How to Use Social Media Marketing for Real Estate

The future of marketing is here — and it's got us Tweeting about it. According to the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2018, 79% of buyers use online resources to find a home, and 63% of sellers promote their home online. Couple that with the fact that 79% of U.S. residents have a social media account, and it becomes clear that social media marketing is crucial for real estate agent success. What better way to build your brand and establish connections than on the platforms that buyers and sellers frequent the most? Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram enable agents to:

• Engage quickly and effectively
• Promote listings
• Advertise
• Reinforce their brand
• Reconnect with past clients
• Drive traffic to their website

Here are our top 15 social media marketing tips for real estate agents:

1. Set clear social media goals.
2. Take advantage of each platform's strengths.
3. Keep your branding consistent across platforms.
4. Automate social media posts.
5. Make your posts easy to share.
6. Promote informative, on-brand content.
7. Capture leads with landing pages.
8. Use hashtags.
9. Share visually-appealing photos.
10. Upload personal videos and walkthroughs.
11. Create a targeted social media ad campaign.
12. Add reviews and services to your Facebook page.
13. Create and join local groups.
14. Respond to comments.
15. Measure engagement.

1. Set clear social media goals

Are you hoping to be seen as a local real estate expert? Do you want to generate leads online or have others share your articles and listings? Your goals should be specific and measurable so you can create an effective real estate social media strategy.

2. Take advantage of each platform's strengths

Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses. It's up to you to choose which platforms best fit your business and target audience. These are the most common platforms for real estate social media marketing:

• Facebook allows you to implement targeted ad campaigns, develop a page for your business and share listings, blog posts, market reports and community news.
• Instagram is a visual-oriented platform for sharing videos and images of properties and marketing open houses.
• Pinterest is a photo-sharing platform where many people go for inspiration — perfect for those looking to buy a home or make improvements to their current home before putting it on the market.
• Twitter is a text-based platform that limits messages to 280 characters. It's useful for sparking conversations by sharing news or articles about market conditions.
• LinkedIn is a professional platform where you'll be able to reconnect with past clients, display your real estate skills and share business-oriented information.
• YouTube hosts videos where you can upload property walkthroughs and instructional videos on how to finance or sell a home. Home improvement tips are also a great way to boost engagement.

Each platform provides a unique way to engage potential clients. Analyze each of them and determine the best ones for your brand. Once you've established which platforms you'll use, develop a unique real estate marketing strategy for each one — what works on Pinterest may fall flat on LinkedIn, so remember to use each platform's strengths to your advantage.

3. Keep your branding consistent across platforms

Even though you may post different content in different formats, your branding should remain consistent across platforms. You want clients to recognize you no matter what platform they're browsing. Include the following in your profile on all social media platforms:

• Your contact information (phone and email)
• Your business address
• Your profile photo
• Your website URL
• Your bio

Remember to use consistent images and language that reinforce who you are and make you come across as friendly, knowledgeable, helpful and professional. This includes choosing filters for images — stick to one color palette or specific style to reinforce your brand.

4. Automate social media posts

Sharing on social media requires a consistent schedule to maximize visibility and engagement. Since your work schedule is constantly changing, it can be difficult to dedicate the time needed to post regularly. Some tools, like TweetDeck and Hootsuite, allow you to write posts in advance that the tool will publish automatically on a set day and time. By automating your posts, you can write them all at once and have your content published throughout the week. It's also a great way to ensure that your real estate social media posts include a variety of content while keeping your brand consistent.

5. Make your posts easy to share

This goes beyond simply clicking a button that allows users to share your posts. Are your pictures inspiring? Do you have a quick, enticing summary that will encourage users to click and read more? Consider using these real estate social media ideas in every post:

• High-resolution photography
• Responsive layouts that adapt to different devices and screen sizes
• Clear branding
• Informative, compelling and concise text

With Zillow's built-in sharing tools, you can easily share your listings straight to Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

6. Promote informative, on-brand content

Make sure every real estate social media post is useful, informational and on brand — but not repetitive. Be careful about coming off as too promotional — people generally don't want to be sold on products when they're browsing social media. Instead, focus on content that sets you apart from competitors and inspires potential leads to engage.

Bret Calltharp, Zillow Group’s director of industry outreach, recommends using a 4-1-1 strategy:

'Out of six posts in a week, four should be informative, enlightening and inspiring; one should focus on a satisfied client; and one should be sales-oriented, like 'Check out my new listing' or 'Here's my open house schedule.''

Here are content ideas that are great for real estate Facebook posts as well as posts on other platforms:

• Provide real estate tips for first-time buyers and sellers.
• Share home improvement tips to engage past clients and those who are looking to sell.
• Link to real estate articles on relevant market predictions and statistics.
• Showcase local businesses, events and community news.
• Hold giveaways or contests to help drive engagement and build brand awareness.
• Share real estate testimonials and stories from past clients.
• Provide information on local property value changes.
• Celebrate milestones by sharing a photo of you and your client closing a sale.

7. Capture leads with landing pages

Create a separate landing page for each social media platform you use. This will give you visibility into which social media advertising platforms are driving traffic to your website. Landing pages are also a great way to track real estate social media campaigns — you can create a landing page for each campaign in addition to platform-specific landing pages.

8. Use hashtags

While hashtags first became popular on Twitter, they're now available on many other platforms, including:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• YouTube

Hashtags make your content searchable, so even people who don't follow you can find your posts. For example, if someone searches for the hashtag #SeattleHome, they'll see any posts you've made that include that hashtag. Hashtags are one of the top social media marketing tactics because of how greatly they increase your exposure on social.

Some relevant real estate hashtags include:

Branded hashtags. These are hashtags specific to your business — use them to build a following. You may use something like # or a catchy business slogan.

Real estate hashtags. Use these to target people specifically searching for real estate. #RealtorInRealEstate are good examples of real estate hashtags.

Event hashtags. You'll want to use these to draw attention to events, like #OpenHouse.

Buyer and seller hashtags. Research what people who are buying or selling a home search for. Consider using #ForSale.

9. Share visually-appealing photos

Images are one of the most important aspects of marketing for real estate agents — whether you hire a pro or take them yourself, photos should immediately grab the attention of your viewers. Invest in a good camera for taking real estate photos, as you want clear, high-resolution images. Agents who can take quality photos of a property are desired by 85% of sellers. Here are some photography tips:

• Direct viewers' attention to the best features.
• Use a wide angle to give context to photos so viewers can easily understand what they're seeing.
• Use natural light when it's available, but be careful to avoid glare.
• Pick a filter that matches the season, if you use one.

10. Upload personal videos and walkthroughs

Videos give potential clients a behind-the-scenes look at your listings and daily business operations. You can use video to promote open houses with a live walkthrough of the property or show people what a day in the life of an agent looks like. Having videos of real estate listings is especially relevant when targeting a younger audience, as 45% of Gen Z and 41% of millennial buyers find it important to watch a recorded video when deciding on a home. You can also use the Zillow 3D Home® app to quickly capture virtual home tours of your listings.

There are many ways to incorporate real estate video in your social media marketing, including:

Instagram stories. You can showcase videos in 10-second clips that disappear after 24 hours but are prominently displayed at the top of the app while they're available.

Snapchat stories. Most Snapchat stories disappear after 24 hours, so it's important to provide some call to action that compels viewers to engage with your website or other social media platform.

Facebook Live. Many Facebook Live videos are lengthy (around 15-30 minutes) and are useful for doing real-time property walkthroughs and showcasing events. You'll be able to see the number of viewers who watch live and the number who watch the video after it's recorded.

Facebook cover videos. These are located in place of your cover image and will automatically play when someone visits your Facebook page. If you have a featured listing that you want people to see, consider adding a Facebook cover video of it.

YouTube videos. Social media marketing on YouTube is often used to show instructional videos that focus on a part of your business or on home improvement ideas. You can also upload property walkthroughs and easily link to them in posts on other social media platforms.

11. Create a targeted social media ad campaign

Most social media platforms allow you to pay for ads that are displayed to a specific audience, which is a smart real estate social media advertising strategy to maximize engagement. Remember to keep your branding consistent and your content relevant to the audience you're targeting.

Some platforms that support paid real estate social media campaigns are:

Facebook. Facebook is an ideal platform to display your targeted ads on, as they typically have a large amount of data on each of their users. They'll know who's interested in buying or selling a home. Use a keyword like 'real estate' or target a narrower group using something like 'buy a home in Seattle.'

Twitter. Twitter also offers a pay-for-engagement option. Your promoted tweets could include things like market updates, listing features or links to your blog posts.

Instagram. Much like Facebook, Instagram offers a paid advertisement service that puts your ad in front of relevant users.

LinkedIn. LinkedIn lets you pay for ads in one of two ways — either on a cost-per-click basis or a cost-per-impression basis.

12. Add reviews and services to your Facebook page

Not only is Facebook a good digital marketing tool, it's also a great place for referrals. Facebook offers a directory for local businesses called Facebook Professional Services. This tool lets you create a real estate Facebook page that people can find while they're searching for nearby businesses. Include a list of services on your page and add client reviews to help demonstrate your expertise to prospective leads and referrals. Online reviews are used by 42% of buyers, and sellers (especially younger generations) are also interested — 61% of millennials and 51% of Gen Xers use online reviews to help decide on an agent.

13. Create and join local groups

Community members use Facebook and LinkedIn groups to share information and stay in touch — consider doing the same to promote your business. You may want to join local real estate groups on Facebook or even create your own. Remember to be authentic, helpful and approachable so your audience feels comfortable coming to you when it's time to buy or sell. You likely won't see an immediate impact from groups, but over time you'll be able to build trust and (hopefully) obtain new leads. Things to avoid are:

• Treating your customers as a distribution list for your properties
• Directly selling to your audience
• Repeating tips or articles that have already been shared

14. Respond to comments

While you may occasionally receive rude comments, most people are genuinely interested when they ask a question. Responding promptly to all comments lets users know that you value their questions and are striving to provide great customer service. Responsiveness is one of the top qualities clients look for in an agent — 81% of sellers and 80% of buyers ranked this characteristic as important.

15. Measure engagement

Most social media platforms have analytic tools that you can use to track things like views, comments, shares, likes, connections, followers and subscribers. If your engagement is low, consider revising your real estate social media marketing strategy to better appeal to the audience on that specific platform. You may want to revisit:

• The type of content you're posting
• Which platforms you're using
• What you're looking to get out of your real estate social media marketing efforts

For more articles, tips and data on real estate marketing techniques, visit our Zillow Premier Agent Resource Center.