Businesses of all types, shapes, and sizes can benefit a lot from social media. However, the real estate industry should take advantage of social media even more. After all, it is not easy and simple to attract real estate leads in this competitive field.
As more and more homebuyers turn to the internet to search for their new homes, it makes more sense to take advantage of real estate social media marketing. Considering the power and reach of social media, not using it for your business might make you miss out on many exciting opportunities to further grow your venture.
This guide will give you a walkthrough of the different strategies for real estate marketing on social media that you can use to take your business to the next level in no time.
1. Observe Consistency in Posting Your Social Media Content
Probably one of the worst things that you can do as a real estate business owner is not being consistent with your communication with both potential and existing customers. Algorithms on different social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook favor posts with the greatest number of engagements compared to others.
Engagement comes in the form of unique views, likes, and comments. To ensure that you will constantly get more engagement, it is important to be consistent when it comes to your content output. By being consistent, your name will always be out there all the time, so people won’t move on from your content and look for someone else’s.
At this point, you might be wondering where you will get the time to post content daily when you are already busy as is. Well, don’t worry because you don’t really need to allot some of your precious time every day just to post new content.
You can try to come up with some ideas for a week or even a whole month in just one sitting. From there, you can create content according to the ideas you listed and schedule your posts using a tool. Having said that, you still need to spend a couple of minutes in your day interacting with your audience on social media. Respond to DMs and comments and engage with the content of other people on the platform.
Your goal here is to ensure that your audience remains engaged with valuable content. This way, you will always be the first person that comes to mind when the time comes that they need to buy or sell.
Don’t hesitate to let your unique personality shine through in your social media presence. Remember that you are trying to reach out to humans here, and they will be interested to learn more about you during your interaction with them on social media.
One pro tip for real estate social media marketing is to add some flavor to your posts. Avoid posting industry updates and listings alone. Mix things up now and then. Share some testimonials about you, a few photos of satisfied clients, and even the smallest wins you get.
Share some personal snippets or experiences about the challenges you overcame for a client. Post private content occasionally, such as a photo from your family vacation.
2. Reach Out to Fellow Realtors on LinkedIn
Have you already established your presence on LinkedIn? If yes, then, don’t waste time. Make some B2B connections. Connect with other realtors, for example. Take note that in the world of real estate, building a network can go a long way.
Think about it this way. What if a realtor from a different city or locality has a lead from a buyer looking for a property in your area? The other realtor might welcome the idea of a trade-off.
LinkedIn is also an excellent platform to showcase your past experiences, achievements, and accolades. Create a professional page on LinkedIn and reach out to realtors and other professionals you can network with and benefit you in return.
Consider forming a connection with company leaders in charge of making expansion-related decisions. Who do you think will they call first if they have a growing business that needs a bigger office? If their network already includes you and you had an interaction with them in the past, you will probably come to mind first.
While Instagram and Facebook are hot favorites among many realtors because they actually work, LinkedIn functions more as a B2B platform and you should use it as such.
However, if you are already using Instagram and Facebook for your real estate marketing on social media, it is not recommended to spend all your time on LinkedIn alone. Seldom posts about twice weekly should be fine. Comment on other people’s posts to network with other people.
3. Create a Blog
While blogs are technically part of social media, these can still be a part of your shared social media content. You can establish your brand as a reliable source of information if you start your own blog.
If your prospective clients turn to your blog to get industry advice, it means that they already find you trustworthy enough. It also gives them a good reason to choose your services for their real estate needs. You might also capture the attention of other leaders in the industry that will willingly promote your content.
A good tip here is to include a share button on all your blogs so that your readers will find it easier to share them on their own social media profiles.
You can also generate more website traffic if you link from your social media pages to your blog. To do this, all you have to do is insert some internal links to all relevant keywords and direct your site visitors to your most critical pages, such as your contact pages and other articles.
4. Come Up with Appealing Content
The content you post on social media plays an important role in attracting leads for your real estate business. For successful real estate marketing on social media, you need an active online presence and to come up with quality content that your target audience will find appealing.
However, with all the distractions that crowd social media platforms, you have to make sure that your audience stays absorbed in your content whenever you post one.
Posting promotional content alone will never be enough to form a connection with your target audience. You need to create more interactive content that will keep people interested to increase your engagement levels.
One of the best ways to make your content as diversified as possible is by coming up with content categories. You can try to create some posts and then organize them into different content categories of your choice. This way, you can schedule your content according to the topics of your posts.
Below are several post ideas that you can use to ensure that your content for real estate social media marketing strategy will be more interesting and appealing:
A series about your real estate team
Behind the scenes (employee of the month, team interviews)
Client testimonials
Company achievements
Holiday-related posts
Infographics
Industry news
Memes
New Listings
Property photos
Q&As
Questions and polls
Surprising statistics
Tips for choosing a property
Video online showings
It is also important to experiment with your posting times. Don’t forget that each segment of your target audience on social media is unique and different. You need to do some trials and errors until you have identified the most ideal time for posting your content.
Try to determine when and where your audience is often online according to what you discovered during your audience research. This research may also reveal their preferred social media platforms, interests, and work schedule.
Your social media analytics can also be used as a source of information. Monitor your engagement levels and reach and learn from your posts with the best performance.
A simple method to organize your content and monitor it easily is to use a social media engagement tool. This way, it will only take one dashboard to handle and manage all of your social media platforms. You can create, schedule, and post content, and have access to useful analytics.
If you are just getting started and you don’t have access yet to some analytics, the best thing you can do is to post first based on the best practices.
5. Pick and Focus on Platforms Relevant to Real Estate
It is pointless to create an account on all the different social media platforms available out there. What you should do instead is to research first your target audience, determine the social media platforms they favor and use frequently, and choose those that will give you the most benefits.
As you might already know, there are three most critical platforms that you can use for your real estate social media marketing strategy. These are the following:
Facebook
Facebook is no doubt the most obvious option to generate more leads for real estate. With around 2.89 billion active users every month in 2021 alone, Facebook is the world’s leading social media platform for a reason.
With the help of Facebook Marketplace, selling properties is also made easy as it lets you do several things:
Add a maximum of 50 images
Create mobile-friendly listings
Include all the important details buyers should and need to know such as location, price, and other information about the property
Free listing of inventory
Another notable benefit of Facebook Marketplace is that it also simplifies the communication between businesses and their clients. Homebuyers can directly reach out to realtors through Facebook Messenger from the listing itself.
Thanks to real estate chatbots, it also eliminates worries about inbox management. Real estate chatbots can also respond to your clients, answer queries, and automatically give suggestions as needed. Facebook also has another feature that real estate businesses will find useful, and this is none other than Facebook Groups.
Facebook has groups that tackle any industry, topic, interest, and hobby under the sun that you can think of, and one of these is real estate. To ensure that your offer will be seen by a high number of real estate leads, you can also try sharing your Marketplace listings with all relevant local Facebook groups.
Instagram
Instagram with its visual nature makes it the best place to post properties. Instagram Reels, Instagram Stories, and carousel posts are the different formats that let you experiment with imagery and entice buyers to gain their interest in your offers.
Now more than ever, people are mainly using their smartphones when browsing through social media. This makes Instagram an ideal choice for its notably mobile structure.
Geo-targeting is another helpful feature of Instagram that is specifically crucial in real estate. You can add location details for every post you share on your Instagram profile. Your posts will show up on search pages of your area’s relevant Instagram users according to location.
A hashtag is another feature that can increase the visibility of all your Instagram posts. You can use a maximum of 30 relevant hashtags to grow your audience and boost the reach of every post you have.
LinkedIn
As mentioned earlier, LinkedIn is more of a business platform that mostly focuses on B2B relationships instead of B2C ones. However, it offers a lot of things to realtors today.
The number one reason why realtors should be on LinkedIn and use the features of the platform is that it can help them establish their reputation. For a job to become a career, you should become an expert that other professionals in the industry can turn to for information and advice. Start creating your own account on LinkedIn and show your industry experience and expertise to all your colleagues.
Another reason why LinkedIn is important for realtors is that it also offers a lot of exciting business opportunities. From networking and reaching out to valuable clients to finding new opportunities for collaboration, and hiring new talents, LinkedIn is the best platform for everything related to business.
LinkedIn constantly tries to connect people, which means it will always try setting you up with both sellers and buyers. After all, the platform’s success depends on its ability to establish connections.
Since you can see who visits or views your platform, LinkedIn also recommends visitors become a LinkedIn connection for you. This will then help you grow your network further.
Bonus: YouTube
If you feel like the first three platforms are not yet enough for you, YouTube is another option you can consider. It is a social media channel that can bring you consistent results in the long term. YouTube is also the best platform for all realtors who wish to show their properties through videos, how-to tutorials for choosing a house, some behind the scenes, or just their usual everyday life.
6. Optimize Your Social Media Accounts
When you speak of optimizing your different social media accounts, it means you should fill in all the essential fields and include the necessary information your clients should know when it comes to your real estate business.
The following are the most critical aspects you have to consider when setting up your different social media accounts:
Account Name
Your account name must also be the same as the name of your business. This way, your clients will have an easier time finding you across the different social media platforms.
About/Bio Sections
This is where you need to include all the essential details your target audience should know when it comes to your business. You have to include the following in these sections:
A short description
Provide a clear and brief description of what you do so all your profile visitors will know about your business and industry.
Contact details
Never give your clients a hard time finding your contact details. List your phone number and email address to help people get in touch with your business.
CTA
Encourage your prospective clients to book a showing, visit your website, contact you, and do other actions you want them to make.
Location
Location is the first information that people check before they search for real estate businesses. Always make it clear to everyone that you are available in their local area.
Website link
Don’t forget to direct your audience to all relevant pages that can offer you more value.
Cover/Profile Photo
To maintain a professional look and ensure that your clients will recognize your business right away, you need to use the same images on your different social media pages. Also, include images that include your business colors and logo.
7. Gain More Visibility with Social Media Ads
No real estate social media marketing strategy will be complete if you don’t use ads to your advantage. It doesn’t come as a surprise that social media ads continue to be highly effective. They can also generate a lot of valuable leads for real estate in just a short span of time.
The good news is that today’s ads have already become very specific to the point that they can now target users according to location, demographics, behavior, connections, and preferences. And the real secret to getting the best real estate leads is to be as specific as possible when it comes to your targeting efforts.
Think of investing in social media ads as the same as investing in a high-quality device. Yes, it might come with a higher price tag upfront, but you can count on them and ensure that they won’t let you down and disappoint you in the long run.
To ensure that your ad performs great all the time, you need to do the following:
Add a strong call to action
Link to important pages
Make it visual
Target a specific group of people
Use retargeting tools
Write an engaging text
Real Estate Lead Generation Social Media Ads
As far as ads are concerned, it is recommended for realtors to come up with a lead generation campaign. See to it that you include a lead form that asks for the contact details of your audience in exchange for your lead magnet.
Try using market analysis, a home buying guide, or any other resources available for you that might be useful for your audience. You might also want to consider using a downloadable document that can serve as your lead magnet.
Aside from this, your lead magnet can also be in the form of free consultation. Here, the form will only be used to help you with lead qualification.
Run Facebook Ads
Facebook ads are some of the most helpful assets, particularly during the initial stages of your campaign for real estate marketing on social media. This is the time when you still have a low organic reach.
Rolling out some highly focused Facebook ads will help you get a good head start on the social media platform. With the common conversion rate of 1% to 1.55, you can expect an impressive return on investment from Facebook Ads. That is, as long as you do things right.
However, remember that Facebook ads come at a price, and it will also take some time to nurture your Facebook leads. Considering the costs involved, you will want to make sure that you have highly targeted ads that cater to a relevant audience. The good news is that it is hardly an issue to do targeting on Facebook. It is also revealed that you can easily target one user using Facebook ads.
Ads on Facebook also have an advantage over Google ads since these let your audience engage with them. Your Facebook connections can like and comment on the ads, which allows you to constantly receive feedback directly from your audience.
Aside from this, you might already know that Instagram is also under the ownership of Facebook. Ads that you run on Facebook will also show up on Instagram. As a result, you will be able to reach your target audiences on these two giant platforms with the help of just a single campaign.
Remember that the ad copy is the most critical aspect of your Facebook ad. You need to make it relevant and attractive to ensure that it will cut through the loud noise coming from your competitors and capture the attention and interest of your audience.
Just make sure you also get creative with your Facebook ads. These ads don’t have to strictly present a listing. You might also consider advertising testimonials from past clients or a video of the properties you have sold in the current year or quarter so far. Always be clear and definite with your goal and conduct enough research about the type of ads that will help you the most in reaching your objectives.
8. Share Wins and Testimonials
Social proof can be very powerful. The actions and choices of other people around you are critical in defining answers even to the most mundane of questions, whether it is about how to clean glass windows, how to cook turkey for the holidays, or what to do with empty wine bottles.
In line with this, more than half of today’s social media users tend to trust and believe the reviews they find on your page almost just like how much they believe and trust their family and friends. When people see your satisfied and happy clients, this will trigger and instill some sense of confidence in the services you provide.
You can use social media to show the rest of the world how your services put smiles on your client’s faces. Every time you have a satisfied client, ask them for a testimonial. Most of the time, happy clients are more than willing to write a testimonial or review for you.
Now, you might be worried about going overboard with testimonials. Well, you don’t have to because there is no such thing as overdoing testimonials. In fact, it is better if you can also offer more social proof. There is no need to limit your social proof to just testimonials, either. Sharing all your wins with your target audience is also recommended.
If you want to ensure that your testimonials will be more engaging, you can also try using video testimonials. These video testimonials are easy and simple to make with the help of a video editor. All you have to do is choose a template for your real estate testimonials, tweak some elements such as images, and text, and as simple as that, you will already have a beautiful and captivating video that will let you show off your real estate expertise, knowledge, and experience to your target audience.
An important tip to remember here, though, is that even if satisfied clients will be more than happy to write a testimonial for you, never come off as too intrusive. Just request a testimonial and don’t forget to only follow up once. Again, don’t forget to act professionally and never put your client on the spot.
9. Share Educational Guides and Posts
It seems that the default mindset of many realtors that use Instagram or Facebook for their real estate social media marketing strategy is to only post content that will bring in leads.
Even though it is critical, it doesn’t necessarily cater to everyone who might have already used your services in the past or is still using them at the moment. Similar to the importance of coming up with content that will generate new leads, it is also a must that you only share content pieces that will help you nurture your current customers.
Educational guides and posts are an ideal way to do it since these can help address concerns and questions your existing followers or clients might have. These can also help you establish yourself as the go-to authority for all their queries in the process.
Also, a good tip for building your authority is to provide your audience with the latest updates relevant to the industry and post educational content.
Sellers and buyers are usually anxious and confused about the process involved in selling or buying real estate, particularly if this is the first time that they will be doing it. As a realtor, this is something that you probably already know by now.
However, you can do something to help ease away their anxiety and confusion. You can post insightful guides showing all the steps involved in the entire process. You can also communicate why you are the best person they can turn to make everything easier and simpler for them.
10. Use Live Videos to Showcase Your Listings
Don’t just rely on what you can read here. Always keep in mind that it is still your buyers who will be interested in seeing your videos. Most sellers and buyers today prefer to work with realtors who include videos as a part of their strategy for real estate marketing on social media. Aside from this, real estate listings that come with videos tend to receive more leads compared to those posts that don’t have a video.
The industry of home selling is fundamentally visual. You will miss out on a lot of opportunities if you don’t create videos. But videos are much better when they are live. The good news is that Instagram and Facebook alike have features for live videos.
Every time you go live, it gives your audience the chance to have a direct engagement with you and ask you real-time questions. This is also your chance to give the viewers a virtual tour of the hottest property listings you have and offer the best price to your clients.
You can think of it as something similar to a virtual open house where viewers can look around the property without leaving the comforts of their couch and have their questions answered right away.
One more advantage of these live sessions is the fact that their shelf life is actually longer than you think. After the live session ends, you can still post it in the form of a video for those viewers who weren’t able to watch it. You can then repurpose this video on the different social media platforms and update them in a matter of seconds with the help of a video editor. These video editors let you use templates to come up with real estate videos easily.
During these live sessions, however, never let a long time pass in complete silence. You have to make sure that your viewer stays engaged. Urge them to raise their questions and inflict a lively vibe on your session. Finally, never neglect answering comments while you are giving your viewers a tour so that they don’t feel as if they are talking into a complete void.
11. Go Over Emails and DMs to Keep in Touch with Connections
Real estate is a business that revolves around people. Reports have revealed that sellers found their realtor through a neighbor, a referral, or a relative, or used the same realtor that they worked with in the past.
Social media is among the most scalable methods to establish relationships. However, this is not something you can do by just liking all the comments that people leave on your posts. Try to take things a step further by responding with a nice comment.
Reply to as many DMS as possible these DMs are your warm leads. A big part of real estate marketing on social media is to put out content for an audience you don’t personally know. But the moment they are included in your DMs, it gives you a chance to understand what they are looking for so you can provide the perfect fit.
An ideal way to establish a long-term connection with a potential lead is to have a solid email marketing campaign. You can take advantage of your social media accounts to encourage sign-ups to your email list and keep in touch with your warm leads through regular email updates.
It is also recommended to send follow-up emails and newsletters. It is also an excellent way for you to keep in touch with people without coming off as too intrusive. Always be humble and avoid communications and emails every day. Spread things out instead. The secret here is to be humbly confident with your consistent communication.
12. Steal from Your Competition
Your competitors are there for a reason. They serve as a great source of inspiration and information. Having said that, it means that the social media presence of your competitors can help you discover new formats and topics for your content and boost your overall strategy for lead generation.
To come up with a comprehensive evaluation of your main competitors, prepare a spreadsheet that includes all the details that can help you determine and understand their specific weaknesses and strengths.
Below are some of the things that you might want to add to your research file:
Name of competitor
Interesting content topics
Links to their social media pages
Strengths
Their best-performing posts
Weaknesses
Aside from social media content alone, your competitors are also a great means to help you find more new prospective clients. How is it possible, you ask? All you have to do is go through your competitor’s list of followers and interact with them. This interaction can be as simple as giving them a follow, leaving a nice comment, or liking their photo.
Such a simple initiative on your part can make people aware of your own social media account and may also spark their interest in your services and business. The fact that they follow your competition only increases the likelihood that your offers may also be interesting for them.
13. Provide Exceptional Customer Service Through Social Media
Social media has significantly changed how consumers and businesses interact with each other. Consumer feedback has become more critical these more than ever before.
While good news often travels fast, bad news tends to travel faster. This is why it is a must to offer your clients only the best services if your ultimate goal is to establish a stellar reputation not only online but also offline.
Businesses don’t simply use their social media handles to interact with their clients. They also monitor feedback, manage reviews, and offer customer service.
You should make the following your top priority if you want to ensure that your clients will receive only the most excellent customer service they need and deserve:
Prioritize negative reviews or feedback
Reply to every comment, whether good, bad, not important, or important
Respond to messages immediately
Exceptional customer service is the best way to show to the world that you are reliable and trustworthy. It also gives people a sneak peek of how you treat your clients with the utmost respect. Exceptional customer care and positive experiences are just two of the best things you can do to increase your customer retention rate.
Wrapping It Up
With a good real estate social media marketing strategy in place, you no longer have to wait for your clients to come to you. This time around, you will be the one to go to them. You can use the different social media platforms to showcase your current listings and give them an insight into your professional expertise and knowledge.
Include the tips for real estate marketing on social media stated above and use them as a part of your overall lead generation strategy. Soon enough, you can expect to gain an impressive follower base, establish a positive connection with them, and turn your leads into paying loyal clients who will choose to work with you for a long time.
Just remember that just like anything else in this world, using social media to generate more leads online requires consistency, dedication, and hard work on your part. Don’t just create your social media accounts, leave them as is, and expect them to work to your advantage. Make an effort and everything will soon pay off before you know it!
I became a realtor when I was 25, Right now I’m a digital marketing expert helping realtors, brokers and real estate agents generate more leads online.
