It seems like everybody is offering advice on real estate social media marketing these days. Beware though: Not all advice is created equally. Sure, “post great pictures” is definitely good advice, but if you really want to build your brand and get leads on social media, you’re going to need more… well, everything.
That’s why we talked to some of the most successful real estate agents in the country to see how actual real estate agents are crushing it on social media today.
Check out our list of the best real estate social media marketing tips from actual agents:
1. Focus on Variety & Be Your Authentic Self on Instagram
“Social media marketing regarding real estate is something that I’ve been focusing heavily on. What I’ve learned from some of the most successful real estate agents is to have a good Instagram account, you need variety. They don’t hit anybody over the head with listing after listing or boring real estate facts. It’s a very balanced page between life, interests, and real estate. All the posts are very tasteful, and give the viewer insight as to who that real estate agent is as a person. Balance it with good real estate photos and tips, as well as behind-the-scenes videos of you doing different activities (including staging a house, doing an interview, doing a tour, and so on). The most important factor in all of this is that you have to be your authentic self in your posts.”
2. Get a Boost From the Pros to Supercharge Your Social Media Marketing
Lily Stern, Digital Marketing Specialist, The Close @theclosedotcom
“What many people don’t tell you when you’re just starting out is that social media marketing can be hard—really hard. It takes a lot of trial and error and a lot of learning, which can take a lot of time away from doing what you do best—interacting with your clients. That’s why you should consider using a company like Hibu to manage your social media marketing campaigns—so you can jump-start your reach on social media. You’ll get a huge head start over the competition, but you’ll still have complete control of your accounts while an expert does the heavy lifting for you.”
3. Focus on Authenticity, Engagement & Thought Leadership
Erica Langendorff, Marketing Manager at Warburg Realty @WarburgRealty
“Authenticity: It’s not just about pretty pictures. Strike a balance between polished, beautiful photography and the behind-the-scenes gritty details (e.g., sweeping the floors to prep for an OH, painting walls, and so on). It helps tell the story of how you arrived from point A to point B.
“Engage: Reply to comments on your posts. Get your followers to engage by asking them questions like, ‘White Marble or Black Granite?’ Hearing from your followers helps you better understand what content to post in the future.
“Thought leadership: Showing your listings or parts of the neighborhood are always great, but here is your time to shine as a thought leader and expert. Why is one apartment layout better or worse than the other? What are some unique parts of the neighborhood? As the agent, you are the expert, and it is important to remind your followers of that.”
4. Learn the Difference Between Your Current Audience & What Strangers Might Like
James Rozanski, Head of Marketing at REAL New York @real_newyork
“Some of the best social media marketing tips for agents and teams:
“Understand the difference between your current, actual audience and what strangers could potentially be interested in. For example, I see a lot of agents posting videos and images of empty apartments on their Instagram feeds, but for people who are already following them, they’re very rarely looking for a new place and it’s not effective. There’s definitely a difference between paid and organic social. The listings you’re trying to push are best suited for paid, targeted advertising to a specific audience, whereas organic social is very much for lifestyle, retention, and points of difference as an agent.
“Piggybacking off that—don’t be scared of paid social! Facebook and Instagram offer so many amazing targeting opportunities for agents—from specific areas, to interests, to periods of people’s lives like newborns or marriages, or any combination thereof. The thought of an additional spend is often scary for agents, but when you think about where people are spending a lot of their time, it’s a no-brainer to spend some effort there.”
5. Get a Professional Logo Before You Try to Build Your Brand on Social Miranda Paquet, Marketing & Operations Manager, The Close One of the biggest mistakes new agents and teams make when trying to build their brands on social is forgetting the basics. If you want to build a successful brand, you’re going to need professional headshots and a professional logo at a minimum. One secret of professional branding is that a great logo doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars. In fact, a great logo can be very affordable if you use a service like Tailor Brands. They’ve got an easy-to-use logo maker that will help you design something professional in minutes for your website, business cards, and social media accounts. Close readers even get 30% off their order with promo code 30FSB.
6. Post a 50/50 Mixture of Business & Personal Stories—Think Aspirational & Celebratory
Jonathan London, Director Estates Division, Aaron Kirman Partners, Compass @jonathanlondonla
“Post a 50/50 mixture of business and personal stories. You want to be seen as relatable as well as prolific in business. Post several stories at three different points in the day, every day. That way, you gain the most engagement as everyone is on Instagram at different times throughout the day.
“Don’t just shoot content at your own open houses—shoot stories at other agent’s open houses, and tag the agent too. That same agent will appreciate the exposure and is likely to do the same for you one day.
“Be aspirational and celebratory in your postings, but never cross the line into boastful and self-focused—it doesn’t translate well and less of your audience will react.
“Hyperlink the story to the property page on your own website. This is great for lead generation, click-through traffic, and furthers brand exposure for your own business.”
7. Ask Your Followers Questions to Build Engagement
Gabrielle Show, Estates Agent, Compass @gabrielleshow
“I find that when I post a listing and ask my followers a question, I will get more engagement and in turn, more exposure. There are a million agents posting photos of a kitchen, but when you ask ‘What would you cook here?’ it allows your followers to picture themselves in that kitchen and living in the home. People want to follow YOU, not just your business. It’s important to mix it up and post lifestyle, family, and friends—and keep it real.
“After I post a photo, I’ll make sure to consistently post to my story for the rest of that day. The photo you posted will drop further down the timeline after an hour or so, while your story will keep drawing people to your page to see your new post.”
8. Don’t Worry About Being Perfect
Nick Meyer, EQ1 Real Estate (A Leverage Global Partners Member) @itsnickmeyer
“Video! Don’t worry about being perfect, just get in front of that camera and show off your personality! Cheapest and easiest way to build trust and show you are an expert at what you do.”
9. Give Your Zillow Reviewers a Shoutout on Social
Chris Linsell, Real Estate Analyst & Coach, The Close
“Let’s face it, before working with you, your potential clients need to learn one thing: how well respected you are as a professional. That’s why it’s always a good idea to thank your biggest fans for the reviews they leave on Zillow. Zillow has the biggest market share in online real estate and will provide far more authority and trust to your audience. The best way to do it is to screenshot the great review, tag your reviewer, and give them a heartfelt thanks.”
Need more Zillow reviews? Sign up for Zillow Premier Agent to 3x your buyer and seller leads in your farm area.
10. Document Your Local Events & Invite Colleagues to Curate Your Stories for a Day
Mimi McCormick, Estates Director, Compass @mimimc67
“Document your local cultural events (e.g., festival, museum, pop-up) via Instagram and Facebook stories. It’s much more effective than a static announcement of what to do in your neighborhood. Invite a colleague or client (e.g., interior designer, landscaper, or crystal healer) to guest curate your page/story for a day via your social channels.”
11. Focus on Stories & Tag Other Real Estate Agents
Edward Hutchinson, Compass @hutchintonjohnstone or @housesgram
“Stories: You can use up to 30 hashtags on each story post by typing #hashtag in normal text. You can then drag them off the screen by placing a finger on it and with switching to a second finger, drag it off the screen.
“Tagging: You can also do the same with tagging up to 20 accounts of other real estate agents with clients in your market. This will send them a DM that they were mentioned in your story and they have an option to share it to their own stories, which then links back to your account.”
12. Don’t Be Afraid to Let Your Personality Shine Through
Jennie Priel, Aaron Kirman Group at Compass @jenniepriel
“Try to make yourself relatable to your audience. Create a forum where people are not just seeing listings, but getting to know the agent. Have fun with it and be genuine. Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through.”
13. Tell Your Client’s Stories
Sheryl Lynn Johnson, Aviara Real Estate (A Leverage Global Partners Member), @sheryllynn
“I love telling my client’s stories. Keeping the focus on them and serving them!”
14. Give Your Audience a Video Tour of Local Open Houses Once a Week
Tony Bruno, Aaron Kirman Partners, Compass @antoniobruno.re
“Go out on a Tuesday for broker’s open houses, target around four new listings to go to, and post two to three photos and videos. Remember not to give too much info—just good teaser video and photos with a location of what city the listing is in. People will start reaching out for more info and you will know who is in the market to buy or sell. Also, when it comes to your feed, remember that your followers want to feel a personal connection as well as an interest in your homes, so make sure to add your own touch to your feed, whether that be your own lifestyle or personal photos of yourself or with friends.”
15. Don’t Forget About YouTube
Enes Yilmazer, Compass @enesyilmazerla
“Build your brand authentically via content, for example, YouTube videos (www.youtube.com/enesyilmazer). Putting yourself out there through YouTube is an intimate way to showcase your personality and how you do business, which in return can help build brand awareness on a larger scale. We can make an impact on other people and gain business just from the content we create.”
16. Learn the 5 Secrets of Writing Great Titles (& Why They Work)
The Close Coaching Team
Whether you’re creating videos for YouTube, stories for Instagram, or blog posts to drive social traffic back to your site, you need to master the art of writing great headlines. If you don’t, you could have the best content in the world but no one is going to see it. First because many social media platforms rank content based on keywords, and second, because most social media platforms rank content based on click-through rates or engagement.
That means that if your title isn’t great, fewer people will be able to find your content, fewer people will engage with it, and the algorithms that run social media platforms will show your content to your audience less often.
Here are five quick tips to writing great titles for your social content:
1. Create FOMO and a sense of urgency with your titles
2. Keep your titles short and sweet (60 characters or less)
3. Use alliteration when possible
4. Be specific: use numbers whenever possible
5. Use brackets or parentheses (they help build curiosity)
17. Measure Your Results & Test Constantly
The Close Coaching Team
There’s a saying in the fitness community that applies to real estate agents trying to succeed on social media perfectly: “That which gets measured, gets improved.” It’s a very simple formula that most agents ditch in favor of a shotgun approach on social media.
Social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and even Pinterest offer professional-level analytics that let you figure out which content your audience actually responds to, and the best time and format for posting it. You can even try A/B testing the same content twice. Make a post on one subject with a blog post and another with a video, and see which performs better.
18. Post Bite-size Summaries of Studies & Other Market Data
The Close Coaching Team
Since your goal on social media is to position yourself as the go-to real estate expert for your audience, posting in-depth studies or other market data can be a great way to show off just how carefully you follow the market.
The only problem is that a lot of studies or data put out today are complicated and open to interpretation. Don’t just settle for a journalist’s hot take. Instead, come up with your own conclusions from the data and share them with your audience.
19. Learn the Best Times to Post on Different Social Media Platforms
The Close Coaching Team
Even if you have the best content in your city to post on social media, it won’t do you any good unless your audience actually sees it. This is why learning the best times to post on different social media platforms is so important. Here’s a quick cheat sheet:
20. Write Scripts for Your Videos & Rehearse Them
The Close Coaching Team
While many agents think they’re great at improvising, the cold hard truth is that few really are. Improvisation is a skill like any other and takes time, effort, and practice to get better at. That’s why writing a script—even a rough script—and then practicing it will quickly improve your videos. You don’t have to read it word for word, but coming up with a structure and a few key phrases to repeat will make your videos easier for your audience to understand and hopefully interact with.
21. Use Humor, But Make Sure It’s Appropriate
The Close Coaching Team
Since most people use social media as an escape from their lives, humor almost always does well on any platform. Posting memes, funny videos, or trending jokes will show your audience that you’re not only a hyperlocal expert, but someone they might want to have a beer with.
Just avoid topics that are controversial, overly negative, or too racy for prime time TV. If you want to start making your own memes, the Kapwing app is your best bet. You can also retweet comedians or influencers—just remember to keep it PG-13.
22. Invest in a Decent Microphone
The Close Coaching Team
One of the biggest mistakes agents new to social media make is to invest in a great camera, only to use the low-quality, built-in microphone. While this might not seem like a big deal, it can make or break your videos on social media. People are watching your videos because they want to hear what you have to say, not to see how you look. For longer videos, low-quality microphones lead to ear fatigue quickly, which will make people tune out early.
The difference in sound quality between the built-in microphone in your phone or camera and even a $59 dedicated microphone like the Rode Video Micro is night and day.
23. Avoid Politics
The Close Coaching Team
Even though real estate agents are rarely shy about their opinions, sharing your political views on social media is almost always a mistake. First, because you run a very real risk of alienating half of your audience (or more), and second, if you don’t have your facts right, you run a very real risk of coming across as naive to people with a more nuanced understanding of political issues.
While posting your political opinions may be cathartic, social media algorithms reward engagement, which means they reward fighting. Even if everyone in your audience agrees with you, fighting with people on social media can make you look negative, petty, or even mean.
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