Social Media Style Guide: Advisors
Social Media Style Guide
Introduction
Social media is a vital part of marketing yourself and your business, creating deeper relationships and furthering your reach. The key is to identify the right social media channels that best support your business strategies, reach your ideal audience and are efficiently manageable. It’s better to manage fewer channels and accounts well versus trying to be everywhere at once.
As a sales professional even your personal social media pages can affect how current or potential clients view you, your brokerage and Engel & Völkers as a whole. Should you maintain your personal page or decide to create a business page to support your marketing efforts, this guide provides you information and guidelines to get you started on the right path.
Social media platforms – while they increase brand awareness – should maintain certain levels of professionalism to ensure Engel & Völkers is presented to the public domain in the best light possible, across the board. By reviewing these standards, you will be able to optimize your social media pages and successfully display the brand and unique, collaborative culture that is Engel & Völkers.
Facebook: Platform Overview
■ Personal Page
□ Keep a personal page if:
□ You don’t plan to incorporate paid advertising into your social marketing strategy
□ You have an engaged network of potential buyers, more than just family and friends
□ Consider your content blend to balance between appropriate personal content and professional posts
■ Business Page
□ Develop a business page when:
□ You’re ready to incorporate a paid advertising plan into your social marketing strategy
□ You want to keep your personal and professional content stream separate
□ Features:
□ Access to the full Facebook advertising platform
□ Additional features and lead generation campaigns to promote
Style Guide
Facebook: Business Page Naming Selection
■ If you would like to incorporate the Engel & Völkers name into your business page’s name or handle, keep it simple so you can easily be tagged and searched
□ Naming Format:
□ If your name is Jane Smith ➔ Jane Smith – Engel & Völkers
□ Handle Format:
□ @JaneSmithEV
□ @JaneSmithEngelVolkers
■ Notes:
□ Always use an ampersand (&) in company name
□ Similar to your Gmail email address, for a URL/social handle an ampersand is not required
□ Always include the umlaut (ö) in the company name
□ While the German language uses an (oe) when an umlaut (ö) cannot be used, in URLs, handles, etc., it can cause confusion in America markets. If it’s not possible to include an umlaut, simply use the “o”.
Facebook: Image Selection & About Section
■ Advisor Business Profile Image
□ Use your CI Engel & Völkers provided headshot to showcase your professionalism and brand recognition on social media
□ The vertical or horizontal “web” versions work best
■ Cover Image
□ Aspect ratio: 851 x 315px
□ The header image should not be changed frequently (no more than 4x a year). The image should either be a professionally shot exterior photo of your shop or a high-end representation of the properties you sell. Whether a stock photo or actual property, make sure you have proper usage rights.
□ Engel & Völkers has also provided a selection of cover photo options for you to leverage that can be found in this folder and will be updated quarterly for your reference:
□ https://goo.gl/6P4z36
■ About Section
□ Trusted real estate advisor, opening the door to the life you aspire in [MARKET AREA].
Facebook: Don’t Forget To ...
■ Follow @EVAmericas
□ Share, comment & like
■ Follow shops and advisors throughout the world
□ Share, comment & like
■ Share blog content located on Engel & Völkers national websites
■ Follow and support other local businesses in your area
■ Check out the Social Media Best Practices Webinar on Academy Online
□ Tips from our social media partners Lumentus Social
□ Social media offerings to support content and lead generation campaigns
Instagram: Platform Overview
■ Overview of platform benefits
□ Share beautiful imagery from your listings
□ Reach a younger audience where they spend their time
□ Access to Facebook’s advertising platform tools
Instagram: Platform Overview
■ Personal Page
□ If you have a large network of potential clients on your personal Facebook account, you can keep using that account
□ Make sure to post a blend of content that incorporates personal, business, and local news content
□ In listing posts, encourage your friends to tag potential buyers in the post in order to continue growing your network
■ Business Page
□ Start using a business page rather than personal when you’re ready to take your marketing to the next level
□ A business page allows you to incorporate paid media into your marketing strategy
□ Use business page features to:
□ Place your business on the map
□ Add contact info so people can contact you directly
Instagram: Business Page Naming Selection
■ If you would like to incorporate the Engel & Völkers name into your business page’s name or handle, keep it simple so you can easily be tagged and searched
□ Name Format Example: (Cannot exceed 30 characters)
□ If your name is Jane Smith ➔ Jane Smith – E&V
□ Handle Format Example: (Cannot exceed 30 characters)
□ @janesmithev
□ @janesmithengelvolkers
■ Notes:
□ Always use an ampersand (&) in company name
□ Similar to your Gmail email address, for a URL/social handle an ampersand is not required
□ Always include the umlaut (ö) in the company name
□ While the German language uses an (oe) when an umlaut (ö) cannot be used, in URLs, handles, etc., it can cause confusion in America markets. If it’s not possible to include an umlaut, simply use the “o”.
Instagram: Business Profile Image Selection & Bio
■ Advisor Business Profile Image
□ Use your CI Engel & Völkers provided headshot to showcase your professionalism and brand recognition on social media
□ The vertical or horizontal “web” versions work best
■ Bio
□ Trusted real estate advisor, opening the door to the life you aspire in [MARKET AREA].
Instagram: Don’t Forget To ...
■ Follow @EVAmericas
□ Share, comment & like
■ Follow shops throughout the world
□ Share, comment & like
■ Share blog content located on Engel & Völkers national websites
■ Follow and support other local businesses in your area
■ Check out the Social Media Best Practices Webinar on Academy Online
□ Tips from our social media partners Lumentus Social
□ Social media offerings to support content and lead generation campaigns
Twitter: Platform Overview
■ Overview of platform benefits
□ Perfect for live event coverage & real time marketing
□ Interject your personal voice into trending conversations in your local market
■ Twitter does not offer personal/business page options. Therefore, it’s important that you create the correct blend of content based on the audience you are looking to attract.
■ If you are using Twitter for professional purposes, continue for guidelines and suggestions
Twitter: Naming Selection for Business Purposes
■ Due to the significant character limitations on Twitter page names and handles, it’s recommended to use your full name as your page name. If your handle name is short enough, you may include EV at the end.
□ Name Format Example: (Cannot exceed 20 characters)
□ Jane Smith
□ Handle Format Example: (Cannot exceed 15 characters)
□ @JaneSmith
□ @JaneSmithEV
■ Notes:
□ Always use an ampersand (&) in company name
□ Similar to your Gmail email address, for a URL/social handle an ampersand is not required
□ Always include the umlaut (ö) in the company name
□ While the German language uses an (oe) when an umlaut (ö) cannot be used, in URLs, handles, etc., it can cause confusion in America markets. If it’s not possible to include an umlaut, simply use the “o”.
Twitter:
Image Selection & Bio
■ Advisor Profile Image
□ It is strongly encouraged that you use your CI Engel & Völkers provided headshot to showcase your professionalism and brand recognition on social media
□ The vertical or horizontal “web” versions work best
■ Cover Image
□ Dimensions: 1500 x 500px
□ The header image should not be changed frequently (no more than 4x a year). The image should either be a professionally shot exterior photo of your shop or a high-end representation of the properties you sell. Whether a stock photo or actual property, make sure you have proper usage rights.
□ Engel & Völkers has also provided a selection of cover photo options for you to leverage that can be found in this folder and will be updated quarterly for your reference:
□ https://goo.gl/3WK61x
■ Bio
□ Trusted real estate advisor, opening the door to the life you aspire in [MARKET AREA].
Twitter: Don’t Forget To ...
■ Follow @EVAmericas
□ Share, comment & like
■ Follow shops and advisors throughout the world
□ Share, comment & like
■ Share blog content located on Engel & Völkers national websites
■ Follow and support other local businesses in your area
■ Check out the Social Media Best Practices Webinar on Academy Online
□ Tips from our social media partners Lumentus Social
□ Social media offerings to support content and lead generation campaigns
LinkedIn: Platform Overview
■ Overview of platform benefits
□ Networking
□ Promoting professional achievements
□ Awards
□ Areas of speciality
Media Style Guide
LinkedIn: Advisor Page Set Up
■ LinkedIn only allows one business page for each e-mail domain, so each shop cannot create a local page using an engelvoelkers.com or evusa.com email address. In fact, this is one of the key reasons there is no active @EVAmericas page. We are all connected to the corporate HQ page in Germany, which further demonstrates the breadth of our collaborative, global network.
□ Engel & Völkers Global HQ Link:
□ https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/51712/
LinkedIn: Advisor Page Set Up
■ Link your profile and your agents to the Engel & Völkers HQ account. A standard advisor profile should be set up as follows:
□ Profile Name: Firstname + Lastname
□ Username: FirstnameLastname
□ Profile Image: Engel & Völkers provided headshot (web version)
□ Image header dimensions: 1536 x 768px
□ Engel & Völkers has also provided a selection of cover photo options for you to leverage that can be found in this folder and will be updated quarterly for your reference:
□ https://goo.gl/kZXD7k
■ If you have any questions, please contact Support.