By Ben Spowart
With over 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram presents a major opportunity for estate agents looking to boost their online presence. However, simply creating an account is not enough – real estate agents must utilise Instagram’s unique features strategically. This article will explore 6 proven ways that realtors and estate agents can leverage Digital Marketing platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook, to market themselves and their property listings effectively to attract home buyers and sellers in 2023.
One of the most effective ways for real estate agents to utilize social media channels, such as Instagram, is by featuring their current property listings. Instagram’s focus on visual content makes it the ideal social media platform for realtors to showcase beautiful, high-quality photos and videos of homes for sale to attract potential buyers.
When posting about listings, real estate professionals should go beyond just sharing a single photo. Creating slideshows or using Instagram’s carousel feature allows agents to share multiple images in a single post, giving followers a more complete view of the property. Get creative with your shots – capture different rooms, architectural details, outdoor spaces, and lifestyle elements like furniture styling.
The captions real estate agents write for these listing posts are also critical. Don’t just list basic specs – tell a story about the home and highlight its most desirable attributes using relevant hashtags. Mention special features, recent renovations, neighbourhood perks, or whatever else might capture a potential buyer’s attention. Pose engaging questions to spark interest and interactions.
Adding pertinent hashtags like #realestate, #propertyforsale, and your city or neighbourhood can help surface your Instagram posts to more users interested in buying homes in your area. Consistently showcasing your current properties on Instagram is a great way to attract qualified leads and grow your real estate business.
Instagram’s live video feature presents a major opportunity for real estate agents to host virtual open houses and engage with potential buyers in real-time. Going live on Instagram gives realtors a way to digitally showcase and tour listed properties for home buyers, wherever they are in the world.
When streaming an Instagram Live, real estate professionals should walk through the home highlighting its best features and most desirable details. Use your knowledge as the listing agent to point out special characteristics that set the property apart. Viewers can ask questions during the broadcast, allowing real estate agents to engage with audiences and provide valuable insider information.
Promote your upcoming virtual open houses on your Instagram profile and Stories beforehand to drive viewership. Schedule Instagram Live sessions so more of your real estate followers can tune in live. You can also save the replays to IGTV or your Stories highlights if people missed it.
This builds excitement, urgency, and FOMO around your real estate listings. Instagram followers get a first look and the feeling that they need to act fast by reaching out about the property – which helps generate more leads. The interactive nature of live streaming lets home buyers feel more digitally connected to their homes.
Instagram Stories present a great way for real estate agents to showcase a more candid, behind-the-scenes look at their business. Use Stories to give followers a peek into open houses, client meetings, listing appointments, and other daily activities.
This type of casual, raw content allows your personality to shine through. Show quick glimpses of properties coming soon, give a shoutout to happy buyers when sales close, or poll followers for opinions as you tour potential listings.
Stories have highly interactive elements like polls, Q&As, quizzes and emoji sliders that followers love. Take advantage of these to engage your audience. Ask about décor style preferences, neighbourhood amenities, or what they’d upgrade in a home. This content disappears after 24 hours, so followers appreciate the time-sensitive nature of Stories.
Posting unique perspectives beyond your polished Instagram feed gives a more well-rounded view of your real estate business. This authenticity helps build connections with followers, who will be eager to view your daily stories to see what properties or insider info you’ll share next!
In addition to listings, real estate agents should also use Instagram posts to highlight their expertise, establish their personal brand, and position themselves as trusted real estate advisors.
Share regular market updates, insider tips, mortgage and lending advice, and other valuable insights to demonstrate your real estate knowledge. Provide transparent facts on home valuations, neighbourhood growth, sales trends, and what buyers/sellers should prepare for when working with a realtor.
Let your personality and passion for real estate shine through as well. Post about your background, how you got started in the industry, why you love this business, and what makes you different from other agents. Respond to all Instagram comments and DMs to have genuine conversations that build rapport and loyalty with leads.
Story highlights like “Meet [Your Name]” and “Real Estate Tips” allow realtors to organize this content for easy reference on Instagram. Instagram is a powerful social media platform for real estate professionals to showcase their unique value proposition and cultivate an engaged audience of contacts who trust you to meet their property needs.
Teaming up with complementary local businesses can be a win-win for real estate agents’ cross-promotion and lead generation on Instagram. Identify companies like mortgage lenders, home inspectors, contractors, interior designers and more that home buyers often need when purchasing property.
Create co-branded Instagram content that provides value for your real estate audience while subtly marketing your partnerships. For example, post tips from a local contractor for what home buyers should look for when house hunting. Share designer suggestions from a furniture store for staging empty properties to sell faster.
Sponsoring local events like art fairs or races provides another opportunity for realtors to get involved with community organizations and network. You can promote the event on your Instagram to show support. Attend and capture engaging photos and videos to share from the event, tagging and thanking the organizers.
Forming these partnerships strengthens real estate agents’ local ties, puts them in front of new audiences if you’re cross-promoted, and positions them as engaged community leaders. The goodwill and word-of-mouth referrals generated for your real estate business are well worth the effort.
The key to optimizing your Instagram strategy is taking advantage of the platform’s built-in analytics to assess what’s working and what’s not. You can see insights like your top-performing posts, the best times to post, and demographic data on your followers.
Analyze your content to see which listings or post types get the most engagement and shares. Check your followers’ activity levels at different times of day to determine when they are most active on the app. Examine comments to understand what resonates most with your audience.
Use these insights to refine your approach. Double down on what’s successful by creating more of that content. Try posting at different times if needed to align with your followers’ habits. Respond to feedback to give followers more of what they want.
Continuously tracking performance allows you to course-correct in real-time. You can stay ahead of changing algorithms and follower preferences. A data-driven approach ensures you maximize your reach and engagement on Instagram over time.
