5 tips for ramping up your social media game

It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, if you aren’t investing in your social media game you are missing key opportunities to build your brand and get yourself directly in front of potential clients. Especially, in real estate. The likes of Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn provide a free platform to show your expertise, authentically connect with your target market and grow an active and engaged audience.

Let’s take a look at our top 5 tips for taking your social media presence to the next level so that it benefits and authentically grows your real estate business.

Tip 1) Drop the sales pitch. Now.

It’s no secret that real estate is a highly competitive and saturated industry, that is still plagued by the ol’ stereotypes of ‘smooth talking’ agents that do nothing but breathe and sell property. If you want to create a social media presence that stands out and gains an authentic following- drop the constant sales jargon and curated image. It’s actually doing more harm than good.

Use your social media presence as a way to connect on a personal level with potential clients to share experiences, common interests, and challenges. 99 percent of people aren’t going to look at a beaming photo of you with a generic sales pitch caption on FB and make a decision about whether you will be selling their next property.

However; for someone that is thinking of jumping on the property ladder in the next few years, but isn’t ready to make a decision, they will most likely appreciate genuine insights into the housing market and honesty about the challenges. This means when they are ready to use an agent down the line, they are likely to consider you- from getting to know you- and not a walking real estate billboard.

This leads us to our next tip…

Tip 2) Create quality content that adds value to the reader.

One of the biggest cliche’ quotes in marketing is “content is king”, and despite the cringe factor- it’s true. The most successful social media accounts, with an engaged following, will without a doubt have quality content.

But what exactly is quality content in the real estate space? It can be incredibly easy to overthink what you post, but a great starting point is asking yourself “If I was looking to buy/ sell a home at some point what would I want to know?”

Quality content is the key to ramping up your followers, and the best content you will create is in the heat of the moment- while you are going through the motions of each part of the buying/ selling journey.

Think about what is causing your current clients anxiety, and what advice you naturally share to support them through the process. Potential homebuyers in particular will have a lot of questions, and succinct answers that educate them and help them feel less intimidated are going to leave a lasting impact- and result in you establishing yourself as a thought leader in the industry.

Tip 3) Stuck for ideas of what to post? Document - don’t create.

One of the most common rabbit holes that agents get stuck in is overthinking what content to post on social media. A great rule of thumb is to get in the habit of documenting as you go. Share with your followers what you are doing at work and why you are doing it. Have a happy client in front of you? Take a quick video of their success. A new property listing that blows your mind? Give your followers a sneak preview. Here’s a list of social media content ideas that are performing well across social media platforms in the real estate industry.

• Luxury and boutique property photos- especially on Instagram
• Sharing articles (or writing them- great for Linkedin especially) about changes to the NZ property market, home loans and demand.
• Photos that are an inspiration for styling, decorating or renovating a home
• Success stories and client testimonials.
• Showcase what a real estate agent actually does (tear down the misconceptions)
• Use FB & IG stories to post a question box - where you can post answers but also private message those that ask, for much more personal interaction.

Tip 4) It’s not just about posting content…

Spending 20 minutes a day interacting and engaging with your current audience as well as potential followers is one of the effective ways to build your social media audience and maximise engagement when you do post. There are some obvious ways you can do this, but with some research, you can actively extend your reach.

Make them feel important, with a personal touch

Interacting with your existing audience is relatively self-explanatory; responding to comments, liking and authentically commenting on their posts, as well as asking questions in your stories. This is a great way to maintain an engaged following, but here are some tips for organically GROWING your audience.

Find your lookalike audience through hashtags and friends of friends on Instagram

One of the great things about Instagram is that the nature of the app means it isn’t considered “creepy” to engage with people and accounts you don’t know personally. If you are just starting your social media profile, it’s likely your first followers will be existing and past clients. Looking at their profile, you can see who they interact with/ their followers are and drop a quick like on some of their photos.

Still sound creepy? Here’s an example.

One of your clients has posted their new home purchase on Instagram. You can look at the profile of those who commented on this post, and like or comment on appropriate photos such as; images of a view or landscape, a quote you resonate with, or maybe decor/ inspiration. Make sure your comment is authentic, though. Explore the profiles of people in your area, that is around your target demographic. Even dropping a ‘like’ will generally trigger a notification - and inspire them to check out your page.

*A very important note about authentic comments and engagement

Bots are in every corner of Instagram and they are easy to spot in comments as the majority finish with “DM me”. Make your comment stand out by engaging with the content of a specific post rather than an auto-response of “Love this”, “So great”. A personal touch will make them feel important, feel obliged to respond, and (if they haven’t already) check out your profile.

Explore Hashtags relevant to your area & expertise

This is your opportunity to get creative on Instagram and interact with people who are interested in the property, decorating, renovating and the list goes on. To make it relevant to the region: here are a few examples: #newhomeNZ #renovationNZ #NZhomebuyers #firsttimehomebuyerNZ #propertyNZ #diyNZ #homemakeoverNZ and the list goes on.

Make sure to filter posts by “most recent” instead of the most popular posts, so your engagements are closer to when the person posted. Also - if the hashtag isn’t particularly popular, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and probably won’t be overly saturated.  

You can also search for place-specific hashtags - where you are based as a real estate e.g #byronbaylife #byronbaylocal #byronbayhome #byronbaybusiness #byronbayproperty

The opportunities for organically growing your audience are endless, so allocating a few minutes a day to exploring and interacting on Instagram is going to get your profile out there - and with quality content, will likely convert visitors to followers.

Get amongst Facebook Groups

Facebook’s algorithm is constantly changing and with overwhelming amounts of intuitive ads all competing for the attention of users- many with a horrifyingly huge spend behind them-  it can be hard to gain a lot of traction through an organic feed post unless you have an audience that engages with a lot of your content. This is where the beauty of Facebook Groups come in as they tend to take priority in a user’s news feed.

Search on FB for groups in your local area that allow free business promotion, as well as property-related groups in NZ. You could offer your expertise for free in these groups by answering questions or sharing updates and insights into the real estate market. Down the track, you could even create your own group on a particular subject or theme. This puts you write in front of a demographic of people who are already interested in property/ based in your area, which makes them more likely to convert to leads over time.

Tip 5) Consistency. Consistency. Consistency.

This is so damn important that we’ve stated it three times and will continue to repeat it over and OVER if we need to.  Building a strong social media presence and dedicated following will not happen overnight, and it also won’t happen if you do an intense burst of activity over a couple of days and leave your accounts dormant for months on end.

Consistency is just as important as quality content, and it doesn’t need to be something you are working on every single day - we know how demanding your job is. One feed post of FB and IG a week is better than none, and as you become more comfortable with sharing content you can ramp this up.

Although the best content you will capture will most likely be in the heat of the moment; if you don’t have time to upload and write a caption on the fly, there are a bunch of great scheduling tools you can use to prepare a few weeks of content- which you can then add to with stories or anything additional you want to share.

Your real estate CRM will most likely have scheduling tools inbuilt. Facebook Business Manager completely allows you to cross-post and connect your Facebook & Instagram accounts. There are also a variety of third-party apps you can find that will allow you to schedule with ease from your phone.