The real estate landscape is extremely competitive and in order to generate new clients as a real estate agent, it’s important to invest your marketing resources in the strategies that will deliver the best ROI. In today’s digital age, social media is increasingly becoming an essential marketing tool to help establish your personal brand, earn the trust of potential clients, showcase the properties you’re listing, and grow your business.
Whether you’re an established real estate agent or a new agent trying to gain a foothold in your local market, social media should be a critical component to your marketing efforts. But it’s important to understand that leveraging social media in a way that truly engages with your audience, builds a strong brand and grows your business requires consistency and an understanding of best practices. The following overview will highlight the importance of social media as part of your real estate marketing strategy and outline the best practices that will help you grow your business.
If you want to grow your real estate business, it’s important to have a presence where your potential clients consume information. Today, the internet has become an essential tool for buying and selling a home, with 96% of homebuyers using the internet at some point on their house hunting journey. While Google may play a role in this information seeking behavior, social media is increasingly becoming the go-to place for real estate-related transactions. According to the National Association of Realtors®, 46% of real estate agents identified social media as their top lead generation tool.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Hubspot’s data on social media usage underscores the prevalence of these platforms in our daily lives:
If you’re looking to connect with your target audience and generate the high-quality leads necessary to grow your real estate business, you absolutely must be active on social media. If you’re not, you’re squandering a golden opportunity to raise awareness for your personal brand and build the trust necessary to attract new clients.
With 89% of real estate agents marketing on Facebook, it is the most widely used social media platform by real estate professionals. It offers robust and versatile capabilities that allow you to share listings, create engaging content that grows your online community and run targeted ads based on demographics, locations, behaviors and interests.
Instagram is ideally suited for showcasing high-quality photos and videos, making it a great fit for real estate marketing. It’s the second most widely used platform, with 59% of real estate agents leveraging Instagram to showcase their property listings and build their brand. To make the most effective use of Instagram marketing, make sure to post visually appealing photos and videos that capture the most attractive elements of your listings.
LinkedIn is used by 53% of real estate professionals. While Facebook and Instagram are primarily used to connect with your potential clients, LinkedIn can be leveraged as a professional networking tool where you can connect with other real estate agents in your market and establish yourself as an industry expert worthy of other agents’ referrals. It’s also a great place to grow your network of other real estate industry professionals such as mortgage lenders, real estate investors, and other third-party vendors.
Only 12% of real estate professionals market on TikTok, making it one of the most underutilized platforms in spite of its ability to deliver powerful results. TikTok’s large user base and creative format provide real estate agents with the ability to showcase their personal brand in an authentic manner and present properties in unique ways. You have the ability to host virtual open houses, provide video tours and create other content that will engage users in powerful ways. TikTok appeals to a younger demographic, making it a great platform to leverage if you’re trying to target millennial and Generation Z homebuyers and renters.
Regardless of the platforms you include in your real estate social media marketing strategy, the following best practices will help you get the maximum impact from your efforts.
In order for your social media efforts to be effective, they must reach the people most likely to become high-quality leads. Therefore, it’s critical that you identify your target audience at the start of the process. Knowing your audience will allow you to choose the platforms where these people most frequently consume information.
It will also help you understand the types of content that will most resonate with your audience. For example, first-time buyers, luxury home buyers and commercial real estate investors all have different needs and will require different types of content to make a connection and generate a lead.
Make sure every post you make, regardless of the social media platform you’re posting on, provides value to your audience. Your social media posts can provide value in a variety of ways:
The visual component of your social media posts is critical to the success of your efforts. Simply posting images and videos isn’t sufficient; you need to make sure these visuals are truly stunning. Invest the money in professionally produced, high-quality photos and videos of your listings that will make them come to life.
Using relevant keywords and hashtags can help increase your visibility in searches related to your posts. You should also optimize your profiles to provide a better user experience and increase conversions. Make sure your profile bio contains your contact information and a link to your website, Zillow profile or client intake form.
Organic social media posts refer to content shared on your social media channels without any paid promotion. These organic posts should form the backbone of your real estate social media strategy. They’re used to cultivate a long-term relationship with your audience that demonstrates your authenticity and builds your personal brand.
However, it’s also effective to supplement these organic posts with paid social media ads. Most social media platforms, including the big three used in real estate – Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn – offer the ability to create paid ads that target specific demographics, locations, behaviors, and niches that align with your primary audience. This allows you to create ads that are specifically tailored to the needs and preferences of your audience. Paid ads can be an effective way to generate high-quality leads while offering data to evaluate the effectiveness of each campaign. You can use this data to make adjustments over time that will improve your results.
When utilized together, organic social posts and paid ads provide you with the best of both worlds – you can build a strong personal brand that engages with your audience in authentic ways while also targeting specific audience segments with content that is likely to generate conversions.
What does consistent posting look like? It all depends on your bandwidth and the content you’re able to generate. It’s always best to prioritize quality over quantity. Make sure all your posts are highly engaging and delivering value to your audience. Cut out any posts that don’t add value, as these won’t move the needle on generating new leads.
If you’re new to social media, aim for at least three posts per week per platform you’re using. As you grow your audience and become more comfortable generating social media content, you should aim to post daily on each platform. However, always monitor your engagement data to avoid overwhelming your followers with too much content.
Consistency is important, but having a well formulated plan that delivers cohesive content is equally critical. If your social media posts are haphazard, it can potentially undermine your ability to achieve results. The best way to avoid this issue is to create a social media strategy and content calendar that drives your posting schedule.
Keep the following tips in mind when developing your strategy and calendar:
If you’re considering a career in real estate, Colorado Real Estate School can set you up for success. Our online real estate courses contain all the important information you need to get your license and build the foundation for a thriving career.
Our online format allows you to move through the course materials at your own pace for a customized learning experience. In addition, all our online real estate courses are developed and taught by local, licensed real estate professionals, providing you with insider insights into the latest trends impacting the local real estate market.
You’ll also benefit from our VideoConnect Success Learning System™ containing the largest library of real estate video content available. These highly engaging, instructor-led videos recreate an authentic classroom experience that makes learning easy.
At Colorado Real Estate School, we back up commitment to your success with our TruSupport Pass Guarantee™ providing you with all the support you need to pass your real estate exam. If you don’t pass the exam on the first try, our guarantee provides you with:
Contact us today to learn more about our online real estate courses.
