In the digital age, social media platforms are a necessity for real estate marketing. Potential purchasers, renters, or holidayers look to social media for guidance before deciding where to move in. Detailed reviews, photos, and posts sway their choices, pushing properties with superb digital presence to centre stage. Lacking a social media presence puts real estate businesses at risk of falling behind their competitors.

The competitive digital landscape leaves many real estate companies wondering how they can use social media to best reach their target audiences.

What makes Social Media Marketing Effective?

The key to any effective social media marketing campaign is appealing to the target audience and generating positive engagement (e.g. impressions, comments, and re-shares).

To find what makes an audience tick, research what posts are trending in your field by checking your competitors and peers using social media for real estate. Competitors’ social media accounts are a great place to gauge how an audience likes to engage. Marketers can use audience engagement analytics as a barometer for their own social media efficacy.

However, every social media platform has a unique format, so an effective post on LinkedIn might not translate to success on Instagram. To master a variety of real estate posts for social media, check out this guide of eight real estate social media marketing ideas.

Instagram - Hashtag Strategy

Instagram hashtags allow real estate accounts to increase their exposure, boost impressions, and connect with current and future clients. Instagram allows up to thirty hashtags on each post. However, real estate social media content should not contain a bunch of random hashtags.

To keep posts looking clean and simple, try adding a few hashtags to real estate content for social media, then adding more in a comment below. Hashtags must be specific and relevant to the post. Adding something like #love, will instantly get lost in a sea of content, while #manhattanviews is more specific to a post regarding real estate in New York.

Image courtesy of Summit NYC

Summit NYC uses almost thirty comment hashtags each time they post, and adds their main hashtag, #LiveAboveItAll, as their first one each time. This is a good example of how to do social media marketing for real estate.

Captivating Facebook Ads

Creating the best real estate content for social media requires patience, insight, and lots of trial and error. Luckily, on Facebook, businesses can learn a lot from both their successes and failures, and then adjust their strategy to match their audience. 

Image courtesy of Baccarat Residences, USA

For their July ad campaign, Baccarat Residences chose to feature six ads — all with similar copy, but different calls to action, such as: Learn More, Schedule a Tour Today, and Contact Our Sales Team. By analysing which ads performed the best, they were able to eliminate the rest, and then re-target users who viewed the ads but did not convert the call to action.

Podcasts

According to Edison Research, eighty-eight million Americans — about 28 percent of their population — are weekly podcast listeners. The audience is waiting, and real estate marketers must take advantage of the opportunity to engage potential clients.

Listeners want to hear real estate experts speak about what they know. Social media marketing for real estate investors should not focus on sports, politics, or stand-up comedy. Instead, focus on real estate topics for social media related to the brand identity — lifestyle, business, and travel are all examples of real estate niches.

Image courtesy of Auriens, UK

Auriens, a luxury senior living residence in the UK, hosts a podcast called “The Third Act,” that celebrates later life through “sparkling conversations with vintage minds.” Their use of niche conversations demonstrates how to market real estate on social media.

Instagram - Reels

Instagram Reels is a captivating way for real estate video-marketers to show off their properties in a fun, simple, and stylish way.

Images courtesy of ArtVillas, Costa Rica

ArtVillas, a vacation home rental company, makes great use of Reels by partnering with influencers and photographers to create beautiful videos on location. These videos often feature drone footage, beautiful music, and gorgeous scenery, inspiring potential customers to rent a home-away-from-home.

Instagram’s algorithm favours Reels, so creating them is a great way for accounts to gain exposure, impressions, and interactions online.

Pinterest

Here’s one of our actionable real estate facts for social media: with 431 million monthly active users and a focus on image-sharing, Pinterest is an overlooked hub for social media real estate marketing.

Pinterest is a very “shareable” platform, making it easy for real estate companies to link to their listings, websites, and other social accounts. Marketers can add pinterest boards organising content into topics like architecture, interior design, or lifestyle.

Images courtesy of Blackberry Farm, USA

Blackberry Farm saves their content into folders such as “Life At Blackberry,” “Farm Animals,” and “Activities & Adventure.” This account knows how to advertise real estate on social media –– they’ve amassed 4.5k followers and over 24k monthly users.

Linkedin

LinkedIn has evolved from a professional networking site into a formidable social platform. It’s vital for companies across all industries to have a social media presence on LinkedIn, and establish themselves as a go-to resource in their field.

“Sales-driven” posts do not tend to perform well on LinkedIn’s algorithm. Instead of posting all their newest listings, real estate social media advertising should use posts to enhance their credibility and stand out from competitors.

Images courtesy of Escapade Living, UK

Escapade Living recently shared a video of the architectural design process of their new project. This type of post works to excite potential residents, while showcasing not only the project but also the expertise, passion, and ingenuity of the company. 

Micro-Influencer Marketing

One of the most vital aspects of real estate marketing social media is community. Buyers, renters, and vacationers all want to spend their time in a place where they feel at home. To demonstrate community, social media marketers can utilise micro-influencers.

Micro-influencers are social media users with less than 100k followers. While large macro-influencers may have millions of followers, they lack the authenticity of real clients, guests, or residents. Instead of over-paying for Kylie Jenner to stay at their property, savvy real estate marketers will feature and engage with organic customer content for real estate social media.

Images courtesy of Embassy Gardens, UK

When an Instagram user visits the Embassy Gardens Instagram page, they’re likely to see posts of residents, their pets, friendly staff, local cafes, and more. This is a clever example of how to promote real estate business on social media through FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).

Virtual reality (VR) Tour

While VR isn't technically social media, it's worth including here as it offers ways to improve the impact of your real estate social media. By integrating VR into your overarching sales, you can then showcase this as a differentiator on social platforms, driving increased engagement.

Other advantages of a VR tour include:

• Reaching buyers who are home-searching from afar

• Allowing busy buyers an easy way to tour at their own convenience

• No longer needing current residents to vacate the home for in-person tours

• Allowing buyers a way to feel safe in the age of Covid-19

• Standing out from other sellers who do not offer a VR option

Image courtesy of The Glenwood Luxury Residences, USA

The Glenwood Luxury Residences requires users to provide an email address to book a virtual tour. This allows the company to draw insights on their user base, and reach out to potential customers with further information.

Proven Partners can create great Real Estate Social Media Marketing Content

With these ideas for real estate companies, any marketer can develop one of the best real estate social media campaigns. However, it can be a challenge to convey a firm brand identity across a variety of platforms, mediums, and audiences. That’s why Proven Partners offers unique social media marketing real estate strategies to unify a company’s voice, goals, and digital presence. 

If you’re wondering how to market your real estate business on social media, visit Proven Partner’s Real Estate Social Media Marketing Services page.