Wondering if you can use social media marketing for your real estate business? Data tells us you can—very effectively. According to a report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) 47% of real estate businesses have found that social media results in the highest quality leads as compared to other sources! The same report also showcases that millennials between the ages of 22 and 40 make up the largest share of home buyers – which also overlaps with the age group that makes up the largest demographic of Facebook users with over 58 million people.
Now, it’s easy to connect the dots and see why social media is the fuel you need to grow your business. But you can’t select a strategy at random and see what works. You need a strategy to win at real estate social media marketing.
For instance, once you know that Facebook will represent an estimated 30% of online video ad revenue globally, you’d want to hit the bull's eye by creating top-notch video ads for Facebook instead of experimenting, right?
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the exact social media strategies you can use to level up your real estate business. Here are the ones we’ll cover:
1. Focus on social media platforms that work for real estate
2. Run Facebook ads to gain visibility
3. Share client testimonials and wins on your social media handles
4. Share educational posts and guides on your social media handles
5. Showcase your listings via live videos
6. Stay in touch with connections over DMs and emails
7. Connect with other realtors on LinkedIn
8. Be consistent with posting content on social media
1. Focus on social media platforms that work for real estate
Before you start engaging with your target audience on social media, you’ll need to settle on a platform that works best for your real estate business. Not every social media works for everyone, and spreading yourself thin by being active on all social media platforms isn’t a smart move either. It takes some experimenting to figure out which platform will yield the best results for your business. However, experimenting can take quite a while.
We did some legwork for you and spoke with real estate experts to find out where they see most success. Most experts suggested Facebook and Instagram are a go-to for real estate social media marketing.
Facebook is the bread and butter of real estate social media marketing. It’s a platform where a large share of first-time home buyers hangs out for an average of 38 minutes a day. Combine this with the fact that Facebook is where a sizable portion of your target audience is, and you’ve got a goldmine of potential leads. As explained by the Lab Coat Agents Facebook page:
“70% of the US population is on Facebook and yet agents often overlook this powerful channel as a means to effectively connect with and convert leads. More often than not, agents feel overwhelmed by the thoughts of trying to navigate this behemoth and wade through the available marketing options available. But as social media continues to serve as an effective digital marketing tool to generate and convert leads, strategic agents must overcome their fears and expand their Facebook marketing skillset.”
Facebook also makes things easier for marketers with a compelling lineup of features built right into the app. You can add listings, book calls, and interact with leads all in a single place. If you do a good job of responding to leads, Facebook will favor your business page in search results and add a “very responsive” tag as well like they did on Joe Taylor Group’s page:
Facebook also has another marketing asset—Facebook ads. They allow running targeted ads based on demographics and users who have searched for listings or interacted with another realtor’s page. You can also create an FAQ section right at the top of your Facebook page like Daft.ie:
You’ll need a Facebook page to start marketing your real estate business on Facebook. It can be difficult to cut through the noise and get enough followers at first, but that’s where Facebook ads help. Run ad campaigns for hot listings and create content consistently to bring new people to your page and keep them engaged.
Video ads are a great way to get your audience’s attention and it takes less than 10 minutes to create stunning video ads for Facebook using InVideo’s online editor. You can sign up for a free account and get access to 5000+ ready-to-use templates to get you started with your real estate social media marketing plan.
Pro tip: Engage with your audience through comments and proactively respond to DMs. Remember, Facebook favors posts with higher engagement. Being active will go a long way in building your presence on Facebook.
Realtors are going all-in on Instagram. With an active user base of over 1 billion, Instagram is a great platform to deploy your real estate social media marketing strategies.
Instagram is a visual medium. So unlike Facebook, you’ll need to spend more time on the visuals than the text. Creating stunning Instagram videos and images is critical. For instance, look at this simple and elegant imagery from Triangle Real Estate Group’s Instagram:
Don’t forget to provide social proof. Let people know you’re making things happen, like Adam does on his page:
Consistency is important across all social media platforms. Post content on your Instagram handle consistently, and add some variation. Don’t only post listings or social proof. Spice things up with interesting snippets of information in the industry or a walkthrough of a celebrity’s home.
Pro tip: Don’t strictly keep it business on Instagram. People come to Instagram expecting to be entertained. Add a bit of humor and personality to your posts. Rather than only focusing on selling, focus on engaging and building relationships.
2. Run Facebook ads to gain visibility
Facebook ads are a great asset, especially during the early days of your real estate social media marketing when your organic reach is low. Getting some highly-focused ads out on Facebook can help you get a kickstart on Facebook. With a typical conversion rate of 1 to 1.5%, the ROI on Facebook ads is impressive, provided you do it right.
Facebook ads do come with a cost, and nurturing your Facebook leads will take a while. Given these costs, you’ll want to ensure your ads are highly targeted to a relevant audience. Targeting is hardly a problem on Facebook though. In fact, a study shows that you can even target a single user through Facebook ads.
Facebook ads also have an edge over Google ads because they allow your audience to engage with them. Your connections can like the ads and comment on them, so you can always get some feedback from your audience.
Oh, and as you probably already know, Facebook owns Instagram. Ads you run on Facebook also appear on Instagram, so you can reach your audiences on both platforms through a single campaign.
The most important part of your ad is the ad copy. You need to make it attractive and relevant so it cuts through the noise from your competitors and gets your audience’s attention. For instance, take inspiration from this ad by REMAX New Dimension that paints a picture of your family having a jolly Thanksgiving dinner in this beautiful house:
Pro tip: Get creative with Facebook ads. Your ad doesn’t have to strictly showcase a listing. You can also advertise testimonials or a video of the houses you’ve sold in the current quarter or year so far. Be clear on your goal and do enough research on what kind of ads will best help you achieve those goals.
3. Share client testimonials and wins on your social media handles
Social proof is powerful. As Robert Cialdini points out in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion: “Whether the question is what to do with an empty popcorn box in a movie theater, how fast to drive on a certain stretch of highway, or how to eat the chicken at a dinner party, the actions of those around us will be important in defining the answer.”
84% of social media users trust the reviews on your page just as much as friends. When people see happy clients, it triggers a sense of confidence about the service you offer. Show the world how your work is putting smiles on faces through social media. Every time you have a happy client, request for a testimonial. In most cases, a happy client will be open to writing a testimonial for you.
Can you overdo testimonials? Not quite. The more social proof you can offer, the better. You don’t have to limit social proof to testimonials either. You can share all your wins with your audience. For instance, here’s how Ryan McKenzie shared a big win on his Instagram handle:
Want to make your testimonials more engaging? Use video testimonials. They’re easy to make with an editor like InVideo. Just select a template for real estate testimonials, change elements like text and images, and there you have it—a beautiful video to showcase your real estate expertise to your audience.
Pro tip: While all happy clients will be more than willing to write a testimonial, you shouldn’t come off as intrusive. Ask for a testimonial and make sure to follow up once. But remember to act professionally and not put them on the spot.
4. Share educational posts and guides on your social media handles
The default mindset of most realtors that markets on Facebook or Instagram is to post content that brings in leads. While that is important, it doesn’t cater to people who already may have purchased or are using your services. Just as it is important to create content that generates new leads, you also need to share content that helps you nurture your existing customers.
Educational posts and guides are a great way to do this because these help address questions and concerns your existing customers and followers might be facing. In the process, they also help establish you as the go-to expert for all their queries.
Take the Team Steele Facebook page for instance. If you’ve had a termite problem, you know how they’re a difficult problem to solve. Well, Team Steele recognized this problem and created a guide to help address this query for existing and potential customers:
Another way to build your authority is by providing your audience important updates about the industry and posting educational content. For instance, take a look at a post by Team Steele at the start of the pandemic:
Pro tip: Buyers and sellers are often anxious about the process of buying or selling real estate, especially if it’s their first time—you probably know that as a realtor. But a terrific way to ease their anxiety is by posting guides that illustrate the entire process, and communicate why you’d be the best option to make things easy for them.
5. Showcase your listings via live videos
Don’t take our word for it. It’s your buyers who want to see your videos. 85% of buyers and sellers prefer working with real estate agents who use videos as part of their real estate social media marketing strategy. Also, real estate listings with videos receive 403% more leads than posts without a video.
Home selling is inherently visual. You’d be leaving money on the table by not creating videos. However, video is even better when it’s live. The good thing is: both Facebook and Instagram offer live video features.
When you go live, your audience can directly engage with you and ask questions in real-time. Give your viewers a virtual tour of your hottest properties and get your clients the best price. Think of it like a “virtual open house,” as Michael Switzer calls them, where viewers can take a look at the property from their couch and get answers to their questions:
And here’s another great thing about live sessions—they have a longer shelf life than you think. Once you’ve ended the live session, you can post it as a video for viewers that couldn’t attend. You can repurpose the video across social media platforms, and even beautify them in less than a minute with an editor like InVideo that makes it easy to create real estate videos by using templates.
For instance, Todd of Todd, Tania, and Lisa Realtors recorded a Facebook live session and repurposed it to his Instagram page, where he could also showcase the property to his Instagram followers:
Pro tip: Don’t allow silence to dominate a live session. You need to keep your viewers engaged, encourage them to ask questions, and give your session a lively vibe. Don’t forget to also answer comments while you’re providing a tour so viewers don’t feel like they’re talking into a void.
Check out this guide to real estate video ideas!
6. Stay in touch with connections over DMs and email
Real estate is a people business. The NAR report 2021 says that 68% of sellers found their real estate agent through a referral, neighbor, or relative or used the agent they have already worked with.
Social media is one of the most scalable ways of building relationships. But you can’t do that by simply liking everybody’s comments on your posts. Go the extra mile and respond with a nice comment. Respond to as many DMs as you can. DMs are warm leads. A lot of social media marketing is you putting out content for an audience you don’t know personally. However, once they are in your DMs, you have the opportunity to understand what they’re looking for and deliver the perfect fit.
Another great way to build a long-term connection with a prospective lead is to have an email marketing strategy. Use your social media platforms to drive sign-ups to your email list and stay in touch with your warm leads with regular email updates. You can send newsletters and follow up emails. And it is a great way to stay in touch without being too intrusive. For instance, look at how Alex Wright, a Montana-based real estate agent invites people to subscribe to his newsletter:
Pro tip: Be humble and don’t come off as intrusive in your communications. Stay away from daily emails or communications but instead spread it out. The key is to communicate consistently and with humble confidence.
7. Connect with other realtors on LinkedIn
If you don’t already have an established presence on LinkedIn, you’d be better off focusing on making B2B connections. For instance, connect with realtors. As you already know, building a network goes a long way in real estate.
Think about it. What if a real estate agent in a different locality or city has a lead from a buyer who wants a property in the locality where you operate? They might consider a little quid pro quo.
LinkedIn is also a great place to show off your accolades, achievements, and past experiences. Build a professional LinkedIn page and start connecting with realtors and other people you can benefit by networking with. For instance, here’s an excellent example of your LinkedIn page should look:
You can also connect with decision-makers from companies who make decisions about expansion. Who do you think will a person go to when their business is growing and they need to lease a bigger office? If you’re already in their network and have interacted with them, they’ll likely think of you first.
Facebook and Instagram are a hot favorite among realtors because they work. LinkedIn is more of a B2B platform and should be used as such. However, if you’re already big on LinkedIn, there are a few ways to generate leads on LinkedIn as well.
Pro tip: If you’re already marketing your real estate business on Facebook or Instagram, it’s best not to dedicate a whole lot of time to LinkedIn. Post occasionally, about twice a week should be fine, and network with people by commenting on their posts.
8. Be consistent with posting content on social media
One of the worst things you can do for your real estate business is not be consistent in your communication with existing and potential customers. Algorithms on social media platforms like Instagram favor posts that receive more engagement—comments, likes, and unique views—more than others. And in order to consistently get more engagement, you need to be consistent with the content you output.
Consistency also helps you put your name out there regularly so people don’t “move on” from your content to someone else’s.
Now, you’re probably wondering how in the world you’ll have time to post once every day. The good thing is, you don’t actually need to set aside time every day. You can come up with ideas for the week or the entire month in one sitting, create content based on the ideas, and schedule the posts using a tool like Hootsuite like Adobe Base Real Estate does:
That said, you’ll still need to take out a couple of minutes daily to engage with your social media audience – replying to comments and DMs and engaging with other people’s content on the platform. Essentially, your goal is to keep your audience engaged with valuable content so when they think about buying or selling, you’re the first person that comes to mind.
Don’t be afraid to let your social media presence reveal who you are as a person. In the end, it’s humans you’re trying to connect with, and everybody wants to know a tad bit more about who they’re interacting with on social media.
This post on Jackie and Justin’s Instagram page is a great example of how you can connect with your audience through a personal post:
In a lot of cases, the lack of consistency is rooted in the amount of time it requires to create a video. However, there’s an easy solution: templates.
InVideo has a large library of real estate video templates that you can use for quickly creating and customizing videos. You’ll be able to export the videos in a ready-to-upload condition by selecting the relevant social media platform because we have pre-set aspect ratios prescribed by all major social media platforms. Simplicity can make being consistent a whole lot easier, so why not give InVideo a try?
Pro tip: Bring flavor to your social media posts. Don’t just post listings and industry updates. Mix things up. Show your wins, happy clients, and testimonials. Share personal experiences or a snipper about a challenge you overcame for a client. Occasionally, post private content like a picture from a family trip.
Wrapping Up
Real estate social media marketing has many nuts and bolts you need to work on. It’s also an ongoing affair, not just a box to check off your list. However, the potential payoff is worth it. Once you’ve established yourself on social media, you’ll generate enough organic leads to make social media worth your time. And this article gets you one step closer to doing that.
Before you get started, equip yourself with some essential real estate marketing tools so you can use them whenever you need them for marketing on social media. If you’re still getting up to speed with content creation, you may want to stop by our YouTube channel where we share tips and tricks to help create compelling video content.
And if you’re looking to create thumb-stopping videos (even if you’re not a PRO), sign up for a free account on InVideo to get started.
This post was written by Arjun and edited by Adete from Team InVideo
