12 Tips For Marketing on Social Media

While the seemingly only constant over the past six months is that absolutely nothing has remained the same, the real estate market has remained a steadying force in the economy. Indicators suggest that this trend will continue through the end of 2020, and beyond, but that doesn’t mean that real estate professionals don’t need to market their services to ensure a healthy business pipeline for 2021.

As we all know, the real estate profession is founded on networking and building relationships – but these things are a little more challenging as the world is going virtual to accommodate needs to social distance. Founder and President of MJ2 Marketing, Megan James, recently participated (virtually, of course!) in a webinar with Wayne Henry, Broker and Owner of 43 Homes to discuss some tips for how real estate agents can use social media to market their services.

During their conversation, they talked about trends in social media marketing, the value of going Live on Facebook and Instagram, how the impact of social media is increasing as virtual events become more prominent, and a few trips and tricks on how to gain the most exposure on the social platforms.

Here are 12 tips to successfully take your real estate marketing to the digital platforms, but be sure to watch the full webinar.

1. Pick one social network (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Houzz, Pinterest, etc.) and be really, really good at it.
   
   
2. Build trust with your audience, remembering that it is not what is in it for me, but rather what is in it for my audience. What information will they find valuable, timely, and important?
   
   
3. Create your content strategy. Be purposeful and thoughtful about what you post and why.
   • Trends that you are seeing in real estate, home design, etc. 
   • Events and happenings around your community – not just about real estate but also supporting local businesses and organizations,
   • Your success stories
4. Use high-quality imagery. Regardless of which social platform you are focusing on, there are few things more important in the digital world than good images.
   
   
5. Encourage your clients and colleagues to write reviews and provide testimonials about your business.
   • Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews.
   • Use storytelling to make the reviews come to life.
6. Tag, tag, and tag some more. By tagging other businesses in your posts, you can organically amplify the reach of your post on the social networks.
   • Nearly all networks now consider the use of hashtags in their algorithms, which can also help your content become part of a larger conversation.
7. Look at the Insights on your posts to determine what is working and what is not – you may be surprised what type of content works the best with your audience.
   • This can help guide both your organic and paid strategies, by confirming which posts you should boost to further amplify your message.
8. Plan ahead! Take time at the start of your week to plan what you will post. You should consider posting 3-5 times per week, with a mix of personal and business-focused content.
   • If your real estate business is part of a larger brokerage or parent company, stay aligned with their messaging and utilize/share the content that they post as well.
9. Build your personal brand. While your real estate affiliation and brand are important, people hire real estate agents because of the agent. Therefore, it is important to show your personality on the social media; ideally finding a connection between your personal and professional lives that helps your potential clients get to know you, your values, and your passion for your work.
   
   
10. Make it a two-way conversation. Rather than just posting on social media, make it a two-way conversation with your audience.
    • Use thumb-stopping, moveable content.
      • Facebook Live, Instagram Live, etc., have become very important over the past six months. Those who have retooled have been able to stay relevant.
11. Reuse your content in a variety of ways. If you conduct a Facebook Live, use parts of the recording as individual pieces of content. Remember, it takes consumers multiple times to remember something that they have seen, so consistency and repetition is key.
    
    
12. Don’t oversell. Limit your “push marketing” in which your language is overly sales-y. Rather, tell a story; how did you help your client solve a problem? 

Need help marketing your real estate (or any!) business?

The MJ2 team is here to help! From overall digital marketing plans to questions related to a specific expertise, contact our team to get started.