Gone are the days when homebuyers spend their weekends trawling through newspaper ads or look at real estate agent’s front windows to search for the perfect property.
Today, homebuyers rely heavily on the internet to do their research, searching everything from potential suburbs to property market statistics and tips to find their dream home.
If you’re a real estate agent, it’s important to understand how social media increases brand awareness and the impact it has on helping to building your client base.
Social media is now a major lead generator. By focusing on your content strategy and optimising your social media posts, you can achieve great results for your real estate brand.
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Up your Facebook game
In comprehending how social media can bolster brand building efforts, it’s crucial to acknowledge the massive audience of 5.04 billion users globally, presenting unparalleled opportunities to engage, connect, and cultivate a loyal following for your brand.
With more than 2 billion users worldwide, Facebook is the king of social media. Real estate agents will benefit from sharing their content through this digital channel. What better platform to highlight your new listings and images?
Try for the 20/80 rule: 20 per cent of posts should be about your business and 80 per cent of posts should be customer focused.
Use Instagram to generate leads
With more than 700 million users on Instagram, it’s widely considered the perfect social media platform for real estate agents and you don’t need to be a genius to figure out why, with followers reportedly pressing the “like” button on images 4.2 billion times per day.
Instagram is user-friendly and easily accessible on smartphones and tablets, so you can understand why it leads to higher levels of engagement.
It’s the perfect marketing tool for increasing views, strengthening branding and, if targeted well, creating conversions.
When promoting listings on Instagram, real estate agents should ensure the photos they select will tell their potential clients a story.
Good images allow buyers to imagine owning a property. Post professional quality images and highlight the property’s features.
Tweet to promote listings
Twitter is a social media platform real estate agents should be on. The challenge here is crafting a Twitter timeline that resonates with buyers and aids lead generation.
The volume of tweets will boost a realtor’s exposure. The more tweets a real estate agent sends, the more leads that will be generated.
In addition to sharing listings, it’s recommended to tweet other content, such as like advice on moving, tips for staging and renovation advice.
Using the right real estate hashtags to optimise your content
Hashtags are often misinterpreted and used as a tactic to increase likes on a social media post.
While hashtags do increase engagement, they are also a way to facilitate discovery on social media.
By using the right hashtags with your content, you will help homeowners and buyers who may not be familiar with your brand to find your real estate agency.
Be hands-on in your management of social media accounts
Once you’ve set up social media accounts for your business, the next step is to post consistently and strategically.
Don’t forget to respond to comments or messages on your social media channels as quickly as possible. This shows future and current clients that you’re an engaged real estate agent who pays attention to feedback and enquiries.
Measure social media metrics
Real estate agents should track their social media metrics to gain an understanding of which strategies are working and which should be replaced or tweaked.
Metrics such as the number of “likes” per share, number of followers and level of engagement can guide real estate agents towards how they can improve their social media campaigns.
