You know you should be on social media as a real estate agent. Everyone says so.
But where do you start? Do you need a business page? Will your family and friends be annoyed if you fill their feed with your listings?
We’ve collated five of the best social media tips from our coaches to answer all of those questions and more.
Have a business page and a personal profile
It’s pretty self-explanatory what a business page should look like and be about. It’s all about your business or your agency.
Social media expert Katie Lance says your business page may not get as much traffic as your personal page but it’s still important for when people google you/your business and want to see what your business is all about and what it stands for.
“It adds one more level to your credibility,” she says.
“From time to time you can share a post or two from your business page to your personal profile, as long as that’s not all you’re talking about.”
Katie says you should also have a personal profile, but that profile should keep business-related posts to a minimum.
“No one wants to be friends with someone who is just spamming them,” she says.
A good rule to follow is the 80/20 rule, where 80 per cent of what you post should be personal.
“It doesn’t have to be every moment of your life but things you’re passionate about, things that are important to you,” she says.
“The other 20 per cent can be business related and a lot of times it will be things you share from your business page.”
Be a storyteller
Katie urges agents to leave the basic property ‘facts’, such as how many bedrooms and bathrooms the home has, for the property listings on their website or portal.
Instead, what will garner buy-in on social media are stories about the home, such as what the owner loves about the property or why they bought it in the first place.
“Just asking those questions and getting those stories out, is such a powerful thing,” Katie explains.
“You might even ask for the story behind a remodel, or why they put a pool in the backyard.
“Using that information, when you’re posting on social media, instead of saying on Facebook, ‘New listing, four-bedroom, two-bathroom, open Sunday’, you might say something like, ‘You won’t believe the story of this pool remodel or this home remodel’.”
The key is to think about people’s stories to pull others in to engage with the content.
Post video content to gain clients
Nowadays, video content is very important. More and more businesses are using videos in their marketing plans to grow 49 per cent faster than those not using them.
And that is because videos bring in more engagement.
That does not mean professional film-making skills or fancy equipment are a must.
You can use YouTube videos to generate leads.
Or, create and post simpler videos using a real estate video editor to get excellent exposure.
Such videos are perfect for Instagram Reels, Facebook, and TikTok.
Top US agent, Madison Sutton says getting in front of the camera can feel awkward, but the only way to conquer the fear is to face it and do it.
If you’d prefer, you could start with voiceovers and work up to appearing on camera.
It’s not all about likes and followers
So you’ve set up your platforms, created and posted the content. Are you now sitting there waiting for likes on a recent post or to see if it’s done well?
The Media Coach Imogen Callister urges you to remember, people are not their accounts on social media. There are many metrics in the market to measure a campaign’s success.
Likes, shares, comments, followers, reach, impressions and engagement are just some of the ways you can measure a campaign.
Just because someone likes your post doesn’t mean they are the right conversion of your post. Friends like posts, clients sit and watch.
A whopping 89 per cent measure effectiveness based on ‘likes’ and only 24 per cent on sales conversion.*
You should focus on content that brings you direct leads.
Posts about you and your results create brand awareness and bring you more likes, but it’s content about the market or the consumer reading the post that will equate to more leads.
Even if you’re doing a great job curating your social media feeds, your follower numbers will go up and down.
Focus on building great conversations, not how many likes and followers you get.
Consistency is key – there are no one hit wonders with social media
Lisa Novak is a bit of a guru when it comes to social media, so she’s got tonnes of tips. But one of her most critical is about consistency.
Don’t post once and assume social media doesn’t work. You need to be posting regularly for social media to work.
If you’re just getting started, try doing about 15 minutes per day on social media. But it must be every single day.
From experience, the effort definitely pays off. I now sell around 70 per cent of my stock via social media for record prices and 95 per cent of my appraisals are now generated as a result of social media.
