Real Estate Social Media is a very powerful marketing and advertising tool realtors can use to build and grow their sales. With its interactive nature, realtors can utilize its countless opportunities to gather leads and connect with their potential clients. Even Fortune magazine observed that sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and others have evolved the way real estate business works – it changed how realtors reach and interact with their potential clients as well as the way they do business.

First off, you need to establish specific social media accounts for your real estate business and learn the best ways to use these sites according to your needs and target market. Here are 7 savvy real estate social media marketing tips every realtor should know.

1. Master the ways of Facebook

Facebook is still the number one most commonly used social media site of today, and it is potential and the opportunity it has for you as a real estate agent is HUGE. According to a recent study by Postling, nearly 80% of real estate agents are using Facebook to market their practice and properties. Use Facebook to connect with your potential clients and gather new leads. Create and join real estate groups according to your specific target clients and location, interact with other members, and be informative, helpful, and friendly.

TIP #1: SET UP A BUSINESS FACEBOOK PAGE. Refrain from using your personal account for your real estate business. Keep it professional.

Choose your content wisely – mixed it up! Keep your page information for your buyers and sellers, and at the same time humanized your page by posting a  few personal photos and videos of you touring homes and posing with smiling buyers and successful closings. Keep your viewers updated – share local happenings, such as community and school events.

Don’t FORGET that your page should focus on your potential clients rather than your business.

2. Be a Twitter wizard

On Twitter, realtors can say a lot with just a few words or phrases. Keep your Twitter a portal of information and news for your target buyers and sellers. It can be a link to a compelling article about real estate, or lists of popular events or food places in the area to keep your buyers interested in the location. There are a lot of great opportunities to create Tweets.

Offer your buyers or sellers some real estate tips and advice and post several times a day to get more views and generate leads.

TIP #2: USE RELEVANT HASHTAGS. Hashtags in your posts can help your potential clients who are searching for specific topics find your Twitter updates. So keep it specific.

BE up to date with your local real estate news, which will help position yourself as a local expert and resource that your potential clients can turn to for any real estate advice.

3. Visual powers on Instagram, Pinterest and Youtube

A good real estate agent knows that the right picture can sum up all the descriptions needed for any property. Most successful agents hire professional photographers just to shoot images and videos of their high-profile listings. If you are on a tight budget, you could also opt to invest in high-resolution cameras and do the shoots yourself. But all in all, a good photo can make or break your marketing campaign.

Sites such as Pinterest, Instagram, and Youtube can help boost your photos and put them to life, which lets your potential clients view a complete story about the home or properties you are listing. Create boards on Pinterest about each part of the property, with photos of every room and outdoor space.

TIP # 3: LEARN MORE ABOUT REAL ESTATE PHOTOGRAPHY. Research other real estate Pinterest and Instagram page and learn from them. Learn the lighting techniques and angles that would enhance and showcase your properties well on the pictures. IT never hurts to learn the basics. As they say, keep your photos Instagram-worthy!

Instagram is a vast portal of wonderful and excellent visual elements. Make your photos enticing to the viewer’s eyes and you’ll be sure to garner a huge wave of followers. As for your videos, YouTube is the most favourite of all video social media there is, this would be an excellent place for you to upload and showcase your video home tours and links to your listings. You can also link and share all your posts from these social media accounts to your Facebook business page.

4. Be a Linkedin professional

Real estate professionals take advantage of the huge network and connections that  Linkedin has. Keep your LinkedIn profile robust and connect with local businesses and brands. You can also be an authority with regard to all real estate information and news that you can publish on your page, this will help boost your interaction and connection with local professionals and potential target clients. This is a great opportunity for you to build a good referral network in order to generate more leads.

TIP # 4: KEEP IT INFORMATIVE & PROFESSIONAL. LinkedIn is more of a business and professional network than just a simple social media site. Be precise with your content in posting. Follow other real estate accounts, search and learn what type of content they usually post on a daily basis.

5. Maintain a consistent flow of communication

The number one advantage of social media marketing and its network is that it offers you a huge opportunity for an easy and fastest way to communicate with people.

It is a big advantage to be able to communicate with your potential clients easily in a personal way. With that being said, always keep the communication going – don’t take too long to answer any inquiries. The faster you respond, the more you can keep them connected to you.

TIP #5: BE PROFESSIONAL. It is easy with social media to connect to your potential buyers or seller personally through direct messages BUT keep in mind maintain a professional state. DO NOT SPAM and OVERLOAD their inboxes, this will result of your account being blocked and you’ve lost a good lead.

6. Create & Maintain your professional image

NOW that you are a part of the social media network, every post you make can be a subject of scrutiny.

TIP # 6: BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU POST. ALWAYS KEEP IT PROFESSIONAL. Everybody on social media can be a potential client. Learn the privacy setting in your social media accounts to specify which content you can set to your friends and contacts.

It is very critical to keep close attention to the content that you use to post on your feed. Keep your posts positive and informative. Use your presence to educate, inform, and inspire instead. Keep in mind that posts of your drinking or having a hangover aren’t likely to inspire trust in your potential clients and can garner negative views instead.

7. Learn your social media metrics

Once your social media accounts are well established, check, and learn about your metrics. Check your number of followers, how many likes or share your post have, and the level of engagement you have on each post and social media site. Learn to analyze all these insights, this information can give you the knowledge to plan your posts and create target specific content for your posts.

TIP # 7: CREATE THE BEST BUZZ. BECOME INTERACTIVE. It’s a social media, the best way to garner leads and contacts is to become interactive to your viewers. Use layouts that would help enhance your page, add sharing buttons, and utilize links to your listings, articles, and blogs.

Always remember to make it easy for your viewers to share your updates and post in their own feeds. Over time, this would increase your number of connections through the number of shares your posts get.

Being as it’s one of the most cost-effective methods of promoting properties and garnering potential leads, social media offers a range of new opportunities to grow and cultivate a wide range of community of prospective buyers and sellers. Real estate agents who can best utilize this social media marketing power, are attracting more leads and boosting their sales all year round.