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Automated social media marketing has become a common offering throughout the customer relationship management category of proptech.
The specifics of how its delivered vary widely, from fully written blog posts to animated templates and graphics for sharing on Instagram. The methodology is broad as the category itself and naturally, some companies are better at it than others.
Chime, one of the vertical’s most recognized solutions, has rolled out its own take on the popular customer need, called, Social Studio. The company announced it Inman Connect Las Vegas.
Like others in its ilk, Social Studio is for those seeking a hands-off approach to their social outreach, a way to promote without spending hours devising a strategy or creative, skills not every agent is gifted upon licensing.
“Our platform has always been designed to help automate key business functions and let agents and teams do what they do best — service the client and close deals,” said Chime’s head of industry development Stuart Sim, in a press release. “By offering a fully-automated social media management tool designed specifically for realtors, we can help our customers attract more followers and capture more leads while keeping costs low.”
The release states that the new feature suite “automates the creation and execution of organic social media posts,” but there’s no indication it addresses strategy.
One argument against full automation, especially upon the birth of one’s real estate career, is that it takes away the opportunity to flesh out a concrete sales and branding strategy, the long-term intent of marketing. Fast content creation and publication are always helpful, but it’s critical for agents to also understand why a particular post worked or didn’t. Can a lead be attributed to a single post, or was it from a culmination of other communication tactics?
However, Social Studio does allow agents to customize what’s provided, or to create their own original material as part of a campaign on the Meta networks, Twitter and LinkedIn.
It also integrates listing data from direct multiple listing service feeds including imagery and can pull in blog content for repurposing on social posts. There’s a calendaring tool and automatic updates on listing posts when their market status changes in some way.
Chime consistently finds ways to meet the needs of its users. Already in 2022 it announced its enterprise offering enterprise-level accounts for big brands and influential independent brokerages and upped its support teams and hired more account professionals. Social Studio is another example of that effort and helps the company compete with a number of similar options with an existing foothold in the social media segment.
There’s little doubt Chime has put together a winner, but agents need to be sure they understand what it is they’re publishing and how the content nudges aspiring buyers or sellers to contact them. Don’t post and run.
