Social media is huge. That statement shouldn't shock anyone anymore. Most, if not all of you reading this will have a social media profile of some sort, whether it be Facebook, Twitter or just a LinkedIn profile for business. To some degree, we all have a digital version of ourselves out there in cyber space, ready to connect with the rest of the world.

Facebook just this year has reported a monthly user population of 1.39 Billion. Just to give you an idea of scale, the population of China is 1.36 Billion. With such an incredible wealth of users posting and sharing on a regular basis, you can see why it's important for you to represent your business there. With so many eyes all on you, it important it's done right.

Anyone can slap together a social media profile, in much the same way that anyone can slap together a brand logo. However, just because you can do it doesn't mean you should. I've never touched branding in my life, so let's see how my attempt at goes...

Terrible logo design


Granted, this only took me 2 minutes in paint, but it's awful, right? Understandably so seeing as I have no idea where to start. It's important that the same "just have a go" mentality isn't also applied to your social pages. Social media can be a great way for you to advertise yourself and gain exposure but it has to be given the right amount of respect. This is why at Estate Apps, we have a dedicated and experienced team for our branding service and it's not left up to me. It's also why when you're new to social media for business, it's always worth getting some outside help to start.

There's a bunch of gurus out there who've spent years writing content and managing social accounts specifically for estate and letting agents. We've been in touch with a few ourselves (such as Sam Ashdown of Home Truths and Michael Day of Integra Property Services amongst others) and can say they're nothing but professional and have only your best interests at heart.

As highly recommended as these individuals come considering the value they can add to your business, sometimes it's just not in your budget, and that's fine. Sometimes you just can't justify the expenditure. If you are planning on taking on the task of social media for you business, make sure you take the time to familiarise yourself with best practices and laying out a game plan as to how you see your social campaigns playing out. Taking over your social media accounts with little experience and no plan is much like jumping straight in at the deep-end of a pool before you know how to swim, it's not going to take long before someone else has to come and rescue you.

Something I myself was bad at when I was at school and I'm sure a fair few of you can relate to, if I didn't understand something, I'd keep my hand down and just give it a crack anyway. This often meant that I'd get my work back with "See me" scrawled in red pen across my page. The thing is that red mark against my work was between me and the teacher, only we knew that I'd made a mistake. When it comes to social media, if you haven't put your hand up and asked that red mark comes in the form of all the potential visitors to your page, all 1.39 billion of them.

What I'm trying to say is, if you don't know, ask! Social media for business is becoming ever more the norm and but learning how to do it is just like riding a bike. It might take someone holding you up for a while, but once you're moving, you'll find it hard to stop.

We're always happy to advise on how you can make the most of your online presence at Estate Apps, so feel free to get in touch and see how we can help you.