In the digital age, more people than ever use the internet to find the services they need to navigate their daily lives. And it’s not just the internet at large. Many people make social networks and social media their first stop when researching, asking questions, or determining how to get a service to meet their needs. Today, we’re looking at how to use a real estate social network in content marketing to help collect new home and property buyers at every stage of the marketing funnel:

• What Is a Real Estate Social Network?
• Why Should You Use Social Networking in Real Estate?
• 11 Ways To Use a Real Estate Social Network in Content Marketing

What Is a Real Estate Social Network?

A real estate social network is an online destination for realtors to create relationships throughout the industry. Most real estate social networks are traditional social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. They can also include forums like Quora, threads on Reddit, or website communities such as LikeRE. Moat real estate agents use social networks to share information, learn from other people in their profession, and find new clients. Real estate social networks are also helpful for promotional advertising, sharing content marketing, and developing yourself as a thought leader or expert in the industry.

Real estate organizations may use social networks to promote their entire brand. But individual realtors may also use social networks at a personal level.

Read more about it: What Is a Real Estate Social Network?

Why Should You Use Social Networking in Real Estate?

According to the National Association of Realtors, social networking is a popular channel for agents because it helps them find new clients and make more sales. According to the study, about 47% of real estate agencies say that social networking brings the highest quality leads compared to other sources. That’s why 77% of realtors actively use social media to promote their individual efforts, agencies, or properties online. Real estate social networking helps promote your visibility online and puts your information right where home and property buyers are looking for answers.

11 Ways To Use a Real Estate Social Network in Content Marketing

If your goal of using social networking is to attract more clients as an individual agent or to bring more awareness to your real estate firm, there are some strategies to add to your marketing plan to take advantage of these tools. Here are a few ways you can use real estate social networks for content marketing:

1. Communicate With Others

One of the unique features of social media is the ability to connect with anyone online through a simple comment or message. It’s important to communicate with your followers. If they ask questions in the comments section of your posts or send you a direct message, respond. It’s important to respond to both good and bad messages to show that you’re engaged with your community. It may be even more important to respond to unpleasant messages and comments to show other followers that you’re respectful and not deterred by criticism.

But don’t feel the need to respond to abusive or bullying comments. There’s a difference between receiving negative feedback and getting trolled online. Instead, you can report troll comments to the social network as spam. You can also engage with people who don’t follow you currently on social networks. If you belong to groups or follow city and town pages for your coverage area, you can engage with residents and business owners through those channels.

Consider sharing information about the real estate industry, your business, and your listings when appropriate. This may help you earn more followers on your individual or business accounts.

2. Educate Buyers and Sellers

Content marketing mostly takes place at the top and middle of the marketing funnel because it aims to educate audiences about an industry or a specific product or service. There are plenty of opportunities to educate your audience on social networks. Creating guides or checklists for first-time home buyers could be one choice for education. Sharing tips of the day for those interested in exploring commercial real estate is another. 

Browse your social networking channels for hashtags, threads, and other trending topics. What information are people looking for online? These may give you suggestions about what kind of educational content to create. You can also look for areas with content gaps. What aren’t other realtors or companies covering with the posts they make and the content they share? Is there a need for content in any area that doesn’t exist? You could develop pieces like videos, infographics, or blog posts to fill those holes.

Remember not to direct all your content to first-time home buyers or people who are new to real estate. Social networking is also for buyers or sellers who have been in real estate for an extended period. They may want or need more advanced tips or reference materials. You can adjust the content you share and your marketing messages depending on what audience segment you’re targeting with each post or piece of content.

Free eBook: How To Analyze Your Content and Craft a Winning Strategy for 2023

3. Promote the Town

Social networking is all about building a community. If you work in a specific city, region, or state, it could be helpful to promote not just the real estate industry or your specific listings, but the places you work, too. People looking to buy homes and property in a new location, especially one they’ve never visited before, may turn to social media or social networks to learn about the area. Consider running neighborhood spotlight posts in areas where you sell homes and focus on features like nearby parks, schools, restaurants, stores, or other points of interest.

When promoting cities and towns to specific audiences, consider what points of interest may attract them most. Singles or young couples may not care about schools because they don’t have kids yet. But this demographic might care about trendy bars or the nightlife nearby. In contrast, families with young children may look for quieter communities with nearby childcare centers or activities for kids. 

You can promote towns for business or commercial real estate, too. Depending on the types of commercial real estate in which you deal, you may focus on town culture, the chamber of commerce, or access to nearby resources, truck routes, or highways.

Related: Local Online Marketing: What It Is and How To Use It

4. Share Your Personality

For individual realtors who use social networking to attract new clients, you can also use yourself as the subject of your content. People like to make personal connections with their service providers. People like doctors, hairdressers or barbers, and real estate agents are all service providers who use their personalities to attract new clients. You can share “about me” posts or videos that explain who you are as a realtor and as a person. 

This content allows you to share more about your experience in real estate and explains why you’re a qualified service provider for new clients’ needs. It also lets you share your hobbies and interests with your audience. Sharing more about your personal life could help be the deciding factor for some new clients when choosing an agent. For example, if you share on social media that you have two dogs, home buyers with their own pets might be more likely to choose you to handle their cases because you understand their specific wants or needs for a property.

Keep in mind not to over-share your personal life on your real estate social networks. These profiles are still professional. Talking about personal struggles or accomplishments unrelated to home or property buying or selling is better left to your personal social media accounts.

5. Moderate Your Sales Pitches

It’s okay to share straightforward property listings on your social channels from time to time. But if you’re using your social networking for content marketing, that may only attract people who want to buy homes or property. Most people getting into real estate want to learn more about the process first rather than jumping straight to scheduling a tour or putting in an offer. Balance the type of content you share for each segment of the marketing funnel to make sure that you’re reaching more leads or clients than those just ready to buy.

6. Add Video

According to HubSpot, video is the second most-used content type to increase audience engagement on social networks. Even if you’re not a video marketer, you can still incorporate video into your marketing plan for social media. Most platforms make it easy to create short-form and live videos to share clips with your audience. You can share them in feeds, stories, or both depending on what type of audience you hope to capture. Some popular types of video content for real estate agents include home or property tours or short videos with fast facts about the industry, buying, or selling property.

7. Remember All Your Clients and Connections

We said this once, but it’s worth repeating: new buyers aren’t your only audience members on social networks. Even if new home or property buyers are your biggest audience segment on any social platform, it’s important to develop content that caters to the other segments, too. These additional segments may include return buyers, commercial-only audiences, or other real estate professionals. 

To connect with previous clients, consider asking for their feedback or input about working with you and sharing their testimonials. Running polls or quizzes on social media may also encourage both new and returning audiences to engage. When working to connect with other agents, consider asking them to share their best tips for your different audience segments. Connecting with other individual realtors from your agency on social media is a great way to promote your individual content and draw attention to the agency also.

8. Cross-Post Content

If you run a social network profile as an individual realtor and your agency also has a profile, you can cross-post information to both accounts. Platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to share posts to your feed or stories from other accounts. Instagram now offers features for collaborations with multiple accounts where a post appears in the feeds for both collaborators. Almost all social media platforms allow you to tag other accounts within a post to have your content appear somewhere on their profile or within their feed.

Realtors and real estate agencies can take advantage of these features to share realtor bios, company milestones, and other relevant content across channels and profiles to reach a wider audience.

9. Curate Content

You or your agency partners don’t have to create all that content that you share with your social network audience. Curating content from other reliable sources is just as helpful for educating and starting conversations with your audience. Sharing industry reports, news articles about the real estate market, or helpful tools and resources like eBooks can help supplement the content you create for your feeds.

Having a content balance can help you seem more authoritative rather than self-promotional on any platform. While it’s expected and acceptable to promote your services on your social networks, providing some content just for educational purposes can help increase your audience’s trust. It shows you want to help them in their real estate journey rather than just make a sale.

Related: Curating Content: What Other Articles Don’t Tell You

10. Promote What Happens After a Sale

For home buyers especially, their real estate journey doesn’t end at the closing. Many people often choose to engage in home remodeling or renovations before or right after moving in. They may also have questions about things like home warranties, what appliances to buy, or how to work with utility providers. 

These are all topics you can cover with your social networking content. This is a great way to stay connected with former clients or customers and to provide value for your entire audience. Checklists, explainer videos, and in-depth guides may be some of the best content to share to target this area of your audience.

11. Share Your Contact Information

Even when you’re working to educate your audience rather than push a direct sale, they must know where and how to get in touch with you if they want to learn more. Displaying your contact information in your profile bio or about section is a good place to start. You can also share contact details within the text of a post or as part of the image for an infographic. You may end each of your short videos with your phone number and email address so that it appears in the captions on the video.

Sharing your contact information creates a call to action to remind audiences that while they might just be learning about real estate right now, there is a next step to take. And you can help them when they’re ready to move to that part of the journey.

Go Beyond Social Networks for Real Estate Content Marketing

Social networking isn’t the only way to engage in content marketing for real estate. Creating a blog for your organization or yourself as a realtor is another way to connect with new leads at the top of the funnel. Email and newsletter marketing is another great way to stay connected to your leads once you’ve brought them into the marketing funnel. Using all these techniques together can help you reach new and current audiences where they spend time.

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