Why Do Real Estate Agents Need To Be On Social Media?
Why Do Real Estate Agents Need To Be On Social Media?
As a tech follower and avid user, I don’t think it would be unreasonable to say that social media has revolutionised the real estate industry.
"77% of real estate agents actively use social media for real estate"
As it turns out, Social media has be one of the best possible ways for agents to connect with potential buyers and grow their business online. Some of the key benefits of using social media for real estate are:
- Cost-Effective Reach
- Targeted Advertising
- Brand Reinforcement
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Instant Engagement
Social Media Strategy For Real Estate, Design with Intent.
The real estate space is very busy these days and at times it becomes difficult to stand out and get your message to the potential customer. This is why at Easy Agent we design our agent’s social media with intent, this is two-fold and caters to both sellers and buyers.
Follow these six steps to craft a social media strategy for your real estate business.
1. Research Your Customer's Persona
2. Define Your Social Media Goals
3. Identify The Best Social Media Networks For Real Estate
4. Create High Quality Content
5. Pick A Target Audience And Advertise Smartly
6. Analyze, Optimize, And Repeat
1. Research and Profile your Customer
Create separate personas for both buyers and sellers since they have distinct preferences for how they would like to buy or sell a property.
The key is to start broad and then generalise a lot.
Start by gathering information for your persona creation and identify their age, income, lifestyle, etc. Give your persona a personality and segment the customers into 3-4 core personas. Define their needs and goals and learn their problems and challenges that can act as a dealbreaker when flipping a house.
Questions like these can help you define your buyer persona:
- How much are they generally spending?
- How much home-owning experience do they have?
- What internet channels they spend the most time on?
Ask questions similar to these to define your seller persona:
- Are they moving to a new city?
- Are they looking to buy a bigger property?
- Are they aware of the asking price their home will sell for?
2. Define Your Social Media Goals
SMART goals help you stay motivated by giving you the ability to track your progress.
Let's say you want to increase your GCI (gross commission income) by $500,000 from social media. Here's how you can breakdown your target into SMART goals and achieve this milestone.
Specific: Every social media real estate business goal you set should be clear, simple, and precise.
For ex: Increase $500,000 in GCI by focusing on a relationship-based strategy and close 30 deals at an average price of $650,000 with an average commission of 2.5%.
Measurable: Set social media goals that have metrics and KPI's. Track the number of appointments completed, contracts signed, deals closed, commissions received and income sourced.
Attainable: Set goals that are challenging enough to push you to your limits, but also are practical enough to accomplish.
Relevant: Setting goals that matter to the current state of your business efforts is important.
Time-Bound: While setting a goal of increasing your GCI by $550,000 is ambitious, giving it a deadline to accomplish it in a month, six months or a year will help shape the activities you will do today.
3. Identify The Best Social Media Networks For Real Estate
Each social media network requires an investment of time and money. Identifying the best social media networks for your business ensures that you are channeling your efforts towards maximizing the R.O.I.
Facebook for real estate
Facebook works best for connecting with current and potential clients and can be the overall best platform for your real estate business.
With Facebook's built-in business tools, real estate businesses can publish listing-related updates, directly book appointments, and even communicate with customers and curate reviews at a single place.
Instagram for real estate
Instagram can be used to share captivating and high-quality visuals for your listings.
"Instagram stories are actively used by agents to share updates related to new properties and open houses"
With the network's user-friendly features like hashtags and 15-second story updates, Instagram can also be used to bring in more leads.
YouTube for real estate
Publishing high-quality videos on YouTube can give you an edge in the real estate market. Set up your real estate channel on YouTube to showcase properties. Talk about the neighborhoods in which your properties are located and give prospects a real sense of the area.
With over 500 thousand subscribers on YouTube, New York-based realtor Ryan Serhant is a fantastic example of how to do real estate marketing on YouTube.
From posting his daily routine to videos of luxury apartments, Ryan has crafted a valuable space on YouTube that regularly brings huge benefits for him and his business.
4. Create High Quality Content
With the level of saturation in real estate, it's essential to stand out on social media and give people something that improves your credibility and brand values. But make sure to comply and avoid publishing any content that goes against it.
Written content
The majority of real estate agents stick to just advertisements and listings, but the catch is that no one wants to scroll past a deluge of ads. Instead:
- Share your personal brand's story and tell people why you are passionate about real estate
- Explain how you got started in the industry and let people know who you work with
- Share customer stories describing the problems they faced and the challenges they overcame
- Describe locations and the list of services and facilities in each geographical area
- Ask people questions and give your expert answers in a F.A.Q. Page
Create personalised content for customer persona that you defined earlier, and whether you create social media posts, articles, ebooks, or even newsletters, always consider how it fulfils the needs of a specific persona.
Stand out visually
Properties or listings with professional real estate photos are more likely to be viewed on social media than properties that have no pictures or have poor quality photos.
Here are some tips to stand out visually:
- Hire a professional photographer to post high-quality photos of properties
- Share staff photos, pictures of events, and show people your brand values
- Put out slideshows that are perfect for how-to content, market information, and serves as quick guides for buyers
Video content
An exciting and engaging video of the homes and properties that you're selling will pique buyers' interest and make them more likely to reach out to your real estate business.
Here are some tips for creating video content for your real estate businesses:
- Create videos of the neighborhoods to give prospects a real sense of the area
- Use drones to highlights property features and neighborhoods
- Provide scenic, compelling photos and videos for your listing
- Use different angles to highlight the USP of the properties
5. Benefit from the Easy Agent Ad Agency done-for-you Marketing
Take the guess work out of the paid social media marketing by using the expertise, experience and knowledge of the Easy Agent Facebook Ad Agency for social media marketing.
Here are some tips our team use in creating stunning ads that will help bring in more leads.
- Use location, demographics, interests, and behavioural targeting options
- Use multiple ad set campaigns for your properties
- Transparency in ad copy to build customer trust
- Strategic allowance to up your ad budget during peak times
- Use testimonials and reviews to instil confidence in your services
6. Analyse, Optimize, And Repeat
After you've worked hard enough on creating listings, setting up your Facebook and Instagram pages, and have been running ads, now is the time to understand what's working for your real estate business.
All the efforts and resources you've put on marketing your real estate business on social media mean little without data to back it all up.
Therefore, it is crucial to measure your progress on social media and then tweak social media strategy accordingly for better results.
Set KPIs (key performance indicators) to measure the results of your social media strategy.
- Increase website traffic
- Raise follower count
- Generate more contact form submissions
- Produce more property inquiries or sales
- Improve engagement rates
Key Takeaways
Here are some of the key takeaways that you can go through to get started with social media marketing for real estate.
- Benefits of using social media for real estate are instant engagement, targeted advertising, and brand reinforcement.
- Crafting a social media strategy that is two-fold and caters to both sellers and buyers is important.
- Research your customer's persona to understand your prospective customers and tailor content accordingly.
- Set S.M.A.R.T. goals for your real estate business.
- Set up a Facebook page, join local real estate Facebook groups, and use Facebook Marketplace for your real estate business.
- Make yourself discoverable on Instagram by optimising your bio and using popular real estate hashtags in your posts.
- Set up your real estate channel on YouTube and give your prospects a real sense of the properties and surrounding area.
- Stand out on social media by creating high-quality content that improves your credibility and brand values.
- Take advantage of the paid social media marketing and advertise smartly to your target audience.
- Measure your progress on social media and tweak your social media strategy accordingly for better results.
Click this link for your FREE guide to the ultimate social media marketing for real estate
About the author
Monty Van Dyk is founder and CEO of Easy Agent and Lead Funnels Australia, headquartered on the Gold Coast, Queensland with agents in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Under Monty’s guidance and leadership, the team has sold thousands of homes in the past 18 years, performing exceptionally regardless of changing market conditions.
Before moving into real estate in 2002, Monty was a mechanical engineer for ten years. He credits the success of Easy Agent to the culture of learning and growth. His commitment to innovation has placed him in the top agent mastermind of real estate in Australia.
When he is not coaching or speaking, Monty is enjoying time with his family, playing music or training for his next IRONMAN triathlon. He is originally from Cairns, Queensland.
