Social media marketing has exploded exponentially in the last 15 years. Today, real estate agents must use social media to network competitively, establish themselves in their communities, generate leads, and sell inventory. As a result, whether you’re an established agent or just starting your career, we recommend refining and streamlining your social content creation processes.

Communicate Effectively Without Being Intrusive

Most Millennials and Gen Xers are resistant to formal, inauthentic advertising strategies. According to NAR’s 2021 report, these two demographics represent a whopping 61% of current home buyers. Clearly, communicating effectively with these key markets requires strategies that feel helpful and available, but not intrusive or cringey.

Read on for our top tips on effective and streamlined social content creation.

1.) Get to Know Your Demographic

Only your research and experience will fully illuminate which approaches work best in your niche and region. Social media advertising only works if it reaches your target audience, so identify your niche as specifically as you can.

2.) Clearly Define Your Goals

Answer the following questions as you create your social marketing strategy:

• What services do you want to highlight on your social platforms?

• What are your financial goals?

• How many clients will you need to attract on an ongoing basis to meet these goals?

• Will your social media content be used for networking, establishing your name within your community, or generating consistent leads?

Precise answers to these questions and a clearly numbered list of priorities will be essential tools in planning your social media campaign(s).

3.) Share Posts from Other Content Creators (With Credit!)

Social media experts recommend that 50% of the content from professional accounts should be shared content from reputable professional sources. Irrespective of the high quality of your own posts, incorporating inspiring and informative content from others speaks to your cooperative, social nature. It also communicates that you are active within your own professional network.

4.) Share Topical Developments…

…but only if they are relevant to your target market! A drop in interest rates, new legislation regarding loans, housing market trends, new neighborhood amenities, and glowing crime rate reports are all great examples of news you’ll want to share.

5.) Generate Your Own Content

The only way to ensure that your professional account reaches your target audience is for you to generate your own content across social media platforms. House tours, day-in-the-life vlogs, neighborhood tours, and answers to frequently asked questions are excellent staple topics. Trends, humor, and memes can serve to supplement your account, but it’s a good idea to run these types of posts by another real estate professional before posting, especially if you’re just diving into social media advertising for the first time.

Content creation can be a lot of fun, but it’s also time-consuming, especially if you’re just beginning to build your real estate career. If you’re struggling to balance your social media efforts and your day-to-day work goals, consider hiring a social media expert as long as it’s in the budget.

6.) Repurpose Your Existing Content

Once you’ve been generating content for a while, you may notice that current events or your own client base turnover can make some of your existing content relevant again. If this happens, don’t hesitate to share your work once more in this refreshed context.

7.) Make Use of Scheduled Posts via Automation

As a realtor, you often schedule your day around what works for your clients. If you’re worried about falling behind on your social media posts, try utilizing scheduled posts. Make a little room in your schedule to curate multiple posts at once; most social platforms will then share your content at the perfect time(s). Putting out content regularly will catch the attention of the algorithms that govern social media feeds, making it far more likely that your posts are put in front of your target audience.

If managing the schedule for multiple social media platforms is too much to manage efficiently, consider using a third-party social media management tool that can juggle all of your profiles from one user interface. This move can make a big difference when you’re working to streamline your social media content creation.

8.) Understand the Platforms

To maximize your potential on each social media platform, it’s essential that you promote yourself with content that fits each appropriately. TikTok is great for creating short videos. Instagram is perfect for posting photos and going live. Facebook is ideal for links to articles along with text excerpts—but won’t reach younger millennials well, if at all. LinkedIn is where realtors share blog posts, informational articles, and locale guides. Twitter is where you’ll go to share frequent, brief updates and information blasts.

As a realtor, you’ll likely find that platforms that focus on videos and pictures are going to be your go-to destinations. While Instagram has been the clear winner in this category for quite some time, it can’t be denied that TikTok’s popularity is skyrocketing.

9.) Save Your Answers to the Most Frequently Asked Questions

As your success builds exponentially, you’ll be fielding a lot of messages. Over time, you’ll notice that many of your DMs will contain FAQs. If you spend time repeatedly creating unique replies to the same questions, you won’t have many hours left in your day. Instead, create a file with the best versions of your answers to the questions you see most often. Copy and paste as needed—just be sure to pepper in unique details and personalization in the intro and sign-off.

The learning curve to mastering social media content creation can be steep, but once you’ve got the hang of things, you’ll find that the ROI will make it well worth your time. Remember to network with other successful realtors to learn from them! They’ve had years to refine their social media approaches, so take note of what kind of content receives the most interaction.