Social media has become a valuable tool for businesses of all kinds, allowing them to interact and establish connections with their target audience through relevant and interesting content. Building a strong social media presence has become a necessity for almost every business and real estate companies are no exception. What used to be an industry that heavily relied on cold calling and traditional marketing tactics has now become an industry that relies heavily on social media marketing. With the proliferation of digital marketing, real estate agents and developers don’t have a choice but to step out of the comfort of traditional marketing and enter the realm of social media. However, with increased competition, many real estate businesses still find it difficult to embrace real estate social media marketing. Associating with an expert provider of organic SEO services in this field is a unique way to optimize brand presence and increase online engagement on leading social media platforms.
Why Social Media Marketing is Important for Real Estate Agents
The role of social media marketing in the real estate industry is growing. With influencers coming into the limelight and spreading the news of expos, real estate social media has gained more credibility with time. Here are some statistics from an article by Webdura that show the importance of social media in real estate marketing:
- 4.95 billion people use social media worldwide.
- Facebook is where 89% of real estate agents go for leads.
- 63% of real estate agents share listings on social media.
- Almost half of Realtors claim that their most successful form of advertising is social media.
- 80% of real estate brokers intend to use social media to expand their client base.
Social media generated 38% of new clients.
The benefits of social media marketing for the real estate industry are:
- Enhanced visibility and reach: By connecting with buyers and sellers outside of their immediate network, agents can raise their profile and draw in more qualified leads.
- Targeted advertising: Advertising that is specifically targeted to particular demographics, interests, and behaviors is made possible by sophisticated targeting choices available to real estate brokers. This maximizes return on investment by ensuring that messages are seen by people who are more likely to be interested.
- Engagement and interaction: By promptly answering questions, resolving issues, and offering insightful information, agents can establish confidence with prospective customers. Agents can foster a community and promote user-generated content by using comments, likes, and shares.
- Visual narration of the story: Social media platforms are excellent at enabling beautiful storytelling, and real estate is by its very nature a visual industry. Strong visual material draws viewers in and evokes strong feelings, piques their curiosity and encourages interaction.
- Increased credibility: Agents can show off their knowledge, gain credibility, and draw in a devoted following by providing insightful analyses, market updates, and instructional materials. Reliable and pertinent content positions agents as reliable consultants.
- Networking and recommendations: By interacting with other business professionals on social media, real estate agents can widen their professional network, share referrals, and find new business prospects.
Best Social Media Platforms to Reach First-Time Homebuyers
Here are the social media sites first-time homebuyers tend to frequent:
- Instagram: Due to its visually stimulating content, Instagram is one of the most popular social networking sites among Gen Z and millennial users. Instagram is considered by businesses to be one of the best visual channels for product and service promotion. That’s it offers a 360-degree view of the product. Real estate brokers that wish to highlight the genuine potential of property listings have benefited most from this. Real estate brokers can showcase property characteristics by sharing high-quality photographs and videos on Instagram, which draws in a larger audience and increases visibility, according to the platform’s image-centric real estate posts. Additionally, Instagram helps first-time home buyers by providing them with high-quality content at the touch of a button.
- LinkedIn: A business-to-business network is typically the first thing that springs to mind when considering LinkedIn. However, the platform has also changed the game for companies in the real estate industry. Using LinkedIn, real estate agents can create a social network for the industry and establish connections with other service providers like mortgage bankers, contractors, and house inspectors. It’s also excellent for disseminating news regarding market developments, mortgage rates, and industry news.
- Facebook: One website that has become a potent instrument for real estate sector promotion is Facebook. It can quickly get you in front of the appropriate audience segment. Facebook advertisements enable you to target first-time home buyers and interact with individuals who are looking for real estate in a specific location. Brands related to real estate can contribute blog posts, listings, and images of their homes. You can select who sees your adverts according to their age, hobbies, and online behavior. This increases the effectiveness of your advertisements since you are investing money on buyers of the properties.
Ways to Leverage Real Estate Social Media Marketing
- Choose Your Platform – One common denominator in all marketing campaigns is getting a good return on investment. Do some proper research to identify the right platform where your firm can get the best return on investment. Remember, all the social media networks are different, so try to use them differently.
Repurpose content for varied platforms instead of using the same thing on all. Use Facebook page for posting active listings, marketing updates, links to landing pages or blogs, and funny memes. Create a library of real estate videos on YouTube and repost them as Facebook videos or Instagram stories.Use LinkedIn to connect with prospective partners, and share short but informative snippets from your real estate memes and blog posts on Twitter. Create awareness, and build a real estate community and work on building a long-lasting relationship with clients. This is the point where you need to use these platforms more wisely. Instead of posting sales ads, put up posts that facilitate two-way communication. Initiate a healthy discussion on comments, enable reviews of your property and services, and initiate two-way conversations using chatbots. People will follow your page, not just from a business perspective but also for the ability to connect with the target audiences on a more personal level.
- Create Authentic and Top Quality Content – Using social media platforms for real estate properties provides a space to be creative with the content. In fact, it is the quality of the content that can help a real estate firm stand out from competitors. This includes all types of content such as – images, videos, blogs, client testimonials, captions, etc. Get professional photographers to take pictures of single-family property, create informative and entertaining videos, create property tour videos, write inspiring customer stories, and quirky and engaging captions. In short, it is the combination of all of these that will determine customer engagement on the posts and improve single-family leads. The following post is a perfect example of how to describe a property as spacious, big enough for everyone to fit in, and an ideal place for get-togethers.
- Use the Right Real Estate Hashtags to Optimize Content – In addition to boosting engagement with content, hashtags also facilitate discovery on social media. They are considered a unique avenue for potential customers to find a real estate brand. There are different types of real estate hashtags like – generic real-estate hashtags, real estate agent hashtags and customized hashtags – that can be used in the content – as this is an excellent way for homeowners and buyers to locate a page.In addition, these can also be used to discover potential buyers and opportunities for your real estate business. Use tools like Hashtagify and Ritetag to make suggestions related to what hashtags can be used and offers images or text on any site, based on real time engagement data.
- Include Realtor Quotes in your Content – Coming up with quality content in a real estate business is a challenging task. Always look for simple ideas that resonate with the target audiences, so that main efforts can be concentrated towards buying or selling homes or properties. Real estate quotes and testimonials are a great medium that can improve your overall content strategy.Quotes can be created as funny or inspirational. On the other hand, these can also include real estate sayings, testimonials and real estate agent quotes. The fun, inspirational and chatty nature of sharing quotes can help build trust and companionship with the target audience. Real estate quotes can also be used to turn them into image quotes.
- Utilize the Best Social Media Tools– Maximizing efficiency is important in real estate social media marketing. There are a number of real estate marketing applications that can help maximize exposure to buyers and save time. With the amount of technology and resources available online today, it is possible to simplify and automate marketing for your real estate brand. Using the right resources for social media efforts help create great content thereby saving time and resources. Here are some top social media tools that can be used –
- Free Stock Photos to Find Realtor Images – Getting professional photos taken can be quite expensive. There are plenty of websites like – Stocksnap.io, Unsplash, Burst by Shopify – that offer free stock photos related to real estate business.
- Creating Real Estate Social Media Graphics – Having stock photos isn’t enough — it is important to use them to customize your social media posts to resonate with your audience. Using stock photos, create customized social media graphics with text, shapes, icons, and much more to help cater your message and reach the target audience.If you are planning to highlight quantitative information, creating a real estate infographic can help people to consume the content. If created correctly, an infographic is a highly shareable piece to show industry expertise.
- Automate Real Estate Social Media Marketing Posts – Having a consistent posting schedule is an important aspect in social media performance. However, this can be extremely tough in the real estate business, where the schedule keeps changing. Using free tools and online resources such as Buffer and Hootsuite can help automate social media posts. Prepare content ahead of time, and keep the posting to a regular schedule, even if the schedule is variable.
- Generate Valuable Real Estate Blog Ideas – Focus on creating valuable real estate blogs that showcase your firm’s expertise in the real estate market. In addition, they should be optimized to attract new prospects to your website and social channels. Come up with real estate content related to market predictions and market statistics, tips for homeowners (related to topics like what they should know when buying or selling properties) and posts about the neighborhood and information about the community. Such blog posts will help familiarize readers with your expertise and help promote your brand in the long run.
- Share Client Testimonials and Real Estate Success Stories – Reports suggest that about 84 percent of online users trust reviews from other customers. Reviews can help real estate businesses increase clients’ trust in their brands. User generated content is especially powerful. Social proof shared in the form of customer testimonials and success stories helps build reliability in a brand. Share posts related to existing customers sharing their experience of working with your brand. Write your appreciation or opinions related to your brand’s role in helping clients get their dream homes or sell their property quickly. Try to get a photo with the happy customers in front of their new home, and share it on your social media channels.
- Consider Accessibility – Do not make it very difficult for the prospects to get in touch with your brand as this will make them to move on to the competitors. Include the company’s contact information clearly on the different social media profiles created. Also, include clickable links for relevant information so prospective property buyers can instantly step onto your website or product page to get more information. In addition, work on making the Call to Action(CTAs) prominent as this is an important aspect in identifying your business website.
- Run Social Media Ads – Paid social media advertisements can help a firm grow their following on different platforms and reach people even outside the current audience. Try choosing different social media ad objectives. Choose Facebook ads for promoting real estate page, Instagram for driving leads, and YouTube for newsletter subscriptions. Analyze what works best for your firm and focus efforts in that direction.
- Make Video Part of the Realtor Strategy – Posting engaging and dynamic video content help connect with audiences in a better manner. Post educational and informational videos that can offer general information like – how to find a good mortgage broker, updates on the industry, or things relevant to your local community.Another popular choice is live video. “Going live” may be intimidating at first, but it is a valuable way to reach the audience and drive even more engagement. Hosting a live Q &A session, such as “Ask Me Anything About Buying a House,” can help share your expertise directly with the potential customers.
- Collaborate With Local Businesses and Experts – Many realtors have partnerships with other local businesses, such as photographers, mortgage brokers, home stagers, and inspectors. This can helpbuild connection with others in the community and also provide a boost to each other on social media platforms. Create content and resources together and also try to share each other’s content.
- Keep Track of Performance – Keep a close watch on the recent real estate campaigns, topics, and platforms that are performing well. This is a good way of tracking your firm’s performance on different social media platforms and to make a few tweaks to your strategy as and when required.
Social media marketing has a huge impact on the real estate market. In fact, social media platforms has changed the way that real estate businesses reach their clients and has forced companies to be more interactive. Making time for real estate social media marketing can be difficult. The good news is that are several strategies and tools for real estate companies to minimize their work and maximize results. Make sure to get the social media basics right and then try out some of the top strategies listed in this post.
In addition, analyze the competitors’ social media strategies to get inspiration and new ideas. By optimizing ads and social media posts, real estate firms can witness better performance on social posts. By outsourcing SEO services to reputable provider, real estate firms can help create more brand awareness and enhance brand loyalty.
