A nationally recognized founder, branding expert, and industry thought leader, Emile cut his teeth in real estate in 2007 crafting marketing strategies for the Chrysler and MetLife Buildings. See full bio
Real estate social media marketing is more important than ever. Agents who thrive on social media get more leads, close more deals, and make more money. However, most agents are struggling with social media. According to our agents’ survey, 82% think they need to improve their social media presence.
We think that number may be too low. That’s why we worked with 10 top-producing agents and our coaching team from The Close Pro to assemble this list of 21 real estate social media marketing tips.
“Switching up your location tags on Instagram is a quick and easy way to get in front of more people and boost engagement. So instead of just tagging your farm area as your location on every single post, try tagging different neighborhoods, businesses, coffee shops, gyms, or even more general locations like your city or state.
“You don’t need to be in that specific location to tag it, but your tags should at least make sense. So don’t tag the country club as your location to look cool in a Story about your open house.”
“Most agents I talk to have two major pain points marketing themselves on social media: consistency and creating unique content for local audiences. If this sounds like you, consider using a social media marketing company like Artur’in.
“Artur’in manages your real estate social media marketing for you. Unlike other marketing companies, they create and curate custom-branded local content your community will actually care about. Hiring experts to do the heavy lifting for you is an easy way to get an edge over your competition. Close Readers even get to save $300 on the Artur’in setup fee. Click below to learn more.”
“I find that when I post a listing and ask my followers a question, I will get more engagement and, in turn, more exposure. A million agents are posting photos of a kitchen, but when you ask ‘What would you cook here?’ it allows your followers to picture themselves in that kitchen and living in the home. People want to follow YOU, not just your business. It’s important to mix it up and post lifestyle, family, and friends—and keep it real.
“After I post a photo, I’ll make sure to consistently post to my Story for the rest of that day. The photo you posted will drop further down the timeline after an hour or so while your Story will keep drawing people to your page to see your new post.”
4. Learn the 5 Secrets of Writing Great Titles (& Why They Work)
Social media algorithms use keywords to sort content and clicks and engagement to rank it. So if you have a weak article or video title, it doesn’t matter how good your content is because the algorithms won’t show it to anyone.
Here are five quick tips to writing great titles for your real estate social media content:
1. Create FOMO and a sense of urgency with your titles.
2. Keep your titles short and sweet (60 characters or less).
3. Use alliteration when possible.
4. Be specific: use numbers whenever possible.
5. Use brackets or parentheses (they help build curiosity).
5. Get a Professional Logo Before You Try to Build Your Brand on Social
One of the biggest mistakes new agents and teams make when building their brands on social media is forgetting the basics. If you want to create a successful brand, you’re going to need professional headshots and a professional logo at a minimum. One secret of professional branding is that a great logo doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars.
A great logo can be very affordable if you use a service like Tailor Brands. They’ve got an easy-to-use logo maker that will help you design something professional in minutes for your website, business cards, and social media accounts.
“Social media marketing regarding real estate is something that I’ve been focusing heavily on. I’ve learned from some of the most successful real estate agents that you need variety to have a good Instagram account. They don’t hit anybody over the head with listing after listing or boring real estate facts. It’s a very balanced page between life, interests, and real estate. All the posts are very tasteful and give the viewer insight as to who that real estate agent is as a person.
“Balance it with good real estate photos and tips, as well as behind-the-scenes videos of you doing different activities (including staging a house, doing an interview, doing a tour, and so on). The most important factor in all of this is that you have to be your authentic self in your posts.”
7. Learn the Best Times to Post on Different Social Media Platforms
Even if you have the best content in your city to post on social media, it won’t do you any good unless your audience sees it. This is why learning the best times to post on different social media platforms is so important. Here’s a quick cheat sheet:
“Engagement: Reply to comments on your posts. Get your followers to engage by asking them questions like, ‘White Marble or Black Granite?’ Hearing from your followers helps you better understand what content to post in the future.
“Authenticity: It’s not just about pretty pictures. Strike a balance between polished, beautiful photography and the gritty behind-the-scenes details (e.g., sweeping the floors to prep for an open house, painting walls, and so on). It helps tell the story of how you arrived from point A to point B.
“Thought leadership: Showing your listings or parts of the neighborhood are always great, but here is your time to shine as a thought leader and expert. Why is one apartment layout better or worse than the other? What are some unique parts of the neighborhood? As the agent, you are the expert, and it is important to remind your followers of that.”
9. If You Want Professional Results, Use Professional Marketing Tools
It still amazes me how many agents think they can just wing it and create professional content for social media without using professional tools. Unless you’re a natural graphic designer or video editing maestro, chances are using unprofessional tools is going to make your content look…. well, unprofessional. Seems obvious, right?
For some reason, we still have to convince agents that saving $50 a month isn’t going to be better for their business than upgrading to a professional marketing platform like Lab Coat Agents Marketing Center or upgrading from the free version of Buffer.
“Build your brand authentically via content, for example, YouTube videos. Putting yourself out there through YouTube is an intimate way to showcase your personality and how you do business. This can help build brand awareness on a larger scale. We can make an impact on other people and gain business just from the content we create.”
There’s a saying in the fitness community that applies to real estate agents trying to succeed on social media perfectly: “That which gets measured, gets improved.” It’s a straightforward formula that most agents ditch in favor of a shotgun approach on social media.
Social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and even Pinterest offer professional-level analytics that let you figure out which content your audience responds to and the best time and format for posting it. You can even try A/B testing the same content. Make a post on one subject with a blog post and another with a video, and see which performs better.
12. Document Local Events & Invite Colleagues to Curate Your Stories for a Day
“Document your local cultural events (e.g., festival, museum, pop-up) via Instagram and Facebook stories. It’s much more effective than a static announcement of what to do in your neighborhood. Invite a colleague or client (e.g., interior designer, landscaper, or crystal healer) to guest curate your page/story for a day via your social channels.”
Since your goal on social media is to position yourself as the go-to real estate expert for your audience, posting in-depth studies or other market data can be a great way to show off just how carefully you follow the market.
The only problem is that many studies or data put out today are complicated and open to interpretation. Don’t just settle for a journalist’s hot take. Instead, come up with your conclusions from the data and share them with your audience.
“Post a 50/50 mixture of business and personal stories. You want to be seen as relatable as well as prolific in business. Post several stories at three different points in the day, every day. That way, you gain the most engagement as everyone is on Instagram at various times throughout the day.
“Be aspirational and celebratory in your postings, but never cross the line into boastful and self-consumed—it doesn’t translate well, and less of your audience will react.”
Since most people use social media to escape their lives, humor almost always does well on any platform. Posting memes and funny videos will show your audience that you’re not just a hyperlocal expert but someone they might want to have a beer with. Just avoid topics that are controversial, overly negative, or too racy for prime time TV.
James Rozanski, Associate Creative Director, Marketing at VTS | IG: @real_newyork
James Rozanski is the former head of marketing at REAL New York. He said, “Facebook and Instagram offer so many amazing targeting opportunities for agents—from specific areas to interests, to periods of people’s lives like newborns or marriages, or any combination thereof. The thought of an additional spend is often scary for agents, but when you think about where people are spending a lot of their time, it’s a no-brainer to spend some effort there.”
While many agents think they’re great at improvising, the cold hard truth is that few are. Improvisation is a skill like any other and takes time, effort, and practice to get better at. That’s why writing a script—even a rough script—and then practicing it will quickly improve your videos.
You don’t have to read it word for word, but coming up with a structure and a few key phrases to repeat will make your videos easier for your audience to understand and hopefully interact with.
“Try to make yourself relatable to your audience. Create a forum where people do not just see listings, but get to know the agent. Have fun with it and be genuine. Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through.”
Can you imagine being one of the first realtors to start using YouTube or Instagram? After more than a decade of using those platforms, how many followers or views do you think you’d have today? How many engagement tricks could you have learned before any other agent in your city?
We’re not saying you should put all your free time into Clubhouse, but at least take the time to learn about and test new platforms before writing them off.
“Go out on a Tuesday for broker’s open houses, target around four new listings to go to, and post two to three photos and videos. Remember not to give too much info—just a good teaser video and photos with a location of what city the listing is in. People will start reaching out for more info, and you will know who is in the market to buy or sell.
“Also, when it comes to your feed, remember that your followers want to feel a personal connection as well as an interest in your homes, so make sure to add your own touch to your feed, whether that be your own lifestyle or personal photos of yourself or with friends.”
Although real estate agents are rarely shy about their opinions, sharing your political views on social media is almost always a mistake. First, because you run a very real risk of alienating half of your audience (or more), and second, if you don’t have your facts right, you risk coming across as naive to people with a more nuanced understanding of political issues.
While posting your political opinions may be cathartic, social media algorithms reward engagement, which means they reward fighting. Even if everyone in your audience agrees with you, fighting with people on social media can make you look negative, petty, or even mean.
Over to You
Have a clever real estate social media marketing tip that brings the leads to the yard? Let us know in the comments!
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A nationally recognized founder, branding expert, and industry thought leader, Emile cut his teeth in real estate in 2007 crafting marketing strategies for the Chrysler and MetLife Buildings.
The Close has a policy of fierce editorial independence. We do not accept money, services, or products in exchange for positive reviews or product placement. Period. If you read about a product or service on this website, it’s because we genuinely think it’s great.
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The reason these companies want to work with us is that they know our readers represent the most engaged, professional, and committed real estate agents online today.
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