When it comes to engaging with your community and clients, social media is critical. However, it can be difficult for Realtors to navigate the ever-changing world of digital marketing - especially while trying to balance the day to day duties of your real estate career. To help keep you in the know, we've put together a list of the top 4 social media trends of the year. By following these 4 recommendations, you're sure to stay relevant to your community and clients!
1. Try video products
Digital Video is increasing in popularity and becoming the new preferred advertising medium. With the convenience and ease of technology, our attention spans are shorter than ever. Research shows that compared to photo ads, video ads generate more engagement, views and shares - when they provide compelling and interesting content to the correct audience. Agents can utilize real estate video products or create their own video ads to promote their listings. Trending video products include traditional videos, drone videos, video walkthroughs, and slideshow videos.
Top Tip: People love drones - try out a drone video, and watch your marketing ROI soar!
2. Establish your personal brand on social media
Social media is one of the cheapest way to reach a large audience, so be sure to utilize social media platforms in your marketing activities, specifically when it comes to showcasing your personality online. Clients want to know who you are as a person and see if they would like to work with you. People also want to know if you are transparent and trustworthy. So be yourself, shed light on your hobbies and passions, and tie it into how you can help a potential home buyer find their dream home. Add “agent personality” content to your marketing plan and balance your posts between marketing activities, events, personality content and listing photos/videos. And don’t forget to utilize Instagram stories and Facebook live streams. These tools are perfect for showing off your personality in an easy, digestible format.
Top Tip: Create a social media calendar to organize your upcoming content and to make sure your content is consistent and balanced.
3. Engage with your audience on social media
Social media is tricky - sometimes we cannot always generate views and likes with our content. To combat this social media slump, create a social media plan in advance and get creative with your campaigns and platforms. Tailor your content to what your audience wants to see and what gets them to engage with your brand. Test out different types of posts and content and analyze the results. Once you hone in on the type of content that your audience likes, you can create more similar content to grow your audience and increase your engagement. One great engagement strategy is to ask questions in your posts and reply to comments to form a relationship with your potential clients. For example, you can create a campaign to market a new listing and add a simple question in the post - like “which room is your favorite?” This gives clients a reason to stop, look through the photos, and then interact with your posts. Getting viewers to interact will not only increase their chances of recall, but it will also increase the reach of the post - for free! This strategy can be utilized on both Facebook and Instagram.
Top Tip: Engage with your social media audience by asking questions and creating a conversation.
4. Give your audience a complete "tour"
The world of real estate continues to change as real estate technology continues to evolve. People are online searching for their dream homes. Large home transactions are now happening on mobile phones. The days of driving around searching for the perfect home are declining as people prefer to go on a “virtual tour” of homes. In order to satisfy these online buyers, make sure you are giving them all the listing details that they need to make decisions about a listing. In addition to great photos, products like floor plans, video walkthroughs, and 3D Showcases will help buyers “tour” the listing from the comfort of their own sofa. The more information you can give them online, the more likely you are to push them to the next step in the buying process.
Top Tip: Use marketing content that gives buyers an understanding of the listings layout so that they can “tour” the house online. Video walkthroughs and floor plans are perfect supplemental products that won’t break the bank!
