How Successful Real Estate Agents use Instagram for Marketing in 2020

Michael Inzerillo | CEO Inzo Software Inc.

How Instagram Helps Real Estate Agents

Instagram stands amongst the most popular social media platforms with a monthly user base of 500 million users, and 300 million daily users. Statistics reveal that Instagram garners over 4.2 billion likes in a daily basis, and every minute, around 216,000 images are uploaded on this social media platform.

In This Article...

Real estate agents need to focus on adopting Instagram and making it a pivotal platform in their social media marketing efforts. Primarily because 30% of the entire US population uses Instagram, and more than half of Millennials across the world are using this platform every single day. It is truly one of the most effective platforms to market your listings, build a dynamic brand image, and attract new clients with immersive imagery.

Instagram allows real estate agents to explore strikingly different tools and avenues of creativity as compared to Facebook or Twitter, and its user engagement and demographic customization is also much more effective. Instagram does require some practice, however, it is truly worth your time in terms of user engagement and boosting website traffic.

This mobile application has an attractive interface and user-friendly design, and the engagement level of Instagram is strikingly higher than other social media platform. It is the ultimate goldmine to create leads, interact with potential clients and boost your social media presence. In this article, we will walk you through some strategies and tips to use your Instagram profile to effective market your business and real estate listings.

1. Build your Brand

Instagram allows you to humanize your brand and connect with your audience at a much more personal, and deeper level. It is the ultimate PR mouthpiece of your social media presence, and it uses immersive imagery to promote your services and ambitions. It allows you to carve out an image of expertise and professionalism, and with the help of the right hashtags, you can establish yourself as an authority in your realm.

It is extremely easy to get discovered on Instagram, and as long as you are consistently sharing relevant and informative content, you can use your Instagram feed to tell your audience that no one knows your real estate market better than you. This powerful social media site will help establish you as an expert amongst a community of buyers, sellers, referring agents, and other real estate professionals, encouraging them to work with you.

First and foremost, you must create a business profile, or even convert your personal account into a business profile. This will provide you all the analytical tools to gain insight into your content strategy and the performance of your strategies in terms of user engagement and traffic generation. 

Make sure that your business profile is strictly focused on the real estate niche, and does not include any personal images, or pictures of you at a vacation or with your partner. It must exude a dynamic professional vibe that will inculcate an image of trust and reliability in your audience.

2. An Impressive Bio

Your Instagram profile will serve as your strongest online identity and you must make sure that at first glance, the impression it gives is compelling and impressive. It all begins with a compelling and engaging bio, which will inspire others to connect with you and go through all your posts.

Instead of focusing the bio on yourself, your achievements and your personality, focus it on the client and your audience. With a brief description, explain what you can do for your clients, your areas of specialization and the element that makes you stand out.

Your bio should be focused on your professional life, how you are devoted to helping your client, your real estate niche, which could be villas, apartments or even industrial zones etc. Be sure to hint your location or neighborhood alongside leaving your contact information and links to your website and other online platforms.

Your business photo must also be equally compelling and attractive, and be sure to use the same headshot that you have on your website and your business cards to maintain consistency.

3. Engaging Content

Instagram users seek engaging and creative content, and since the social media platform is largely focused on pictures, you need to make sure your feed is brimming with high quality images without violating someone else’s copyrights. As a real estate agent, there is a wide range of areas and niches that you can explore in your content strategy.

You can address the issues faced by first time home buyers, sellers and investors with the help of Infographics and detailed captions, along with adding home staging tips, décor ideas, home maintenance and repair guides, and much more. You can also add diversity with pictures of prominent tourist attractions and neighborhoods from your listings.

Make no mistake, the captions are just as important as the photos, and with the help of relevant hashtags, you can market your post in a vast audience. Keep in mind that while hashtags and funded marketing campaigns can help you gain audience, the algorithms of Instagram are wired in a way that encourages the popularity of engaging content while irrelevant and dull posts get lost in the crowd of images.

So, be sure to focus your energies on building a campaign that can truly add value to the feed of your targeted audience, alongside building your reputation as an expert and authority within your niche. You can always use Instagram Insights to examine the interaction levels of each post, which will help you modify and improve your content strategy.

4. Power of Hashtags

The magic of hashtags lies in the power of hashtags, and armed with the right hashtags and engaging content, you can use Instagram to market your listings, build a dynamic brand image and make new clients every day. Instagram allows you to use 30 hashtags in every post, and in order to be an effective strategy, these hashtags must be closely relevant to your post and the image. If the post is about home décor, be sure to add all relevant décor hashtags, and if it is about a listing, be sure to make the hashtags relevant to the location, neighborhood and other aspects.

5. Focus on the Imagery

Imagery is key on Instagram, and your entire content strategy revolves around the use of immersive and stunning images that will compel users to connect with your profile. If you are a realtor, you need to keep in mind that your goal is to produce original imagery that provides you the copyrights of the image. You can either hire a professional real estate photographer to photograph all your listings, neighborhoods and major attractions, or you can invest in a good camera and do the job yourself. Most smartphone cameras are also highly effective and provide a wide range of tools and filters, and you can also download multiple apps and software designed for real estate photography.

It is important to focus on creating original imagery that is impressive, so be sure to get comfortable with editing and designing graphics. You must add your business logo or profile name to each and every image that you share on Instagram in order to build a brand image and leave an impression every time the image is shared.

The objective is to create beautiful images that are branded with appropriate color palettes, filters and fonts, and you can use an online graphic designing tool, such as Canva, to access a variety of professionally designed templates for Instagram posts. Be sure to avoid uploading any average or old photo as it will only undermine your brand image. Remember, your business profile is your brand identity and it must be marketed with care.

6. Instagram Stories

The most popular and widely used Instagram feature, stories allow you to engage with the most sought-after group of investors and home buyers: the Millennials. Stories are increasingly popular amongst Millennials, and other than that, they are a clever trick to make sure that your posts and stories garner attraction even if they get lost in the feed of your followers.

Be sure to use your Instagram stories to show your clients and audience some behind-the-scenes videos and images of open houses and home staging sessions that you have arranged for your clients. This will work wonders at encouraging your audience to explore more about your services as they will get a chance to see you at work and performing on the job.

7. Giveaways & Contests

Much like Facebook, Instagram is a fabulous platform to tempt your audience with free services and surprises. Instagram users adore engaging competitions that help them win a service that they can enjoy for free, and you can use this incentive to increase your user engagement. For instance, you can run a contest based on liking all your social media platforms, and sharing the link to a certain blog post amongst others.

In return, you can give away specially curated service packages, discounts on open houses or house appraisals, and even a free home staging session. These contents and giveaways should be scheduled according to the upcoming holidays, festivals, and important social events etc. 

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