12 Strategies for Exceptional Real Estate Social Media
Real estate social media is important to master in an industry where 72% of homebuyers used a mobile device during their home search. Not to mention, millennials — the largest segment of homebuyers on the market — are also the most active on social media. Their purchasing decisions are largely impacted by social media. That means if you want to draw in more millennial clients, you need to work on your real estate social media presence.
An excellent real estate social media presence allows you to engage not just millennials, but all your clients. By being active on social media, you can stay top of mind before, during, and after a sale. If you can connect with clients and build long-term relationships with them, they’ll come back to you the next time they need to buy or sell a home. And of course, the chances that they refer you to a friend are significantly greater. Need we say more?
Now that you know why it matters, here are 12 strategies to help you rock the real estate social media game.
Real Estate Social Media Strategies You Can Use on Every Platform
No matter where you decide to focus your real estate social media efforts, these strategies are among the best practices across platforms. If you put these tips into action, you’re guaranteed to increase social media engagement and boost client satisfaction.
1. Communicate with clients through direct messages (DMs).
If your real estate social media strategy doesn’t include the use of direct messaging features, you’re missing out on a big opportunity to connect with prospective and current clients.
The process of buying a home is complicated, and clients typically enter the process with a lot of questions — especially millennials. Encourage prospective and current clients to message their questions directly to you. Then dedicate an hour a day to answering these questions. The result? You’ll build trust with clients by being accessible, approachable, and truly helpful.
We all know real estate is about relationships, so if you want to build lasting relationships with clients, leveraging social media direct messaging is the way to go.
2. Post on real estate social media often.
It’s easy for your tweets, Instagram posts, and Facebook shares to get lost in a sea of others’ social media posts. So how do you make your real estate social media presence visible? For every post you make, the chance that someone will see it and engage increases — so post on each social media platform at least once per day.
The amount of times per day you should post varies by platform. Instead of tweeting once a day, for example, you’ll get the biggest impact by tweeting 15 times a day. Post once a day on your Instagram feed, but also get creative and leverage the potential of your Instagram Story several times throughout the day.
We know social media can get overwhelming quickly, so if you need to take it slow, that’s okay. Focus on improving your real estate social media presence one platform at a time, incrementally increasing the number of times a day you post. Make sure you pay attention to what does and doesn’t work.
For brokerages, it can be helpful to recruit your whole team to help with real estate social media efforts. Team members can come up with creative social media ideas, submit tweets, and share images for Instagram. For agents, try setting aside an hour a week to brainstorm and schedule real estate social media posts. When you start making new connections, experiencing increased engagement, and strengthening your real estate brand, you’ll be grateful you invested time into real estate social media.
3. Actively engage with other users.
As important as it is to have excellent real estate social media content out there, you also need others to engage with that content. The best way to do that is to engage with others first. Social media is a conversation, so make sure you’re a part of it! Did one of your clients just post a photo of themselves with their new house? Comment, like, and share that photo on your own feed. Did a fellow agent tweet out an article about local real estate trends? Retweet it and respond with an insightful comment.
If you can dedicate just 15 minutes a day to engaging with others online, your real estate social media presence will become far more meaningful. You can’t expect others to care about your content unless you put in the effort to care about their social media posts — not to mention, using real estate social media to engage with others is a great way to maintain relationships with past clients and professional contacts.
Real Estate Social Media Ideas for Facebook
Facebook is an ideal social media platform for attracting new leads, sharing valuable content, and driving traffic to your website. The most important rule for Facebook is to keep it interesting. Don’t just share new listings or flood peoples’ feeds with client testimonials. If you really want to leverage Facebook, remember that post variety is very important. Need help coming up with ideas? Try putting one of these Facebook-specific real estate social media strategies into action.
4. Feature and congratulate new homeowners.
Want to make your clients feel like you truly care for them? Celebrate new homeowners on your Facebook page. Ask them to send you a photo of themselves in front of their homes. You can even ask them to share a bit of their story with you and add that to the Facebook post. Not only do posts like this honor the buyers you work with, but they also make your real estate social media feel more personal and rooted in the community.
5. Share your real estate blog posts.
If you have a real estate blog, Facebook is the perfect real estate social media platform for sharing your blog posts. Sharing blog posts on Facebook makes it simple for others to re-share your articles, which can spread the word about your services and attract new leads. Plus, when users click on your blog post to read further, it will drive traffic to your website. Overall, it’s good for business! Just make sure you are writing interesting, helpful, consumer-friendly content.
6. Post about community happenings.
The people who like your Facebook page are most likely locals. So why not help keep them informed about what’s happening in the community? Become your audience’s go-to source for information about local happenings, and the practical value of your real estate social media presence will increase. Being a wealth of information on the local community will give past clients a reason to stay engaged, which means they’ll probably talk about you to their friends, recommending new people to follow you on social media. Now that’s a fantastic way to drive organic referrals.
Real Estate Social Media Ideas for Instagram
Instagram is one of the most underutilized platforms for real estate social media. If you want to stay relevant, reach entirely new audiences, and connect with current and past clients, Instagram is the place to do it. If you’re ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business, try using one of these real estate social media marketing strategies.
7. Go behind-the-scenes with Instagram Stories.
Current and prospective clients want to know who the people they’re working with are, and Instagram Stories are a perfect way to make the introduction. For example, you could let agents do “Instagram takeovers.” Different agents can log into your real estate social media profile and take turns showing what a day in the life is like.
Or, you can introduce agents throughout the business by posting a snapshot or short video and a few fun facts about the agent on your Story. Don’t be afraid of displaying a behind-the-scenes view of your business. To clients, it will make you appear more accessible and relatable.
8. Put your city on display.
Since Instagram is all about visual content, it’s the perfect real estate social media platform for putting your city on display. Have followers and agents tag you in their photos of the local area and then repost them on your real estate Instagram feed. Have a famous city landmark? Make sure to post photos of that. Drive by a gorgeous sunset every evening? You can also share photos of that. Help followers remember why they love the area they chose to buy a home in.
9. Share photos and videos of new listings.
Finally, Instagram is the ideal place to share photos and videos of new and current listings. You can post an Instagram Story as you walk through a beautiful, newly listed home, for example. Or, snap an image of the exterior and post it on your Instagram feed. However you choose to post listings on your real estate social media, just be sure that you don’t overwhelm your real estate social media feed with posts about listings — your Instagram followers want variety.
Real Estate Social Media Ideas for Twitter
Twitter is another real estate social media tool you should definitely be taking advantage of. Twitter is a great social media platform for connecting with other real estate professionals. However, when it comes to real estate social media marketing, you can also leverage this platform to quickly share new listings, informative articles, and relevant news. Just be sure to engage with other users while you’re at it.
10. Tweet out links to new listings.
Promotional content like new listings shouldn’t be the core of your real estate social media strategy. However, Twitter is an excellent place to post links, so feel free to share listings every once in a while. One of your followers might just find their dream home after seeing your tweets! Make sure to include details like the name of the neighborhood and the number of bedrooms along with the link.
11. Tweet out informative articles.
Since Twitter is so useful for sharing links, try posting informative articles directed at prospective and current clients. Think about the questions your audience has. They may be confused about the buying or selling process, wondering how to afford a mortgage, or considering how to begin their home search. Become valuable to your audience by answering these questions, and they’ll be sure to thank you by spreading the word through retweets and word-of-mouth.
12. Tweet out news and announcements.
Twitter is many individuals’ go-to news source (for better or for worse). Engage your followers by sharing relevant local and national news on your Twitter feed. In addition, tweet out news about your company by sharing press releases about your company’s successes or new hires. Finally, if you’re holding an open house or another relevant event, you can announce it on Twitter to help spread the word quickly.
Real estate social media marketing can feel like an overwhelming task. However, by setting aside some time to plan and starting small, you can leverage Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to engage clients, bring in leads, and grow your business. Good luck!
