How you promote your business across major social media platforms can make or break your real estate success. Just ask Katie McCowen, a Florida-based agent who uses Instagram to boost her credibility and gain the trust of her local audience. She says Instagram is a great way to “educate the public” and “reach an unlimited amount of people.”
How does she do it? Katie doesn’t just plaster beautiful home photos on her profile for everyone to admire. While this might work for some agents, she takes a different approach and is using the platform to teach people the ins and outs of real estate.
A huge part of Katie’s success in leveraging Instagram entails the following:
1. Focusing on Her Local Area
Most internet answers are generic and pertain to a wider market. Buyers and sellers typically want localized information when they’re looking for answers. “Every area is different,” Katie says. “Even if you go just north a little bit from where I'm located, real estate is a completely different ball game. Just because one person writes an article or makes a post about what that real estate market is doing, it doesn't necessarily mean that my real estate market is doing the same.”
2. Targeting Local Buyers and Sellers’ Concerns and Needs
Buyers and sellers have different concerns in different markets, and information from far-flung sources can cause undue distress. Katie chooses to address the concerns of her own market, sharing useful local information and presenting solutions to issues affecting her community.
3. Sharing Empowering Information
Katie likes to empower her audience with simple, actionable tips to make life more efficient. She offers her audience friendly advice on home care, breaking it down to seasonal or monthly checklists for optimal upkeep.
4. Being Able to Break Down and Simplify the Complex Real Estate Process
Agents understand the complex aspects of a real estate transaction, but most homeowners and prospective homeowners do not. Social media is an ideal platform to showcase agent expertise. Katie uses Instagram to share information about escrow, home inspections and other aspects of a transaction — even her own home-building journey.
5. Showcasing Her Approachable Nature
To balance all of that real estate education, Katie makes sure to offer the right amount of useful lifestyle content. And, because her audience has grown to trust her advice, this content often results in more business. “It's just helping me help them and staying [at the] top of [their] mind because I can't tell you … how many referrals I've gotten from something like that, just because people are constantly remembering me for being not only the real estate person, but the go-to in the community.”
6. Telling Genuine and Relatable Stories
Katie cautions against “cut and dry” posts when you do have a listing to promote. Instead, she says to always keep things personable and interesting, painting a vision that will entice buyers to picture themselves thriving within a home.
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