Real Estate & Social Media
Real estate has always been a business with a strong social component.
Long before the digital era, agents endeavored to engage clients on a personal level, creating awareness of their personal brand and establishing trust.
As such, it seems that social media was the perfect fit as real estate marketing went online, allowing agents to connect with a vast audience via real-time communication, visual media, and interactive content.
Here we’ll round up some of the top reasons that social media offers unique and substantial benefits to the marketing efforts of any real estate business.
Plus, we’ll include some suggestions on best practices at the end.
Read on to get started...
Benefits of Social Media For Real Estate
Boost your visibility, engagement, and business growth by leveraging the following benefits of social media for real estate.
Increased Brand Exposure:
Social media platforms provide real estate agents with a powerful tool to increase their brand exposure.
By establishing a strong presence on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others, real estate agents can showcase their expertise, connect with potential clients, and expand their reach to a wider audience.
Being “top-of-mind” when someone is thinking about real estate is invaluable, and social media is often the tool that’s most effective at putting your business in front of the widest audience in a cost effective way.
Enhanced Client Engagement:
Social media allows real estate agents to engage with their clients in a more personalized and interactive manner.
Beyond just sharing property listings, social media offers the opportunity for agents to post local real estate market updates, provide valuable tips and advice, and respond to inquiries or comments in real-time.
In addition, social media is also a great place for agents to share more about their personality and day-to-day experiences.
This level of engagement helps to build trust, foster relationships, and establish a loyal client base.
Cost-Effective Marketing:
Social media marketing can be highly cost-effective compared to traditional forms of marketing.
Creating and managing social media accounts is generally free, although there may be costs associated with paid advertising or sponsored posts.
However, these costs are typically lower than traditional marketing methods like print ads or billboards, making social media an affordable option for real estate agents, especially those on a budget.
Improved Website Traffic:
Social media can drive traffic to a real estate agent's website, which is a crucial aspect of online marketing.
By sharing links to their website, agents can direct potential clients to their property listings, blog posts, or other relevant content. This can help increase website traffic, boost search engine rankings, and ultimately generate more leads and sales.
Social Media For Real Estate: Best Practices
Want to make the most of your online presence? Delve into the best practices for incorporating social media into your real estate marketing strategy.
- Understand Your Audience: Consider whether your target audience is older or younger, as this will impact the platforms you focus on (such as Facebook for older audiences, Instagram for younger audiences, TikTok for even younger audiences, etc.). Additionally, pay attention to the type of content that resonates with your audience and customize accordingly.
- Invest In Video: People respond to visual content and videos are the most engaging. Luckily you can pull this off on a relatively small budget, if you learn how to handle audio and video correctly with a cellphone, lighting, and possibly a mic. However, it wouldn’t be a bad move to hire some help from a pro.
- Share Your Knowledge: Establish yourself as an expert in the real estate industry by sharing valuable insights, tips, and market updates with your audience. This positions you as a trusted resource and builds credibility.
- Give Walkthroughs: Use videos or virtual tours to give virtual walkthroughs of your properties, allowing potential clients to experience the property from the comfort of their own homes. This creates an engaging and immersive experience that can generate interest and leads.
- Great Photos: Invest in high-quality, professional photos of your properties to showcase their best features. Eye-catching visuals are essential in grabbing attention and enticing potential buyers. “Good enough” is not good enough.
- Use Custom Graphics: Customized graphics can help you stand out and leave a memorable impression on your audience. Even something as simple as a text overlay can drastically improve the visual appeal of an image or video.
- Shoutout Your Successes: Celebrate your achievements and share your success stories, such as recently sold properties or happy clients. This not only highlights your accomplishments but also serves as social proof and encourages potential clients to trust your expertise.
- Spotlight Happy Clients: With their permission, highlight your happy clients on your social media platforms. This humanizes your brand, shows appreciation for your clients, and can generate positive word-of-mouth referrals.
- Keep Your Details Consistent: Ensure that your business name, handle, contact number, address, and website are consistent across all your social media platforms. This creates a cohesive and professional online presence that makes it easy for clients to contact you.
- Make It Personal: Sales oriented posts (like listings) should only be a small part of your social media activity. Prioritize sharing personal anecdotes, local insights, and news about your business to connect with your audience. And have fun! Again, this depends a lot on the platform and your intended audience.
- Be Friendly but Professional: Maintain a friendly and approachable tone in your social media interactions, but avoid getting into arguments or spending time on negative comments. Keep your content light, positive, and professional to maintain a positive online reputation.
- Integrate Your Content: Link your videos, blogs, graphics, and other content across different social media platforms to create a cohesive and integrated marketing strategy. This helps you reach different audiences and increases your overall online visibility.
- Interact: Engage with your audience by responding to comments, initiating chats, and sharing other people's content. Building meaningful interactions helps establish relationships, fosters engagement, and strengthens your online presence as a real estate expert. If you have more than one person doing this, make sure you work together to maintain a consistent voice.
Why Social Media Works For Real Estate
Overall, social media has proven to be a natural extension of the traditional real estate business, providing an effective and efficient way for agents to market properties, connect with clients, and foster relationships in the digital era.
In short, social media gives real estate agents three things which are vital to real estate marketing:
- Visual media
- Broad reach
- Personalized communication
And, all of these benefits are provided to agents and brokerages (mostly) for free. All you have to do is use it.
As such, social media offers real estate agents a cost-effective and powerful tool for marketing their brand and driving website traffic, all of which can lead to increased sales and business growth in the competitive real estate industry.
Follow Real Estate Webmasters
Make sure to follow Real Estate Webmasters across our own social media profiles to stay up to date on industry news, marketing information, and useful how-tos.
So, discover a useful resource for real estate marketing and join the conversation. We'd love to hear from you!
FAQ
Which social media is good for real estate?
Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are popular social media platforms for real estate agents due to their wide user base, visual nature, and professional networking opportunities.
How do realtors stand out on social media?
Realtors can stand out on social media by creating compelling and visually appealing content, showcasing their expertise, sharing valuable insights, engaging with their audience, and building relationships through personalized interactions and authentic storytelling.
What is the role of social media in real estate?
Social media plays a crucial role in real estate marketing by allowing realtors to showcase properties, build brand awareness, engage with potential clients, generate leads, and establish themselves as trusted experts. It also provides a platform for networking, collaboration, and staying updated with industry trends.