Social media is more important than ever in growing your real estate business. Not only does nearly everyone have access to the internet, but it’s also being used overwhelmingly in business research, relationship development, e-commerce, and more. Social media has become an integral tool in growing real estate businesses, not only to help to deepen relationships with clients but also to generate new business and to validate yourself as an expert in the real estate field.
12 Tips for Using Social Media to Grow Your Real Estate Business
While agents still use mailers, flyers, or even the occasional park bench, these marketing methods are seen as secondary (or even antiquated) compared to establishing a strong online presence. Below are some of our tips for maximizing how you use social media to grow your real estate business.
1. Set a Social Media Goal
One of the most important tips for using social media to grow your real estate business is to establish a goal and plan for using social media effectively. There is no “build it and they will come” philosophy in social media. Instead, you should have a clear idea of what you want out of it.
- Are you using social media to deepen your relationships with existing clients so you can stay top-of-mind when they have a question or need?
- Would you like to encourage existing clients to provide referrals?
- Are you interested in reaching new, potential clients to buy, sell, or refinance?
Knowing what you’d ultimately like from social media (even if it’s a combination of all of the above!) is a great place to start when using social media to grow your real estate business.
2. Strategize the Best Content to Reach Your Goal
Sure, sharing photos of your family at the beach can be a fun way to connect with your audience and show off your personality, but without strategy, you might find yourself mining for likes instead of focusing on the results that really matter.
To determine what type of content to post, consider your social media goal. If you are trying to stay top-of-mind for existing clients, then a mix of sharing “Dream Home” photos, celebrating sales with existing clients, and market updates might be a good mix of content. If you’re looking to generate referrals and new traffic, consider sharing new properties, real estate tips, reviews, and referral incentives.
3. Boost Posts – Strategically
With the abundance of social media accounts, it can be easy for your profiles to get lost in the noise–especially if your account is really new. One of the best ways to grow your social media following is to boost your posts.
Boosting is when you put a certain amount of money to reach people on social media platforms who do not already follow your brand. The goal is to provide an interesting post to these individuals that will (hopefully) lead to them following your brand on social media, putting you in a position to begin deepening that relationship with them.
Don’t boost every post, and don’t boost blindly. Instead, consider the following:
- Which posts get the most interest and interaction? These are the best to boost (as opposed to those that you *wish* would get more interaction) since the more successful a boost is, the less you’ll have to pay for each click. (Read more about how this auction algorithm works here.)
- Choose your audience wisely. Instead of boosting blindly to everyone everywhere, use Meta’s custom audience tool to select the location and audience you’d like to reach. (Your options may be limited based on the content of your post. See the most recent regulations here.)
For more information on boosting posts, read this how-to article from Meta.
4. Use Hashtags Strategically
Hashtags are another way to get additional social media traffic for your real estate business without having to pay for boosting. For those unfamiliar with this social media tool, hashtags are the pound sign followed by a word or phrase, such as #realestatetips. These hashtags are helpful when users are searching for relevant content to view or follow. It is also a way that the social media platform will suggest comments for users (for instance, if someone regularly interacts with posts of beautiful homes, Instagram will suggest posts or accounts that often use the #dreamhome or #beautifulhomes hashtags because it knows the user likes that kind of content).
There are a few rules to know with hashtag use:
- You can use up to 30 hashtags in each Instagram post, but it’s better to only use 3-4 on Facebook to keep your post cleaner and easier to read.
- Don’t use the same list of hashtags for every single post. Some hashtags can be a repeat (such as your company name, generic things like #realestateindustry #realestatetips or a tagline, etc.,), but the rest should be relevant to your specific post. If you’re unsure what to include, check out https://best-hashtags.com/ and put a “seed” hashtag into the search box to expand ideas.
5. Tag People, Places, & Things
Another way to grow your social media following to grow your real estate business is to tag other brands and places liberally. Every time you tag another account on Facebook or Instagram, that person (or brand) gets a notification about your tag. Many even have those tags appear on a “tagged” section of their Instagram profile. Even more often, the brand will share your post on their story (it’s considered common courtesy to do so), which means you’ll get exposure to their audience as well as your own.
Location tags work a little differently. This is the tag in your social media caption that says “where” your post took place. These are helpful tags because Facebook and Instagram algorithms will often recommend posts that are nearby. For instance, tagging the city of a home you’re showing off pictures for will make you more likely to show up for home related content to people in or around that same city. You can also tag places such as coffee shops, museums, galleries, shops, and more, if it’s relevant.
6. Build Engagement by Asking Questions
Keeping engagement with your followers is key to using social media to grow your real estate business. Many agents who post asking a question find that they get more engagement with their followers. In turn, with more engagement, they get more exposure. A great example would be posting a photo of a kitchen and saying “what would you cook here”?
7. Show Off Your Personality
No one wants to be friends with someone who constantly talks about themselves, and social media is no exception. Given your social media goal in the first bullet point of this article, what do those target audience members (really) want to see online?
More and more agents have noticed that their followers are following them, not their business. It’s important to mix it up with your content and to show things not only that people will want to see when they are actively buying or selling a home, but also content that will endear them to you and your brand. Talk about you, your family, and what you like to do for fun between professional posts about your next open house. Instead of always talking about a home that is for sale, try a fun “dream home” inspirational post gushing about architecture, windows, or the gardens of a home on the market that you love to engage your followers without seeming (as) salesy.
8. Master the Art of Writing a Caption
The perfect caption can make or break a social media post, making it an important part of using social media to grow your real estate business. Coming up with a caption can be intimidating and, let’s be honest, a little stressful. Here are some tips for a successful caption:
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- Consider the purpose of the post. Are you generating interest in a property? Showing off your personality? Validating yourself as an expert and providing value through a real estate tip? Knowing why you are posting can help inform what to post.
- Encourage conversation. Ask open-ended questions to engage your audience. Saying “I love lattes” is less engaging than “There’s nothing like that first sip of coffee with the sunrise. What’s your favorite morning drink?”
- Tell a story. It used to be that short and sweet captions were best, but that is no longer the case (at least, not on all platforms). While Facebook is still typically a good place to keep your caption short and sweet, posts on Instagram and LinkedIn are more effective if you tell a story, even if that story is long. If you decide to go this route, make sure to make the story easy to read by breaking it up into multiple short paragraphs (no more than 2-3 lines each) so your social media audience doesn’t get overwhelmed.
- Use brackets or parentheses (they help build curiosity)
- Put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Remember to consider your audience. Why do they want to see this? Why do they care? Would you have something to say if you saw this post in your own feed? What does the post say about you or your brand?
9. Have Consistent Branding
One of the biggest mistakes a lot of new agents will make and even teams who are trying to grow their real estate business on social media is forgetting the basics. If you want to create a successful brand, you’re going to need a professional headshot and a logo so you can stay consistent on social media. After all, if you’re trying to build brand awareness, you need to make sure your brand is clear to yourself before it can be clear and memorable to others.
A great logo doesn’t have to cost you a ton of money. There are a lot of online apps that can help you build a great logo. Being consistent in your brand means you can’t change your logo every couple of months. Choose something that fits you and the brand you want to create and stick with it.
10. Be Your Authentic Self on Instagram
If you follow some of the most successful real estate agents on social media, you can really learn a lot from them and what they’re posting. Jimmy Rex, for instance, is one of the most successful agents in Salt Lake City, Utah. He not only talks about the real estate market but also shares anecdotes about his personal life.
Successful agents on social media aren’t hitting everyone over the head with real estate facts 24/7. Posts that are very tasteful and give the viewer insight as to who that real estate agent is as a person are more engaging. Wouldn’t you want someone who is real, selling you real estate rather than someone who is fake? Balance your account with good real estate photos and tips, as well as behind-the-scenes videos of you doing different activities (including staging a house, doing an interview, a home tour, or a funny video). The most important factor in all of this is that you have to be your authentic self in all your posts.
11. Post at Optimal Times
Even if you have the best content in your city to post on social media, it won’t do you any good unless your audience sees it. Learning the best times to post is key to using social media to grow your real estate business. The best overall time to post on social media is 10:00 AM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, but this can vary from platform to platform. For instance:
- The best time to post on Facebook is 8 am to 12 pm on Tuesdays & Thursdays
- The best time to post on Instagram is 11 am on Wednesdays
- The best time to post on Twitter is 8 am on Mondays and Thursdays
- The best time to post on LinkedIn is 9 am on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
12. Don’t forget About YouTube
Putting yourself out there through YouTube is an intimate way to showcase your personality and how to do business. This can help build your brand by showing who you are through videos instead of photos. This can help build brand awareness on a larger scale. Step out of your comfort zone and show your followers who you are!
Final Thoughts
While social media can be extremely intimidating even to someone who knows what they’re doing, social media is a great way to grow your real estate business. Start slowly, write down ideas you have and maybe even run them past someone who you know and trust–someone who will be honest with you and your brand. Break things down and try not to be too serious on your page! Have fun and good luck!
This article is intended for informational purposes only.
This article is meant for general informational purposes and is not intended to constitute financial advice to any person. The information within should not be used for financial investment decisions or any other financial purposes, and to seek independent financial advice from an appropriate professional. The author does not give any warranty as to the accuracy of any information in the paper to any person for purposes of financial decisions.
© Weekly Real Estate News. This article may be used in marketing efforts only if full and clear credit is given to Weekly Real Estate News and a link is provided to the original article.
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