Social media accounts leave the first impression for potential buyers, just as a website would. But people will visit your social media channels, including your Facebook Page, Instagram profile, or Twitter page before they visit your website. They don’t search Google or real estate sites alone.
If you’re in the real estate business, you’re continually looking for ways to get your listings in front of home buyers. How can you put yourself ahead of competing real estate agents using social media platforms?
With everything being digital, social media is one of the best real estate tools to use today. Here are some digital marketing tips to improve your real estate social media marketing.
Use your Facebook Page in groups
Social media contests
1. Be easy to find
Be easy to find in search engines and social media. You know about keywords Search Engine Optimization (SEO). As far as search engines like Google are concerned, the way you write about your property can boost your search result rankings.
Similar principles apply to each social media channel. Ensure you have an intuitive and navigable website in place for potential clients. Make it easy for customers to contact you with an up-to-date email, phone, and website. Take the time to add a clear description of your business services—not just on your site, but everywhere you have a web presence.
Make sure buttons, such as the “like” and “share”, are visible for the viewer. Incorporate hashtags for open houses, events, neighborhoods, and your brand. Be consistent in the way you write so your messaging stands out on any social media platform.
When you’re consistent with your copy and categorization, it’ll make finding your real estate listings easier.
2. Use your Facebook Page in groups
In February 2019, Facebook added a feature enabling Facebook Pages to participate in Facebook Groups. You can participate in group discussions as your real estate brand page, making it easier for you to represent your real estate company.
With this Facebook marketing feature, users can post in their groups and help one another with the whole home selling and buying process. Using groups ensures that users will see your real estate posts. Users can then navigate to your page and recognize that you’re an expert in your neighborhood, the real estate market, and a helpful resource for the home buying process. Of course, there are Facebook ads, too, but having an authentic brand voice will benefit you in the long term.
3. The power of visuals
The human brain is incredibly powerful at processing information through visuals. In other words, we’re wired to understand visual information much more quickly and effectively than any other sense.
This is why branding your real estate business through visual social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram is important. Use high-quality photos to tell not only your business’s story, but the story of the neighborhood, homes, and people you represent.
Examples of the types of leads you can generate through Facebook and Instagram account:
- Past clients who bought from you who may refer you to a friend
- New clients from other towns looking to settle down
- Local clients wanting to buy or sell their house
- Past clients who are keeping an eye on the market
If you are wondering how effective Instagram is when it comes to capturing more eyeballs, consider this: 200 million people use Instagram Stories every day, with 1/3 of the most-viewed Stories created by businesses.
But don’t ignore Facebook. It has the highest level of participation among real estate businesses of all social media platforms, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
4. Social media contests
Running contests on your social media is a fun way for you to interact with your clients and facilitate more engagement with your business. You can do these contests as a Facebook poll, Instagram contest, or photo challenge across multiple platforms. The point is to connect with your audience and bring more clients to your door.
5. Listen first
Regardless of the social media platform, networks should be a place for you to listen to potential clients. While some of the best digital marketing tips focus on projecting your message out into social feeds, use social media as a place to observe what people want.
Nextdoor is a great resource for understanding what people want in a new home. One in four conversations on Nextdoor are about the local real estate industry, giving agents opportunities to connect with homeowners who have questions about their home, neighborhood, or home buying process.
Learn about local homeowners’ needs and answer their questions as the go-to local real estate expert with Nextdoor’s real estate agent advertising offering, Neighborhood Sponsorships. With Neighborhood Sponsorships, you can sponsor a specific ZIP code, post content in the neighborhood’s main newsfeed, and directly respond to real estate questions from neighborhood residents.
Do you get more comments and engagement with photos instead of text comments? Do you get different types of replies from your Nextdoor posts than Facebook videos? How can you share social media content that will resonate with people, whether they’re senior buyers or millennials?
By responding to the needs of your potential customers, you can market yourself as a real estate professional who listens.
What social media marketing aren’t you doing?
Most people search for their new home online, according to the NAR. It’s no secret they’ll look for their dream home on social media sites like LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.
If you are a real estate agent, you need to have a well-crafted social media presence. It’s not enough to print flyers, distribute business cards, or hope someone stops and calls the phone number on your sign.
First impressions are just as important as your up-to-date knowledge of new housing inventory. Leverage free social media posts to get your message, business page, and listings out. Look at Zillow and other real estate sites as examples of how to plan your social media strategy.
With so many social media channels, ask yourself: What aren’t you doing?
