Article

Social Media Marketing Mistakes in Real Estate

By Amanda Webb on July, 14 2021

The real estate agent profession has been around for a long time. It's also an industry that's changed significantly over the years, with many agents struggling to keep up with the latest trends.

One of those changes is how people are using social media in their lives on a daily basis. It's no surprise that real estate professionals have taken notice and have begun to change how they do business online as well. Social media is growing at a rampant pace, and real estate agents are learning how to keep up with this new world order.

While there are still some who struggle to grow their client base through social networking sites like Facebook or Instagram, others take advantage of these platforms and reap the benefits from them.

If you've been struggling to generate leads online, it could be because you're making one of these common social media mistakes real estate agents don't even realize they're making. Here are five mistakes to top making and how to fix them to start growing an online presence.

social media mistakes by companies

Not Having a Real Estate Social Media Strategy

It's crazy to think that social media has been around for nearly 20 years. As a real estate professional, not having a social media presence could be severely hindering your business growth.

However, it's not enough to just be on social media, you have to have a strategy to know how you want to grow and generate real estate leads. The first real estate social media mistake that agents are making is not having a strategy, or just posting for the sake of posting.

This can lead potential followers (who would otherwise like what they post from following your account in the future) away, which will inevitably result in no sales coming through as time goes by if your social posts aren't engaging or useful in some way.

Your strategy should be inspired and informed by your real estate business goals, like adding followers to your email list, and by completing a competitive analysis of what other agents are doing in your area. Your strategy should cover the following:

  •   What social platforms you want to be on.
  •   What type of content you want to share.
  •   How often you plan to post.
  •   The best times you should post.
  •   Which hashtags you want to rank for.
  •   If you plan to do any paid promotions.
  •   How you plan to analyze your results and how often you'll analyze them.

Using the Wrong Hashtags

Hashtags are a social media must. While they might seem like small and unnecessary details, hashtags can have huge impacts on your social posts' reach for the better or worse—especially on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. Hashtags are how online users are able to find your content.

The problem is that real estate agents often use general, unspecific hashtags when posting about properties, which limits their social exposure to an audience that is less likely to be in the market to make a purchase soon.

For example, if you're trying to sell homes in Napa Valley (Northern California), it's not enough just to use #California as your hashtag because there are so many different reasons why someone would be using #California. Instead, you want to focus on hashtags that are geared toward your target audience.

Using the right hashtags is a social media mistake real estate agents can stop making in a matter of minutes because there are so many hashtag research platforms available online. Flick.Tech is one of our favorites because it not only lets you research hashtags but it also has training available to understand how to research the right ones and build a strategy that allows you to start getting found on your favorite platforms.

aggressive social media marketing

Being Overly Promotional

The worst social media mistake a real estate agent can make is being overly promotional online. If the only content you're sharing is about your business, you're losing out on making genuine connections with your audience.

Being overly promotional is a social media mistake that is way too common, and it's one of the first things real estate agents should work on fixing. As a real estate agent, you're not just trying to sell houses, you're working toward building a business, and to do that, you have to be a great marketer.

The first rule of marketing is no one wants to be sold to. Consumers want to feel as though they made the decision on their own, and when it comes to selecting an agent to guide them through the real estate process, they want to feel a connection with this person. They want to work with someone they can trust.

As you're creating your content strategy, remember the 80/20 rule. 80 percent of what you're posting should be valuable content that allows you to relate to your audience, engage with them, or entertain or educate them. Only about 20 percent of your postings should be focused on generating leads and sales. With a few small changes to your content plan, this real estate social media mistake can be fixed.

You're Not Being Relatable

Living in the world of digital marketing, we've been given a gift that agents of the past weren't so lucky to have, the gift of uniquely branding ourselves. While it may seem difficult at times, the key to growing online is setting yourself apart from other agents.

The problem here lies in not being relatable to your ideal audience.

If as a real estate agent you work in an area where the average home costs between $200,000 and $300,000, but you're always showing off mansions for sale or talking about extravagant places you've visited, the people in your area aren't going to relate to you.

The biggest social media mistake real estate agents can make is not connecting with their online audience. Social media is about creating relationships.

social media mistakes examples

Focusing on the Wrong Analytics

To start growing online, real estate agents need to understand their analytics. The truth is that not paying attention to your social media analytics is one social media mistake a real estate agent cannot afford to overlook.

As with any marketing strategy, real estate agents need to be able to analyze what is and isn't working to grow their online presence to generate leads and sales. As an agent getting started with your social media strategy, focus on goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, and that can be completed in a realistic time frame.

Here is an example of a social media marketing goal that real estate agents could focus on when growing their online presence:

Specific Goal:

  •   Increase brand awareness by 90%

How to Measure the Goal:

  •   The number of content shares
  •   The average post reach
  •   The average number of impressions

How to Attain the Goal:

  •   Niche down an ideal audience
  •   Focus on quality content
  •   Spend 20 minutes per day engaging with ideal client
  •   Speak to the audience, not at them
  •   Focus on quality hashtags
  •   Tag others to get them talking
  •   Ensure profile is properly optimized
  •   Commit to 5 posts per week
  •   Spend $300 per month on promotions

Realistic Timeline:

  •   To achieve this goal, focus on increasing brand awareness by 15% per month over the next six months.

Stop Making Real Estate Social Media Mistakes

As a real estate agent, you know that social media is an important channel for driving traffic to your website and contacting new leads. It's time to stop running your social media strategy without a plan and start increasing engagement and sales. To learn more about how Radius Agent can help you grow your real estate career, contact us today!

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Amanda Webb is a real estate marketing strategist and the owner of Gravity Real Estate Marketing. She's helped agents start closing over $1 million in transactions and go on to build successful businesses, one property listing at a time.

 

Her background in real estate marketing has given her the knowledge she needs to help agents become more successful online. At Gravity Real Estate Marketing she provides done-for-you customizable marketing resources that allow agents to show up consistently online and convert followers into leads.

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