As social media has become ubiquitous in our culture, it is becoming more and more essential to leverage it for your real estate business. Of course, that can seem daunting. There are so many different social media channels out there and upkeeping all of them can seem like a chore at best. If you’re thinking about social media for real estate agents and how to maximize your networks, our quick list of sites can give you a good overview of where to start focusing your efforts.
Growing your social media following is a form of list-building. When you have a list of people—an active and listening audience—you have customers to whom you can begin to sell. You might develop your list via email, Facebook, Instagram, or a number of other channels.
Read on to find out which channels are the best for you.
Most real estate professionals find that their Facebook efforts are best maximized when they create a business page. From this page, you should be proactive in setting up events for any open houses you might be hosting, sharing community news, and promoting your successes. Tell the stories of your customers whenever possible.
To make sure you’re posting strategically, it’s best to set up an editorial calendar. This can be done using a program like Hootsuite, which allows you to schedule posts. Pro tip: You can also schedule posts directly from a business page. We go into detail about this in our blog post all about Facebook for real estate agents. So head over there if you want some step-by-step guides.
The last thing you need to remember about Facebook and almost any other social network is that if you want traffic to your page, you need to pay for ads. It’s great to set up a Facebook business account and update it as a placeholder, but if you’re using it as a major part of your marketing strategy you need to budget to advertise your page on Facebook, or it’s unlikely your target audience will see it.
Every social media channel offers something slightly different to users. Twitter is perfect for breaking news, and many small businesses also use it for sharing news—even blog posts—about their products.
It’s also a great way for you as a professional to stay in the loop within your industry and to network with other real estate professionals
Here are some Twitter accounts focused on real estate that you may want to follow to get started:
Like any social platform, Twitter works best if you post authentically and consistently. Follow people within your community; they’ll probably follow you back, which is how you can start to build your following.
If you’re in business, you need to be on LinkedIn. You can create a personal profile as well as a profile for your company.
LinkedIn isn’t just an online version of your resume. Take advantage of all that LinkedIn has to offer by joining relevant industry groups and connecting with people you’ve met. This includes customers, colleagues, and prospects.
You can also help build your online reputation through LinkedIn. It’s a good way to get recommendations from colleagues and clients. But it’s also an easy way to establish yourself as an expert by responding to discussions within LinkedIn about your industry and by publishing blog posts straight to LinkedIn.
Not sure what to start writing about? Think of how-to articles that address needs your clients often have. You can either make a list and start publishing these to see which ones gain some momentum, or you can set up a Facebook or Twitter poll to get buy-in from your audience there before typing up a full post for LinkedIn.
Because people are visually driven, Instagram is a great fit for real estate agents. You can post photos, memes, infographics, and videos. Here are some innovative ways real estate professionals have used Instagram:
Pictures or video of listings:
Advertise open houses:
Give information and inspiration about the neighborhood:
Be sure to add multiple relevant #hashtags to each post (you can add up to 30 on Instagram!).
Don’t just stop at photos when it comes to Instagram. With Instagram stories, you can now give your audience video tours (even live tours) of your listings or use the video features to provide an idea of what life is like in each neighborhood. Make sure when you do this that you tag each location. This has two benefits: (1) people who are considering a move to that neighborhood will come to rely on your because you know all the hot spots. And (2), Instagram aggregates top-performing stories into a larger neighborhood story viewable by all users. So if you tag your location, you have a chance of your videos being seen more widely to potential new clients.
Snapchat
One of Snapchat’s biggest advantages is that Snapchat marketing is still largely uncharted territory. So you have a great opportunity to be an early adopter and grab the spotlight for your business. The only downside is that its demographic skews more toward teens and young adults.
Snapchat works a lot like Instagram Stories — because Instagram copied this feature from Snapchat! You’re able to take a short video through the app and send it to people on your contact list. Just like Instagram Stories, it works well for home tours. Each room can be a different short video.
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