Most realtors are fully engaged with potential buyers on social media, having long since said goodbye to waiting for leads to arrive from newspaper ads. As the globe’s information and advertising landscapes have shifted from analog to digital, home buyers have also migrated to social media to view available properties, contact real estate agents, and gather information about neighborhood trends.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the ever-shifting dynamics of lead generation as well as discuss the best ways for realtors to gather leads from social media.

Social Media is Here to Stay

While an observer two decades ago would have been forgiven for thinking social media may just be a passing fad, today we know this isn’t the case. Though the specific platforms favored by younger buyers will continue to change, the instant access to information, rapid-fire communication, and immersive visual experiences that social media offers have become a permanent part of our cultural expectations regarding purchasing a home.

Social Media is an Ideal Real Estate Tool

Just as social media has opened new avenues for consumers researching homes, it has given realtors a powerful set of tools to showcase homes for motivated buyers. Social media platforms offer built-in video editing software that allows agents to create virtual tours, host unlimited listings, and categorize homes by price, neighborhood, specific home features, and school district.

By including as much relevant information as possible as you create each listing, you’ll create opportunities for buyers to find the exact home they’re envisioning.

Online Giveaways are Millennial Magnets

Millennials, or those born (roughly) between 1981 and 1996, currently make up two-thirds of the nation’s first-time home buyers. While nearly all buyers research exclusively online to scope out potential homes, millennials especially rely on social media to do so.

In order to stand out from the pack of realtors showing properties in your area, consider running a contest to direct buyers to your listings. While it may take some creativity (not to mention trial-and-error) to determine which type of giveaway will be most successful, observing which businesses appeal to millennials in your area is a great place to start.

Excellent options include:

• Restaurant gift certificates

• Tickets to concerts or sporting events

• Day passes to a local museum

• Exclusive discounts for local moving companies

• Two hours of cleaning or gardening service

If possible, highlight locally-owned businesses or events for your giveaways. By partnering with other members of your community, you’ll be continually reinforcing your role as someone the community trusts and enjoys.

Additionally, limiting your freebies to local businesses will help eliminate the otherwise likely influx of applicants from outside your area.

By requesting contact information with each contest entry, you will quickly build a database of active social media users in your area.

Social Media Users Like Talking About Themselves

Instead of restricting your social media use to home listings, consider asking niche questions about local trivia that are slightly tricky to answer.

Request photos of dream kitchens, ideas for local gardening tips, or run seasonal contests during which commenters are invited to vote on the most beautifully-decorated homes.

Remember, people prefer talking about themselves, and younger social media users are more likely to feel comfortable opening up. Try to include questions or solicit feedback with each post. The more discussion happening in the comments, the greater the number of people who will see your content.

Keep Running Reactivation Campaigns

When you want to reconnect with clients who have purchased from you in the past or re-engage with contacts who have reached out with interest in the past, you can launch a reactivation campaign.

While you aren’t likely to garner new leads by retreading these paths, you will have the opportunity to encourage referrals, increase social media credibility, and keep yourself visible to buyers who haven’t yet decided to take the leap.

Because buyers today are far less likely to open an email than scroll through their social media feeds, focusing your reactivation efforts across several social media platforms is ideal.

Draw upon your list of delighted clients by requesting reviews, asking them to share pictures of remodeling efforts (before and after pictures make awesome social media content!) or thriving gardens. Presenting such golden images of home ownership can immediately illicit feelings of envy and a renewed drive to purchase - especially in millennial buyers.

Your Social Media Pages are all Landing Pages

While you might not think your social media profiles are all that important, they are commonly the first point of contact for the modern home buyer. Take the time to optimize your profile pages, including links through which visitors can contact you, sign up for your newsletters, or shop your current listings.

This only needs to be updated every so often, but it’s crucial that you set up your profiles properly as soon as possible.

Keep Your Focus Local

If you want to target buyers who are near your listings, choose social media ads that are geotargeted. Twitter is especially useful for this purpose; use the advanced search functions to narrow down the leads that appear on your feed.

Real estate is often about being in the right place at the right time, and the constantly-updated information social media users willingly share about themselves can serve as an open invitation for you to reach out and offer your services.

Stay Current on the Hottest Platforms

While you certainly don’t want to waste effort by marketing your business to young teens on Kik, neither do you want to restrict your efforts to Facebook. Ten years ago, it felt as though everyone used Facebook daily; currently Instagram and Twitter are the best ways to reach millennial buyers.

However, this will change eventually, so keep a sharp eye on the numbers reported by social media data analysts.