The new social media content company has its design roots in Silicon Valley, but it’s aiming to make the real estate industry look better online.
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Feed Appeal is a social media content generation tool for real estate agents.
Platforms: Browser, mobile-responsive
Ideal for: All agents, teams and brokerages
Top selling points:
- High-end graphic design
- Easy organization of content
- Streamlined, not overdone
- Easy for nondesigners
Top concerns:
Agents looking for more advanced social media schedulers and campaign planners would be better to look at Hootsuite, Buffer and Sprout Social. This is for content ideas and creation.
What you should know
I’ve said it countless times over the last five years of this column: I like software that picks a lane. Feed Appeal is a content creation tool for social media. That’s it. You log in, download a graphic and share it. Plus, its name is awesome.
The software’s dashboard has a new design ready each day, 10 days in advance. The content is rooted in the design talents of one of its founders, and the 2-month-old company (as of press time) had more than 100 members a few weeks after launch.
The company came about after the real-estate-agent aunt of co-founder Scott Oller asked for some help in marketing a listing on Facebook. Oller was a creative director at a few tech startups in Silicon Valley.
The house sold three times faster than usual, according to Feed Appeal’s public relations company. Feed Appeal is not a social media campaign builder or strategic planner, such as Hootsuite or Postamo. Granted, it can be paired easily with such tools.
I think this is something that can really help the efficiency of your marketing assistants. Starter accounts include 100 images a month, and the Pro comes with 300. You can make Facebook and Twitter cover images and Instagram Stories, and leave the digital realm for the “printables” world.
Users can choose from visuals in one of three groups: Bloom, Mill and Luxe. While the images come ready for download, they can be edited with Canva, the popular online graphic design solution.
When asked why agents or marketing teams wouldn’t simply default to Canva, David Matthews, co-founder of Feed Appeal, said that his company is simply doing the Canva work for you.
Like trying to decide on a Netflix show at random, Canva’s deep library of capabilities can quickly create decision paralysis in a designer, and even more so in a noncreative. There’s often too much to choose from if you sign on unsure of what you’re seeking.
Why not save yourself the design time and have each day’s artwork ready more than a week out?
Feed Appeal has a lot in the works, but only as it relates directly to its mission. It’s not looking to become anything more than a fast, easy way to access cool, modern social media content. I really dig its user interface and overall experience — no one is going to need much training.
Feed Appeal would make a great integration solution with a CRM company wanting to amp up its marketing tools. I can also see it becoming a partner with multiple listing services.
There’s a good potential for scalability here, and I credit that to Oller and Matthews’ discipline to stay the course and avoid feature-bloat.
The company’s roadmap, for example, includes a marketplace for third-party artists — categorized image bundles for open houses, new listings and sold properties, and a workflow that will take a more consultative approach to client’s needs.
Matthews said that Feed Appeal has an account with a brokerage, and they are in talks with others.
If you’re looking to stand out in the social realm but don’t like the time it takes to create and format your posts, this is why this service exists. Share the news.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.
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