If you’re struggling to market your business on social media, or worse, haven’t even started yet, you might be in for a rude awakening in 2024. While you were pulling your hair out trying to come up with the perfect post idea, other agents in your farm area just…did it. Sure, they made mistakes, but today their social media accounts are helping them build their personal brands and generate leads — even while they sleep.
Of course, building a social media presence that generates leads while you sleep isn’t easy. It requires strategic planning, the right tools, and maybe most importantly, a mindset shift. To help, I put together my best strategies for real estate social media marketing that still work in 2024, common mistakes to avoid, how to choose which platforms to focus on, and my favorite free and paid social media tools that can cut your work in half.
First, let’s dig in to why social media is still the best marketing tool for every agent:
Summary
Why social media is still the best marketing tool for Realtors
<img width=”1308″ height=”847″ data-attachment-id=”448310″ data-permalink=”https://www.housingwire.com/articles/real-estate-social-media-marketing/screenshot-dwellhometown-instagram-post/” data-orig-file=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-dwellhometown-instagram-post.png” data-orig-size=”1308,847″ data-comments-opened=”1″ data-image-meta=” Fremont, CA + Boise, ID (@petrocellihomes)
4. Embrace the cringe
One of the most common excuses I hear from agents who haven’t started on social media is that they don’t want to embarrass themselves. They still think that every marketing piece they produce needs to be polished and professional. Guess what? In 2024, not only is this no longer true, but platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels actually reward agents who create informal content.
Agents with hundreds of thousands of followers like Glennda Baker literally just pick up their phones, hit record, and start talking. So get over your fear of being perfect and just start creating content that resonates with buyers and sellers in your farm area. Remember, people want to work with other people, not brands.
Will your first few videos make you want to die of embarrassment? Maybe, but the only way to get over it is to get started.
Here’s an example of an Instagram post that has a scroll-stopping hook and tells a compelling story while the agent is just sitting in her car talking into her phone:
The goal of real estate marketing is simple but not easy: get people who want to buy or sell real estate to know, like, and trust you enough to pick up the phone and call you. Leads that call from traditional marketing strategies like pay-per-click (PPC) ads or postcards probably already trust you — they wouldn’t call you if they didn’t — but that’s where the hard work of getting them to know and like you begins. That’s a lot of pressure for one phone call and where most new real estate agents fail.
When leads contact you after following you on social media, the hard work of getting them to know and like you is already done. If you follow my tips below, your social media account will not only show off your real estate expertise so leads trust you, but also your unique personality, sense of humor, your day-to-day triumphs and struggles, and even your hobbies and family life. It’s like starting off on third base.
It’s also backed up by science. Studies show that 58% of people would be willing to pay MORE to work with someone who doesn’t work for a big company, but has an established personal brand. Social media gives you the perfect opportunity to build a brand that resonates.
The best real estate social media marketing strategies for 2024
Now that you’re (hopefully) inspired to go all in on social media this year, let’s go through the best strategies for building your know, like, and trust factor to start generating motivated leads:
1. Prioritize reputation over reach
The key to successful social media marketing is to build meaningful connections with people in your farm area who want to buy or sell real estate. Creating a viral post that gets 10,000 likes might boost your ego, but it won’t help you sell more houses if none of those people live in your farm area. This is why creating an avatar of your ideal client and creating content for them (and only them) should be your primary goal on social media.
To generate leads from your social media posts, you need to know your ideal client’s fears, desires, and understand the problems you can solve for them. So before you post anything, take the time to figure out who your ideal client is, and what they need and want from you.
Here’s an example of a post that targets empty-nesters with an emotional hook.
2. Write scroll-stopping hooks
Even if you’re THE hyper-local market expert, people will never know it if they don’t click on your posts. That’s where hooks come in. Hooks are short phrases that entice someone to click on your post. Good hooks pique curiosity or answer a burning question that your ideal client has at a specific stage of their buying or selling journey.
Scroll-stopping hooks are crucial for building engagement on social media. Not just for getting more views and likes, but for people scanning your profile for the first time to see what you talk about to decide if they want to follow you. Well-crafted hooks will convince them to check out more of your posts and (hopefully) call you.
Here’s an excellent example of a scroll-stopping hook to get followers to read educational content. Who doesn’t want to learn mortgage secrets banks don’t want you to know?
