Social Media Strategy for Busy Real Estate Agents

Social media is more than cute cat videos and funny memes, which is hard to believe, I know. It’s an important, dynamic conversation and an opportunity to connect with audiences in virtually every industry, including real estate.

You can create compelling messages, target the right platforms and engage with your connections effectively in less time than it takes to eat lunch.

Define your social brand

Your social brand is the intersection of what your audience values and your point of view. You can break your social brand into thirds, and then consider the kind of content and themes you want to share.

Think about it this way:

• One-third personal interests: fitness, health, sports, hobbies, interesting news, celebrations, etc.
• One-third real estate eye candy (everyone loves pictures): listings, photos with happy clients, photos taken during your day.
• One-third industry knowledge: tips, advice articles, real estate data, market trends, etc.

Good social media content will connect you to future sales, demonstrate that you’re a local expert and help you nurture existing relationships outside the sales cycle.

Auto-posts, links to all your listings, a play-by-play of your day, or “contact me” sales messages will alienate your connections. It good to use the “do unto others” rule. Would you want that post in your feed?

Your audience needs to see you as their approachable, go-to industry expert. Involve your community in a conversation by sharing an experience and inviting them to give feedback.

Ask followers, “What’s your favorite booth at the new farmer’s market?” It starts a conversation about local events, gives you an avenue to connect and humanizes your business.

Don’t oversell or bore your audience. If they lose interest in you, they will unsubscribe from your newsfeed quicker than you can blink.

Keep it going

Sometimes it’s hard to keep things moving. It’s easy to feel like you’ve run out of ideas or that you don’t have anything interesting to say. Here are a few ideas for developing themed content:

• Monday news: Publish a local news article that highlights what’s happening in your community.
• Tuesday tell-all: Share a photo of something that defines you. If you’re a foodie, share a favorite dish that you recently prepared or review an up-and-coming local restaurant. If you enjoyed a painting class at a local studio, share your art and their schedule.
• Property tour Wednesday: Find an element that’s unique to the homes you are previewing and share a photo. Or talk about a unique conversation you had on your home tours.
• Thursday trivia: Highlight an article that reveals fun facts about real estate in your local community, or that provides unexpected advice to buyers and sellers.
• Friday client spotlight: Share a client success story. This could be a past client getting the keys to their first home, or a seller who was able to find the perfect buyer in record time! Don’t want to share a photo of the client’s face? Get creative and include photos of pets, landscapes, landmarks, etc.
• Saturday show & tell or Sunday open house: Showcase one of your current listings. Be careful not to position the post as a “hard sell.” Instead, highlight some of the lifestyle benefits of the home or community.

Highlight the most interesting part of your week rather than posting everything you create. Curate your voice.

Automation is your friend

Some days get extraordinarily busy, so you may be away from your desk and out of the office for a prolonged amount of time. Your content should still get posted on a regular basis.

You can use tools like TweetDeck, Hootsuite or other similar programs to solve this problem. They will help you schedule a tweet or a Facebook post in advance. Simply create a new message, drop in your text, click a calendar icon and pick exactly when you want your message to post.

Consider blocking off 30 minutes per week to schedule your content. By planning, you can pinpoint themes, locations and news to focus on.

Reach, engagement and strategy

Ask yourself, “What do I want to get out of using social media?” It should be about to building your audience (your reach), and motivating your audience to interact with your content (your engagement).

It’s also important to note what is being shared in your newsfeed, and having an eye on opportunities to interact with clients. Wishing a client happy birthday, and clicking “like” or commenting on their photo goes a long way!

While you don’t need the most followers to win at social media, you need to understand your reach.

Sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have analytic tools to help you track connections, followers, likes, views, shares, comments, retweets, and subscribers.

There are also sites that will allow you to monitor unfollowers, but do some research to find the one that fits your goals. Facebook does not allow these sites to track when you are unfriended.

Your engagement should inspire your audience to follow your content, and ultimately, share it with their own networks. If your engagement is low, revisit your posts and messages.

Make sure you are posting content that your audience wants to see. Too many serious posts about market trends? Shift to a more personal post – about your dog or a book you’re reading.

It’s just as important to be strategic about where you post. Some exchanges may not work on certain platforms. Think about the audience and their expectations.

Focus on Instagram to share amazing photos, or if you have a great video story. Also, think about streaming on Facebook Live to give a house tour or talk about the kinds of neighborhoods you are focusing on.

It’s easier than you think

Navigating the waters of social media can be daunting. It can also save you time and money in your real estate marketing efforts.

And remember, just as you should focus on the conversation and not the commission during a sale, you should focus on the content, not the clicks when using social media.

Taking just 30 minutes each week to organize your social media content can really help your ongoing marketing efforts. There are simple tools available to post, track and respond to interactions.

If you are making your first foray into social media, it’s OK to start small. Just make sure you start so you can be part of the conversation.