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- November
Social Media can help in selling property- but nothing can take the place of an experienced agent- APKF MD
Posted: 30th November -0001
These days, says Lanice Steward, MD of the Cape estate agency Anne Porter Knight Frank, estate agencies are having to face the reality that if Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media can help bring about political revolutions, they can certainly also play a part in marketing homes.
“We can already see social media being used to reveal a more personal and intimate side of the server – be he a bank executive or a furniture mover – but it is nevertheless quite clear that at some stage most buyers and sellers in property marketing still want face to face contact with an estate agent who knows the business well.
“Property selling or buying is so big a step in most people’s lives that they want a person – not a set of photographs, data and a documents – right next to them and this is completely understandable because there are usually potential risks and pitfalls which must be circumvented.”
Where social media can play a useful role, said Steward, is in maintaining a client base,
“We can already see social media being used to reveal a more personal and intimate side of the server – be he a bank executive or a furniture mover – but it is nevertheless quite clear that at some stage most buyers and sellers in property marketing still want face to face contact with an estate agent who knows the business well.
“Property selling or buying is so big a step in most people’s lives that they want a person – not a set of photographs, data and a documents – right next to them and this is completely understandable because there are usually potential risks and pitfalls which must be circumvented.”
Where social media can play a useful role, said Steward, is in maintaining a client base,
“Keeping in touch with past and potential clients is important and often we forget this. However, it has to be confessed that quite a high percentage of the social media “messages” are so trivial and so inexpertly expressed that they actually antagonise the more intelligent clients. At APKF, therefore, we will encourage the use by agents of social media but we will vet and edit their contributions and we will continue to stress the importance of, and train for, the empathetic, human skills which are absolutely vital in steering sellers and buyers through the property maze.”
For further information contact Lanice Steward on 021 671 9120 or email lanice@anneporter.co.za.
Posted by: Anne Porter Knight Frank
