23 Proven Real Estate Social Media Marketing Tips from Top Producing Agents (2023 Updated!)

Some of the most successful agents and brokers rely on a social media strategy to grow their client list. 

What other chance do you have to connect with 3 billion+ users?

However, connecting with that audience takes more than just a single post. You have to know how to communicate with them effectively if you want to successfully learn how to generate real estate leads. 

With that said, expert agents are here to share their social media marketing secrets that helped them grow their following. Together, they’ve brought 8 social media marketing tips to help you reach the online crowd. So, let’s dive in.

(Editor’s note: Social media not your thing? You may want to engage with a real estate marketing company if you’re looking for a “done for you” approach.)

1. Share Short Tips with Your Followers

Educate your prospects and followers by posting real estate video tips. It might be easier to keep straight if you mark a potential “tip of the day” in your content calendar. These pointers will help your clients understand more about the market and how it’s trending.

Publish one-minute videos. These short and sweet videos can share your love for real estate, tips for buying or selling a home, market trends, investment advice, industry secrets, news, and updates in your life. By telling your story and adding value to home buyers and sellers, your videos will do extremely well on social media– especially if you have the budget to boost the videos as real estate ads. (from Agent Advice Editorial Board)

Clips tend to get more views than longer videos. Once you’ve recorded it, you can upload the minute-long videos under the hashtags: home-selling tip, a tip of the day, real estate tip, and so on.

2. Master the Art of Storytelling

Having testimonials and success stories online helps win over potential new clients. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to dig a little deeper and find a personal story to share to help create connections in your area.  

Most real estate agents have perfected the art of storytelling. Including those compelling stories in your social media channels will give your clients a competitive edge. Adopting a different approach i.e. talking more than just price and basic features of the house. For example, including positive details about the neighborhood when posting a new real estate listing helps the buyer to have a better idea about the house they are buying. You almost want each post to be a real estate flyer that the viewer can come across digitally. (from Atta Ur Rehman, Gigworker Content Marketing Executive)

It’s crucial for clients to know and understand what kind of reputation you have. They want to learn more about the agent’s history and to see or hear examples about their relationship with clients. 

Sharing milestones of your business that could be anything from the past to a new and updated website. Including testimonials in the form of a video makes the stories more compelling, which in turn helps build a stronger relationship of trust with prospects and clients. 

3. Switch Up Your Location Tags on Instagram

Switching up your location tags is a quick and easy way to get in front of more people and boost engagement. Instead of just tagging your farm area as your location on every single post, try tagging different neighborhoods, restaurants, coffee shops, gyms, or even more general locations like your city or state. You can also try tagging the city’s nickname or something quirky that locals will understand. It will help you to appear like more of an expert in that farm area.

Remember that you don’t actually need to be in that specific location to tag it, but your tags should at least make sense. For example, don’t tag the country club as your location to look cool in a story about your open house 15 blocks from there. (from Chris Heller, Licensed Agent)

4. Focus on Variety

One of the benefits of social media marketing is that you’ll also be able to learn more about your prospects and what they want—their needs and expectations. You can find that from their comments, chats, and feedback left on your Instagram posts. As an outcome, it will be easier for you to provide the content they’re looking for.

Make sure your content is visually appealing, informative, and helpful to your audience’s perspective and current clients. Focus less on self-promotion and more on highlighting the unique features of your new property that will make the homebuyer’s life easier and more comfortable. In other words, show them what they want to see – not what you want to tell them. (from Susan Moguel, Marketing Director at Arden)

5. Don’t Forget About Youtube

If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine what a video is worth. In recent studies, more than 79% of real estate agents said they’ve successfully closed listings by using videos. 

The use of video should be a priority for real estate agents looking to increase Return on Investment (ROI) with their social media content. Video tends to be more effective because it offers a level of transparency that stand-alone photographs simply can’t compete with. (from Kimberly Smith, Marketing Manager at Compass)

One of the main objectives of social media is to capture the attention of an audience. And video accomplishes exactly this as the leading format for engagement. With that, bear in mind that photos are also good visual content. So opt for that as well.

Putting yourself out there through YouTube is an intimate way to showcase your personality and how you do business. This can help build brand awareness on a larger scale. You can make an impact on other people and gain business just from the content you create and upload to your channel.

6. Write Scripts for Your Videos & Rehearse Them

While many agents think they’re great at improvising since they talk to people all day, the cold hard truth is that very few actually are. Improvisation is a skill like any other and takes time, effort, and practice to get better at. That’s why writing a script—even if it’s just a rough script—and then practicing it will quickly improve the quality of your videos. The fewer stumbles along the way – the better.

You’ll want to avoid looking down at the script constantly, and you don’t want to sound like a robot who memorized it word for word. However, coming up with a loose structure and a few key phrases to repeat will make your videos easier for your audience to understand and hopefully engage with. (from Elizabeth Orville, Licensed Agent)

7. Don’t Shy Away from Paid Social Media

Try starting with the three major platforms: YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Everyone asks how you get seen, and the solution is to pay to get your content seen on those platforms. You need to be a content king or queen and know how to run ads on Facebook, YouTube, Google AdWords, and Instagram. So I leave you with this quote, ‘You’re a marketer first and a realtor second!’ (from Mark Condon, CEO and Founder of Shotkit)

A NAR study says that realtors use Facebook 97%, Instagram 39%, and LinkedIn 59% for their businesses. There’s a crowd looking for agents, so why would you miss out on that? 

Facebook and Instagram offer so many amazing targeting opportunities for agents—from specific areas to interests, to periods of people’s lives like newborns or marriages, or any combination of those. The thought of an additional spend is usually pretty scary for agents (especially new ones), but when you think about where people are spending a lot of their time, it’s a no-brainer to spend some effort on these platforms.

8. Give Your Audience a Video Tour of Local Open Houses

Another social media marketing tip for finding more followers is a live virtual tour. This initiative has not only garnered great feedback from clients and interest from potential buyers, but it has also been a great team experience and morale-booster.

On the day of the shoot, arrive at the listing well before you’re about to go live, and prepare the home as if you were conducting a showing with a potential buyer. Turn on the lights, and activate features like the fireplace and water fountain. Have a clear plan on how you’re going to walk through the home and what points you are going to touch upon as you move through. Be aware of both dimly lit and brightly lit areas, and adjust your route accordingly.

If you’re having to repeat listings every week, you can provide a teaser to the audience, something along the lines of, “Tune in next week when we take a look at the vintage cars in the jaw-dropping, six-car garage. I might even take one for a spin and show you the gorgeous street this home is located on.”

Even when you think you’re running out of content for one listing, come together as a team, and put your thinking caps on — there is always more!

Finally, in the preparation and planning stage, make sure to promote your progressive virtual tour on your social media accounts as well. Be sure to include the time and date the tour will begin and even a slideshow of properties you will tour. (from David Parnes, top producing agent for The Agency)

9. Document Local Events on Your Stories

An easy tip is to document local cultural events in your area (think fall festival, museum, pop-up event) via Instagram and/or Facebook stories. It’s much more relatable and effective than a static announcement of what to do in your neighborhood. Invite a fun, local expert ( interior designer, landscaper, or lender) to guest-curate your page/story for a day via your social channels.

This will get people talking in the comments, and then you can drop your contact information or links to your website. (from Jasen Edwards, Licensed Agent)

10. Upload Quality Content Daily

Create a content calendar for your social media accounts. It will help you navigate what to post and when to post it. Upload images, videos, live tours, and endorsements using a proper schedule. Experts suggest it’s best to have a long list of ideas ahead of time so that it’s easier to plan out. Your clients will know what comes next beforehand, which will help build your audience. 

Realtors need to focus on authenticity, quality, and consistency as they beef up their social media presence. Social media is the best way to amplify your industry expertise and also showcase personality and interests outside of real estate.

It’s important to start every post with an idea in mind. Having a specific purpose or goal before you begin helps to keep the posts short and to the point. 

Being thoughtful about the content creation process needs to be a priority, the content needs to be a value-add by either educating, entertaining, or inspiring your audience. All of this is then reinforced with consistency, beefing up your social presence is dependent on being consistent with content creation, and the way you engage with your audience. (from Rafael Angarita, Director of Digital Marketing for Serphant) 

11. Learn the Best Times to Post

Even if you have the best content in your area on social media, it won’t matter unless your audience sees it and it gets engagement. This is why learning the best times to post on different social media platforms is so important. You can schedule all of your posts on one tool deck that way you can keep up with the different platforms without having to log in to each and every one at the right time. (from Jim Gray, Licensed Agent)

Here’s a quick cheat sheet for you to reference:

Platform	Best Times To Post
	Monday-Friday morning until lunchtime
	Wednesday at 3pm Thursday from 9-10am Friday from 11-noon
	Monday-Thursday 12-2pm & Friday at 9am
	Monday, or anytime before 6pm (including weekends)
	Evenings and weekends

12. Get a Boost From the Pros

Most agents I coach have two major pain points marketing themselves on social media: consistency and creating unique content for their audience. If this sounds like you, consider using a social media marketing company like Agently.

Agently allows you to automate your marketing, lead generation, and social media in just a few clicks. Agents can now personalize all of their social media templates starting with the general message you want to upload to your feed. You can then make changes to fit your brand and send it out to all of your contacts or upload a list of new prospects.

13. Get a Professional Logo Before You Build Your Brand on Social

One of the biggest mistakes new agents and teams make when building their brands on social media is forgetting the basics. If you want to create a successful household brand, you’re going to need a professional headshot and a professional logo at a bare minimum. One secret of professional branding is that a great logo doesn’t have to cost you thousands of dollars.

A great logo can be very affordable if you use the right service. You can get an easy-to-use logo maker that will help you design something professional in minutes for your website, business cards, and social media accounts. This will help to make sure your pages are looking professional before you start getting traffic. (from Ryan Fitzgerald, Licensed Agent)

14. Build Engagement by Asking Questions

When posting a listing and asking followers a question, you’ll get more engagement and, in turn, more exposure. A million agents are posting photos of a kitchen, but when you ask ‘What would you cook here?’ it allows your followers to picture themselves in that kitchen and living in that home. People want to follow YOU, not just your business.  So if you are able to target the right audience, then newcomers will also be interested in your followers. It’s important to mix it up and post about your lifestyle, family, and friends—and keep it real.

After you post a photo, make sure to consistently post it to your story for the rest of that day. The photo you posted will drop further down the timeline after an hour or so while your story will keep drawing people to your page throughout the day, which will drive more eyes and engagement. (from Peter Lucas, Licensed Agent)

15. Contact Your Clients via Social Media

Around 1.6 billion people are in touch with businesses using Facebook. Social media offers a floor to contact your clients. It even helps you to reach new buyers.

Your target audience’s experience with you begins before they step inside your office or pick up the phone. By interacting with your audience, you’re able to build relationships, credibility, and trust, which in turn, organically generates a quality following on your account, and you’ll increase your chances of getting their business as a result.

When your clients reach out to you via social media, give them an instant reply. Be available to answer their questions. Respond to your prospect’s comments — good or bad. Talking with them online builds their trust in you. Social media marketing is key to every business in this global village. (from Ashley Kearns, Social Media Manager)

16. Remember E.A.T. Credibility 

Engagement: Reply to comments regularly. Get your followers to engage by asking them questions or playing a game of ‘This or That’. You can also try polls, or ‘Ask Me Anything’ segments to get people to engage on your social media channels. Hearing from your followers helps you better understand what content to post in the future.

Authenticity: It’s not just about pretty pictures or perfectly timed videos. You should try to strike a balance between polished, beautiful photography and the gritty behind-the-scenes details (try arranging the snacks for an open house, or visiting a client on the home they just closed on, and so on). It helps tell the story of how you arrived from point A to point B.

Thought Leadership: Showing your listings or parts of the neighborhood are always great, but here is your time to shine as a thought leader and expert. Why is one apartment layout better or worse than the other? Instead, talk about furniture placements, what part of the city has a better view, etc. What are some unique parts of the neighborhood? As the agent, you are the expert, and it is important to remind your followers of that in every single post. You can even try showing your impressive numbers in text at the beginning or end of each video. Talk about the number of transactions you’ve closed, the awards you’ve earned, etc. (from the Agent Advice Editorial Board)

17. Learn the Secret of Writing Great Captions

Algorithms on social media platforms use keywords to sort content. They also use clicks and engagement to rank it. So if you have a weak article or video title, the algorithms won’t show your content to anyone.

Here are a few quick tips to write great titles and captions for your real estate social media content:

1. Create a sense of urgency or FOMO (fear of missing out)
2. Keep your titles short and sweet (60 characters or less is the sweet spot)
3. Use alliteration, or even a pun when possible
4. Be specific: Use numbers whenever possible
5.  Use brackets or parentheses (they help build curiosity)

18. Use Professional Marketing Tools

It’s astonishing how many agents think they can just wing it and create professional content for social media without using any professional tools. Unless you’re a natural graphic designer or video editing pro, chances are using unprofessional tools is going to make your content look underwhelming.

For some reason, agents still need to be convinced to use professional marketing platforms. It should be obvious, but saving $50 a month isn’t going to be better for an agent’s business than upgrading to a professional marketing tool like Audience.

19. Jump in Early on Newer Platforms Like TikTok

Can you imagine being one of the first Realtors smart enough to start using YouTube or Instagram? After more than a decade of using those platforms, how many followers or views do you think you’d have today? How many engagement tricks would you have picked up that would lead to your cornering the social media market in your farm area?

We’re not saying you should pour all your free time into creating TikTok dances, but at least take the time to learn about the newest platforms before writing them off. If you build up a following, it might even open up doors for your career in other ways. Even if only one of your videos blows up on TikTok, that will lead to a crazy amount of engagement on all of your other social channels. You can also link all of your other social media platforms in the bio of your TikTok and Instagram page. (from Devin Doherty, Licensed Agent & Coach)

20. Use Humor to Gain a Following

Most people who are scrolling through social media are either bored, or looking to escape their lives. Use this to your advantage by showcasing your sense of humor. If you can make people laugh, your viewership will increase. Posting memes and funny videos will show your audience that you’re not just a hyperlocal expert but someone they might want to sit down and have a beer with on the weekends. Just avoid topics that are controversial, negative, or overly political.

21. Test Your Results Regularly 

Social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and even Pinterest offer professional-level analytics that let you figure out which content your audience responds to and the best time and format for posting it. You can even try A/B testing the same content. Make a post on one subject with a blog post and another with a video, and see which performs better with your following. You can also test what is doing well after algorithm changes are made to a specific platform.

If you don’t test what’s working well, you won’t be able to adapt as preferences change. However, just because a particular format is working really well for you – that doesn’t mean that’s all you should do. You still need to post a variety of content to keep your page from looking stale. (from Jim Gray, Licensed Agent)

22. Remember The 80/20 Rule

The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, is the simple but powerful idea that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts. If you look at your real estate lead generation, advertising, marketing, or even your personal relationships, chances are you’ll find the Pareto principle hard at work.

So keep the Pareto principle in mind when choosing which social media networks to spend your precious time and resources on. To help you choose which platforms will give you the best ROI, check out our in-depth guide to social media networks. (from Jasen Edwards, Licensed Agent)

23. Continue to Nurture Those Prospects Offline

Once you have built a relationship with prospects on social media, you can use the information you’ve gathered to nurture the leads using a real estate CRM. You can even find a list of the best real estate software tools to use, including some free CRMs or real estate website builders that will help you grow your business.

Social media is a great, and cheap way to help new agents cover the basics, but it won’t be able to account for all of your lead generation efforts. Most notably, you will need to look elsewhere if you need to buy real estate leads. If you’re looking to expand your business, you’ll also need to research tools for building your own real estate lead generation website, which real estate marketing tools you’ll need,  how to build a successful lead generation approach using the best real estate lead generation companies, even just real estate marketing ideas in general, you will need to complete those studies on your own. (from the Agent Advice Editorial Board)