Integrate Social Media

Social media is an ideal space to create a personal brand, engage with your audience, generate leads and ultimately grow your business. The more active you are on social media, the more easily buyers and sellers will find you.

Home shoppers use social media for gathering advice and suggestions on the buying process, viewing agent profiles, and reading agent reviews. Your social media posts can attract bigger audiences when you mix sales messages with human interest content such as articles on a neighborhood’s signature features, decorating on a budget or restaurant reviews. And yes, it’s okay to post an occasional listing, too.

Best practices

Identify your goals. When customers search for you, they should find what you want them to find, so figure out what you want to be known for. Do you want to be seen as a local real estate expert? Join and participate in LinkedIn groups, and write or share articles about your area. Are you looking to set yourself apart from other real estate agents? Curate helpful home-related tips and tricks on Pinterest. Do you need to generate more interest in your listings? Offer luscious photos and videos on Instagram.

Be yourself. Building and maintaining your personal brand is easier when the image you project matches who you really are. If you’re striving to be the go-to real estate agent for your neighborhood, do your homework by offering content that reflects your deep expertise. If you have an elegant, sophisticated brand, avoid content that uses lingo only those under 18 would understand. When you try to come off as someone other than who you truly are — in an attempt to attract diverse demographics — you risk confusing people and discouraging them from trusting you.

Be consistent. Consistency, or predictability, is critical to building a memorable brand. In addition to having a social media strategy to ensure you post regularly, it helps to maintain a consistent look and feel. When buyers and sellers see a particular color and font scheme on your Facebook page, make sure they see the same thing when they visit your website. Apply the same approach when you develop printed collateral as well; you can even go so far as to wear your signature color when you meet contacts in person. When people see the same imagery across all your marketing channels, they’ll more easily associate it with you.

Find your fit. Each social platform offers opportunities to capture an audience and earn leads; it’s up to you to find the platform (or platforms) that feels most natural, best suits your business style and appeals to your audience. And don’t forget to tailor messaging to the platform you’re using. Tactics that work well on Instagram may fall flat on Facebook, or vice versa, simply because the audience in each space expects a particular approach to engagement.

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• Snapchat
• Twitter
• YouTube

Provide a balance of content. Your social media posts should blend the personal and promotional with the useful. Getting into a rhythm of content can be one of the hardest parts of building a brand on a new platform. Be careful to avoid overly promotional content and instead focus on content that sets you apart from your competitors. Remain as authentic as possible so your audience can get to know you and feel comfortable reaching out when they’re ready to buy. Avoid these common pitfalls:

• Don’t treat your followers as a distribution list for your listings.
• Don’t sell your audience; help them.
• Don’t replicate tips and tricks already inundating the space. Offer new, expert information.
• Don’t expect immediate or obvious ROI.

Measure your success. Measuring the success of your efforts with social media comes down to building your audience (reach), motivating that audience to interact with your content (engagement) and, ultimately, getting them to click lead capture forms on your website (conversion). It’s also important to listen to the content being shared in your newsfeed, and monitor for opportunities to interact with clients past, present and future.

Related resources

• How to build your personal brand on social media
• Using social media for real estate listings: 8 essential rules
• Tips for using social media at a conference
• 30 Twitter hashtags every real estate agent should know
• Using social media for real estate success: tips from the pros