Wow Neighbors & Win Clients: Real Estate Farming & Social Media

Beyond ad posts and property pics, social media can help grow your business by engaging with your market in a dynamic way.

When it comes to real estate farming, social media is arguably an agent’s most valuable marketing tool. Social Media Smarter Founder Bonnie Sainsbury put it best: “Social Media will help you build up loyalty of your current customers to the point that they will willingly, and for free, tell others about you.”

And then there’s the glorious fact that social media platforms allow you to effectively engage with others in your farm area any time of day and from anywhere you happen to be—and at any given moment—so you’re never out of touch.

You’re likely already using one or all of the mainstream choices—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn—to tout new listings and recent sales. If so, great—keep doing that! If you’re not using all of them, you should be. So go create those pages, posthaste! And then consider taking these extra steps to ensure you’re using these platforms to their fullest potential to engage, impress and succeed in your real estate farm area.

I. Who, What, Where & How

First, let’s quickly cover the basics. For starters, make sure your social media pages are user-friendly. For real estate pros, that means providing all of your essential information—who you are, what you do, where you do it and how people can reach you. More plainly speaking, make sure your phone number, email, website address and other essential information are clearly visible on your page, so that viewers don’t have to hunt around for them.

II. Creative Content

Here’s where it gets fun! Use video on a much more personal level. Don’t ditch those gorgeous professional property videos—they are an important part of the equation. But you can enhance your live-action offerings with videos of neighborhood strolls, and quick video posts from a community event, an open house or, perhaps the coup de grâce, a visit with new homeowners who are more than happy to show off their abodes and share their excitement about moving into the neighborhood. (Just plan those visits in advance, of course.) This not only shows you’re an active member of the community—in a very dynamic way—it also gives viewers (prospective clients) a peek at your personality. You’re more than a name, and they get to “meet” you via video. One distinction between using videos as stories versus as a regular post: The stories disappear after about a day, but the posts will appear on your gallery for as long as you want them there.

On your photo posts, use filters and editing features to make them really pop. Play around with 3-D and 360-degree shots—they’re a fun viewing element when showing off a particularly stunning home interior.

III. News You Can Use

Consider this your platform for pats on the back. Don’t be shy about posting pics of awards and commendations. Those are bragging rights that go a long way in building community trust, and they illustrate your value, experience and expertise in the industry.

On a more service-oriented level, share interesting news stories and market updates (especially when they relate to your farming area), as well as helpful tips and articles for DIY homeowners.

And when it comes to your Facebook ads, you can optimize your reach by adjusting your Ad Manager settings and narrowing the audience to people living in or visiting your farm region. And be sure to include calls to action.

IV. Hashtag Heaven

On Instagram and Twitter, use hashtags—not just general ones like #realestate, #forsale and #dreamhome, but more specific ones as well. Include the neighborhood’s name, for example. If you specialize in luxury properties, use hashtags that include “luxury.” If you really want to up your hashtag game, consider using services like RiteTag and Hashtagify.

A tip: Some social media experts suggest removing hashtags from the main post and instead placing them as a comment. The post looks cleaner, and the intention remains intact—the post will still appear if someone’s searching those hashtags. And the long list of #this and #that will disappear from view after another couple of comments.

V. A Daily Dose

If you can post daily, do it. Stay consistently engaged and become a familiar face on your social media platforms. That means commenting on your followers’ posts too. Develop a rapport with others on social media, and you’ll become a familiar face—and a trusted expert—in your farm area.