Social media is a great place to share your expertise and build your market presence – after all, over 4.48 billion people around the world use social media. By providing valuable content and consistent posting on social media, you can convert these channels into powerful lead-generation tools.
But only some agents online are able to achieve these results using social media. Understanding your goals and having a strategy in place before you start creating your content is key to becoming a social media star in real estate.
As a realtor, you can use social media to:
- Build your personal brand
- Share information about yourself and the market with prospective clients
- Promote yourself as authentic and build connections
- Enhance your target marketing
- Market to your audience where they are
- Personalise your communication for your target audience
- Offer both entertainment and edutainment to your followers
- Let your audiences know that you are an active agent with consistent posting.
In this popular session at Bayut Academy, we take you through everything a real estate agent needs to know to become an expert on using social media. Here are the top takeaways from this session.
Personal Branding
Today, there are over 10,000 real estate agents in Dubai alone – many of whom are on social media. To be remembered by potential clients, you should stand out – you want your clients to remember you when they think about buying or selling property.
One way to be remembered is through social media, by defining your purpose and creating a strategy that tells your story. This is where your mission statement comes into play.
A mission statement reflects your why (aka mission), who you are, and how you set yourself apart from other real estate agents.
To find out your mission statement, there are four questions you should ask yourself:
- What are you doing today?
Example: Creating training materials to help real estate agents grow, learn and excel in their business
- Who do you serve?
Example: Real estate agents in the UAE
- What are you trying to accomplish?
Example: Redefine the real estate industry’s service standards through training
- What results do you want your clients to achieve?
Example: Build a strong social media presence.
Here are some examples of good mission statements:
- To bring honesty and transparency to the Dubai real estate industry.
- To make buying real estate as easy as possible by using real-time data, providing empathetic service, and keeping communication constant.
Now that you have a mission statement and vision, it’s time to add your personal values.
Your personal values are those traits that guide you in your career. These traits are how you measure yourself daily and should be aligned with how other people see you. Think about what your clients or colleagues see in you – are you known for your optimism or your punctuality at the workplace?
Your personal brand = Your mission statement + your vision + your personal values
Graphic Design For Beginners
If you are new to social media and need designs for your posts, using websites such as Canva can make your design process a cakewalk. Canva provides various, easy-to-use templates.
To make things even easier, we have created a range of templates that you can customise and use to promote your real estate business.
Understand The Platforms
Today’s most popular social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. Before we dive into the essentials of each, remember that you should be active on the platforms your clients are active in. And to be able to choose these platforms, you should have a strong understanding of your target audience.
For example, if your clients are mostly Gen Z and Millenial first-time homebuyers, you should be active on platforms they are using, such as TikTok and Instagram. Doing your homework on the demographics using these platforms is key to a strong social media strategy.
Profile Basics
All social media platforms have a few things in common – profile pictures, an about section (also called a bio) and, in some cases, a cover photo.
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About Section/Bio
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Profile Photo
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Cover Photo
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About Section/Bio
This is where you show you are likeable, trustworthy and competent
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Profile Photo
Use a recent photograph as your profile photo
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Cover Photo
This is needed on Facebook and LinkedIn
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About Section/Bio
It should explain who you are and what you do best and why customers trust you
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Profile Photo
Ensure your picture looks professional, has good lighting and is good quality
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Cover Photo
Gives your audience an overview of your brand
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About Section/Bio
You can adjust your Personal Brand Statement to be your “About” section across all platforms
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Profile Photo
Use the same picture across platforms so that your audience can recognise you
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Cover Photo
Spend time to create a great cover photo as this is one of the first things your audience sees
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Let us now look at the UAE’s most popular social media platforms and the best ways to use them.
- LinkedIn is a professional social platform, where business and industry professionals come together to discuss work-related topics
- Maintain a formal tone when publishing on LinkedIn. You can also share content from Bayut.com to start a conversation and increase engagement.
- Build connections and expand your network by sharing your knowledge and expertise
- Create a unique LinkedIn banner with the help of our LinkedIn banner template and start posting with our LinkedIn post template.
- Create a Facebook for Business Page. This will allow you to access insights about your posts and followers. As well, a Facebook For Business page allows potential clients to contact you directly and to submit reviews
- Join Facebook groups related to your area or target market. This is a great place to interact with your audience and market yourself.
Kick off your Facebook page with our template for a Facebook post!
- Instagram has a high engagement rate. Use this to your advantage by posting content that encourages engagement – such as captions with questions, or posts inviting your followers to tag someone who may be seeking the help of a real estate agent
- It is a good idea to opt for an Instagram For Business account rather than a personal account, as it allows you to access Insights and add your contact information on your profile
- Experiment with different content types such as posts, stories, reels, IGTV and focus on whatever performs best for you
- Ensure you consistently use high quality visual content
- You can explore our templates for Instagram Stories and Instagram Posts to launch your Instagram feed.
TIKTOK
- With millennials making up more than 75% of first-time home buyers, catching their eye using social media platforms like TikTok can be key to growing your personal brand
- Post short, fun content that engages with your audience
- Property tours and real estate tips are excellent content points for TikTok. Check out our comprehensive guide to using TikTok for real estate agents for more actionable tips.
Understanding Social Media Algorithms
Every social media platform has its own algorithm that decides the type of content to show in people’s home feeds. When an individual interacts or shows interest in one type of content, the same content type is consistently shown to them in their feeds.
For example, if you keep liking or sharing cat videos on Instagram, your ‘Explore’ feed will show more cat and pet-related content.
The algorithm also rewards ‘good content’, or content that gets people to stay on the app, by featuring it on more users’ feeds. Today’s algorithms consider metrics that aren’t just likes – it is shares, comments and the number of followers.
The algorithm promotes your content depending on how it performs in the micro-test phase. During the micro-test phase, the platform’s algorithm analyses how your content performs during the first hour after it is uploaded. Likes, comments, bookmarks (or saves), and re-posts are all counted, after which it decides whether your content should be shown to more people.
Keep this in mind when creating your content for social media. Create high-quality content that captures people’s interest until the end, and shareable content with information that adds value to reap better results online.
Another tool that can help you skyrocket your views are hashtags. A hashtag with your post tells the algorithm what your post is about, pushing it to users who are interested in similar content. Adding the right hashtags to your captions (or in the comments) can help you generate two to three times more engagement than posts without hashtags in the micro-test phase.
While using hashtags, avoid using ‘king’ or ‘broad’ hashtags. These abstract topic hashtags are popular and may have millions of posts. Hashtags like #villa, #luxury or #RealEstate are examples of king hashtags.
Instead, slowly work your way up from niche hashtags. For example, if you’re posting about a villa in Arabian Ranches, use #Arabian Ranches and #dxbRealEstate (rather than #Dubai or #Villa). You can build your popularity and then use bigger hashtags like #DubaiRealEstate.
You can use tools to find popular hashtags for your posts, such as:
- Instagram Hashtag Generator
- All Hashtag
- Ritetag
- Pho#HashMe
- Hashtagify
Here’s how many hashtags you can use on each platform:
- Instagram: Regular post: up to 30; Story: up to 10
- TikTok: no restrictions – it needs to fit into TikTok’s 2,200 character limit for captions
- Facebook: no restriction
- LinkedIn: no restriction
Content Basics
In Robert Cialdini‘s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, he discusses the concept of the five pillars of influence. Numerous sales professionals have used these five pillars to influence their clients and close deals.
In the social media context, leveraging these pillars while creating your content can help you influence your audience effectively and persuade them to want to work with you.
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Let’s dive into each of these pillars.
Authority
Show your audience that you are an authoritative figure or an expert in real estate through your content. You can display your expertise by posting educational content on social media or hosting home-buyer clinics where you educate first-time homebuyers about buying property.
Other ways to showcase your expertise include hosting podcasts (where you share your market knowledge), featuring on Bayut’s Inside Scoop or Industry Eye, or participating in real estate conferences.
Here’s an example of a post that conveys authority – a picture of an agent winning the Bayut dubizzle Stronger Together award. Talking about your work and establishing yourself as an expert agent in this post’s caption is a great example of the Authority pillar.
Liking
“There is nothing more effective in selling anything than getting your customers to believe, really believe, you like them.”
Take a look at these two pictures of the same person. In which photo does he seem more approachable?
It is the photo on the right, where he’s smiling and in a more casual pose. This is an example of using ‘liking’ on social media, where you seem more approachable and friendly through your posts.
Remember, people buy from people they like – so making yourself likeable can make a huge difference. For example, smiling and talking can make you seem more approachable in your video content.
Social Proof
According to the social proof principle, humans are heavily influenced by the actions of others. Social proof can be a highly effective tool when attempting to influence others.
For example, products with higher ratings tend to sell better than those with lower ratings.
Examples of social proof for real estate agents include recommendations on LinkedIn and Agent Reviews on Bayut. Positive testimonials from past clients can tell potential clients that you’re a reliable agent to work with.
You can create social media posts about the last positive Agent Reviews you receive on Bayut – and in the caption, talk about how you’re passionate about helping your clients. Show that you’re an active agent with happy clients.
Reciprocity
Performing a good gesture for someone usually is reciprocated. This is the rule of reciprocity.
For social media, think about what you can give your audience that they would reciprocate by doing business with you.
This could be content educating them about the real estate market. Or your analysis of the last sold property transactions of the area you specialise in.
You can also keep the rule of reciprocity in mind while using social media. If someone likes or comments on your content, like their content back.
Scarcity
People tend to value things that are scarce. Sometimes, telling your audience about the benefits of your services or products isn’t enough – you should also point out what they’ll lose if they fail to consider what you’re offering.
You can use the scarcity pillar while creating content about properties in demand in your inventory – mentioning the number of units left, or words like ‘last few units’ are examples of words used to show scarcity.
Social Selling: Using The Five Pillars Of Influence
If your mantra is to sell, sell, sell on social media, you’re likely to annoy your followers and lose out on relationships. Instead, with your understanding of the five pillars of influence, try Social Selling.
Social selling is the process of developing relationships as part of the sales process. On social media, this means connecting with your followers, interacting with them and educating them about the real estate industry.
To connect with your clients, you should be able to define your ‘and’ – i.e., what are you passionate about outside being a real estate agent?
For example, let’s say you are a fitness enthusiast who trains in different parts of Dubai. You can create a TikTok video about working out in Marina and discuss why it’s the best place to reside. Fellow fitness enthusiasts would definitely resonate with your content.
The Three Pillars Of Social Media Success
Success on social media is measured with three metrics:
- Followers: how many people follow your account
- Reach: how many of your followers see your content
- Engagement: how many of your followers take action
If you want to see how well your account is performing, you want to add these three metrics. It’s important to see if there is engagement; of them clicking on the Call to Action you offer.
But what is a Call To Action?
It is an instruction to your audience to prompt an action or response. Call Now, Sign Up or Click Here are examples of good CTAs.
Taking Charge of Your Captions
Having a good caption also plays a role in creating high-quality social media content. Here are three tips for writing captions that can engage your audience:
- Use Storytelling: Tell your audience a story through your captions. It can be about your journey to becoming the person you are today, your experiences on field, or your thoughts on a location. Check out our guide to marketing yourself through storytelling for more tips on this useful skill.
- Ask Questions: You don’t have to ask thought-provoking questions; questions like ‘Which house do you prefer’ or ‘Caption this’ can get people to comment on your content – meaning higher engagement!
- Add CTA’s: CTA’s or Call to Action encourage users to interact with your content, as it prompts an immediate response by asking what they think or taking them to another post/link. Examples of CTAs include Learn More, Comment Below and Join Now.
Have a plan in place when you post your content – or have a strategy. Define your goals, the customers you’re targeting, the channels, the content types and frequency before you create your content. Here’s an example of a social media strategy:
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Goals
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Customers
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Channels
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Frequency
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Content
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Goals
Drive awareness of my personal brand as“trustworthy and transparent”
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Customers
Families looking for villas in Springs or apt. in Greens
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Channels
IG, FB
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Frequency
2-3 x week
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Content
Last sold transaction data for targetted areas and a call to action: “Contact me to see last sold data for any property type in the Greens today!”
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Review your social media every 3 to 6 months to understand what content is performing well and focus on creating more of what gets results. Consider who’s engaging with you and which platforms are the most popular. This will help you understand where to focus your content and how to improve your performance.
Remember to be consistent in publishing and promoting your brand image in order to gain followers. For a more in-depth look at how you can use social media to achieve your real estate goals, join us for a workshop at Bayut Academy. You can also explore more resources for real estate agents in the UAE on the Content Corner.
SOURCES:
- https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-global-digital-overview
- Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini (1984)