As a savvy real estate professional, you know that social media is an excellent tool for getting in front of your target audience, engaging your community, and building your brand. But with so many platforms out there—and new ones rising to prominence all the time—it can be hard to know which to prioritize.
To help you decide where you should spend your valuable time, we’ve outlined the pros and cons of each platform, as well as the table stakes you need to have in place before you go all-in on establishing your social presence.
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Important factors to consider when deciding where to show up online
Before you spend time on your social media, there are a few things you already want to have established. If you don’t have these in place yet, it’s worth taking the time to focus on them first. Just make sure to bookmark this article now, so you can come back and dig into your social media once you’ve sorted out these essentials.
Your brand identity
To stand out in real estate, you need a strong, unique brand that expresses who you are to the world. Having a clear and consistent brand identity across all touchpoints is crucial for building brand awareness and establishing trust with your target audience. So take the time to decide how you want to express yourself online, so you don’t harm your business by posting spotty content that erodes your brand recognition and your audience’s trust.
Here are some helpful resources to explore, whether you’re just establishing your brand or want to uplevel it:
- How to Create a Strong Brand
- 17+ Real Estate Branding Strategy Ideas To Help You Stand Out
- Expert Tips for Rebranding Your Real Estate Business
- Why You Need a Brand Book—and How to Create One
Your target audience
Before you go all in on your social media, you have to know who you’re speaking to and who you want to reach. The PFDD framework is a great resource for helping you identify your ideal client profile and zero in on your target market’s pains, fears, dreams, and desires. Once you know this, you can better use your social media to appeal to your target audience, from establishing your tone to deciding what type of content to post to focusing on the platforms where your audience is most likely to be active and engaged.
Your website
Many potential clients will discover you via your social presence, and you want to drive them to a place where they can learn more about you and your business. Among its many benefits, a high-quality real estate website allows you to showcase your market expertise, capture leads, highlight your listings, and build brand recognition. So make sure yours is well established and represents you well, and that you’ve included a link to your site in your social bios.
Your bandwidth and resources
From consistently posting quality content to answering DMs, responding to comments, and engaging with other accounts, there’s a lot of work that goes into effective social media management. So be realistic about the time and effort you’re able and willing to invest. Do you want to manage it on your own? Do you have a team member that can handle it? Would you prefer to take social media management off your plate and have experts handle it to grow your presence and engagement? These are all important questions to ask upfront and check in with yourself regularly about.
Your comfort level with different platforms and formats
You might feel pressure to have a presence on all platforms, but that’s not always the best strategy for real estate businesses. In addition to understanding where your target audience spends time online, think about where you do, too. What platforms do you enjoy using? Do you prefer static pictures, videos, or text-based posts? Going where you feel comfortable is a key part of establishing an authentic presence and spurring you to be more consistent with posting.
The pros and cons of the top social platforms for real estate agents
Pros:
- Almost 3 billion monthly active users
- Older target audience: 31% are 25-34 and 41% of users are 45+
- Easy to add links and create photos albums
- Connected to Meta Business Suite so you can manage your content across Facebook and Instagram from one place and track performance
- Content is easily shareable
- Messaging feature makes it easy for potential clients to reach out
- Lots of Facebook groups based on interest and location
Cons:
- Lower engagement than other channels
- You cannot fully brand your page
- Not video-based
- Limited SEO options
- You can’t send outbound messages (you must be messaged first)
Pros:
- More than 2 billion active monthly users
- More diverse audience than some platforms: 49% of users are female and more than half are under 35
- Easy to engage with people and reach audiences more organically
- SEO/hashtag friendly
- Connected to Meta Business Suite so you can manage your content across Facebook and Instagram from one place and track performance
- Easy to add links to Instagram Stories
- Messaging feature makes it easy for potential clients to reach out
Cons:
- Algorithm is hard to nail and always changing (currently, it is heavily video focused and prioritizes sponsored posts/ads)
- Oversaturated platform
- Hard to stand out organically
- Can’t easily link in posts
- Hard to find usernames
For tips on using Instagram effectively for your real estate business, check out these articles:
Pros:
- 900 million users worldwide
- Excellent place to connect with professionals and reach specific target audiences
- Posts have longer lifespans
- Easy to add links
- LinkedIn Premium has great prospecting benefits
- Advanced search filters
- SEO-friendly, with the ability to optimize your profile with relevant keywords
- Messaging feature makes it easy for potential clients to reach out
Cons:
- Designed for the business community, so not a fit for all types of posts
- Text-based platform is not ideal for posting photos
- Niche content
- Need a large network to get engagement
- Audience is limited based on connections
To level up your LinkedIn marketing, try these 5 tips.
YouTube
Pros:
- More than 2.5 billion active monthly users
- Allows long- and short-form videos
- Great place for posting listings
- Easily reshared on other platforms
- Good place to develop a niche and build an audience
- Great for SEO (because YouTube is owned by Google, videos that are keyword optimized typically appear at the top of search engine results, even before the top-ranking websites)
Cons:
- Hard to gain traction
- Oversaturated platform
- The search engine is not optimized
- Must properly tag videos to get reach
Looking to start a real estate YouTube channel? Get tips on establishing yours here.
Pros:
- 450 million monthly active users
- Short-form posts allow you to get right to the point
- Potential to go viral and gain a following
- Easy to add links
Cons:
- Hard to grow
- Moves fast, so you need to stay very active to get discovered
- Low character limit for posts
- More limited reach than other platforms, and audience is dwindling
TikTok
Pros:
- Rapidly growing platform good for reaching niche audiences
- Great for short-form video content
- Offers in-depth analytics
- Potential to go viral and skyrocket growth organically
- Ability to categorize and search for content
Cons:
- Future of the platform is uncertain
- Algorithm can be a mystery
- Need to post consistently to gain traction
- Hard to grow
- Can’t add links in captions
Learn how to reach new leads and market properties on a huge scale with a strong TikTok strategy.
Take your social media to the next level
We hope this overview has helped you understand the pros and cons of the most popular social platforms, so you can sort out which feel right for your business. Once you’ve decided how you want to move forward, check out this post with proven social media strategies to boost your business in 2023.
If you want to take your social presence to the next level without taking valuable time away from your business, our expert team is here to make it happen. From developing a strategy to posting content, our team does the work to grow your following, increase engagement, and establish you as a market and lifestyle expert. Reach out and let’s chat about how we can build your brand and grow your business.
