Real estate agents are just starting to get savvy about selling homes online, but most of them still use the same bag of tricks to market their listings online. If you really want to make an impact, you need to step beyond the big realty listing sites like Realtor.com, Zillow and Truilia, and make use of other online tools to get your house noticed. Check out these top social media marketing tips to make the best use of Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites to attract the sellers you want and get your home sold.
Facebook for Home Sales
No, there isn’t really a Facebook site devoted to home sales, but there are defintely ways to get your home listing in front of the right markets on Facebook. The true genius of Facebook ads is that they allow you to target your audience with focused keywords — without running afoul of non-discrimination laws. Facebook allows you to target your ads at specific demographics, including age, employers, industry and other factors. Here are five quick tips for better Facebook realty ads.
- – Try a sponsored post with a great picture of your house.
– Target the demographics most likely to be interested in your property.
– Aim incentives at the groups you want to attract: close to public transport for young professionals, for example, or playgrounds nearby to attract young families with kids.
– Upload an album of photos of your home and share it with friends.
– Share links to your house listing on your real estate agent or FSBO website.
Selling Your House with Twitter
Twitter may seem like an unlikely marketing tool for real estate, but it’s actually a great way to get more exposure for your home. The key is in knowing how to use hash tags to capture attention from prospective buyers. Start with great, professional photos of your home’s interiro and exterior and get ready to “dribble” them in among your regular tweets. Tag your photos with relevant hash tags and a short tweet. These are a few of the tags you should consider using.
- – #houseforsale
- – #kingstonma (replace with your town or neighborhood)
- – #ruralliving
- – #fireplaces
- – #FSBO
Market Your Home with Pinterest
As an image-driven site, Pinterest is a real estate agent’s dream. More people click through to blogs and websites through Pinterest than YouTube, Google+ or LinkedIn, making it one of the best traffic referrers on the Web. And while people don’t specifically search for houses for sale on Pinterest, they DO come to the site looking for inspiration and ideas when they’re searchign for a new home. You don’t have to be an agent to take advantage of Pinterest’s traffic-generating potential. These tips will help you attract more attention to your realty listing on another site.
- – Use high-quality images.
- – Create a range of interesting boards, not just pictures of your home.
- – Keep descriptions short and include keywords like “Stunning NYC skyline view” or “Lakeside living” or “Cape Cod beach homes.”
- – Use hashtags effectively but sparingly. Some of the best hash tags are location specific (#Miami), home styles (#luxuryhomes) and architectural styles (#Victorian).
- – Use height to your advantage. Stack several images into one long graphic. Tall pictures tend to get more repins than single images.
Keep in mind that the best way to use social media for selling is to limit your sales pitches and include other content that people want to share. It’s not difficult to do, and the results make the time spent pinning, tweeting and posting to Facebook time well spent.