16 Key Real Estate Social Media Marketing Strategies
Real estate social media marketing is an extremely powerful—and largely free—tool to grow your audience, build a trustworthy brand, and ultimately increase your income. With strategies like repurposing content for each platform, sharing testimonials, and implementing tools to increase consistency, any real estate agent or broker can find an audience on social media and grow their clientele and revenue. Read these top 16 tips for effective social media marketing for real estate and implement them into your strategy.
1. Develop a Real Estate Social Media Strategy From the Beginning
While a significant number of small businesses harness social media to promote their offerings, a well-defined strategy can dramatically enhance their outcomes. Data shows that Facebook and Instagram were the primary platforms for small business marketing, with 80% and 64% of respondents, respectively, using these platforms to promote their products and services.
Developing a real estate marketing strategy for these platforms will assist you in capitalizing on the potential of these popular platforms and see tangible results.
Here are a few basic questions to answer that can help form your real estate social media marketing strategy:
By using social media with a long-term strategy in mind, it will be easier for you to build a niche and authority while keeping content interesting and light-hearted. It will aid you in clearly defining your brand and posting more effectively and consistently with less stress.
Choosing your social platform is a crucial step in your real estate social marketing journey. Identify which platforms your target audience uses the most, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, or YouTube. Do this by analyzing demographic data and engagement trends specific to each platform. For example, Facebook and Instagram are favored for their visual appeal and large user bases, making them ideal for showcasing property photos and hosting live tours. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is more suitable for networking.
Once you know where your audience is, you can tailor your content to the platform and maximize your reach and engagement. By selecting appropriate social media platforms, you can save time, effort, and resources that could be wasted on platforms where your target audience is not present.
Important Tip: Don’t spread yourself too thin! Although there are opportunities on every social media platform to enhance your online presence, it’s unwise to start five different social media channels at once. An agent’s first priority should always be serving clients, so choose your social media channels wisely. You can always expand to other platforms after you’ve mastered the first one.
3. Outsource Your Social Media Marketing Management
When you are ready to take your social media marketing efforts to a new level, you may find that you don’t have the time or energy to do it all yourself. After all, your priority should be serving clients to the best of your abilities—not idling around on social media all day.
For most successful real estate agents, there will inevitably come a point when it’s best to hire a social media marketing real estate professional or platform. These platforms and/or experts can significantly amplify online visibility, engage a broader audience, and ultimately, drive more leads by leveraging the latest digital marketing strategies. And you’ll have more time to focus on your clients rather than posting.
Get audience insights that help you optimize campaigns (Source: Constant Contact)
Luckily, plenty of professionals and companies offer this service, so you can find one that best fits your needs. One of the top real estate social media marketing companies is Constant Contact. We have found this platform to be the best for targeting a specific audience with social media posting and email marketing. It offers simple list management and creates campaign metric reports to assist you in organizing your social media campaigns. You can also manage Facebook and Instagram ads directly from the platform.
4. Keep Branding Consistent Across All Online Platforms
As you build a social media presence, your followers should naturally flow between your profiles and your website without confusion. Achieve this by keeping your branding consistent on every social media platform as well as communication channels like email and your website. Your real estate branding includes:
- Logo
- Brand colors
- Realtor headshot
- Slogan
- Vision statement
As an example, let’s take a look at Homely, a real estate company that maintains consistent branding across its platforms. Its website and LinkedIn page display the same logo, with the brand’s orange color. Additionally, its slogan, which positions the company as the “first distressed home marketplace for agents,” is prominently featured both on its website and LinkedIn page.
Homely’s website featuring its brand logo and colors (Source: Homely)
Homely’s LinkedIn page (Source: LinkedIn)
Moreover, make sure to frequently talk about and link to your website and social media pages. Publish interesting blog posts, offer freebies, videos, and property information on your website, then give teasers about that content on social media.
5. Post Consistently
A solid social media strategy for real estate and consistency can build lead connections with just a scroll through your page. Consistency varies by platform. For instance, it’s best to post one to two videos per day on Facebook and three to seven times per week on Instagram. To efficiently plan and post content, consider content batching. Set aside a few hours to plan, shoot, or write content for the next few weeks. This saves you time and boosts your productivity. Use tools to find the optimal posting times and frequency for your audience.
Here are the best and worst times to post on each platform according to Buffer. Follow these times to schedule your realtor social media posts and receive high engagement:
6. Optimize Posts for SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website and online content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This helps you increase your visibility and reach a wider audience. To optimize social media posts for realtors, start by researching relevant keywords related to your market, niche, and audience. Some real estate keywords you can use include:
- Apartments for rent
- Houses for sale
- Luxury homes
- Real estate market
- How to buy a house for the first time
- 2024 real estate market trends New York
Use keywords naturally in your post captions, hashtags, and descriptions. Also, make sure your post content is high-quality, informative, and engaging to keep your audience interested and draw in new followers.
Additionally, include links to your website or blog in your social media posts to drive traffic and improve your website’s search engine ranking. The more high-quality backlinks you have pointing to your website, the better your website will rank in search engine results, which can lead to more leads and clients for your real estate business.
7. Repurpose Content for Each Platform
Every social media channel is made differently, so they should each be used differently. Instead of taking the same approach to all of them, repurpose your content for each platform. This does not mean simply copying and pasting content, but intentionally tweaking each post to fit each platform. Using this strategy will help you more efficiently reach different audiences on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, and so on.
For example, here’s how you could differentiate your social media strategy for real estate on specific social platforms:
- Facebook business page: Your realtor Facebook page is great for posting market updates, active listings, funny memes, and links to blogs or landing pages on your website.
- Facebook groups: Groups are one of the best ways to generate Facebook leads, especially given that 1.8 billion users engage with groups every month. Consider creating a Facebook group for your sphere of influence and local audience, post more casual and personal content, and interact more frequently with members. Don’t forget to invite members to ask and answer questions of their own.
- YouTube: Create a library of property videos, or edit and repost Instagram stories or Facebook live videos.
- X: Use X as a news syndication source to stay top of mind. Share short snippets from your blog posts or real estate memes.
- Instagram: Use interactive polls and questions on Instagram stories, or repost YouTube videos, tutorials, or property walkthroughs on IG reels.
- LinkedIn: Use LinkedIn for real estate to connect with other professionals and potential partners, and to generate leads by adding a link to your profile.
- TikTok: Create short videos with popular music to attract real estate leads on TikTok, and reshare videos on Instagram reels.
Pro Tip: Reuse and reshare past content across various platforms. It isn’t enough to share something once. Social media is incredibly saturated—around 2 billion individuals open Facebook every day. Increase your reach by simply resharing old posts, especially posts that celebrate client wins or provide important information for your audience.
Most real estate agents and brokers are already extremely busy, so the idea of posting on multiple social media channels every day—sometimes multiple times a day—is overwhelming. This is why one of the most valuable social media tips for real estate agents is to use a scheduling tool.
The right tool will provide a content calendar so you can visualize how your content will appear to followers over time. It also automatically publishes your posts at the optimal time, so you can be consistent online without sacrificing your priorities.
Constant Contact makes it easy to create and plan out your realtor posts for multiple social media platforms in advance, which saves hours of your time. It also uniquely provides both email and SMS marketing to make sure that you reach your audience no matter where they are. Learn more about how Constant Contact can boost your social media presence.
In order to substantially grow your audience, reputation, and clientele through social media, you need to engage with your followers. Engaging is one of the most important real estate social media tips because it’s key to building authentic relationships online. Plus, engaging with your own content is helpful for social media algorithms.
Here are a few ways to encourage engagement on social media channels:
- Respond to every comment or message you receive
- Like and comment on your follower’s posts
- Use features in Instagram stories like polls, questions, and sliders
- Ask fun and unique open-ended questions
- Go live to answer questions
- Don’t be afraid to use your personality and humor while staying professional
Real estate agent engaging with her audience
(Source: Facebook)
Use social media to intentionally stay in touch with your past clients. The most common real estate social media mistake is only engaging when you have a listing for sale. This shows your social audience that you’re only active when you want them to buy something; not that you are available to connect with new people.
Send a personal friend request or follow request. Support them when they post life updates or interesting content. This helps you to stay top of mind, build a natural relationship with clients, and receive referrals.
Pro tip: One of the most powerful ways to promote your social media page is with an engagement strategy developed by Gary Vaynerchuk called $1.80. Find 10 of the most relevant and important hashtags in your industry, then comment—or leave your “two cents”—on nine of the top posts within each of the designated hashtags. You may be shocked at how quickly this strategy skyrockets your following and engagement.
10. Utilize Video to Increase Reach & Build Connections
Video content is more important than ever before. Videos tend to drive more engagement than images, and 67% of social marketers say that video content offers the highest return on investment (ROI) for real estate marketing for social media. While many real estate agents readily use YouTube to generate real estate leads, the idea of taking videos is intimidating for others.
However, you do not need to buy fancy production equipment and become a professional filmmaker or YouTuber overnight. Many successful videos are simple, like Instagram stories, reels, TikTok, and Facebook Lives. In fact, short-form videos get higher engagement rates than long-form videos.
Video content is arguably the best way to personally connect with your followers. In fact, people generally prefer to see agents speak naturally—like on Instagram stories—over polished video productions. It makes them feel like they know you, and it can be a great (free) marketing tool for promoting events like open houses. If you aren’t comfortable taking videos of yourself, there are many other ways to leverage this type of medium. Check out a few examples of real estate video marketing for inspiration.
11. Reach a Targeted Audience With Social Media Ads
Advertising on social media can be a great way to supplement your overall real estate social media marketing strategy. The most common type of online real estate advertising is Facebook, where 89% of Realtors are active.
Real estate Facebook ads have an average cost per lead of $9.76, and you only pay when someone interacts with your ad. Plus, it offers a ton of audience targeting options, so you can hone in on your ideal client by area, interests, other sites they’ve recently visited, income level, and more. If you’re interested in using Facebook advertising, make sure you read our full guide on How to Create Real Estate Facebook Ads.
Example of a Facebook Ad by Sue Little (Source: Facebook)
However, don’t start Facebook ads simply because they are the most common. Instead, determine which platform is the best for your specific audience and business goals. Social media advertising also includes Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest.
If you aren’t sure where to begin, consider using Hibu to create highly effective real estate social media ads. Hibu is one of the most affordable social media management agencies that offers custom solutions. You’ll work with online advertising experts who personally manage your account, so you’re bound to see the growth you’re looking for.
12. Use Testimonials to Highlight Past Successes
Sharing strengths on your site and social media is good, but testimonials build trust more effectively. It was found that 46% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Use your social media as a review platform. Always request testimonials after successful deals and share them on social media for credibility. Post closing photos with clients and tag them. Since this is a major life event, these posts frequently receive a high level of engagement from their friends and family—giving you free exposure.
One way to do this most efficiently is by creating a Zillow Agent profile. Since Zillow is the top real estate platform with 60 million monthly visitors, it makes sense to gather your positive testimonials on this platform. Plus, as a Zillow Premier Agent, your profile and positive reviews will be shown on any local listing that isn’t already claimed, making it an easy path to gathering ready-to-convert leads. Don’t miss the opportunity to be a Zillow Premier Agent to get more leads and testimonials.
13. Enhance Your Social Media Photos With Virtual Staging
When looking for interesting social media content, look no further than your past and current listings. Even if the homes are vacant or full of dated furniture, you can easily update them with virtual staging. Virtual staging is a process that uses software to add digital renderings of furniture to help buyers see the full potential of a property.
Example of a virtually staged living room (Source: Stuccco)
Virtual staging software looks extremely realistic and usually takes only a day or two to complete. Displaying staged photos of your listings will naturally grab your followers’ attention. Plus, showing how you can successfully market properties is a great way to generate more real estate leads.
14. Target a Niche Audience With Your Social Media Marketing
One of the most critical real estate social media marketing tips is to be clear and specific about who your audience is. Many real estate professionals make the mistake of over-generalizing their audience. If you try to attract and speak to everyone, you won’t resonate with anyone. The more you understand the audience you want to reach, the more effectively you can create content that appeals to them.
Social media can be an ideal place to market specifically to a niche audience, like for sale by owner (FSBO) properties, veterans, downsizing empty nesters, first-time homebuyers, or investors. By establishing a niche, you separate yourself from general residential real estate agents.
Example of niche social media marketing (Source: Instagram)
Although it’s not easy for your local audience to remember every real estate agent, they will remember unique or highly targeted messages. For example, it would be unlikely for an empty nester to forget a realtor who specializes in helping empty nesters sell their properties or move to a different home. The more specific you understand and market to your niche audience, the more powerful your results will be.
15. Increase Exposure With Tags & Hashtags
Tags help social media posts gain exposure on essentially every platform. Therefore, pay attention to opportunities to tag relevant accounts to your posts. For example, if you’re an agent with Sotheby’s, tag Sotheby’s Instagram account in your posts. By tagging well-known brokerages, your post shows up under their tagged posts, extending your outreach.
Additionally, consider tagging other relevant accounts. For example, if you’re promoting a high-end listing in Santa Barbara, tag local magazines, such as the Montecito Journal, so that your post is displayed in their tagged photos, and they can repost your post.
Of course, hashtags are another tool for gaining exposure on social networks like Instagram and X. Hashtags give the social media algorithms some context on your post, which helps them show your posts to people who are interested in that topic. Hashtags can range from general topics, like #realestate, to specific topics, like #OKChomesforsale. If you’re not sure where to start, check out the best hashtags for real estate.
16. Measure Results & Improve Your Strategy
Even with a robust marketing plan, you are unlikely to succeed overnight. Social media marketing for realtors takes time, consistency, and improvement. If you continue to use a real estate social media strategy that isn’t effective, you will end up wasting your time, energy, and money and become frustrated. Instead, your initial strategy should include a period to look at your results and tweak your strategy.
You can do this on your own by looking at simple analytics like views, likes, and shares. However, it will be much more impactful if you choose a social media tool that provides detailed analytics and reporting that is easy to understand.
Sprout Social provides extensive social media analytics on an easy-to-use platform. Its reporting capabilities are customizable, so you can track the data that is most relevant to your business and use it to make smart decisions. Learn more about how Sprout Social can help you grow your social media presence today.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes, social media marketing can be an effective tool for real estate agents to reach potential clients and promote their listings. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn offer various targeting options and ad formats that can help agents showcase their expertise and properties to a relevant audience, generate leads, and build relationships with their followers. However, it’s important to have a clear strategy, high-quality content, and compliance with relevant regulations.
The frequency of social media posts for realtors depends on several factors, such as the platform used, the target audience, and the type of content shared. However, as a general guideline, realtors should aim to post at least once a day on platforms like Facebook, X, and Instagram. Additionally, they should strive to maintain a consistent posting schedule to keep their audience engaged and informed.
Bottom Line
Real estate social media marketing can be an incredibly powerful way to grow your business by attracting clients who want to work with you. With a strong strategy, social media marketing for Realtors can generate leads, build your authority, and increase your income. By using the real estate tips for social media in this guide, any real estate professional can create a successful online brand.
