The usage of social media platforms is growing rapidly and people are becoming highly active on social media more than ever. Gone are the days when these platforms were just used for fun. In this digital age, besides chatting and calling, people are utilizing social media for variety of purposes like News, Shopping, Live stream and much more.
And this is exactly the case for real estate social media marketing.
Every organization can benefit from social media channels and in order to garner the attention of their potential customers, it’s important for businesses including real estate ones (that used to largely depend on referral marketing) to build a significant presence on these social media platforms.
(Source: theclose.com)
In the above graph, you can clearly see social media is the best way to generate leads after referral marketing for real estate agents. Reflecting the same, realtors are going to focus on increasing their reach and presence on social media platforms.
(Source: theclose.com)
And this might lend some of the real estate agents in a rough patch, especially those who have not embraced the digital channels yet.
But you can make this transition smoother if you know some smart tips about how to market real estate on social media, further managing and growing on these platforms. In this article, we are going to jot down some incredibly important tips that will help real estate agents grow and excel in social media marketing.
Why Real estate agents should leverage social media platforms?
Here are some fascinating stats by National Association of Realtors that will highlight the importance of social media marketing for real estate agents:
- Around 50% of real estate businesses admitted that social media leads are of more quality as compared to other sources
- More than 70% of real estate agents use social media in some way.
- 71% of customers are likely to recommend a brand with which they have had a positive experience on social media.
What type of content do potential customers of real estate agents expect on social media platforms?
It takes a lot of quality content and consistency to convince the audience to hit that follow button on your profile. And even more efforts are required when you want to drive engagement on your posts.
So, let’s look at some types of content that can drive greater engagement for a typical real estate agent on social media platforms.
1. High-Quality Photos and Videos of Properties
It is no secret that people are always attracted to things that are visually appealing. Just imagine the impact of a high-quality video or photo of a house that makes people consider it as their “dream home”.
More than likely you are already using real estate software in your business. Why not utilize the technological advancements such as 3D video walkthroughs and drone photography. High-quality professional-looking photographs will breed you apart from your competitors and will leave a sparkling image on user’s mind.
2. Important Tips and Interesting News Around your Locality
This type of free real estate content for social media will provide value to your followers, and they are likely to share it with their fellow friends and relatives in the circle. With that said, you have to focus on creating a sharable and useful piece of content. For example, Darren Robertson, a Realtor in the West Village of Shirlington, adds content that people love about the location, transport links, plus amenities alongside available properties for sale. Interesting news tends to grab the attention of people, and it keeps them updated.
3. Coverage of popular events
After all, you want to build your authority in the real estate niche and there is no better way than posting about the popular real estate events or programs happening around the world. Indulge deeply into discussions on well-established groups. One of the topics that often come up in private real estate investment discussions on well-established groups is the effectiveness of private equity deal sourcing platforms. Many investors find that private equity deal sourcing platforms offer a streamlined approach to sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities, saving time and increasing the chances of finding lucrative deals.
4. The Success Stories
What’s better marketing strategy than a successful customer giving your recommendation? I bet there isn’t any!
Do not ever hesitate to ask for genuine feedback. Share feedbacks of your satisfied customers on social media. This will substantially improve your brand image and also give more confidence to your upcoming clients. Understanding the intricacies of real estate contracts is crucial, and sharing brief, informative posts about them can significantly boost your credibility as a knowledgeable real estate agent on social media.
5. A glimpse into your personal life
People don’t always like to be sold and it’s extremely true in case of social media platforms.
And do not forget to calculate the ROI of your social media campaign. if your calculations are getting complex, you can use real estate accounting software to untangle them and accurately manage your budget. It’s super important to analyze the performance of real estate social media campaigns and measure the ROI.
And do not forget to calculate the ROI of your social media campaign. if your calculations are getting complex, you can use real estate accounting software to untangle them and accurately manage your budget. It’s super important to analyze the performance of campaign and measure the ROI.
Which social media platforms are best for Realtors?
Here are the top 4 social media channels that works best for the Real estate industry:
1. Facebook – 1.7 billion+ daily active users
With this gobsmacking amount of daily active users, Facebook is the king of social media without a shadow of doubt. It offers all in one solution including a variety of features such as groups, jobs, pages, events, live stream etc. All types of people and businesses can benefit from Facebook, and if you have not included it in your social media strategy, you might miss a huge customer base.
Facebook for Realtors:
- Post stories, photos and videos of properties
- Share interesting infographics and articles if you come across any
- Ask your customers to provide rate you a feedback on “Facebook reviews”
- Run Facebook ads and target the specific demographics to capture leads
- Involve yourself in real estate group discussions and share your knowledge and experience with the community.
- Keep a close eye on upcoming local events
2. Instagram – 500 million+ daily active users
“A picture speaks a thousand words”. Facebook owned Instagram is very much inspired by this quote as it focuses on visual content. It is a hub for influencers. If you want to showcase aesthetic photographs and videos of the properties, there may not be any better place than Instagram.
Instagram for Realtors:
- Share high-quality luxurious photos and videos of houses and other properties
- Keep a close eye on Instagram trends and use trendy hashtags in your posts
- Make crazy and creative reels as they have very high chances of getting viral.
3. LinkedIn – 300 million+ daily active users
This is indeed the largest platform of business professionals with a ginormous user base of 740 million in which nearly 40% are daily active users. It’s a platform where you’ll know to whom you’re talking including their designation and name of their past companies. Apart from getting a highly targeted audience, you can make exceptional business connections for your real estate business by using LinkedIn.
LinkedIn for Realtors:
- Make connections with people in your industry
- Share interesting news and articles about real estate industry
- Make your LinkedIn profile stand out from the crowd by showcasing your featured projects, work experience and skills.
- If you own a business, create a separate business page for it
4. Twitter – 180 million+ active users
Besides being one of the most prominent social media platform, Twitter is ranked on 1st position in the news category on the app store. All the news channels, organizations, politicians, celebrities, entrepreneurs are ultra-active on twitter. Tweets get viral too easily on this channel, so does your content.
Thus, it is an excellent place for all realtors to share and gain knowledge and most importantly – capture the leads.
Twitter for Realtors:
- Tweet regularly about the real estate industry news and updates.
- Check the trending keywords and use them within your tweet
- Communicate with the people in the real estate industry and grow your real estate social network
How real estate agents can grow and find leads on these social media channels?
Growing on social media can test your patience especially when you are starting from scratch. Wondering how to get leads in Real Estate? Read on!
1. Creating Unique and Fascinating Content
This is the bedrock of growing on not only social media platforms but on any given channel. Don’t always copy your competitor in this, instead try to be different and make their time worth it. Do it consistently and you will start seeing the growth gradually. Use some evergreen content ideas to keep your followers in a close loop.
“Content is the king and it will remain so”. Users will depict the image of you and your brand according to the type of content you post. As explained earlier, it takes a lot of quality content to make users press that follow button but even one creepy post can make you lose followers and cause daunting effects on your brand.
2. Paid Ads
This allows you to target the audience of specific demographics. It is really helpful in the real estate industry when you want to target a particular location and a particular group of people.
Another amazing advantage of paid ads is that it helps you grow quickly as compared to organic strategies.
Running ads on Facebook or Instagram won’t cost you a fortune so, If you have a decent marketing budget, spending it on paid social media ads may generate a lucrative ROI if done in the right way.
3. Trends and Hashtags
People love trends on social media and if you’re posting something along the same lines, it is likely to get noticed. Always use relevant and trendy hashtags on all of your posts. Many times, people do their search in hashtags and so it plays a key role in your keyword strategy.
People often begin their search with some local keywords and thus, including some hashtags that contains the name of your locality can put you in front of those targeted people who are searching for brands like yours.
4. Engagement in comment box and relevant real estate groups
Besides getting leads and popularity, social media channels can pave your way in building lasting relationships with fellow realtors, investors, owners, and many more people connected to your industry.
Responding to people and jumping into the conversation to share your expertise and providing them a viable solution could give you an upper hand among your competitors.
Indeed, real estate is one of the most relationship-driven industry. So, engage with people in comments, relevant groups and direct messages to build lasting relationships.
5. Create Highly-Converting Landing Pages
Landing pages aren’t only for those who want to run paid ads. Your personal website is like your online showroom. A landing page will help you to showcase the things that are relevant to your audience and customize the experience in accordance with your brand.
If you don’t have one, creating a highly converting landing page is a huge step towards professionalism, and putting a link to it in your bio on social channels may help you to capture more leads.
Also, if you’re using real estate CRM, the landing page can be integrated with that. It will automatically enter the details of client and streamlines your workflow.
6. Influencer Marketing
There are many influencers out there who are having a massive number of followers. Getting endorsed by them will definitely give you a boost in growing your reach. In fact, staggering 89% of people believe that ROI from influencer marketing is better than other channels.
You have to perform a deep research in order to find the right influencer for your brand. Rates of these influencers are different based on their follower count. You should always keep your budget in mind. If your budget is low, you can also opt for micro-influencers around your niche that won’t burn your pockets deep.
7. Social Listening
Most people really don’t have any idea about social listening. In simple words, social listening is the way forward to know what people are talking about your brand, competitors and your industry as a whole. It gives you an opportunity to understand the thinking of people about your brand, their likes and dislikes.
In real estate industry, social listening plays a vital role because you have to directly interact with your customers. If you know all interests of the person to whom you are talking, it gives them a feeling of trust and reliability.
8. Fun and Entertainment
If you don’t entertain people on these social platforms, you will have a hard time in moving the needle. Because after all, social media is all about entertainment. So many people use these channels to feel fresh and divert their mind to something funny and pleasing after their busy work schedule.
Summing Up Real Estate Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is a great way for real estate agents to become leaders and influencers in their community. It’s all about creating amazing content that resonates well with your audience. And interestingly, if you are really passionate about the real estate industry, you’ll love doing it.
The Covid-19 pandemic gave a much-needed boost to digitalization and it is highly reflecting the real estate industry as more and more people are hunting for houses and properties on various online platforms.
With that said, a significant presence on social media channels is no longer an option for realtors but a necessity. Social media management for realtors has become their bread and butter and even for every growing real estate business.