Carol Flammer, MIRM, CSP, CAPS

Blogs and Twitter can help builders quickly find potential clients and monitor industry-related conversations that can help grow their business, according to panelists of two recent NAHB webinars on social media.

The webinars — “He Said. She Said: Social Media for Home Builders 2.0” and "Social Marketing: Engage and Converse," presented on May 25 and June 29, respectively — provided advice for builders and marketers new to social media on how to increase their online visibility and get noticed.

“On average, social media traffic to your blog or your website will spend three to six minutes on your site,” said Carol Flammer, MIRM, CSP, CAPS, of Flamer Relations Inc. and a managing partner with mRelevance LLC. “We see that nationwide across-the-board for builders and remodelers to custom builders and large production builders,” Flammer, a panelist during both webinars, added.

To capitalize on that visibility, Flammer suggested that builders promote their events and company news on all four of the major social media platforms — blogs, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Using these tools together can form a web of content that will get any business noticed, she said.

“Whatever it is you are doing in marketing should all be interconnected,” Flammer stressed.

She emphasized the importance of creating and maintaining a company blog to provide fun, interactive content and told webinar participants not to worry about developing particular content.

“Everyone is an expert,” Flammer said, while noting that builders rely on their expertise to provide information for their blog.  

To spark potential buyers’ attention without overdoing it, Flammer suggested that builders blog about eight times a month, tweet daily — often multiple times a day — post on Facebook daily and upload videos as needed.

She also suggested that builders limit the size of their blogs, postings and videos. Blog posts, she said, should be about 300 words while videos should last between 90 seconds and two minutes. She reminded webinar participants that Twitter limits tweets to 140 characters while Facebook posts can contain more information.

Social Media Pointers

Flammer also offered several suggestions on how to make social media postings more eye-catching and relevant:

• Include photos and links in blogs, Facebook and Twitter posts.
• Use videos to showcase homes and record testimonials from satisfied customers.
• Create a calendar to plan in advance the different events, tasks and posts to cover in the coming weeks and months.
• Stay organized through sites like TweetDeck, which offers the ability to manage and schedule tweets and interact easily with followers.
• Use relevant keywords and consider what you would type into Google if you were trying to find a company like your own.

Improve SEO to Improve Visibility  

In addition to quality content, Mitch Levinson, MIRM, with mRelevance, told participants in the “He Said, She Said” webinar that search engine optimization (SEO) was crucial to increasing visibility online.

He said builders can improve their SEO by developing lists of keywords and phrases for their website and blog that can lead Internet users to their site through search engines.

Levinson stressed that builders should also attach keywords to their photos and videos as well. Attaching keywords to this type of web content can make it part of the search index, which can improve a builder’s overall search results.

Levinson also suggested that builders visit other blogs and websites and leave comments that link back to their website. Increasing the number of links that link back to a builder’s website, he said, will improve the builder’s search engine results. 

Webinar Replays Available

Replays of the webinars — “He Said, She Said: Social Media for Home Builders 2.0,” hosted by NAHB BuilderBooks; and “Social Marketing: Engage and Converse,” hosted by NAHB’s Professional Women in Building — are available through the Webinar Rewind page of the NAHB Webinar Wednesdays registration web page; or call NAHB’s Office of the Registrar at 800-368-5242 x8338, or email registrar@nahb.org.

'Social Media for Home Builders 2.0' Available at NAHB BuilderBooks

“Social Media for Home Builders 2.0: It’s Easier Than You Think,” available through NAHB BuilderBooks, demonstrates the power of social media through case studies and online outlets created specifically for the home building industry.

The publication explains how builder can use social media sites to build their brand, engage new and existing consumers, manage their online reputation and sell more homes.

To view or purchase this publication online, click here, or call 800-223-2665.