Improve Your Real Estate Social Media Skills in Washington

The market is really booming in Washington, especially Seattle where prices have skyrocketed. Use social media to connect with your target audience and develop leads in this fast-paced market. The social media explosion has extended to many industries, including real estate. And it’s no surprise. Real estate is about establishing relationships with a variety of people. What better tool for prospecting real estate agents than social media? But how can Washington real estate agents harness the power of social media to generate leads, cultivate clients, and sell property? 1. Plan and Schedule for Success First, assess the goals for your social media campaign. Create a spreadsheet with all the social media avenues you’ll use and what you plan to do with each one. Stick to a schedule and keeping posting content or else people will lose interest and forget about you. Learn about all the tools, features, and apps available on all the platforms. 2. Media Mix You may favor one medium over another, but sticking to just one platform will make your campaign one dimensional. Different mediums have different advantages. Post the right content on the right platform while maintaining accuracy, quality, and consistent branding across all of them.

• Facebook: Use Facebook Page to boost your business presence, Facebook Ads to target specific demographics, and Facebook Groups to explore certain topics and properties.

• Twitter: Use this for short bites of info. Tweet announcements and links to other content, automate certain functions, post listing photos and videos, and set up alerts when someone uses your target keywords.

• Pinterest: This is all about great visuals. Organize boards by theme, group property by location, showcase popular amenities and destinations, and create private boards.

• YouTube: Post video walk throughs, virtual tours, interviews, and testimonials from happy clients.

Post the right content on the right platform while maintaining accuracy, quality, and consistent branding across all of them. Click To Tweet

If your area or audience contains a lot of millennials, focus on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Targeting white collar, high income, and college educated folks, focus on LinkedIn. Hit Pinterest a lot if you’re targeting women. 3. Brand Develop your brand story one social post at a time. Create a few core messages and communicate them in the multiple social media sites you use. Consistency and repetition are essential for building a memorable brand.  Use the same communication style everywhere. The more a message is repeated, the better it’s remembered. 4. Engaging Content Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, here are some ideas for grabbing attention on social media:

• It’s Not All About You: Post 80% updates, trends, news, and consumer interests and 20% about you and your business.

• Post with personality: Remember to keep it fun and engaging and express your personality. Post photos and ask for opinions about the property and the neighborhood.

• Local love: Write about topics that interest your target audience in the Pacific Northwest. For example, in Washington cities, the tech-savvy buyers are likely to be interested in smart homes, energy efficiency, sustainability, and green buildings.

• Big visuals: Go all in with the visuals. Social media posts with images or video have a higher engagement rate than straight text.

• Emphasize events: Repeatedly post about all the events, open houses, parties, festivals, and charities you attend or organize.

• Contests, quizzes, and giveaways: Have a little fun with quizzes, contests, and giveaways. Photo contests can generate photos of listings and neighborhoods.

• Tips and tricks: Become a source for helpful information about the real estate industry by offering advice on topics relevant to your audience.

• Strong headlines: Write attention-grabbing headlines and get people to click on something they might otherwise skip.

• Remember the hashtags. Tag your tweets with topic headings and neighborhoods to make them easier to find.

Whatever it is, it must be easy to share. But make sure that your content is worth sharing. Buzz-worthy content encourages commenting. Also ask for “likes,” ask questions, and invite people to share their experiences.

Read next: What is a Washington Broker Pre-license?

5. Cultivate Conversations Social media isn’t just non-stop chatter and dumping a bunch of content. Don’t forget the “social” part. Start conversations in the communities you’re building on a foundation of common interests. By initiating conversations, your fans interact with the content, which hits more peoples' feeds.  Sometimes when excellent content is picked up, you see a growth surge. A conversation has at least two participants, with a back and forth of statements. Ask your fans and followers for their questions, challenges, and ideas. Remember to listen. Consumers have access to more information and the ability to voice their opinions like never before. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter allow businesses to cheaply reach consumers, spread ideas, grow brand identities, and promote products and services.