How Instagram helped us secure deals and build relationships – Avamore

Real estate is a very traditional industry and we have seen that it has been much slower in adopting new methods of technology; the way the industry communicates is no different.

From our perspective, lending will always be complex and certainly not a straight forward process; this may explain why, on the whole, there may be a certain degree of hesitation for businesses to implement a strong social media strategy.

When we think about engaging with potential clients, it’s about understanding where they are and how best to speak to them.

Lending products are driven by the client’s need, there is no ‘one size fits all’ but that doesn’t mean that you can’t spark a conversation through social media.

What’s more, if we fast forward five or 10 years, the developers of the future will have an expectation around being able to contact businesses via social media in order to get an almost instantaneous response.

Our first Insta-loans

At Avamore, we have been testing this theory out.

We have always made an effort to be active on all social media channels, but it goes so much further than outbound content.

Yes, it’s a great tool for generating engagement and sharing unique blogs and articles, but when you think about social media it’s effectively a free pass to speak directly to your clients.

Furthermore, engaging through social media humanises you, it shows that you’re responsive, accessible and efficient which sets the tone for how the businesses relationship is likely to progress. We’ve found that social media, used correctly, can be a great tool.

Our first ‘insta-loan’ was closed in August 2017 and since then we’ve seen connections being made for further deals and also generated a number of event collaborations from here.

Instagram is one of the newer social media platforms but for our industry, we believe it to be the most effective, even above professional forums such as LinkedIn.

Relationship building

But why do we think it works?

Real estate is extremely visual, developers in particular take a huge amount of pride in everything they do, which is natural considering how much time and effort goes into producing a project.

Ultimately if someone wants to share their work, it’s only reasonable that they want others to notice it, respond to it and take a genuine interest in what they are doing.

Put quite simply, using social media to engage with potential clients is just relationship building for the 21st century, no different to the local butcher or baker knowing you by name 50 years ago.

The ‘insta-loan’ doesn’t re-invent the wheel, it just updates a strategy that has always worked.

At Avamore, our business is focused on relationships and service, which translates into everything we do and is engrained in our culture and philosophy.

We will always be responsive and transparent and continue to advocate the importance of social media for 21st century relationship management.

What’s more, when the next big thing in building relationships with customers appears, we’ll be sure to use it and engage with it as quickly as possible.