Using Instagram For Real Estate
Social media is booming across generations.As millennial’s cycle to be the next generation of home buyers, Realtors are getting creative to get their attention.
And they are using that creativity in their favorite social media: Instagram.
With more follows, hashtags, and more activity than ever, Instagram is becoming the social media favorite among real estate agents.
It is not just real estate agents who have taken to a strong usage of social media channels either. Other industry professionals such as lenders and attorneys are also using social media platforms more and more to get their message across. Lauren Howard a mortgage brokers is a strong believer in the use of social media for her lending business.
“A strong social media presence is needed in order to be successful in real estate today. House Flippers that takes the time to invest in their social media see
more returns and build a stronger network than those that don’t.”
Loren Howard, Prime Plus Mortgages – Hard Money Lender.
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Everyone in real estate, to house flippers, hard money lenders, and realtors are posting on Instagram. The most successful are continuously posting, engaging and getting more activity than their counterparts.
You too can use these 4 Instagram tricks to help grow your business.
How Realtors Are Using Hashtags
Using hashtags is a great way to build any audience on Instagram. Realtors can easily showcase flips, just listed homes and before and after photos.
Instagram make finding buyers easy with hashtags! Important hashtags for realtors are locations, type of homes, just listed sold and of course, real estate.
Using hashtags for their real estate business is how realtors build a local audience and slowly become an influencer. By using hashtags and locations people can easily find interest and businesses that they want to learn more about.
Even using the phrase house flipping, on a post can draw serious attention!
You can also use hashtags to target flippers, lenders, buyers, or sellers, you are looking to find in your area.
Professional Content
How do the best realtors make such engaging content on Instagram, and how does this help them attract more leads? While Social media tends to mix the professional with the personal (we will get to that in a bit) Instagram is a great platform for realtors due to it’s highly visual platform.
What a great way to display new listings, tiny details, and before and afters than in a photo slideshow? Realtors tend to find that their highest performing Instagram post are just listed houses, or even better, just sold homes.
Beautiful photos of a Realtors newest listing will get people excited as well! Especially if it a photos they can send to their friends and family who happen to be looking for a property.
Nothing gets Instagrammers excited to click that like button, than seeing a family, holding keys in front of a home, with the words sold on it.
What makes these posts great, is that in a simple photo t tells the story of a family searching, and than buying a home. People relate to these kind of photos and it is a great way to build exposure for the realtor.
It shows the end result of the realtors hard work, all while showing how the realtor can help them as well.
Here are some great ideas of professional content Realtors post:
- Just Listed Photos
- Just Sold Homes
- 1st time buyer photos
- Detail photos of property
- Real estate trends (farm sinks, and ship-lap to get people engaged)
Personal Content
Realtors who only pot the professional pictures of listings, are missing a huge opportunity on their page to gain not only more followers, but more leads.
In order to be successful on any social media platform, you have to mix the professional and the personal.
If you have fabulous and beautiful homes you are listing, post them! But if you have a pet that your world revolves around, post them too! Post your coworkers, who you sell homes to, and tell more complete and interesting stories.
Realtors who show more interesting and rounded stories will have big followings, and also will have more leads from social media because of the beautiful houses, happy clients, and better sense of self than those who don’t.
Some great ideas of personal content that realtors post:
- Photos of the office, coworkers and clients
- Client buying homes
- Behind the scenes photo of staging or property photos
- Pictures of pets
Another Visual Platform Worth Using – Pinterest
Besides Instagram, Pinterest is also another social media platform that is worth the time an effort as a real estate agent. With Pinterest you can create pins that lead to real estate articles you have written. If your a blogger, Pinterest is a dynamic social media platform that can drive tons of traffic to your website.
While Pinterest first came on the scene as a place for woman to shop for clothing and other accessories that is no longer the case. You can go to Pinterest for just about any interest you may have. Of course, lots of real estate agents and mortgage brokers have discovered just how powerful it can be for become more visible.
Like any other social media platform, there are some good practices for real estate agents to follow using Pinterest. The article at Contactually showcases some of the things real estate agents can do to become power users on the platform.
Once you have established your profile on Pinterest, it will make sense to increase your following by joining some of the best Pinterest real estate group boards. A group board can skyrocket your traffic because there are so many more people in your niche following them. See a detailed list of the best real estate boards to follow and why.
Summary:
Realtors love using Instagram and Pinterest for their business because of the highly visual nature of these platforms.
These 3 ways Realtors build and engage their audience is key to growing any business and generating leads from Instagram.
- Hashtags: By using locations and hashtags realtors expand their reach and can easily find buyers or sellers that are looking for their services. Some great hashtags that realtors can use are: house flipping, just sold, buying houses, real estate.
- Professional Content: Having the best professional content can help serious buyers see the type of work top notch realtors do. Content like this will help motivate clients to reach out to you: just sold homes, just listed homes, detailed property photos, and photos of clients buying homes.
- Personal: Showing the full picture, and telling more interesting stories will get more clients in your door and make working with them easy, as they see your work and know what you are about. Some examples of this would be: photos of the office, or with coworkers, clients looking at homes, behind the scenes of property photos or listings, pictures of pets.
What is an Instagram trick we missed?
Other Helpful Real Estate Social Media Articles Worth Reading
- Best Social media groups for real estate agents – see what social media groups an agent should join to get maximum exposure, along with an ability to interact with other like minded individuals.
- More tips to master Pinterest as a real estate agent – learn what it takes to become a Pinterest Pro as a Realtor. Drive tons of traffic to your site and be more recognizable as a local real estate expert.
Use the above social media articles for real estate to become more adapt to platforms consumers will be using on a daily basis.
About the author: The above article on 3 ways Realtors use Instagram to get more Real Estate sales was written by Catherine Way. Catherine graduated from Michigan State University with her Bachelor’s of Advertising with a specialization in Graphic Design. She spends her free time finding new ways to talk to people, through writing, designing, dancing, and more.