is a lot like a household consumer product of yesteryear earning the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. That a popular social personality is talking about/engaging/recommending you and/or your services to their audience is today’s word-of-mouth advertising and still the very best available.

* http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport2014.pdf