
- A social media strategy may help your real estate business thrive, when it's based around consistency, authenticity, and engagement.
- As a real estate agent, it's helpful to view social media as a way to grow relationships.
- A variety of content that showcases your local knowledge and industry experience may help connect you to a desired audience.
Do you get caught up in the number of followers and likes on social media pages? Using social media for your real estate business goes well beyond vanity metrics. A successful social media strategy may elevate your presence in the local community, ultimately delivering you high-quality leads. This doesn't mean hopping on the latest TikTok® or Reel trends. It does mean showing up consistently, creating a genuine connection with your followers, and striking the perfect balance between business and personal.
Social Media Marketing Strategies for Real Estate
Whether you're starting your social media strategy from scratch or looking to level up an existing strategy, there are a few basic guidelines to keep in mind before launching:
- Educate: In addition to promoting your own listings, focus on educating the audience on best practices when buying or selling in the local market. Engagement is also important to ensure you stay top of mind when they're ready to buy or sell.
- Build relationships and be authentic: Real estate is a hyperlocal business. So, instead of focusing on going viral, build and nurture relationships with local businesses, organizations, past clients, and potential new clients. Like offline relationships, social media shouldn't be one-sided. Engaging with your audience and the accounts you follow will grow social media relationships over time.
- Be consistent: Regularly posting a variety of content will keep your audience engaged and attract new followers. Like real life, showing up every day on social media will grow these relationships, which is important when a follower is in the market to buy or sell.
- Repurpose content: Don't be afraid to repurpose content. Your content should be able to be used across multiple platforms and multiple times on one platform. For example, you can write one blog post broken down into:
– Multiple LinkedIn® posts
– A series of posts on X
– A week of Facebook® posts
– An Instagram® Carousel
– A day of Instagram® Stories
– Several Instagram® Reels
Understanding the Importance of Social Media in Real Estate
Unlike frequent purchases like home decor or clothing, buying a home is a unique event. A common social media mistake real estate agents make is focusing solely on promoting active listings. This approach only resonates with a small portion of the audience — those actively looking to buy a home. It's crucial to view social media as a tool for building relationships. This way, you can establish a foundation for when these followers, or their network, are ready to buy or sell a home.
Key Benefits for Real Estate Agents
As every real estate agent knows, relationships are the key to a successful career. Building thoughtful, genuine relationships throughout the community may help your business grow and flourish over time. Social media, with its reach and engagement potential, can be an effective way to build and nurture these relationships.
Creating Engaging Real Estate Content
The type of content you create is what attracts followers and keeps them engaged. There is a wide variety of content that may resonate with different audiences, depending on your location, specialty and expertise.
Types of Posts That Work Best
Identifying the types of posts that work best for your business will require you to assess what is already working and what isn't working for you. If you're starting your social media strategy from scratch, create a posting and engagement schedule that works for you. Once you have several months of posts and data, assess the results to determine where to adjust. Types of content to consider in your strategy include photos, videos, and text highlighting:
- Local community: Share photos and videos that offer glimpses into neighborhood amenities, school information, local parks, recreation opportunities, local businesses, shops, restaurants, events, and anything else that makes the community special.
- Market updates: Share updates on what is happening in your local real estate market, from home prices to inventory updates, neighborhood comparables, and new construction opportunities.
- Testimonials: Previous clients can be your biggest advocates, so share the testimonials you've collected from clients over the years.
- Homeownership content: You're the expert in all things home-related, so share helpful home ownership information, such as seasonal home maintenance checklists, home design trend information, home improvements to add value to your home, and content that can help educate current homeowners.
- Personal branding: Give followers a glimpse into your life. A video of you staging a home, a day in the life of a real estate agent, how you engage with the community, or any other content that can help showcase your personality.
- Seasonal content: Seasonal content resonates on any social media platform. For example, sharing tips on homebuying during the holidays, a winter home maintenance checklist, and how to stage a home during the holiday season may keep social media accounts informative and seasonally relevant.
Using Visuals and Video Tours
A variety of content may keep your account feeling fresh and reach new followers. Posting a mix of content, such as single photos, carousel photos, videos, reels, virtual home tours, and text-based content, can create a binge-worthy account to follow.
Incorporating Storytelling Techniques
As a local expert, view yourself as the community's primary advocate. One way to accomplish this is to become a master storyteller, sharing your experience and insight into the community, the housing market, and real estate expertise. This approach can inspire creativity and a sense of purpose in your social media strategy.
For example, instead of saying there is a vibrant downtown, show your followers. Share videos of a Saturday morning market, the town's tree lighting celebration, sidewalk cafes filled on a warm, sunny afternoon, and beautiful seasonal decor.
Or, instead of posting the local market updates, share your own personal insights based on your professional experience and use examples. Including property videos and imagery in these market updates can also help break up this type of data-driven content.
Developing a High-ROI Social Media Strategy
As with any marketing strategy, tracking the return on investment (ROI) of your social media efforts should be part of the plan. This will help ensure your efforts are paying off, and give the data to adjust the strategy if it's not working.
Setting Your Social Media Goals
Social media goals will be different for every agent. Some social media goals to consider are:
- Increased website traffic.
- A growing email list that is a result of social media lead generation efforts, such as directing prospects to an off-site landing page that will collect their email address.
- Local follower growth.
- Increased open house traffic that can be tied back to social media.
- Social media content metrics, such as post impressions and views, engagement with your content, such as likes and comments, and click-through rates.
Common Social Media Mistakes
- A hard sell: Repeatedly posting listing photos and talking about yourself.
- No originality: Copying the identical posts you see from other agents
- Using the wrong platform: Spending energy on platforms that an ideal audience isn't using
- Not showing a glimpse into your personality: Not showing who you are as a person and a real estate agent
- Ignoring the data: Not reviewing analytics from the content you've already shared
- Vanity metrics focus: Placing importance on likes and followers instead of the quality of the followers
Using Templates and Automation Tools for Efficiency
Social media templates and automation tools help you streamline your social media efforts so you can focus on what you do best: representing your buyers and sellers.
For example, leveraging tools such as ChatGPT and Canva® can help you efficiently create and design content. This allows you to schedule your professionally created content and move on to other aspects of your business.
Generating Real Estate Leads Through Social Media
Social media is a fantastic tool for generating leads. Here are a couple of ways to go about it:
Engaging with Your Audience
Creating high-quality content is the first step in attracting followers, who may convert to leads. Finding the balance between high-quality content and authentic engagement can help convert these social media relationships into signed contracts.
Effective Paid Advertising Tactics
Targeted paid ads, sponsored posts, giveaways, and in-person events may help you build a strong online presence. This may be helpful when your online community needs help with their real estate needs.
Frequently Asked Questions about Social Media Marketing for Real Estate
Does Social Media Marketing Work for Real Estate?
Social media marketing is an excellent way to build your network, engage with your audience, and gain new leads. A thoughtfully crafted strategy and a commitment to consistent interaction are two keys to a flourishing social media presence.
What Social Media Do Realtors Use Most?
Whether it's Instagram®, Facebook®, X, Substack®, LinkedIn®, or TikTok®, finding out where your ideal audience spends their time should help guide you to the platforms that will be most beneficial for your business.
When Is it Time to Hire a Social Media Expert?
Like any aspect of your business, there comes a time when you may need to outsource and work with an expert. You may find it's time to hire a social media expert if you feel your time is best spent on other aspects of your business.