Experts Discuss Return On Investment For SEO vs. Social Media For Real Estate Agents

BOISE, Idaho - March 28, 2013 - PRLog -- BOSTON, Mass. - The lead SEO of real estate marketing firm ResultsInternet.com, Kevin Harper, has commented on the RealEstateSEO.biz blog about the subject of Return On Investment (ROI) for SEO vs. Social Media for the purpose of generating real estate leads and sales.

He says studies show that agents in the Boston, Mass. real estate market and elsewhere acknowledge spending much of their time on Social Media content creation, outreach, and engagement. Although Harper's company provides Social Media Management, he says that the allocation of time and marketing budget seems to be skewed toward Social Media because of the publicity generated by Social Media's rise to prominence.

"Studies show that sales generated from Social Media are still in the 2% range compared to other sources like search engines, which come in at about 32%. In terms of allocation of resources, that means Social Media should get about 2% of the time and budget."

But Harper says that's not the case.

"Most agents I talk to and engage with through Social Media acknowledge spending far more time on Social Media than SEO, even though most sales are generated through SEO."

He says this is not an attempt to downplay the importance of Social Media.

"It's just a fact that when users are looking for Massachusetts real estate, they turn to the search engines, not Social Media, just as agents looking for Massachusetts real estate SEO (http://realestateseo.biz/massachusetts) turn to the search engines first."

He says that one of the biggest mistakes agents make is in thinking that buyers are looking for a real estate agent in the first place.

"Buyers are looking for the product, not the practitioner. Statistics overwhelmingly show home buyers are looking for listings, not REALTORS."

Because of the common misallocation of marketing time and resources to social media rather than SEO, where the Return on Investment (ROI) is, Harper says most agents are spinning their wheels in social media task that aren't making them any money.

"Social Media outreach and engagement is very important, but not for the reasons most agents think. I think most agents need to learn to appreciate the value of Social Media as primarily a one-to-one and one-to-many public relations tool, but not primarily a sales tool."

He says looking for sales through social media can be done, but it's a lot like looking for a lost coin where the light is better, rather than where the actual coin was lost.

"Buyers can be found on social media, and it's very possible to connect with them to build relationships. But the data show that when they are ready to look for homes, they will go online, and agents can't rely on the strength of their social connection to keep them from going to the agent whose website they found on the search engines."

"You have to go where the buyers are for sales, and while Social Media has it's place in the real estate marketer's toolbox, buyers still overwhelmingly go to the search engines."

"SEO has become somewhat out of favor in marketing circles due to the volume of spammers and scammers from third world countries pitching their SEO services, and the volume of news articles covering the rise of Social Media. But for the agent who hires an SEO firm like ResultsInternet.com that is focused on quality and financial results for its clients, a professional real estate SEO campaign can be quite profitable."

http://realestateseo.biz/real-estate-seo-vs-social-media.php

About Results Internet

ResultsInternet.com is the marketing division of Top Seller Sites LLC, a website development and marketing company specializing in real estate websites SEO with indexable IDX to achieve Page 1 and #1 Google and Bing rankings.

Results Internet provides expert Google Panda- and Penguin-friendly SEO services, including local SEO, PPC ad management, and Social Media.

Top Seller Sites LLC
Real Estate Websites & SEO
13601 W. McMillan St.
Suite 102-133
Boise, ID 83731
http://www.resultsinternet.com
208-249-8893