Tags: Real Estate, Realtors, Social media
The most successful real estate agents are constantly looking for new ways to grow their businesses. In today’s market, that means leveraging social media and online marketing tools to help earn you new business. 94% of all Millennials will start their search for a home online, researching prices, neighbourhoods, schools, listings, and even potential Realtors. And even 84% of Baby Boomers are now doing the same.
If you want to be top-of-mind when someone is looking for a Realtor, you need to build an online presence so that they can find you where they are looking. Developing reputable social media channels and keeping them active by posting relevant, and engaging content is widely considered a successful approach to establishing your personal brand and online presence. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram are the top options for real estate agents and there are several great ways that you can make your mark on social media.
Post photos, gain trust, educate, and engage with past and future clients on Instagram
With over 500-million daily active users and over 800-million total users, Instagram is currently the fastest growing social platform that exists. These users are engaging with over 5-billion images each day by either commenting or liking images. With its super-friendly user-interface and image-heavy focus, it is the perfect platform for real estate agents to showcase current listings, highlight sold properties, gain trust through educational posts about your market niche, and to grow your personal brand with a growing audience.
Think about promoting open houses and sharing short video clips of yourself to thousands of new potential leads. If they are on the market for a new property you can engage them with your listings, and even if they are not, you can gain their trust through a reputable brand and presence so that when they are they will think of you.
Maintain a business page on Facebook
As fast as Instagram is growing, Facebook is still the world leader with well over 2 billion active users. Facebook offers a more business-centric focus and is a great place for you to share your listings as well, but you can also share knowledge-based articles about the real estate industry in general and specifically the local market. The full-page layout that Facebook offers allows you to share infographics, link out to articles, blogs, landing pages, and any other marketing channels that you have.
All agents should use Facebook to accomplish the following:
1.Connect with current, future, and past clients
Handing out flyers and business cards are great practices but it does put the ownest on your potential client to initiate the next step of communication. If you can collect someone’s email address, phone number, or name, you can then be proactive and reach out to them. Try adding your email database to Facebook and targetting those users with posts.
2.Integrate your Facebook page into your other marketing efforts
Do you have a website or a temporary landing page? You can post these to Facebook to drive more users to them.
3.Create and maintain a professional brand image
Everybody on Facebook is a potential client. You want your business page to reflect your professionalism. Keep your posts positive and informative, and you can even use your page to educate your followers on the industry and inspire them.
4.Cultivate a consistent flow of communication
You want to stay current and relevant on social media so it is important to always be posting. You don’t need to post multiple times a day on Facebook but it is good to post once a day or at least a few times a week. Keeping your network updated so that they know you are always doing business is good for your brand and can help gain trust.
Instagram and Facebook can be powerful tools for building connections with potential clients, and listing properties and engaging on social media can mean a big boost to any realtor’s business. Whether you simply post listings, markets a lifestyle or your brand, or engages with international buyers, real estate in Toronto has proven so competitive that it’s a mistake not to incorporate social media into your marketing strategy.
