Our modern world is full of online influence and social media is a large part of it. Businesses and marketers around the world are relying more and more on online channels such as social media platforms and, consequently, social media has started to cater to businesses in improved ways.
Real estate is no different, and many real estate businesses and professionals actively leverage social media to promote and grow their business and portfolios. It is absolutely crucial to stay on top of trends and norms in the real estate business, and social media is well beyond trending to now being a norm. According to a report published in 2018 by the National Association of Realtors, almost 80 percent of all real estate agents are using some form of social media to grow their clientele and business. You cannot possibly expect to compete in a tech-savvy market that has a significant advantage over you.
Let’s discuss which core networking and social media platforms you can leverage to effectively grow your real estate business and portfolio.
Social Media and Real Estate
There are plenty of networking and social media platforms out there that can be effective in marketing and growing your real estate business but there are some basic core platforms that you need to focus on.
Once you have a good grasp on these, you can start to focus and establish your presence on other networking and social media platforms.
LinkedIn is the networking platform for any business. If you are not on LinkedIn already, we highly recommend you join today and start creating a network. Create a professional profile for yourself and a business page for your real estate business, if you have one.
You can connect with other real estate professionals, agencies, brokerages and even clients to strategically build and leverage a vast network. LinkedIn can be a great source to gain trusted referrals, through networking, for your business and for creating opportunities in the real world.
The higher age demographic and professional user base of LinkedIn means that it can also be beneficial for you if you wish to directly sell commercial properties to other professionals.
You can also join relevant real estate groups and discuss current topics with other professionals. If you continuously provide solutions to the discussed issues on these groups, you can even establish yourself as an authority in real estate matters, which will help grow your business.
Most people have and regularly use personal accounts on Facebook but in order to leverage this massive social media platform for real estate purposes, you will want to create a business page. Business pages are different from personal accounts and offer useful features.
They allow you to promote visual posts to large audiences and offer features such as page analytics to learn who your audience is and how they interact with your business page. You will want to create compelling posts using images and videos that attract audiences toward your business page.
Additionally, you can ask questions in your posts, promote upcoming events and create shareable posts that will encourage increased commenting and sharing of your posts. This increased engagement helps the Facebook algorithm promote your posts much more easily to users.
More and more real estate professionals are using Facebook livestreams to showcase their listings in virtual tours. This is great for promoting your properties and getting engagement from relevant, interested people.
You can create hype for these tours and even post and share 360-degree photos that show parts of your properties to users. The analytics tools on Facebook will also help you assess the engagements on these posts to allow for more effective and targeted marketing. Here is a guide for setting up your Facebook business page.
Instagram is a highly popular platform that is capable of generating a ton of publicity and promotion for real estate purposes. It is primarily a visual social media platform, where you can post pictures and videos of your business or properties to engage users.
Every post on Instagram has the option to add multiple pictures, which makes it excellent for posting multiple pictures of each of your listings in a single post. You can add captions to the posts explaining the listing and any other details.
Always make sure to add your contact information in the front and center of every caption so viewers can link the listings back to you. Many users will see the photos of your listings and wonder what to do next, your contact details will allow them to contact you for further communication.
A good way to establish connection between your listing posts and yourself is to brand every image in the post with your real estate business’s name and contact. This will eliminate any confusion among viewers, and they will know who to contact regarding every image, post or listing.
There are all ages of people on Instagram but it is primarily used by millennials and the younger generations. You will want to set up your posts to appeal to them and target your marketing efforts accordingly.
Other Platforms for Real Estate
As mentioned earlier, there are plenty of other online platforms that can benefit your real estate business and portfolio. These platforms include visual platforms like Pinterest, social platforms like Twitter, and some highly specific platforms that cater to the real estate industry.
One such platform that is specifically designed for the real estate industry is OktoHub.
OktoHub
OktoHub is the first on-demand real estate assistance program that is a networking platform designed for real estate professionals. You can join OktoHub and connect with real estate professionals in your area to start creating a network of reliable and trusted partners.
Networking is important for any real estate professional because it helps grow and nurture their business and portfolio. OktoHub will help you grow your network and provide you trusted local assistance in your real estate ventures.
The platform allows you to take control of your schedule and stop trading your time for money. You can effectively stop passing up on clients and grow your real estate business without giving up more hours of your personal time.
Conclusion
Social media and real estate are coming together more and more each day. Current global conditions have exacerbated the importance of online platforms for real estate businesses and this trend will only continue to grow.
If you are currently working in the real estate industry and not leveraging these online platforms, then we highly recommend you start immediately. You will attract larger audiences and market your listings better through networking, visuals and even online live tours.
It is important, however, to first establish your presence on core networking and social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram before you focus your efforts elsewhere. From there, you can spread out to any number of online platforms that suit your needs.
Although, we highly recommend you try OktoHub now, as it is a very practical networking platform that can help your real estate business today. It is very easy to use and you can start saving your time and efforts immediately and grow your network at the same time. For more information on real estate, networking or OktoHub, please visit our website.
