The Complete Guide: Social Media For Real Estate Agents
Having a strong social media presence as an agent is practically necessary. Using social media for real estate will almost immediately benefit your business, from your sphere of influence now learning you are in real estate to potential clients studying you.
Although creating content on social media proves to be beneficial time and time again, most agents never take advantage of this opportunity.
Within this guide I will walk you through the steps on how to create an organic lead generation strategy, in under 1 hour a week.
What does it mean to create content as an Agent?
Content can be created through a variety of methods.
Some personalities prefer creating videos. These videos may be a walkthrough of a home or even show-casing a local restaurant they enjoyed.
Those who are camera-shy may take a photo or text approach to content. Like videos, photos can highlight interior design or a local spot you frequent.
A text approach could be quick market stats or a full write-up on what to expect once you go under contract on a home purchase.
How can social media marketing help real estate agents?
When you are creating content, you are doing one of the 3 things with your audience:
- Building Credibility
- Building relationships
- Educating
Building Credibility
If you are a new agent, building credibility is easier than you may think. I have witnessed some amazing agents hit the ground running at max speed upon getting licensed.
Even though they have yet to sell a house, they were still doing daily activities that all agents do. From calling, showing houses, and meeting with mortgage brokers, there are multiple opportunities to create credibility.
Credibility is showing you are an active agent, doing the activities to provide a wonderful experience for potential clients.
Agents with a few deals under their belt may choose to utilize video testimonies from past clients or closing photos.
Building Relationships
Although market stats can be useful, there is no personal connection formed when viewing a text wall of numbers.
Your followers may not comment or like your post but they are seeing it. Over time, you will become amazed at the people who reference your content and you had no clue they were even seeing it.
Forming relationships and personal connections can be accomplished by posting photos from your personal life.
Some Examples include:
Hobbies
Posting about your hobbies is great because some people will begin to follow you strictly because they also enjoy the same hobby. Let's say you are an avid marathon runner and post about your runs, upcoming races, and tips for other runners. As an ultra runner myself, I would follow you to see what I can learn from you. Â
Family
If you are a parent, posting about your kids, no matter their age will build unconscious rapport with other parents. Sharing the feelings of becoming an empty nester will hit home for others who have experienced that. Sharing funny moments experienced with your newborn will spark memories in other parents.
Education
Some of the most meaningful conversations and relationships I have had all started with us reading the same book. Books are interesting conversation topics as everyone gains a different takeaway from the same book. Different points, insights, and feelings are derived from different personalities.
Educating
As real estate agents, we sometimes forget we have unique insight that most buyers & sellers do not know. Information that seems obvious to us could be completely unknown to others.
For example, some buyers don't know that if they spend thousands of dollars on their credit cards to furnish the home they have under contract... well, they will no longer have a new house... But, they will have new furniture, at least.
These small but impactful tips show your followers that you understand the ins & outs of buying and selling real estate.
The Two Rules to Create a Strong Social Media Strategy for Real Estate:
- Don't overthink content
- Stay consistent
Rule 1: Don't Overthink Real Estate Content
Most likely, you are not posting content because you are stumped for ideas. Nevertheless, numerous possibilities go by each day without our knowledge.
Think back to your previous 7 days and ask yourself what is one thing I learned that would be beneficial to others out there? Personally, I can think of 4 right off the bat and could list 30+ if I took the time to think.
Here are some example questions:
- What is one thing I learned that can help others
- What did I / my clients learn during the home search (or other journey)
- What is a tool I use as a (parent, coach, agent, etc.) that others would find useful?
Rule 2: Stay Consistent
Consistency will fall off when #1 we don't see results or #2 Â we fail to plan ahead.
Creating content on social media will take a few months before you see results. As an agent, you should understand how everything from followup to even finding the right house for a client takes time.
When you don't plan ahead and know you need to post something, it will be difficult to generate content ideas.
Generating content ideas is a creative process and having pressure will only make this process more difficult.
What is the best social media strategy for a real estate business?
The part you have been waiting for... how to create your strategy for social media.
Step 1: Generate Ideas
Open up google drive and create a new document called Content Ideas. Take the list of questions you created earlier and paste them at the top of the page. Underneath the questions start typing all ideas that come to mind.
Don't worry about spelling, formatting, or questioning the idea... Just start writing them down.
Step 2: Categorize Ideas
Once you have your ideas generated, add a new page to the document and list the 3 categories:
- Builds Credibility
- Builds relationships
- Educates
Go back to your list of ideas and paste them under the category it falls under. If you cannot determine where it should go, you may need to add or slightly change the content so that it will fit somewhere.
Step 3: Open The Canva Content Planner
Some agents choose plan content for the entire month whereas other only focus on one week at a time. Either strategy is fine and scheduling it is the most important thing here.
If you prefer to write out the content by hand, here is a free template you can use:
Step 4: Plan Content
Once you have the planner, start filling in the days with the ideas you generated. Personally, I would pull one idea from a different category each day... For example:
Monday: Content that builds credibility
Tuesday: Content that builds relationships
Wednesday: Content that educates
As you jot down the content onto the planner, mark it off your sheet. Continue to fill out the planner until the month is filled up or you no longer have ideas.
Step 5: Think ahead
Glance over your content plan and think ahead to see if you will need any photos, videos, or supporting documents in order to make the post a success.
If you have photos already on your phone, I recommend putting them into a google drive fold for easy access later on.
How Do you Grow your Social Media Following?
Once you have been consistently publishing content, you will want to proactively grow your following.
Social media is great for real estate agents as in a way, you are always generating leads. It takes the same amount of time to create one post thats shared with 230 people as it does to create a post thats shared with 1,230 people.
That said, it would be wise to start building more connections on the platform of you choice.
Personally, I will add connections that are friend of friends and will do so once they interact with my friend (tag them in a photo, comment on their post, etc).
This method works great as most likely, the connection you are adding already knows you from your friend interacting with your posts.
Now, adding people and sending messages can eat up quite a bit of your time. I use a program called phantombuster that sends personalized messages for me... Although may see it as me being lazy, I simply view it as being able to spend more time doing the things I enjoy...
Social Media Templates For Real Estate Agents
If you are looking for a few real estate agent social media post templates and examples, here are a few:
Just Listed Social Media Post
Utilize this post when you gain a new listing client and want to post it on social media. You can also use it to post other agent listings, in your office, with their permission.
Just Sold Social Media Post
Utilize this post when a listing or buyer client closes and want to post it on social media. Like the just listed post, you can use it to post other agent listings, in your office, with their permission.
Under Contract Social Media Post
Utilize this post when a listing or buyer client goes under contract and you want to pos on social media. Like the just listed post, you can use it to post other agent listings, in your office, with their permission.