Social Media Tips & Tricks For Realtors

Why use social media as a Realtor?

Many are on social media, but not everyone understands the importance for businesses and personal brands. Especially throughout Covid, and now more than ever, social media is a gold mine when it comes to finding clients. In recent years, the growth of social media has made it clear that modern communication platforms should be part of any brand’s primary marketing channels.

Here are some fun social media facts that may entice you to utilize social media even more…

• More than half of the world’s population now uses social media.
• 85% of marketers rate short-form videos as the most effective type of social media content. We are going to talk a bit more about this when I get into Realtor specifics and 2022 trends.
• Based on the previously noted NAR, which is the national association of realtors study, Realtor’s top social media picks are – Facebook (97%), LinkedIn (59%) and Instagram (39%). My tip is to focus on these three, dependent on your specific niche as a realtor of course. I don’t believe Twitter is necessary for Realtors because it is not a visual platform compared to others.
• Almost 45% of internet users research products on social media before buying. And 74% of people use social media when making a purchasing decision. There were no real statistics about services, but from my experience, it would be close to the same 45%. Personally, I always search for businesses and people on social media before making a decision as a consumer.

Facebook & Instagram

I group together Facebook and Instagram as they are owned by the same company When you post on Instagram, there is an option for a post to automatically go on Facebook as well. These platforms are a must and remain a staple of marketing for not only real estate agents but all businesses. A big reason for this is that specifically, Facebook’s user demographics represent the general target audience for any given real estate business in terms of age and income.

Facebook allows businesses to publish listing-related updates and content, book appointments, communicate with customers while also curating reviews into a single platform. While Instagram has a younger audience, first-time home buyers, for example, its best for building a personal brand, showing personality, and showcasing an aesthetic. So they do have different uses, but I post the same content on both.

According to a recent study from the National Association of Realtors, social has become important for scoring clients and closing deals across the industry.

• 77% of realtors actively use social media for real estate in some way, shape or form.
• 47% of real estate businesses note that social media results in the highest quality leads versus other sources
• 99% of millennials begin their home search online (as opposed to in-person referrals)

“First, get in front of that camera. Second, if you aren’t creative, find someone who is and invest in them. Third, have a mixture of relatable and informative content. Last but not least, if you aren’t obtaining social media leads, then someone else is.”

Realtor social media tips

We often get asked why we don’t auto-post for our clients. Auto-posting is using apps and programs such as planoly, later, or loomley. We believe in a hands-on approach. This is all because of the 15-minute rule and Instagram’s rules against third-party apps. Take 15 minutes before & after your post to ENGAGE with other users. This draws other users to your profile when your post is freshly posted and will help increase the reach of the post and your account. By contrast, IF you auto-post you likely won’t be paying attention to when it gets posted resulting in no interaction with others before and directly afterward.
It is important to have a diverse content calendar and NOT ONLY to SELL. Rather than beat your followers over the head with sales pitches, make sure to mix it up with different types of content. Adding value is key.

Nothing sells like motivation and inspiration. So real estate agents should make a point of sharing stories of home buyers and successes. Stories offer a lot of psychological support to prospective home buyers especially when responses, comments and likes are generated. They can be coming from prospective buyers too, so in short, leads are also getting generated. Motivation posts can come in any form, quotes, home inspiration, home goals, Tweet reposts, personal stories, client stories, and more.

Property photos – Social media for real estate, especially Instagram is highly visual in terms of content. That’s why property photos are central to so many real estate businesses’ social strategies. Not only do photos encourage “likes” and shares, but also compel your followers to get in touch with you. Take note that almost all photo-based real estate content has a caption that “sells” the property and contains details and contact information. How do you make your photos stand out, though? Get creative! Don’t make your posts look like they are from Windows 95. There are endless tools to make your visuals stand out from the crowd such as Canva, Illustrator, Indesign

Success stories and client testimonials – One of the biggest benefits of real estate social media posts is the ability to highlight your success stories to connect with clients. These types of posts do double-duty in both buildings a sense of social proof and showing off the human side of your business. Anything you can do to make your happy clients part of your social strategy is a plus.

Organic interaction tips

Find niche accounts like yours, or accounts you want your account to be like. Someone who is crushing it. For example, if I am an interior designer, I may find another interior designer with either the same vibe as me or in the same area that is having success – Follow those accounts, interact with those accounts and the followers. if you provide enough value and follow one of your competitor’s followers, if they are interested in an account similar to yours, they will most likely be interested in yours as well.

Find niche hashtags – Hashtags are still incredibly effective at growing your following as long as you have specific ones. That means not as many general hashtags such as #business. Stay specific. Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags per message, although consider limiting yourself to 5 – 15.

Niche accounts, and niche hashtags. – Go to each niche account and hashtag, leave a comment, a like, a share, and aim for providing value to your community by sharing the posts as well.

Plan your content ahead of time

Planning ahead your social media content: Planning ahead will save you time, and ensure consistency. Take a few hours a month to plan out a month of content, or an hour a week. A social media calendar, like Spark Media’s ‘Social Media Planning Service, will save you time and allow you to track and test different strategies to see what resonates most with your audience. Planning out a social calendar in advance will save you from scouring trending topics and news stories every day looking for ideas. It will also build greater consistency in terms of your brand voice and style than posting in a reactive or unplanned way.

I recommend planning your posts month by month so you can visualize your content. It also helps with planning for big events you might need to focus on. A monthly view can work for busy or light schedules. For a busy schedule, I would recommend maybe using it to highlight the most important posts so that it doesn’t feel too crowded.

There are a few strategies that ensure you never run out of things to talk about on social media. Don’t rely on exciting things happening within your community or company to dictate what you post and when. There will be slow times and it’s important to have a plan to stay active on social media throughout those times.

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