Are you a real estate agent and are unsure about using social media to grow your business?
Or maybe you are a new realtor and don’t know how to get started using social media for your real estate business?
Using social media for real estate agents definitely doesn’t take the place of in-person interactions and networking, but it can help complement your business. If you’re unsure of how to use it, read these tips for using social media for real estate agents.
Post Engaging Content
This sounds like a no-brainer but it might be tempting to post only about your new listings, or asking people to call you if they need an agent.
Educational Posts
Buying a home is a huge investment and one that requires some learning on behalf of your client. Why not offer them some education on the subject.
Promo Republic is an amazing resource that you can use to find really interesting, engaging and creative real estate post ideas.
Ideas for educational posts:
- Tips for first-time home buyers
- How to sell your home quickly
- Resources such as guides, checklists, etc. that make the home buying/ selling experience easier
- Tax information
- Things you need before deciding to sell your home, etc.
These posts don’t need to only be standard graphic posts either. You could start a weekly real estate education course using Facebook Live and give away amazing advice each week.
If you’re thinking right now “But then they won’t need to hire me”, you’re wrong.
We work and hire people that we know, like and trust. And what better way to earn someone’s trust than by giving away all your fantastic information absolutely free. Then once they do need a real estate agent, who do you think they are going to call?
Local Posts
All your social media posts don’t need to be purely educational, however.
One interesting way to connect with people is to post things about your local community. People love engaging with and giving their opinion on things that involve their city/town/ country.
Ideas for ‘local’ social media posts:
- Share a photo of an empty storefront (ideally one you are looking to lease/sell) and ask people what they would love to see open up there.
- Post a photo from a beautiful neighbourhood of one of the home’s you are selling. Ask people if they can name the neighbourhood that photo was taken in.
- Share a video or photo gallery of some of the main local attractions and ask which one embodies your city.
- Ask people their favourite coffee shop, restaurant, etc. and tell people to tag that location. It’s nice to give a shout out to local businesses, plus people love sharing their favourite spots.
This image shared by Chris Tammi who is a commercial realtor in Sudbury, Ontario went crazy! It was shared 147 times, got over 2,000 comments and was liked 220 times. And why?
This post is interesting, relevant and it asks a question. Chris focuses on what his audience wants and asks for their input, which people loved.
Many of these posts include a question because people love to give their opinion and share their point of view. You could also create a poll, have people vote, etc.
Stand out
If you live in a city where there are hundreds of other realtors, you really need to stand out. In addition to creating engaging content, you need to choose your strategy and platforms wisely.
Own a platform
If everyone in your market is heavily using Facebook, one way to stand out might be to use Instagram more, create a lot of interesting videos, Boomerangs (GIF type posts) and do live videos on Instagram.
Traci Shulkin is a realtor in Boston who is amazing on Instagram. She shares beautiful photos of the homes she is selling, but also individual aspects of the homes, from beautiful staircases to fabulous soaking tubs and she also shares photos of herself doing fun things inside the homes.
Traci stands out on Instagram and shares a variety of beautiful images along with custom hashtags
Choose a Medium
There are other ways to stand out on social media, simply by choosing the best medium for you. If you enjoy writing, maybe you decide to create a blog and drive your traffic to your website. Not interested in writing but love talking? Maybe video marketing could work really well for you.
Mediums to choose from:
- Blog writing
- on your own website
- on a website such as Medium or using the LinkedIn Published Post
- Videos
- Graphics
- Micro-blogging (10-15 sentences directly on a social media platform)
- Podcast
- Slideshare presentations on Slideshare.net
- Infographics
Gwen Price who is a real estate agent in my local area created a video series featuring local businesses. She got a lot of views on her videos and also stood out in the community.
If you love talking but aren’t interested in creating videos, a podcast could be an amazing way for you to stand out. You could create podcast episodes giving really great tips, and then share clips of that podcast show on social media. This is one way for you to be different and give people something to interact with you about.
Want even more ideas for using social media? Here are 50!
These are a few tips for using social media for real estate agents. Do you have any tips for what has worked well for you? Share with me in the comments!
