How to boost your social media marketing efforts

Do you feel like you’re struggling with social media marketing? You’re not alone. We’ve heard from many of our broker affiliates that they’re just not really sure how to succeed in the space. The good news is—if you’re thinking about social media and how to improve, you’re already in the right place. The first step is awareness. Next, you need to understand a few best practices.

In this post, we’re breaking down the basics of social media marketing for brokers. Find out how to lay a smart foundation and what you can do to improve the results of your posts.

Setting the stage for your social media marketing efforts

At the core, your social media should build relationships. Companies, including brokerages, need to understand that it’s about creating communities—not to sell, sell, sell. That’s where many brands miss the mark. If you take a people-first approach to your social media marketing efforts, you will develop deeper engagement, which can lead to stronger business results.

If you’re not seeing the results you expect from your social media marketing, take a step back and review.

• When was the last time you asked your audience a question?
• What have you shared on your feeds about local events?
• How are people reacting to your posts?
• How many of your feeds are filled with listings?
• How many platforms are you currently managing?

Effective social media marketing demands a clear strategy. Align your efforts with your business goals. Don’t simply post to post. If you aren’t working from a plan, you will have a difficult time getting results that impact your bottom line.

When creating your strategy, start small. You don’t need to do it all. In fact, if you try to do it all, you’re likely going to have a hard time getting good results. Find one platform to focus your efforts on. For example, maybe you choose LinkedIn to start. Post content and see how it performs. Build a strong audience and learn from the growth. When you feel comfortable and in control and start seeing results, maybe it’s time to add in one more platform like Facebook.

Set goals and hold yourself accountable for checking in on the analytics. Social media is a lot of testing and learning. That’s why we help our affiliates with templates and training to ensure they get results that help grow their business.

Social media posting tips for real estate brokers

Drive engagement with Q&As

As we know, it’s always best to approach social media as a way to build relationships rather than constantly sharing your sales pitch. Instead of just posting endless promotional content (a one-way broadcast), open up the floor for two-way conversations.

You can engage your audience in many ways. For example, you can find trending hashtags in your area and start conversations around those. You can host Q&A sessions on Facebook Live. Create a poll on your feed comparing the hottest housing trends, styles, and more.

Your goal should be to engage, network, and build a community.

Yes, you can still find opportunities to promote your real estate listings. But also focus on building trust and authentic relationships.

Educate over promote

Sure, you need to promote your brokerage’s listings, but people will stop engaging with your content if that’s all you’re sharing. Ask yourself, how can I educate my audience about real estate to help them have a better experience with my company?

Go to the source. Work with your agents to gather feedback from their clients. Find out what they are struggling with during the buying process. What questions do they often ask? Keep a record of observations and use that data to inspire your social media content.

You can use experiences with your current clients, real estate best practices, and other information that you might take for granted to inspire highly valuable social media content. Find out what your audience needs and create the content to help them.

Share more videos

Whether you’re going live or sharing Reels, the TikTok style videos that appear on your Instagram feed, you should increase your video content across all social media feeds. According to YouTube, video consumption has been rising every year by at least 100% in recent history. Platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn also prioritize video content higher on people’s feeds than still images or text-only content.

Video ideas for your social media feeds

• Property walk-throughs
• Neighborhood introductions
• School reviews
• Team “about me” content
• Client testimonials

Use relevant hashtags to boost your reach

Hashtags help your content get in front of new audiences. Think of a hashtag as a keyword. People type in the hashtag of the thing they’re searching for—such as #justlisted—and they’ll find relevant posts.

Here are some hashtags to spark inspiration.

Generic Real Estate Hashtags

#realestate #realtor #brokerage #justlisted #forsale #homesale #newhome #househunting #dreamhome #homelisting #oldhousecharm #homesforsale #openhouse #homesweethome #renovated #justlisted

Customized Real Estate Hashtags

#[Target Neighborhood] #[Real Estate Team Name] #[Brokerage Name] #[Target City]homes #[Target City]property

Remain consistent, always

Consistency is one of the keys to successful social media marketing efforts.

Your social media presence helps you build brand awareness and generate trust with your audience. Maybe they’re not ready to buy or sell a home, but if they see you’re consistently active on your platforms, that you are active and in-tune to the local area, they may make a mental note of what you offer and come back to you when they’re prepared to begin their process.

Be consistent with your posts. Even if you start with one post a week, do that and do it well. Build a solid system that works before you try to do it all.

Platforms reward profiles that post consistently because it helps audiences know what to expect.

Always respond to comments and messages

Your reputation online can make or break your business today. If you have one bad review that turns away one potential customer, that could be thousands of dollars lost. Are you paying attention to the comments and messages coming through your social inboxes? How about your reviews?

Companies should always aim to respond to messages within 24 hours to keep their digital reputation under control. Your audience can see your public responses. They pay attention to how you’re talking to them online. Stay on top of it to make sure you keep the experiences positive both in-person and online.

Promote high-performing content

Let’s say one of your property walk-through videos is getting a ton of comments. You can boost that post. You can also use that data to inspire new ads or other paid promotions. Learn more about how to create Facebook campaigns for your brokerage in this post.

While social media marketing is essential for your brokerage, you can’t neglect traditional marketing efforts like direct mail. You will still see results when you go with what you know. That’s why a mix of marketing initiatives is still our recommendation for most businesses in our network.

At Weichert, we provide our affiliates with monthly social media posting ideas, graphics, videos and more to help supplement their feeds, as well as webinar tutorials to help put them on the right track.

Looking for more support for your brokerage? We’re here to help. See what resources and support we have to offer today.