#Maximize your real estate social media

If you’re a real estate broker or agent, you know that social media is more than a nice-to-have. Social media is a necessary component of your overall marketing strategy. It keeps you top of mind for customers and prospects, attracts and retains talent, and builds community. Plus, real estate social media can be a fun and smart vehicle for sharing success stories, promoting events, and reinforcing your brand identity. But keeping up with social media marketing can also be stressful, confusing, and relentless. Like that beautiful wood-burning fireplace in the family room, it needs a constant feeding of logs to keep it aflame.

So, whether you’re in the early stages of the process, or you’re looking to expand this marketing gold mine, Weichert® can help you maximize your social media marketing.

Social media is here to stay in real estate

The following statistics are from National Association of Realtors® (NAR):

• Over 90% of millennials are active on social networks (and this group represents 43% of homebuyers)
• Top tech tools that provide REALTORS® with quality leads are social media (52%), customer relationship management (CRM) (31%), and MLS sites (28%)
• Top social media channels used among REALTORS are 

  • Facebook (90%)
  • Instagram (52%)
  • LinkedIn (48%)
  • YouTube (24%)
  • Twitter (19%)

• Homework: Watch this video (it’s about 20 minutes) for a comprehensive overview of social media for real estate agents and brokers. It’s packed with tips.
• Bonus homework: Check out NAR’s Social Media for REALTORS® series. It includes downloadable PDFs and videos worth perusing.

Different opportunities from different channels

Now that we’ve determined which social media channels are most prevalent for REALTORS, look at which ones you’re using. Whether it’s Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, or any combination of channels, each one offers something unique to factor into your social media marketing strategy. 

In previous Weichert blogs, we talked about the many benefits of different channels of social media.

For example, Facebook allows you to create groups. This is an excellent way to increase engagement and cultivate a community. LinkedIn can act as both a job board and a professional network-building site. All great for corporate recruitment. Twitter is ideal for amplification. You can take advantage of trending topics and craft shareable tweets that can bring more visits to your website. 

We like how Facebook ads give you the ability to target local customers, leverage the visual nature of the platform to show off your listings, and develop strong relationships with future buyers and sellers. 

• Homework: Review your monthly/annual social media marketing spend. If your dollars are going to the same place, such as just Instagram, see if it’s time to diversify, especially if you have different priorities. (For example, are you trying to secure new talent for your team? You might need more airtime on LinkedIn.)

As a new talent/retention tool

We often think of social media as a tactic for reaching our customers. Of course this is true, but you’re also “selling” yourself to your existing and future team.

The following tips for drawing in top talent via social media are excerpted from Realtor.com

• Determine your messaging. Come up with messaging that showcases to agents the unique and attractive features of your brokerage. 
• Create a B2B page. Build out a brokerage profile that gives your business more credibility among agents. Plus, it’s a ready-made job board. 
• Post a job. The go-to place for this is LinkedIn, but it’s not your only option. Facebook has a job board too. 
• Promote your brokerage’s accomplishments. Spread the word about awards and achievements. People are eager to join a place with a great track record. 
• Share industry news and helpful info. This is just another way to show your credibility and provide valuable content on real estate.
• Use direct messaging. Found someone online you think might be a great fit? Reach out. 
• Advertise your brokerage. Look into paid advertising opportunities on the platforms you use for recruiting. 
• Host an event. Sometimes in-person events are the way to go. Hold a recruiting event and let people know about it on your social media accounts. 

• Homework: Help your existing agents set up/revise/maintain a quality LinkedIn or Facebook profile, or any other social media account they keep that ties to their work with you. Work together to ensure consistency in how their messaging aligns with your brand. Make sure important contact details—like emails, URLs, and phone numbers—are clear and correct. New hires are likely to look at your present team as much as they look at you.

Bottom line—real estate social media marketing that’s purposeful, consistent, clear, and engaging leads to all kinds of great results.  

Reach out to learn more about Weichert’s full-on real estate marketing toolkit for broker-owners. Templates, layouts, messaging, the power of our national brand—it’s all here for you to crush it with social media.