Social Media Marketing for Real Estate Professionals

While any business can benefit from an online presence, social media marketing is essential for real estate professionals. Whether you’re an investor, a realtor, or a property manager, a concrete social media marketing plan needs to be part of your overall marketing strategy. Your ability to build relationships and connections can be the cornerstone of your success, and there’s no better way to do that right now than on social media. Gone are the days of knocking on doors to hand out flyers or tacking up listings on the local community center’s message board. The benefits of leveraging social media channels are enormous. You’ll have increased outreach and networking capability, opportunities to build your brand, and an easy way to generate leads. Let’s take a look at some of the individual platforms you have to choose from, and what you need to know about each one to make them work for you.

Facebook for Real Estate Marketing

Facebook is a great starting point. Their enormous user base alone can be helpful for getting your listings in front of people. There are also several tools you can use, like FacebookAds, Facebook Marketplace, and their brand new offering for rental listings, Homesnap. They’ve gone out of their way to make it easy for real estate companies to thrive on their platform!To make the most of Facebook for your real estate business, try following these best practices:

• Update your cover photo often. Use it to showcase your most spectacular listings!
• Use the 80/20 rule. 80% of your content should be customer-focused, while 20% should center around you and your business. That's the sweet spot for engagement and interaction.
• Always respond to comments promptly. Let your potential clients know you’re paying attention!
• Images are great, and video is better… Most, if not all, of your content should be accompanied by a visual of some kind.
• Share and comment about local happenings in the communities you serve. Did the PTA just have a major fundraiser? Congratulate them! Did a new shop open downtown? Let your followers know it’s open. You get the idea. Showing your support for local businesses and events can open doors you didn’t know were there.
• Offer helpful tips to show your value to your followers.
• Humor, when appropriate, can be a silver bullet for stirring up engagement.
• Gather leads wherever you can. When you host an open house, ask visitors to sign in, then send them a request to like your page.
• Quality over quantity. Your content should be well thought out and insightful. You’ll get more engagement for your efforts by posting better content than if you simply try to throw out as many posts as you can.

When used correctly, Facebook can be the lynchpin in any social media marketing strategy for real estate. No matter what other platforms you choose to use, Facebook should be your go-to.

Instagram for Real Estate Marketing

Instagram is all about style! Their image-focused format means that potential followers and clients can easily get a sense of your style and persona as a real estate agent. This builds loyalty quickly, which is why Instagram has fifteen times the engagement of Facebook and twenty times that of Twitter. It’s easy to build a following on Instagram. The more followers you have, the more you’ll show up in other users’ follow suggestions. Once you get going, you can quickly reach a tipping point where people will organically gravitate towards your profile.Here’s what you need to keep in mind about Instagram:

• Pick a photo theme and stick with it. Whether it’s a border, a particular filter, or a color scheme, there should be something unifying and immediately recognizable about your pictures.
• Create a business profile as opposed to a personal one. Business profiles on Instagram have the ability to add a link to their bio, so followers can easily reach your website.
• Hashtags, hashtags, hashtags. Did I mention hashtags? These are key to getting your content seen by people who don’t currently follow you. I’ll dig a little deeper into proper hashtagging in a moment.
• Post consistently. Nothing happens here without content, so shoot for at least 2-5 posts a week.
• Polish up your bio. Be sure your bio is professional, with your full name and organization if applicable. Use line breaks to make it easier to read, and most importantly, let your personality show through. Speaking openly, honestly, and authentically about yourself will resonate with potential clients.
• Follow other real estate professionals. Not only will this allow you to network with others in your field, you can easily keep an eye on posting trends and get ideas for content outside of simply posting your listings.
• Make use of Stories. Instagram Stories is a powerful tool. You can stir up engagement and excitement by doing polls, sharing behind-the-scenes sneak peeks at upcoming listings, spotlighting local businesses, and providing market updates.

If you’ve never dealt with Instagram before, the format is a little different than you might be used to, but it’s very straightforward and easy to get a handle on. Not to mention, it’s a whole lot of fun!Now, on to #Hastags… Instagram pretty much runs on hashtags. They do allow up to thirty per post, but you shouldn’t just throw them up randomly to reach that limit. Make sure the hashtags you use are relevant to your post, and while you don’t need to use all thirty every time, five to ten should be your minimum.

LinkedIn for Real Estate Marketing

This is probably going to be the platform you’re least familiar with if your social media marketing experience is limited, however, it can be a goldmine for networking. Unlike other social media sites, LinkedIn is geared towards businesses. You can use it to build relationships with other realtors, connect with potential clients on a more professional level, and gain access to higher-quality leads. I.E. business professionals who might just be able to afford that $2.3 million dollar listing you haven’t been able to sell…With the majority of LinkedIn users being college graduates, over 30, household decision-makers who earn more than 75k, this is a prime platform for your real estate business. Now, here’s how to make the most of it:

• Your content needs to shine. With a smaller user base, there’s less noise to compete with, but that means that everything you post needs to be polished and professional.
• Build out your profile. Pay special attention to your headline (job title), this is the most-seen part of your profile. Use the banner image like your cover photo on Facebook, change it regularly to spotlight your best listings.
• Customize your URL. LinkedIn allows you to customize the URL for your profile, so take advantage of this to make yourself easier to find.
• Don’t post as many actual listings. This may sound counter-intuitive, but the typical LinkedIn user is looking for helpful information. Be a fountain of knowledge to establish your expertise in your field. Anything that reads as a classified ad (like a listing) will get passed by in a heartbeat.
• Connect with former clients and co-workers. Reaching out to people you’ve already worked with is a great way to start building up your base. Once you’re linked, you can start communicating with them and connect with their connections.
• Use 3-5 hashtags per post. LinkedIn isn’t as hashtag-centric as Instagram, but adding a few hashtags here and there can help you increase your reach.

After all is said and done, LinkedIn is probably the most underutilized platform for social media marketing in the real estate industry. Its smaller user base may make it seem less attractive and not worth the time, but the potential to have direct access to higher-income professionals can be extremely useful.

Now that you’re familiar with the platforms…

There are some overall tactics you can use to solidify your online presence. Try to create some kind of uniformity through the different platforms you use. Make sure your voice and message are clear and consistent, from your website or blog to all of your social media interactions. Be professional and polite at all times, even on your personal accounts. Staying away from hot-button issues like politics and religion means you won’t alienate half of your followers with a single off-handed comment. And most importantly, use common sense. Your online presence can make or break your career, so make sure you tend it carefully.

Overwhelmed? Outsource!

Social media is an insatiable beast, and keeping it fed with regular content takes valuable time that you can’t afford to lose. This is one of the most common reasons to outsource social media marketing for your real estate business. Between showing homes, open houses, and managing your listings, time is the one commodity you don’t have in abundance, right?That’s where we step in. $99 Social can provide fresh content daily for your social media pages for one crazy low price: Only $99/month! You tell us what kind of content you want and the image you want to project, and our expert copywriters will do the rest. It’s that easy. Start building your social media presence by reaching out today.