How to Use Social Media for Your Real Estate Business

  • Date: 10 February 2020
  • reading time: 5 Minutes
  • Blogger: Francisca Zimmermann


A few weeks ago, we wrote a blog about social media for restaurant businesses. We loved listing a few tips for this specific branch, and thought: why not do something similar for another type of business?

With this idea in mind, real estate agents came to our minds. This is a professional that highly depends on building a network and getting known by local communities. And what better way to do this than through social media?

real estate social media

In this blog, we will tell you how real estate businesses can use social media to grow their business and client base. If you are a real estate agent or marketer working in this field, then definitely take a look at the five tips below.

1. Branding

Within the real estate branch, style is essential. People who are looking for help buying their dream house have a perfect image in mind. And you, as a real estate professional, need to match this image.

It is, therefore, essential to carefully think of the style you want to communicate on your website, social media channels, and actually in all your online- and offline communication.

Make sure you have a beautiful logo that you show on all your channels. Only share high-quality images and be consistent in both style and language.

To learn more about branding for real estate, take a look at this beautiful blog by The Close.

branding for real estate

Source: https://theclose.com/real-estate-branding/

2. Choose your channels

Most professionals in the real estate business are busy. They are on the road a lot and have limited time to spend on marketing and social media efforts.

We, therefore, advise real estate agents to carefully select the social media channels they want to focus on. By limiting the number of channels, you can spend all of your time and energy on making them perfect -

instead of doing all your channels ‘half’. kartra

Recommended: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

Which channels you should choose depends on your preference and direction. However, we suggest to definitely include Facebook and Twitter in your strategy, since both of these channels are ideal for reaching large local groups and allow for the inclusion of links (to interesting articles or listings, for instance). Also, both channels make it easy to get in touch with (potential) customers, through tags and direct messaging.

As a professional, we also recommend everyone to create a LinkedIn profile. It simply seems unprofessional to not have one. How active you want to be on this platform is up to you; the most important thing is to be findable with a complete and professional profile.

real estate social media

Additional: Pinterest, YouTube

A fourth possible channel to use is Pinterest. Pinterest is a very visual channel that can be ideal for showing followers how beautiful your listings are. If you have high-quality pictures and some time to organize them into beautiful boards, Pinterest can definitely be a great addition to your social media strategy.

The last channel that might be useful for some real estate agents is YouTube. The use of this video platform is obvious: it’s a great way to show your followers your beautiful listings. YouTube is often combined with other social media channels. By sharing your YouTube videos on, for instance, Facebook and Twitter, you increase your reach significantly.

A nice example of a house tour on YouTube is below one, by Chris Gardiner Photography.

 

3. Balance your content

Once your channels are up and running, make sure to keep your content interesting.

We advise you to stick with an 80/20 or 70/30 rule.

This means: 70-80% of your content will not be business-related. You can share, for instance, local news, tips on finding the perfect house, tips on moving home, or articles about house styling. You can be very creative here. Just share nice content that doesn’t directly promote your business, but shows your expertise and interests.

instagram

The other 20-30% can be posts that promote your business. You can share your listings, tell your followers about your recent success, or share pictures that directly engage with your clients. Congratulate them on their new house, for instance (but make sure you do so anonymously unless you have permission).

4. Promote and attend events

As a real estate agent, you need to be well-known in your community. A great way to reach large groups of people and show yourself to the neighborhood is to be involved in local events.

You can do this by sharing events on your social media channels, inviting your (potential) clients, and of course, by being present at these events.

The more knowledge and involvement in your neighborhood you can show, the more trust you will get.

5. Use local ads

Our fifth and last tip is one we mentioned in our restaurant blog too.

To give your content just a little bit more local exposure, you can choose to use Facebook’s Local Awareness Ads.

These ads can target an extremely specific audience, only a few kilometers from a specific location. This is ideal for real estate agents who want to share their listings with those in the area.

Google Maps

Source: https://www.facebook.com/business/news/facebook-local-awareness

Need help?

Do you need help promoting your real estate business? We would love to help you build a perfect social media strategy. Contact us for a FREE strategy call so we can discuss what we can do for you.

Would you like to learn more about social media and marketing? Then our Social Media Gids Community might be worth checking out. Here we share many excellent resources and work together with an inspirational group of business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketers. Our FREE e-books and our Social Marketing class, for instance, are very popular among our community members.

Want to post a comment? Join the conversation in our community.

  • Blogger: Francisca Zimmermann
  • E-mail: [email protected]
  • Social media manager & content creator at Social Media Gids
  • Francisca Zimmermann is a social media expert with a background in research and a love for learning new things. She travels the world looking for beautiful places and interesting cultures, while she dives into the world of her clients to be able to write about them and their interests as a real 'insider'.
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