So you work in real estate. Here’s how to build your digital strategy
Kait Richmond is a writer, producer and contributor to the M.T. Deco Blog
Real estate has always been a business built on relationships. If you’re a broker or an agent, you don’t need us to tell you that these days, a lot of those relationships start and are cultivated online. Having a digital strategy for your personal brand is the new normal, but we’ve noticed in working with clients that what most people are doing is stale and repetitive.
Many of the larger companies (think Douglas Elliman, Compass, etc.) offer marketing and social media support to their agents, but it’s often a lot of what everyone else is doing: professional photos and video tours. It makes some sense; browsing Zillow became a pandemic pastime, with web traffic increasing 41% from 2019 and 2020. And this 2021 report from the National Association of Realtors Research Group found that 97% of all homebuyers used the internet in their home search.
But beautiful images are not enough for you to grow your business, and they have become so common that it takes much more to stand out. That’s why it’s worth investing time into a digital strategy for your personal brand, on both social media and owned platforms. We’ll take you through a step-by-step process for building your strategy, plus give you some inspo with a few people who are crushing it.
First things first, let’s talk about the difference between social media and owned platforms:
Social Media: Social platforms, like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube
Owned Platforms: Websites, blogs and newsletters, AKA those you have control over that are not manipulated by external forces like algorithms
We are always telling clients that it’s important to prioritize owned platforms [read why here], but in the case of people working in real estate, social media should be considered just as important. The aforementioned report on Real Estate in the Digital Age found that the top lead-generating tech tool is social media, and more than half of agents use social media daily (we’d guess that number has increased since the report was published).
Social media can also be an easier place to showcase your personality and go a little off-topic, or cover something you want to talk about that doesn’t necessarily warrant a blog post. Utilizing both, according to your goals, is the recipe for success.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to revamp your digital strategy, here are the steps to take:
Do a competitive analysis: Identify 3-4 competitors in the same space as you, and do a deep dive on their digital strategies. This will help you see what’s working for them, and more importantly, what space there is for you to stand out. [Read more about this process here.]
Identify your target audience: It’s critical that you know who you’re trying to reach and the unique value you bring to them. [Learn about finding your target audience here.]
Decide where to reach them: Between social and owned platforms, there are SO many options for where to invest your time. More on that below!
Create a content plan: It’s time to build a content calendar so you have something to stick to. Head to this blog post to read about how to select content pillars and stick to them.
Publish (consistently) and engage: Once you’ve started creating your content, roll it out on a consistent basis and be sure to engage with your followers who leave comments and direct message you.
Along the way, make sure you’re clear on your North Star goal, which will help keep your strategy intentional, and stop you from wasting time on content that deviates from the plan. And don’t forget to track content performance, so you can adjust your strategy to do more of what’s working and less of what isn’t.
[We’re in the business of helping people execute on this very plan, so reach out if you want to get serious about upping your personal branding game.]
Now that you have the roadmap, let’s talk about the real estate superstars who stand out from the crowd. Add these people to your follow lists, pay closer attention to what, how and when they post, and take what you like for your own strategy (with your own spin, of course).
Ryan spent years on Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing” and, sure, that gave him a leg up, but the guy is a true branding master who embraces new technology. His brokerage includes a real estate media network, employing creatives who produce high quality, out of the box content. We could spend hours on Ryan’s YouTube channel, which has 1.35 million subscribers and takes viewers to luxury homes, from New York City to Monaco.
It’s not just YouTube - Ryan pumps out content on every platform, and for the most part, they’re tweaked to fit where they’re being posted. The YouTube channel is for long, flashy videos - that are often re-purposed for Shorts, Reels or TikToks (and the majority have thumbnails with Ryan’s face on them). On Instagram, Ryan mixes in personal photos and less-produced videos, so it feels like his account and not one run by his staff. On Facebook, he shares text posts of varying length, including some simple ones that feel like the old days of the platform and still get hundreds of comments.
We also love this Facebook post of a home tour, where Ryan shared some insights in the comments: “This is one of my most viewed videos on YouTube, getting over 18M impressions, and 1M views 🔥 So, we decided to bring it to Facebook 😎”
Takeaway: Step 3 of the digital strategy we’ve laid out above is to decide where to reach your target audience. Ryan’s target audience is quite large, so he’s everywhere. Since it’s unlikely that you can put this much energy into every platform out there, we encourage you to start by picking your favorite social media, AKA the one that feels most natural to you, and go all in. Soon after, you should expand to an owned platform that you can drive your audience back to.
If you haven’t already, subscribe to Glennda’s newsletter, The Glennda Gazette, where she shares her POV on real estate and advice for fellow agents. Her advice is practical (a recent issue covered what agents should do to prepare for commission dry spells), her newsletter is consistent (published every Friday with a set template), but most importantly, the voice is all Glennda.
There are so many newsletters that have no personality to them. All that will do is cause readers to scroll down looking for that “unsubscribe” button. So instead of stuffy, professional-speak, Glennda writes how she talks. Here’s an example:
“Once upon a time, I sold a big-ass house. It was my first big-ass house sale, back in 1995 and I did not know what to do with that $137,000 windfall. If you don’t have someone who knows what they’re doing standing over your shoulder, it’s awfully easy to make the wrong choice.
In 1995, I was a single mother, and I had been living hand-to-mouth for what felt like an eternity. I had the beater car and the boring mom wardrobe and when I got that cash in my hot little hand, I could not spend it fast enough. When you don’t have money for so long, there’s an inclination to spend it up as quick as possible, because you feel like you’ll never get the chance again.
I did not have that Glennda Baker good angel over my shoulder, telling me to invest in real estate instead of splurging on something shiny. No, ma’am.”
This story shows that Glennda has experience under her belt and is ready to share what she knows, but it also shows that she is funny and someone you can have an honest conversation with. A lot of professionals would be afraid to put “big-ass house” in writing, but Glennda leans in to who she is. That comes across in all of her content [we love this off-topic TikTok about tennis] and allows people to build trust without even meeting her.
Takeaway: Write how you talk! When you create a content plan, the content should be something that allows your personality to shine. It’s important to write in your own voice, and this applies to your overall strategy, from social captions to newsletters and website blogs. You wouldn’t want a client to consume a ton of your content, only to meet you in person and feel like they’ve been duped because your digital persona is so different.
Miranda is a Toronto agent whose TikTok strategy is one we should all emulate, even if we aren’t in real estate. Her account feels less like a sales pitch and more like a personal corner for her to discuss her interest in real estate and design, and yeah, they happen to also be part of her job.
She jumps on trends (here she is showing off Barbie Dream Houses) and shares relatable content (don’t we all have saved photos of houses we someday hope to afford), but she also does unique house tours and decor ideas.
What makes her account extra special is her love for Toronto. She does more than sell homes, she sells the city. Check out a few of Miranda’s Toronto-centric videos:
Takeway: For agents focused on a specific location, and out-of-town buyers, this is a great way to diversify your content offerings. It should also be an easy way to build content into your everyday life, because you can use your favorite coffee shop or local farmers’ market as ways to show why a move can be about so much more than the house.