By now, it’s clear that social media has transformed how we communicate, giving us a way to connect across the world immediately. How many personal social media accounts do you have? For real estate agents, it is a powerful vehicle for brand and community building that enables a reach of a global or targeted audience.
As an agent aiming to find more leads, social media should not be overlooked. In a study conducted by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 77% of realtors actively use social media as a part of their business strategy. If you are looking to refine your lead generation strategy, we have compiled a list of tips for you to get started on social media – we promise it’s not that difficult!
Read on for how you should use social media to boost real estate lead generation.
Tip #1 Choose your social media platforms
Social media never stops. You might feel the pressure to be present on all platforms, but when time is of the essence, choosing the right social media platform to invest in becomes crucial to refrain from spreading yourself too thin. We broke down the platforms every agent should be on below:
Facebook
Facebook is the top and obvious choice of platform for real estate agents. With more than 2.45 billion people using Facebook monthly, the platform is a mighty tool to reach prospects on a large scale. NAR’s study showed that 97% of surveyed real estate professionals said they used Facebook in their business processes, followed by 59% on LinkedIn, then 39% on Instagram. Facebook is easy to use and highly visual, making it easy to market to buyers and sellers. Not to mention, your clientele is most likely already on it.
LinkedIn
Leveraging your professional network on LinkedIn provides a fantastic opportunity to connect with real people, offer advice, and find the right audience. Because LinkedIn is for professionals, you can list out all your qualifications, skills, and experience to establish yourself as a trustworthy source. It allows you to network with other agents, connect with brokerages, and make yourself visible to potential clients in the professional world.
Instagram
Instagram is one of the most popular social media tools amongst millennials and younger homeowners. As a highly visual platform, it’s a no-brainer to use Instagram to post high-quality images of properties and videos walkthroughs. Make use of the post captions for listing specifications and develop a hashtag strategy to reach the widest audience.
Tip #2: Create engaging content
With 4.33 billion users, social media can place you center stage – but remember, practice makes perfect! With everyone competing for attention, your content needs to be sharp, eye-catching, and should provide value. Cast a large net by creating a wide range of content such as the following:
Time-sensitive material: Advertise new properties on the market, open houses, or any promotional offers from your brand. This type of content should create a sense of urgency, encouraging prospects to give you a call or message you directly (or in social slang, they will ‘DM you’) wanting to know more immediately.
Informative content: Share tips, insights, or market trends to educate followers. This type of content should be evergreen to stay “fresh” for readers even after some time, such as home-buyer tips, FAQs, and relevant neighborhood information. Help the buyer paint a clear picture of the home and the area by introducing landmarks, restaurants, school locations, or other notable features of the place.
Share testimonials: Customer stories and testimonials can help shape how new visitors perceive you and your brand, giving you social proof to acquire new leads. Highlight how clients have benefited from your impressive service by telling their stories to demonstrate your brand’s .
Don’t worry, sharing testimonials doesn’t always have to be fancy in terms of the production. A simple testimonial with a clean shot in natural daylight is good enough!
Tip #3: Post consistently
Remember, social media is meant to be social, and just like how you would keep up with relationships in real life, consistent contact is key. Stay top of mind by posting consistently and interacting with your audience.
How often should you be posting?
According to Hootsuite, the ideal frequency of posting to each platform is:
- Facebook: Between 1 to 2 times a day
- LinkedIn: Between 1 to 5 times a day
- Instagram: Between 3 to 7 times a week
Of course, every social media account is unique, so testing your strategy is suggested. Learn and adjust as you go by diving into your social media data analytics, and see what posts receive higher engagement or follower gains.
If you want to post multiple times per day, using a social media scheduling tool to manage your posts beforehand will allow you to go hands-free and focus on meeting clients while building your presence automatically.
Tip #4: Design user-friendly landing page
Social media is essential for branding but increasing the number of leads is what matters the most. No matter how compelling your content is, you will not be able to collect new inquiries and leads without a clear link and an attractive call-to-action that redirects to your website.
After successfully convincing someone to click on your link, don’t drive them out with a poor landing page. Have you heard of the phrase “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”? People expect to receive specific information when they click on your link, so landing pages need to be relevant and easy to comprehend. Without an optimized website, we guarantee you will see high bounce rates, lose out on potential clients, and even negatively impact your SEO score.
A good landing page should give visitors a clear path of navigating through your content and eventually entice them to exchange contacts with you.
Tip #5: Tap into your past clients
Social media is a great tool to build new relationships with clients, but it can also be used to maintain relationships with those you have already developed. In a study by NAR, 91% of buyers would use their agent again or recommend their agent to others. Maintaining healthy relationships with clients is essential as a real estate agent, so don’t let the connections you worked so hard on slip away! Invite clients to follow your social media accounts to get a mix of updates and evergreen content so they will have you on their minds when they are ready to move again or if they have any friends or family they will be more likely to recommend you.
If you find keeping up with your clients difficult, integrate your sales processes with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system so you never miss another important date. Consolidate all your sales and marketing efforts in one place and know exactly when you need to reach out again. Whether it be a client’s birthday or a few weeks before their lease is up, get reminders to start reintroducing yourself via social media or other forms of communication. Personalizing the client experience will take your relationships to the next level, and with social media, it will be much easier to maintain them.
Social media is becoming essential in every agent’s marketing toolkit, but managing your marketing strategy can be overwhelming. If you are looking for a complete real estate agent management solution, contact us today and learn more on expediting lead generation to close deals faster.
