Top 4 Social Media Tools for the Modern Real Estate Agent

HOW DO I LOOK?

As a real estate agent, connecting with your clients is key to your business’s success. Attracting qualified real estate leads through social media is possible when utilizing your social media correctly.

You never know when a potential client may be doing their homework by scrolling through your Instagram or viewing your Facebook reviews. You want to look your best by looking organized, utilizing newest social media trends and close with an invitation to learn more (call to action).

Maintaining your social media profile doesn’t have to be daunting, which is why we curated a list of the most useful social media tools for the modern real estate agent. The following apps are not additional social media outlets, but valuable enhancements to help boost and streamline your current social media process.

BIT.LY

Sharing relevant information with your followers keeps them up-to-date on real estate trends, your listings, innovative trends or local happenings. A great way to do this is by sharing a website link in your post. It is free tool used to shorten website URLs before sharing them. And not only does Bit.ly reformat URLS into a condensed link, but it can track the amount of times your link was clicked on. Great for traffic reporting and you can create these links quickly on your phone. More than 300 Million BitLy links are created monthly by its users. Here’s a free guide to “37 Ways How Brands Use BitLy”:

Before: https://www.gdisain.com/blog/2019/3/26/top-4-social-media-tools-for-the-modern-real-estate-agent

After: bit.ly/2HSVbpW

FEEDLY

Never miss an important story! If you are spending a significant time locating articles worthy of sharing, this next tool will come in handy. Feedly is a content aggregator that helps you organize and share what matters most to you and your clients. Feedly for mobile and desktop are free for up to 100 sources and up to 3 feeds.

Gathering information on niche and broad publications, blogs, social media posts, RSS feeds, YouTube channels and everything that matter to you, Feedly is a one-stop shop for content and will save you the time and hassle of searching multiple sites for relevant topics.

LINKTREE

With your newfound access to a multitude of articles, the next step is finding a way to share them all.

Insert LinkTree —the FREE tool to optimize your Instagram traffic and send followers to multiple destinations (links) from your Instagram bio link. Easy to use and colors can be customized.

This app aims to “let your content live longer than the feed” by allowing one link where you can house all the content you would like to share. The app also keeps statistics on the clicked links, letting you know what your followers are interested in.

STORIESADS

Instagram Stories has quickly changed online advertising with reports expecting it to surpass traditional feed sharing. With 400 million people use Instagram Stories every day, it’s time to starting using your Stories!

Creating stunning Instagram Stories ads for your open house events or new listings, all made easy though StoriesAds. Their user-friendly program walks you through step-by-step creation on adding color, font, and graphics to your images to bring them to life.

For more on how to use your Instagram Stories, visit our blog.
Feel free contact us to help you navigate these platforms. We would be delighted to assist and answer any questions.

Managing and Utilizing Instagram Stories

It may seem like an arbitrary feature, but Instagram Stories are a highly useful tool for those looking to increase engagement and work their way into people’s feed. Instagram is constantly updating and adding new features to their Story section, so we’ll go over a few items that you should test and try out.

GO AHEAD. YOU CAN DO THIS.

First, take your photo or video. Then you’ll find all kinds of options for emojis, stickers, filters, and text to add to the media you’d like to share.

Step 1: Tap the camera icon in the top left corner of the Instagram app to open your Story.

Step 2: Select an image from your gallery or take a new photo or video, then find the sticker options icon (circled in green in this image).

Step 3: Select a sticker option to add to your selected image or video.

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

A more recent addition to the Story stickers is the “countdown.” By adding a countdown clock (that updates in real time!) your followers can turn on reminders and share your countdown to their own Story. Fun ideas for countdowns might be for a product launch, open house, new listing, vacation, birthday, work-related event you’re excited about, the start of summer, etc.

Qs

Another easy sticker option that boosts engagement is the “questions” sticker. This is a more open-ended poll option where you can ask a question and your viewers can answer it; or you can open the floor to your viewers to ask you questions and then you can share your answers. We’ve seen many different uses for this sticker (like caption contests!) and it seems to lead to loads of engagement.

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YAY OR NAY?

One of our favorite items to add to an Instagram Story is a “poll.” This is another sticker option that goes over an image and includes a single question and two answers (that you can edit). Once it’s posted to your story, viewers can choose their answer from the ones you’ve supplied. The Instagram algorithm loves to see engaged viewers, so getting your followers to click an answer shows that people are interested in your content.

PASS THE SLIDERS

A more open-ended sticker option for encouraging engagement is the “slider” sticker. This is most frequently accompanied with a question in the title of the slider. You can even change the emoji people use to answer with.

HAVE FUN WITH IT

Whatever items you use in your story, the ultimate goal is to get your viewers to engage by clicking, voting, writing an answer, sending a response, etc. Engagement can also be achieved by adding hashtags, mentioning other users and profiles, and tagging your location. This may feel like it’s creating a busy image but we encourage you to get creative and test the different colors, backgrounds, and extra shapes. Most importantly, have fun!

Feel free contact us to help you navigate these features. We would be delighted to assist and answer any questions.

Everything You Need to Know about Instagram TV (IGTV)

WHAT IS IT?

IGTV is the best of several social worlds in one; it has the video sharing capabilities of YouTube with the social aspect and ease of Instagram. Videos posted to the platform are saved to a feed and don’t disappear like Instagram Stories. Those with IGTV accounts can see the number of likes, comments, and views on their uploaded videos, much like Instagram Stories. When users tap into the IGTV tab in Instagram (it’s a separate app from the regular Instagram app but is also integrated) they can expect to see a video pop up and start to play immediately, like a traditional television, and from there can browse videos that are suggested or posted by accounts they already follow. This longer, vertical IGTV video integration allows for users to get in front of a broader audience and is meant to be a simple and intuitive extension of the Instagram app.

WHY DOES IT EXIST?

Instagram’s IGTV is a direct answer to users’ demand for longer videos. The platform was first released in June of 2018 and is integrated with Instagram but is also a separate application. The IGTV app can host videos up to 10 minutes in length (and keeps them on your profile). More recently, IGTV began allowing larger accounts and verified accounts the ability to post videos up to 60 minutes long, though they need to be uploaded from a computer. These videos must be uploaded from the IGTV app, or website, but can be viewed by your audience through the Instagram app in the top right corner next to your direct messages icon, or often in the “Explore” tab of your Instagram account.

As of early March 2019, Instagram has started rolling out clips of IGTV posts in the regular Instagram feed, with the ability to click through to view the full length video. The integration allows for the opportunity to use paid promotion on your IGTV videos as well as sharing a notification about your IGTV uploads directly to your Instagram Story, where viewers can “swipe up” and be directed to the full IGTV video. (This “swipe up” feature is typically reserved for users with over 10,000 followers but anyone can use it for IGTV video-to-story sharing.) Currently, IGTV is the only option for uploading one, continuous clip longer than 60 seconds.

WHO DOES THIS BENEFIT?

Marketers seeking the widespread reach of Instagram with younger generations can utilize IGTV to get their commercials, behind-the-scenes videos, product launch announcements, company updates, directly in front of clients. Video is one of the fastest growing mediums for personal and business use. IGTV for business is still a newer concept, so getting creative with how you use it can really make you stand out. IGTV is a perfect answer to hosting and promoting longer edits of real estate videos, music videos, baking how-to’s, behind-the-scenes office tours, photoshoot sneak peeks, and more.

TECH SPECS

Requirements for IGTV video are as follows: must be portrait orientation, 9:16 ratio, and 1080 pixels wide x 1920 pixels tall. (These are the same pixel dimensions as Instagram Stories.) Videos must be MP4 file format. Find more requirements and information on the IGTV help page or feel free contact us to help you navigate this new platform.