How to build a social media plan for your real estate agency

A social media plan for a real estate agency has four parts: a clear goal, content that serves that goal, formats matched to each platform and a schedule you can keep. Posting on several platforms without these parts keeps your name visible, but it rarely brings in sellers or landlords. This guide shows you how to put the parts together.

Step 1: set a specific goal

Start by deciding what social media is for. Are you looking for sellers, landlords, buyers or renters? Do you want more exposure in a particular suburb, or to be seen as the local expert?

Your goal decides what you post. If you want more sellers, then sold results, preparation tips and local market commentary will do more for you than new listing posts alone. If you have more than one goal, check that each post points to one of them.

Write it down

Put your goal in a sentence you can check each month. For example: "Be the first agency owners in two target suburbs think of when they consider selling." Then add the measures you will watch, such as appraisal requests, enquiries from social and follower growth in your area.

Step 2: post content, not just posts

Content is something a person finds worth stopping for. Before you publish, ask yourself:

• Would someone find this useful?
• Is it entertaining or interesting?
• Would anyone share it with a friend or family member?
• Does it start a conversation?

If the answer to all four is no, it is probably filler. Ideas that tend to earn interaction include:

• Local area property updates.
• Tips for selling your home.
• Tips for landlords.
• A buying a house checklist.
• Promotion of community events.
• Surveys and simple polls.
• Prompts that encourage owners to share your posts about their listing.

Test a variety and see what your audience responds to. Our post on turning client questions into content is a good source of topics that you know people care about.

Step 3: put the right content in the right place

Each platform has strengths. Use them rather than posting identical content everywhere.

Instagram

Built for strong images and video. Use it for listing photos, short clips and scenes from your local area.

Facebook

It has a very broad audience, so it suits new listings, price updates, local area blog posts and open home invitations. Facebook Events is useful for creating invitations to open homes.

YouTube

Suits informative videos about your area and videos or slideshows of your listings. It is also a good place to host videos that you embed on your website.

Pinterest

Works as a visual board for a listing, with property photos, local area photos and key features. It will not suit every agency, so treat it as optional.

LinkedIn

Often overlooked by agents, but useful for building your professional profile and connecting with local business owners. See our post on LinkedIn posts for real estate agents.

Step 4: build repeatable series

Series take the pressure off deciding what to post. They give your audience something to expect. Some ideas:

• A monthly local market update.
• A selling tip every Thursday.
• A weekly sold results post.
• A regular local business or community spotlight.

Pick two or three and run them for at least three months before judging them. Our organic social media schedule shows how to space them out across the week.

Step 5: plan a sample month

Here is one way to lay out a month for an agency whose goal is to win more sellers. Adjust it to suit your team.

• Week 1: a sold result with a short note on what happened, a selling tip and a local community post.
• Week 2: a new listing post, a suburb update and a short video or photo set from the area.
• Week 3: a landlord tip, a sold result and a question for your audience, such as a simple poll.
• Week 4: the monthly local market update, a team profile and a reminder about your appraisal service.

That is roughly three posts a week. If that is too many, cut it back to two and hold to it. The sample matters less than the habit of planning ahead.

Step 6: stay consistent and measure

This is the step that decides whether the plan works. Building a presence takes time, and it can feel like the effort is going nowhere in the early months. Many agencies create a plan, follow it for a few weeks and then drift.

You are building a relationship with your community, and relationships take repeated contact. To keep going:

1. Plan a month at a time, using a simple calendar.
2. Batch your work. Take photos and write captions for several posts in one session.
3. Give someone responsibility for the plan, even if several people contribute.
4. Review once a month. Keep what worked, drop what did not.

A social media calendar template makes the planning much easier.

When you review each month, tie the numbers back to your goal. If you wanted sellers, look at appraisal requests and enquiries that came from social, not just likes. Ask the person who takes the call where the enquiry started. Likes are pleasant, but a conversation with an owner is the result you are after.

Where paid social fits

Organic posting builds your presence, and paid campaigns can put your listings and offers in front of more of the right people. They work best alongside an organic presence you are already maintaining, so that anyone who visits your page finds recent, useful posts.

If you would like help building a plan, or running campaigns alongside it, book a free consultation with Lead Fleet and we can talk through what suits your agency.