Social Media now plays an important part in our lives. When you have down time, what do you turn to? Many people would say their phone or their computer. Social Media led by Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have our undivided attention right now and they could be your free marketing tools if you knew how to put them into good use. In fact, with an estimated 3.3 billion social media users worldwide, social media channels are top choices for free marketing tools!
This is a fantastic opportunity for real estate investors because you can drive traffic to your property listings by knowing how to make social media as free marketing tools. No matter if you are a landlord, a seller or are about to raise capital, it’s a great marketing vehicle especially if you are on a budget.
Read on for five tips social media marketing tips for your real estate investment venture. Let us know how you feel about the tips in the comments below!
1. Social Media Free Marketing Tools: Go Where Your Buyer Is
Whether you are trying to rent a property or sell you fixer upper post flip, you need to go where you audience is. That means participating and commenting on local hashtags. Let’s use Brooklyn, New York for example. Using hashtags that locals use like “#bklyn,” “#prettycitynewyork,” and “#parkslope” will capture the attention of the users who are looking at or following that hashtag on Instagram.
Hashtag research is easy. Look up your city’s hashtag and see what other hashtags people are using that have similar content to you. Think of it this way – social media is just like being social with humans in person. Talk to the people around you. Go where they are!
2. Don’t Do Hard Sell, Provide Value
Unless you are running Facebook & Instagram ads, you shouldn’t be asking much of the people that follow you on social media (and I’ll go further into this in the next tip.) Provide them with value! If you sell beautiful new homes in the suburbs of Houston, create social media profiles that provide pictures of beautiful homes. People that like them will follow you, and when you’re ready to share a project you’ve been working on, your buyer might be hidden among your followers!
3. Create Advertisements in Facebook Ads Manager, Don’t Boost
Boosting a post on Facebook will not give you your “bang for your buck.” Facebook Ads Manager provides much more targeting opportunities and gives you more options for advertising objectives. For example, you can target for foot traffic to your property in Facebook Ads Manager whereas boost only allows you a couple of objectives.
Does learning & understanding Facebook Ads Manager take time? Yes. But you’re a real estate investor! You of all people should understand that putting time and energy into something can turn one thing into another thing that’s much greater. Invest in yourself and your business by learning about Facebook Ads Manager. YouTube has plenty of videos explaining how to start.
4. Treat Each Social Media Channel Differently
Don’t send the exact same message on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. People use Twitter for news, Instagram to see beautiful photos and Facebook for both of those things as well as groups for community and support. Because everyone uses social media channels for different things, your posts should reflect that difference. Post a blog article you wrote about your most recent flip on Facebook and Twitter. Walk us through the home you’re trying to rent on Instagram Stories. Respect that each channel is different and your followers will have respect for you.
5. Social Media and Your Website
We’ve seen it happen before. MySpace was cool for a period of time only to crash and burn at the emergence of Facebook. Because of this, we need to have another place on the internet for all of our information to live, incase Instagram gets shut down or Facebook becomes passé. Create a website and use social media as a traffic stream to your website, similar to how you view email. That way if a stream goes away, it’s not the end of the world.
Think about it in investment terms. You want to diversify your portfolio, right? Diversify the way you get your traffic and how you communicate with buyers.
Are you on social media? What channel is your favorite to engage on? Share in the comments!