Social media is moving at a faster pace than ever before. Sometimes it feels like you are finally getting the hang of it, but then the next day, social media algorithms change again. It’s hard to keep up with how quickly social media evolves if you haven’t cultivated a routine that helps you regularly update your strategy. Since 47% of real estate businesses say that social media results in the highest quality leads, it’s important to consistently audit your Instagram and Facebook presence for better engagement, visibility, and lead generation. We recommend updating your social media channels every three months while doing a comprehensive audit every 6-12 months. Luckily, the six social media updates we’ll cover today don’t have to take hours of your time in order to implement. Let’s dive right in.
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- Make sure your branding is consistent. - Consistency shows how much you care about your client's experience. Consistency can be measured in terms of how often you post or how cohesive your brand voice and tone are, but we can’t forget about your visual branding. You’ll need a well-established set of visual brand guidelines in order to stay visually consistent on every social media platform. Do you have a defined color palette? Have you selected fonts that look great when paired together? Do you have a library of graphic elements (like patterns, textures, illustrations, icons, etc.) that fit well within your visual brand identity? If you can answer “yes” to all of these questions, you’re on the right track with your visual branding. If not, locate areas of improvement and work with a graphic designer to improve your branding. The more professional you look, the more professional your client experience will feel. So, where should you start? Our first recommendation is to get into the habit of updating your social media profiles any time you update your website. This will give you better consistency over time since your website should match your social media channels. For example, if you have new team photos, be sure to update them on your website and your Facebook banner. If you decide to rebrand your business, update any previous profile photos with your new logo. Think about how you can add more consistency with your branded imagery and content as we move into how to improve your Instagram presence.
- Update your Instagram bio. - When someone visits your Instagram profile for the first time, they’ll immediately notice your Instagram bio. It’s front-and-center on your profile and has to be written with your dream clients in mind. Ideally, your Instagram bio will give Instagram users an idea of who you are as a real estate brand, what makes you different, and how you can help them. Oh, and you’ll have to communicate all of this in 150 characters or less. It’s no easy feat! Let us help you by providing an Instagram bio framework you can use as a template. Real estate mention: It should be very clear from reading your bio that you work in real estate. Make sure you include “real estate” or “realtor” somewhere in your Instagram bio. Location: What local market do you serve? You’ll want this information to be front-and-center in your bio. Awards: If there are any awards or notable accomplishments that your team has earned, you can add them to your bio like North Group. These awards give you more authority and credibility. Bio link: Make sure you include a link to your website. If you decide to temporarily link to a new blog post or listing page, be sure to shorten your link with a tool like Bit.ly. Otherwise, you can link to your homepage or a Linktree page for the long term. If you create an Instagram post with the words “link in bio,” you’ll want to either update the link in your bio or update your Linktree page to include the new link. Call-to-action: Instead of only adding a bio link, you’ll want to include call-to-action (CTA) language at the very end of your bio. Emojis: To make your bio really stand out, use emojis as bullet points. Just make sure your emojis are on-brand, relevant, and professional.
- Include cover images on your Instagram highlights. - Your Instagram feed will often determine your audience’s first impression of your real estate business, but Instagram stories will make a lasting connection with followers. Instagram stories are used by 500 million users every day with one-third of all Instagram stories created by business accounts. When you add a video or photo file to your Instagram story, it will only be available to view in your story for 24 hours. That is, unless you add it to your Instagram highlights. Instagram highlights allow you to save selected stories for public viewing at any time. All users need to do is locate a relevant highlight cover to begin viewing the curated collection of stories. It’s best to create a strategy around what you want to create Instagram highlights for and how they can be useful to your followers. Think about what content your audience is looking for and how you can communicate what your highlights are about through custom cover images. Ready to utilize Instagram highlights? Here’s how to create your first one: Go to your Instagram profile and click the “New” button with a plus sign right underneath the “Edit Profile” button. Once it opens, select past story videos or photos you would like to feature by tapping on the ones you want to add, which shows a blue checkmark when clicked. When you’ve selected your featured stories, click the “Next” button in the top right corner and give the highlight a new name. Make sure it is short enough to read on your profile. Then edit the cover image by clicking “Edit Cover” underneath the circle-cropped photo.
- Add a variety of Instagram content. - Updating your Instagram profile is important, but updating your content strategy is even more important. Posting consistently shows how much you value educating your followers and building a community. Since Instagram is a fast-paced social media platform, you need to provide a variety of content types to stay engaging and interesting. Now that your Instagram story highlights are set up, let’s talk about your feed. Instagram has gone on record to say photos and videos are equal in terms of how they prioritizes posts in the algorithm. This means adding long-form IGTV videos, Instagram stories, and Instagram feed photos are all needed in creating a well-rounded, engaging Instagram presence. Instagram says their post rankings come down to six main factors: Interest, Relationship, Timeliness, Frequency, Following. Usage. You can read more about how your Instagram feed works here, but remember these factors as you update your Instagram content strategy. Let’s start brainstorming new content ideas for your Instagram feed. Add animated graphics to capture more of your audience’s attention than a static image can. Include team-focused content of group meetings, team retreats, volunteer events, and more. Record video interviews with your team members so Instagram followers can learn more about the people behind your real estate brand. Create a photo slideshow with relevant statistics that will better educate your audience. Host an Instagram giveaway during a special event or holiday to help you increase brand awareness and give to your local community.Share behind-the-scenes photos of video shoots, virtual tours, and more for a day-in-the-life look at your team’s work. Celebrate work anniversaries of each team member with a dedicated video, like this example from North Group which features personable photos and kind affirmations from other team members. We hope these ideas will inspire your own Instagram content strategy. If you need to make additional updates to your strategy, here are 7 things to master when improving your Instagram presence. Once you have this nailed down, we can start talking about your Facebook presence.
- Edit your Facebook bio. - When updating your Facebook bio (or “About” section), the good news is that you don’t have as many character limits as Instagram. You’ll have more room to explain the mission and specializations of your real estate business. Even though you have more creative freedom, you don’t want to make your Facebook bio too long to read. It should be easy to skim as someone scrolls through your profile. Keep it simple by introducing who you are, what you do, and how your real estate brand is different from others in a few short sentences. Make sure you keep jargon terms to a minimum so you can better connect with clients who may not have a previous understanding of real estate. Think about how to simply communicate what you do. You may also choose to add awards and other accomplishments in the “Awards” section on Facebook to strengthen your bio.
- Increase your credibility by asking for Facebook reviews. - Did you know when someone visits your Facebook page, they see your recommendations and reviews before they can scroll through your Facebook posts? That is Facebook’s way of telling us that reviews are incredibly important on their platform! More than Google or Yelp, Facebook is the number one website consumers use to review and recommend businesses. This is because people typically trust recommendations when they come from family or friends. The same is true since 70% of people still trust recommendations from like-minded people they don’t know. Facebook, then, is the perfect place to boost your reviews, especially when you are using Facebook ads to promote your listings. If you have hundreds of reviews on home search sites like Zillow, ask past clients to leave a review on Facebook too. It tells Facebook that your real estate brand is trustworthy and experienced. Once a past client leaves a review on your Facebook page, be sure to like and comment on it with a personal thank you message. It will not only improve your relationship with your past client, but it will also show others the kind of care you put into every client’s experience. 92% of consumers consider reviews when purchasing a product or service, and the average consumer reads around 10 reviews before making a final purchasing decision. Do you have at least 10-15 reviews on your Facebook business page? If not, follow up with past clients and kindly ask them to review you on Facebook. You can also give them an example of a past client testimonial if they’re looking for help on how to write a review. These reviews can then be repurposed into client success stories which you can use for quality social media posts and website features. This is the best way to build a sustainable real estate marketing plan that you can easily update over time.
Take the time to dig into each of these social media updates and let me know how some of these work out for you in the future. To your success!!
Strength and courage,
Wade
