Social media marketing is a cost-effective way to stay in touch with your real estate clients and leads, and it generally provides you with prompt responses from your followers. However, as a real estate professional, you may not be sure how social media marketing applies to real estate or how you can use it beneficially in this unique industry. There are actually numerous advantageous ways for you to use various social media platforms to effectively maintain relationships and attract new leads, so take a closer look at how you can immediately begin taking advantage of this incredible marketing avenue below!
Finding the Right Social Media Platforms for Real Estate
There are several social media platforms you can use for your real estate marketing efforts, but you may be overwhelmed by the thought of spending your valuable time creating unique posts for each of these platforms regularly. More than that, there likely are at least a few platforms that you are not personally familiar with, and you may worry that the learning curve could take up too much of your valuable time.
You don’t need to have a professional presence on every social media platform out there. Instead, invest your time and energy into the platforms that your clients are already using. Additionally, ensure that the platforms you’re going to utilize fit well with your brand, your audience and your overall marketing efforts.
Each social media platform has its advantages and disadvantages, which we’ve summarized below:
- Facebook: Appeals to all ages and is one of the most popular platforms in the world. There’s a good chance that you can reach your target market via Facebook, regardless of who that market is. Facebook’s vast selection of innovative post types offers the ability to uniquely reach your audience and truly differentiate yourself from the competition.
- Twitter: Another incredibly popular platform, however, the character limit imposed on each post can severely hinder your message. You can utilize this platform to post links to listings, your website, blog posts and more, but keep in mind that newsfeeds are constantly updating – which means you’ll need to be posting more frequently than any other platform.
- LinkedIn: THE professional networking app. You can utilize this platform to connect with other Realtors, learn industry insights and even market your commercial listings. It’s important to remember that Linkedin is the professional network, therefore, keep all marketing efforts professional and business-oriented.
- Instagram: A photo-based social media platform. This app is excellent for sharing vivid images of listings, creating live videos of listings and connecting with your audience visually, which makes it an excellent fit for Realtors.
- Snapchat: Allows you to send private messages, images and videos to your followers as well as creating public live videos that are time-sensitive. However, the inception of Instagram Stories and Facebook live have severely limited this app’s audience.
Use the Right Social Media Platforms Effectively
After you have decided which social media platforms you want to use for your marketing and communication purposes, your next task is to create your accounts and develop a professional profile that includes your contact information, specialty details and more. From that point, you must decide what you want to post and how frequently you want to add new posts to your account. While this is a free way to communicate with your customers, try not to bombard them with information to the point where it’s annoying. Two to four posts per week is ideal for most platforms.
Brainstorm different ways that you can use these platforms efficiently. For example, you may periodically post real estate sales or buying tips, announce changes in mortgage interest rates, tell your clients about the latest stats regarding sales and property values in the area and more. You should also post information regarding new listings or even send out a link to a virtual home tour. If you have a blog, make sure you’re posting links to it! This is a great way to get more traffic to your website, but keep in mind that a blog can be much more detailed and specific than a social media post may be.
Effectively using social media platforms requires a large audience. It may take time to develop a list of followers, but you can get started by asking your new clients directly to follow you and to share your social media page with their own followers. Add a link for your social media accounts to your signature tagline on your email messages and update your business cards with this information. If you don’t mind shelling out a few extra bucks to build a following, opt for paid social media advertising. This will allow you to accurately target your audience based on demographics and interests, as well as expanding your reach significantly.
Sharing useful tips is a great way to get followers to organically share your services on social media. When you create beneficial content on your social media accounts, your existing clients become more inclined to share it with others. This can help you to enjoy a greater reach into the marketplace and to increase your number of followers. In fact, some content may even go viral!
Engage With Clients and Leads Through Social Media
Social media platforms sometimes have the reputation of being a bit impersonal. As a real estate agent, it’s important that you make a conscious effort to avoid using social media marketing as a crutch or a replacement for direct and personal communication. Instead, look at it as a way to increase your interest in directly communicating and working with you.
When used effectively, social media marketing can keep your name at the front of your customers’ mind, develop your brand image and even add value through your content. However, you also need to continue to request personal time with your clients for home tours and more. For example, after you send out a social media message with a new listing, send a direct email to clients who you believe may be most interested in the listing and ask directly if they would like to set up a time to view the home.
If you’re not currently active on social media, now is the perfect time to review the various platforms and find the options that will help you reach your audience effectively. It does take some time and effort to initially get started, but you will find that it gets much easier once you’ve taken the time to develop a plan of action. So what are you waiting for? Get yourself on social media and grow your business now!
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