Quick tips to use real estate social media marketing to build your online brand
With any kind of real estate social media marketing, it’s important to play where your customers are. In the case of social media for real estate, Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin are the most used social media platforms. However all 3 platforms engage with different audiences, and as such should have different goals and objectives.
Because there are so many different types of content you can share on social media, the most important thing to consider is how you are attracting people to the center of your universe to build your online brand.
Use social media to drive traffic to your website
Your website needs to be engaging, informative, and offer something different from your competitors. No longer can it be only filled with your properties for sale, recent sales, and properties available to rent. It needs to be more. What it means is you need to have content that will bring you business – content that engages a potential new landlord or vendor. – content that is fresh, up to date, and what inspires your website visitors as to why they visited your brand in the first place.
The Rule of Thumb
If you’re adding posts to your social media and NOT linking it back to your website, you’ve missed a big opportunity. The most common (and worst thing) to do is to add a post to your social media and not include a link back to your website. Driving traffic back to your website is integral to building your brand and increasing credibility and trust. Below are some ideas of how to engage with your social audience while driving traffic to your website.
At an open inspection at a property with a fantastic kitchen/view/backyard?
The next time you upload a photo of people attending one of your open inspections, add the link to the property people are inspecting. Show your followers what they’re missing out on, or why they should also be inspecting this property.
Doing an appraisal or having a coffee in your local suburb?
Include a link to a suburb profile already published on your website, and add in a personal note to encourage comments from your local followers. Make sure you respond to comments – this is your online way of starting a face-to-face relationship!
Sold a listing?
Everyone loves the photo of the happy buyers and sellers in front of the property, but which property is it? Include a link to the property and show local homeowners what the market is up to. Perhaps also add the link of the team member who sold/rented the property so others can see why they are such a successful agent or property manager.
Have a new article on your website blog?
Add a video with your thoughts on the article topic, and include the link to your blog article. For example, if you have an article about how online auctions work, add a quick video saying something along the lines of “You might be thinking about online auctions and how they work. Some of my most recent online auctions were very successful for their owners, so if you want to know more about how they work, ask your question in the comments, or have a look at my recent blog post”.
What/When/How should you post?
There is no right or wrong answer on this as it depends on your marketing goals, but the most important thing is important to keep your posts consistent. Some social media experts will tell you to post every day, or twice a day, or at least 3 times a week. Our advice is to make sure to align your posts to a plan and stick to it.
For example, you might only want to post articles about selling on Mondays and articles about buying on Fridays. You might want to share the profile of one of your team members on the first Monday of each month to give your agency a face behind the name. Posting listings is also something to plan – you might want to post new listings on a Tuesday and older/open listings on a Thursday.
Think about what your audience would like to see. Make that plan and then stick to it.
Just make sure when you do it, keep doing it!
If your or your team don’t have time to post content regularly, get familiar with the online tools that can help you through this process. Facebook and Instagram have information in their help sections to show you how to schedule posts.
Remember, the most important thing is to make sure you have the content already on your website so the posts can link directly back to showcase you and your brand.
