It takes no great stretch of the imagination to understand that social media are ideal platforms for estate agents. But where do you start? Which social media channel offer you the best chance of success?

With 2.23 billion subscribers, Facebook is at the top of the list at the moment, but other channels also bear considering. YouTube offers the perfect opportunity to showcase your new homes and provide tips, but it isn’t very versatile, is it?

But further down the list, in sixth place as you can see from the diagram below, Instagram offers a lot more possibilities. With its 400 million daily users this comes as no surprise.

 

The Most Popular Social Networks Based On Usage As Of October 2018

 

Most Popular Social Networks

Source: Statista

 

Why Instagram?

 

Instagram lends itself to visual media. That means that you can show your listings to their full potential, which, in fairness, you could probably do more easily on YouTube. The advantage of Instagram over YouTube, however, is versatility.

With YouTube, you get to share one type of content – video. Instagram offers more possibilities. You could start by sharing teaser photos on your page and then follow up with a video showing the property off. Instagram Stories is the perfect vehicle to get your message across.

Shoot a video and post it, or create a slideshow of pictures. Changing up your content type is a clever way to keep it fresh and new.

According to the infographic provided by 99firms, Airbnb uses Instagram Stories in a number of different ways. It might post a picture of a location and ask Instagrammers to identify it. Alternatively, it uses this feature to show off locations around the world. The footage is shot by travelers having adventures so it’s usually interesting stuff.

As an estate agent, there are plenty of ways to use Instagram to your advantage.

 

Use It As A Branding Exercise

 

Instead of writing about how great you are, why not tell people so in a video? This gives them the opportunity to get to know you in a more relaxed setting, without them having to do much work. Do let some of your own personality through when posting as well.

 

Post Recommendations

 

People are more likely to believe a recommendation from a real, live person. It doesn’t matter if they know the person or not, they are a lot more likely to believe a personal recommendation than what you tell them. Ask clients if they’d be willing to recommend you in a video. If so, post those recommendation videos.

 

Create Social Proof

 

What is more convincing when it comes to proving how successful you are – a photo of you handing over the keys to a happy family or a list detailing how many sales you have made in the last year?

 

Post A Virtual Tour

 

Looking for a dream house can be a lot of work. One could end up having to traipse through a lot of houses before she finds the right one.

 

A virtual tour can make things easier for clients by letting them see upfront what they are looking at. They can whittle down their list of houses to visit accordingly.

 

How Businesses Use Instagram Stories Infographic

 

How Businesses Use Instagram Stories

Courtesy of (99Firms)

Conclusion

 

In this post, we have given you a few ideas of how to use the Stories feature. We have just scratched the surface, though. What other ways can you think of to get the buyers coming in?

 

For even more ideas on how to use Instagram Video for Real Estate read our recent article.