When it comes to real estate recruiting, one of the biggest challenges is communication. It’s essential to get your message across as clearly and as accurately as possible in order to attract the most suitable people for your brokerage. What’s more, communication is a crucial element of a top-notch candidate experience—a huge convincing factor for even the most seasoned agents.
If you’re at a bit of a loss on how to approach real estate agent recruitment, you can go here for some ideas for sourcing and hiring. One such idea is using social media; in particular, it’s an effective platform for finding potential candidates because practically everyone has an account or two on a social media site.
You can also use messaging apps—which can be considered an extension of social media platforms—in your recruitment campaigns. Used correctly and to their fullest extent, messaging apps can boost your competitiveness and improve your hiring results.
If you aren’t using messaging apps in your real estate recruitment programs yet, here are a few reasons that might convince you:
Real-Time Communication
There are literally millions of smartphone users in the United States. Logically thinking, any number of people from this population are real estate agents looking for jobs. There’s also the fact that there are multiple ways to communicate through smartphones, including chat apps. Put all of these together you can see why it’s important to use instant messaging in your recruitment efforts.
Indeed, what makes smartphones and messaging apps crucial in recruitment is the ease of communication they can provide. In a highly digital and interconnected society, many people have come to instant gratification. This extends to job applications—candidates don’t expect to be coddled, but they do expect to know as soon as possible whether their resumes have been received or whether or not they’ve got the job.
Through instant messaging apps, real estate recruiters can easily keep in touch with candidates when they need to. What’s even better is that these apps don’t have a learning curve. Everyone knows how to use them, so both the recruiter and the candidate won’t have any trouble.
Visibility
How many times do you check your phone every day? Ten? Twenty? Fifty? It’s probably more than that; in fact, it’s easy to assume a higher number—perhaps 100 or even 200, depending on your job. What this means is that if you send a message to a candidate through a chat app, it’s likely that they’ll see it. Many people use the app to stay in touch with their friends and family. Thus, there’s an extremely high chance that a message from a recruiter will be seen instantly.
In addition, people are more “conditioned” to open and reply to a chat or an instant message than to an email. Of course, this doesn’t mean that email campaigns are ineffective but rather that there are certain kinds of messages that are best sent through messaging apps.
Bridging Communication Gaps
Sometimes, your recruitment email can get lost in the spam folder. This is definitely bad news, especially if you’re contacting a highly sought-after real estate agent. Thankfully, an instant messaging app can help bridge this communication gap. You can use it as a method to follow up, essentially like a supplementary system to ensure that your message gets across.
There’s Fewer Competition
There are not a lot of real estate recruiters who have fully implemented or realized the potential of messaging apps for recruitment. Usually, email is the preferred form of communication particularly as an initial touchpoint.
This means that you have plenty of opportunities to make your message heard and your brokerage stand out. The key is to find the right tone so that you don’t sound too informal. Messaging apps can be too friendly as a medium, so you have to strike that perfect balance between professionalism and approachability.
It Can Help You Learn More About Candidates
Most of the time, people put their social media links in their messaging apps; sometimes, it’s even a requirement to create an account on the platform. This can be helpful when it comes to gauging a candidate’s suitability, depending on the information they’ve shared. For example, a beach-loving, jet-setting real estate agent may be the perfect candidate if you’re looking for an agent to sell second properties and vacation homes.
It’s not a fool-proof way to pre-screen applicants, of course. Nevertheless, the information you can glean from publicly available information through social media and chat apps can help point you in the right direction.
For Building Talent Pools
Lastly, messaging apps are the perfect platforms for strengthening your professional network. For passive candidates, in particular, messaging apps provide the perfect opportunity to ensure engagement. This way, once they decide they’re ready for a change, passive candidates have your brokerage as a top-of-mind choice.
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As you can see, messaging apps have plenty of untapped possibilities as a tool for real estate recruitment. Consider using one if you aren’t yet to help bolster your brokerage’s campaigns. At the very least, you can facilitate quick and easy communications between your recruitment team and the candidates.