“I’ve been posting every day, but I”m not generating any social media leads.” 

If that sentence sounds like something you’ve said before, then we have you covered! 

If you feel like you spend hours each week posting your listings to Facebook and Instagram but it’s crickets on every post, we have a few things to try that might help move the needle in the right direction.

HAVE A PLAN — AND STICK TO IT! 

Everyone has heard that “patience is a virtue.” But, the truth is that it isn’t easy to be patient on social media. There are so many pulls on your time in the fast-moving real estate business, and there are also a lot of social media automation programs that promise instantaneous results. 

The best way to build your brand and generate leads on social media is to show up on your platforms authentically and give your followers a glimpse of what it’s like to work with you.

Think back to when you started your real estate career: you built your client base over time and through a lot of hard work, whether your strategy included cold-calling, door-knocking, direct mailers or traditional advertising. 

When you start a new social media strategy, it is also going to take time for you to build rapport with your followers, reach new audiences and build relationships through social networking. Once you have that plan in place, give it time to work — it can take over a year to start seeing social media marketing produce real ROI.

POST THE KIND OF CONTENT THAT YOU FIND INTERESTING

Picture this: you’re at a friend’s cocktail party (remember those!?) and you walk up to someone you know casually through a mutual friend, you stick out your hand, and say, “I’m a real estate agent and the greatest compliment anyone can give me is a referral.” 

If you wouldn’t say something out loud in real life, don’t say it on social media. 

Instead of posting daily listings, pictures of your ads in magazines, and quippy real estate quotes, think about how you would converse with a room full of your friends, clients and colleagues….and all of their friends, clients and colleagues. 

People come to social media to be social, not to be sold to, so think about what types of conversations you would like to have before you hit the publish button.

ADD VALUE TO YOUR AUDIENCE WITH EACH POST

A good social media strategy will educate, entertain, inform and inspire people. If all it does is sell, people will likely get bored and mute or unfollow your feed. 

So what should you be posting for best results? 

Social media is about consistency, variety and balance. Show up consistently, post a variety of types of content to keep your audience engaged and balance the promotional content (like listings) with content that adds value to the reader or viewer.

It is important to post your listings because your clients want to see them out there, but most of your followers are probably not currently looking to buy or sell. So you’ll want to stay top of mind with content that is relevant — before they know they need you.

In addition to listings and client testimonials, that might include home organization tips, interior design tips, local economic/market updates, local events, local business spotlights, local vendor recommendations (think contractors, painters, and interior designers), and posts that represent your personality. 

Yes, it’s okay to get a little personal on social media! Your clients choose to work with you not only because of your business qualifications, but because they get along with and enjoy working with YOU. 

If you bring coffee to showings for your buyers, share your favorite local coffee shop orders. If you always show up at your clients’ house with a pizza on moving day, post about that. If your clients know you as a dog lover, yoga enthusiast, or travel buff, post about your hobbies to connect with likeminded contacts and start conversations.

ENGAGE, ENGAGE, ENGAGE 

To generate social media leads, you need engagement. To get engagement on social media, you need to give engagement on social media. But what exactly does that look like? 

On most social networks, engagement is defined as likes, comments, saves and shares. On Instagram, the foundation of any engagement strategy is to use hashtags, preferably local hashtags, to help connect you with your target audience. For example, #chicagoneighborhoods, #lakeviewrealestate or #chicagodogmom. 

On Instagram, you can follow the hashtags you use regularly, like posts, and leave comments on others’ content within that hashtag. Frequently sharing content from local businesses is another way to raise your brand awareness and make connections. 

To generate social media leads, try to spend 10-15 minutes each day on social media engagement. In the long-term, it’s going to help you build those relationships and stay top of mind before clients know they need you.

If you show up on social media consistently, post about a variety of topics, engage regularly, and give your plan enough time to work, it won’t be long before you will start to see those followers turn into conversations, and those conversations become new clients.