Maximizing Your Real Estate Reach with an Instagram Account

The popularity of Instagram is on the rise today. Many companies heavily invest in their marketing strategies on this social media platform. How can you use this channel to generate real estate Instagram leads and reach more clients? 

Whether you are new to the world of real estate or already have enough experience, you may know how significant it is to build your network and stay in touch with your customers. There are many benefits of using Instagram in your job. Keep reading to learn how to maximize your real estate reach with an Instagram account.

How to Start an Instagram Account for Real Estate?

There is no doubt that you need to start an account on this platform as soon as possible. The recent data from Statista shows that Instagram quickly became popular and had over 1 billion monthly active users in 2018. Are you ready to dive into this social media network and utilize it in your job? 

Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/9157/instagram-monthly-active-users/ 

It can help you with networking and reaching new customers. You are free to use Instagram, but there are some rules on creating the right account here. After all, your account should project your professionalism and consider your goals as a specialist.

Do you need a personal or a business account? These are two options for you to select from. Experts advise real estate specialists to create a personal account as there are certain disadvantages in social media algorithms for business accounts. You may need to have a business account if you aim to use paid ads.

What Needs to Be Done Before You Launch Your Instagram Page

Every specialist should launch their Instagram page if they want to be noticed and build their professional network. Instagram’s referral traffic has sky-rocketed between the first quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019. 

Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/17866/social-media-website-traffic/ 

This common social media platform is becoming increasingly important for site traffic. The chart below shows that Instagram experienced a 114 percent boost in web referrals, while both Facebook and Pinterest had just a 9 percent increase. Recently, Instagram has made a considerable push into marketing space and e-commerce.

Setting up an Instagram page can be a bit more challenging than just creating an account. If you aim to build your brand and grow your network here, you need to have a solid strategy. Here is what you need to take into account.

Define Your Personal Branding

This is what you need to begin with. What makes you different from your competitors? What are your key strengths? Add these elements to your Instagram page and weave them into your content to outshine the rest of the competition. 

Personal branding is extremely important today. It helps to differentiate a specialist from others in the same field. What can you do to show your personal branding? You may utilize the same Instagram filter for your content, take photos at particular locations, or wear particular colors on all photos that will differentiate you. This is a kind of art.

Share Your Passions

Be ready that you won’t be the only real estate specialist on Instagram. Hence, your target is to demonstrate your personality to attract the audience and potential clients. People want to find things you may have in common so that they can trust you. Don’t be intimidated to share your passions and things you like to connect with your audience.

Feature Others in Your Content

Think about people you can feature on your page. It can be your satisfied client. Whether you helped this person to sell or purchase a home, you can demonstrate your successful results. 

Prospective clients want to see noticeable results and real people who have benefited from your cooperation. Visual is extremely useful and powerful as it speaks stronger than words and shows potential customers what you are capable of.

How to Use Instagram for Lead Generation

If you are a real estate specialist, it isn’t enough to create a memorable username to generate leads from your Instagram account. Apart from that, you need to make Reels, share your passions and hobbies, generate engaging content, utilize relevant hashtags, and develop your brand. Did you know that Internet advertising has already taken up over 52 percent of ad spending? More and more people around the globe use the Internet via desktop and mobile devices. 

Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/19438/forecasted-ad-spending/ 

With more than half of the world on the web, advertisers have rising opportunities to engage with their existing customers and reach new ones. It may take some time for you to learn how to advertise your services as a real estate agent on this platform, and here is what you should take into account.

#1 Optimize Your Bio

If you want to generate leads, you need to optimize the Instagram bio. It should distinguish you from other real estate agents. Remember that you don’t have too much space in your bio, so try to include things that help you stand out from the crowd and demonstrate your uniqueness. 

Think about an eye-catching description, and add the location where you work as well as your value proposition. Ensure to mention some of your hobbies and demonstrate your personality. You can also make your brand hashtag as well as a call to action to encourage potential clients to click on your link or text you.

#2 Choose a Memorable Username

If you are new to this social media platform, you will be asked to choose a username when you sign up. This is what others will see once they open your Instagram page. Experts advise realtors not to mention their brokerage name as this network is more focused on building professional brands. You may want to add some real estate-specific words and keep your username simple yet interesting.

#3 Select a Profile Photo

This photo should fit your brand. After all, your photo and your name will be visible to Instagram users unless they decide to check your profile. It may be a logo, a professional headshot, or your personal image. Choose a clear and bright photo to help your audience see your logo or face, as they won’t be able to enlarge it.

#4 Stay on Brand

Ideally, you should try to combine your product and personality in your profile. You can post virtual tours of houses and apartments, listing photos, and people you help to purchase or sell homes. You may also post your pets or daily routines. Of course, real estate is what you need to be concentrated on. Firstly, post about houses, homes sold and for sale, as well as various events and activities in your town.

#5 Invite Your Family and Friends to Follow You

One of the easiest ways to grow your business on this social media platform is to announce the creation of your new account to your relatives and friends. They are called your sphere of influence. This sphere includes people professionally or personally in your network. Invite your relatives and friends to follow your page on Instagram. 

This way, your audience will be better involved in your activities here. Besides, these people can be the sources of connections and leads for your business. It’s really important to have enough social connections and grow your network to succeed in real estate.

#6 Utilize Instagram Stories

This is a great way to build connection and engagement. How can you position your professionalism on this platform? By using Instagram Stories, you may be easily seen by your followers. 

They will immediately see your news at the top of their screens. More than that, it’s easy to check who has seen your Stories and analyze the effectiveness of your content. Remember that Stories will be visible to your audience only for 24 hours. 

However, you may save the most important ones in the highlights. Do you have any ideas of what you may post to your Stories? It can be polls, surveys, photos or videos of different homes, as well as your daily life.

#7 Save Stories in Highlights

Apart from making regular Stories, you also need to save some of them in Highlights. Don’t forget that your Stories will only be visible to your audience for 24 hours. You should save them if you don’t want them to disappear after this period. So, your new followers will be able to check important Stories and review significant data or events at any time. 

You can also save your Highlights by clicking on your profile icon, clicking the highlight cover image, tapping the seen by count on the highlight, and clicking the download button.

#8 Use Instagram Reels

Are you ready to drive traffic? Reels present a great option to get engagement and views to your content. This is a video format; the videos are usually short and can be from several seconds to several minutes. You may want to add up to 30 hashtags to your Instagram Reels. 

One of the benefits of this feature is that your followers will be able to view such videos at any time unless you decide to delete them. Besides, Reels are different from Stories in terms of engagement. If your account is new, Reels can work great to attract new followers and generate traffic to your page. Make sure to utilize trending sounds and some humor.

#9 Post Photos of High Quality

Your posts should be engaging and interesting. They need to attract people and increase their audience. One of the best methods to reach new clients is to grab people's attention with your high-quality photos. 

Create an image of a professional who does everything with the highest quality and really cares about others. Your images in posts may include beautiful homes, events, the benefits of living in a certain area, as well as your happy clients.

What Things You Should Avoid

It’s necessary to admit that Instagram scored the highest and became the favorite platform for influencer marketing, with 78 percent of marketers believing Instagram Post is the most effective format for influencers and 73 percent of respondents claiming Instagram Stories are important for influencer marketing. 

Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/19551/instagram-for-influencer-marketing/ 

LinkedIn, Twitch, and Snapchat appeared to be the networks that people were least interested in for influencer marketing.

We have already discussed what you need to do to reach new clients and increase your real estate followers on Instagram. Now it’s time to talk about things you shouldn’t do.

Follow or Unfollow at Random

It’s essential to know your target audience. You need to go after these people and be particular about the followers you have. Hence, if you target and follow random people, they may not relate to your real estate content. So, they won’t most likely follow you back. And even if they will, they won’t be interested in engaging with your content and liking your posts.

Never Pay for Getting Followers

You might come across companies that offer to sell you hundreds or even thousands of followers. You shouldn’t fall for this trick, as these will only be fake accounts not related to your target audience. Instagram is rather strict, and you may have penalties for doing it. If you have thousands of followers who never like your posts or engage with your content, your real followers won’t also see your upcoming posts.

Make Your Account Private

Remember that potential followers want to check your content and see the posts to decide if they like you. If your account is private, most viewers won’t wait for their follow request approval as they won’t even see any information or content. It should be visible and clear what you do and how you can help them.

Don’t Misuse Hashtags

If you add hashtags that aren’t relevant to your content, they won’t help you. You may add fewer but more relevant hashtags to increase your exposure and boost your chances of being found by other people.

Forget to Reply to Comments

This is a serious mistake that can cost you many potential followers. The more comments and likes you get, the more people will see your future posts. If you want to increase your engagement, you should always reply to the comments you get. If your followers or new viewers are active and want to learn more, you need to answer their questions and be active.

Post at the Wrong Time

In order to receive more exposure, your posts need to have more likes. There is a trick here. Instagram will choose how many people will see your new post depending on the exposure within the first several hours after you make it. So, your aim is to have more comments and likes so that more people will notice your post. Experts suggest that 2 p.m. is the best time to post on this social media network.

The Bottom Line

Summing up, Instagram is growing in popularity these days. You should also invest in your marketing strategy on this platform if you are a real estate agent. It will help you generate leads, attract potential customers, and reach more clients. Follow our tips and avoid common mistakes to enjoy all the benefits Instagram offers you as a professional realtor.

About the author

Finance writer and editor Emily Morgan is the lead author of the Fit My Money website. Attentive readers follow her advice and learn to build their own budget correctly. Emily Morgan has extensive knowledge of finance and financial analytics. On her recommendation, you can learn how to improve your credit history, take out a loan for business development, and consolidate credit debts, if necessary. Emily Morgan is an excellent expert in all matters of financial literacy and stability.