3 Steps For Turning Your Social Media Followers Into Real Estate Clients

The first step you were probably told to take as a new agent to begin marketing your business was to create a website. The second step was to create your business social media accounts. However, much like a website, simply having social media accounts is not enough.

You need to take action to get people to see them!

According to a 2018 survey from the National Association of Realtors, social media was the top source of quality leads cited by real estate agents. Social media is a branding and awareness tool, but when used properly, it can be also generate leads!

To generate leads of your own, you will need to begin by building a following, nurturing your following, and finally selling to your followers.

To be successful on social media, you need 3 things:

1. Great Content

2. Community Management

3. Engagement

1. Content

In order to be successful on social media, you need to have thumb-stopping content, something that will get your viewer to stop scrolling and pay attention. You cannot just post a photo of a listing with a price.

To ensure you’re sharing the bests posts possible, your content should:

1. Educate and help people get to know YOU and your market.
2. Instantly grab viewers’ attention with emotion, humor or curiosity.
3. Include personal stories, questions, inspirational content and informational posts.
4. Represent yourself as someone people want to work with, so you can later turn followers into clients.
5. Present yourself as professional, curious, positive and passionate.
6. Cover topics you’re interested in and demonstrate your expertise through informative content.
7. Follow an 80/20 rule: Only 20% of your posts should be about your service or listings. The rest should be everything discussed above.

2. Community Management

In order to procure a loyal following, you should reward the people who interact with your posts.

To ensure you’re developing the best community for your business, you should:

1. Thank people who mention you.
2. Thank people who share or comment on your posts or comment on their posts as well.
3. Reply to direct messages in a timely fashion.
4. Provide thoughtful answers to real estate questions.

If you are able to get even a small number of people invested in your success, you will be able to grow a community.

3. Engagement

Your principal goal on social media is to drive engagement (shares, likes, comments) and attract followers.

To grow your following with engaged users, you should:

1. Determine your target client demographic (e.g. people in the Boston area who are 30 – 55 years old).
2. Search for restaurants, gyms, beauty salons, local schools and boutique stores where people in your target demographic would frequent.
3. Mass follow people who engage with those accounts.

You will increase your engagement if you:

1. Have great content.
2. Attract a loyal, engaged following.
3. Consistently engage with others.

Selling: Turning Your Followers into Leads

Once you have a loyal following, you can convert your followers into leads in two ways.

First, you can post 20% of the time asking questions that could be responded to by potential leads. You can ask, “What’s been the hardest part of your home search?” or, “If you were to move into a bigger home, what features would you love to have?”

Second, you can run paid advertising to promote your services to your following. This audience is primed and ready to hear about your services, take your recommendations, and engage with your offers!

Not every post will be read by every follower and advertising is one way to cut through the noise with better placement of your posts. From Facebook to YouTube, every major social media channel has ways to start testing advertisements to your following and other targeted audiences.

Written by Alex Golick
Principal at Intensify, a Los Angeles Social Media Agency

About the Author: Alex Golick founded Intensify, an advertising agency focused on substantially growing businesses with great products and limited exposure. Intensify helps scale real estate businesses through digital advertising, social media management, SEO, and copywriting.