5 Tips for Using Social Media
to Sell Your Home
home equity articles and tips
While old-fashioned listings still have their place in the real estate world, more and more sellers are turning to social media to spread the word about their properties. It's fast, it's easy to use, and it can reach a wide audience with little effort. If you're ready to embrace the 21st century market, here are just five tips for using social media to make a house sale.
1. Share Your Listing
This may sound like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised by how many sellers miss out on prime marketing opportunities because they don't take advantage of every chance to share their listing on social media. Don't just log on your Twitter account and announce that your house is for sale. Join local real estate groups on Facebook and submit an entry for your home; promote your property on Instagram with daily photos and listing information; create a YouTube account to give virtual video tours. Don't be afraid to completely saturate the social media market with your home.
2. Blog about Adjacent Topics
This is a subtle way to make yourself known on the real estate market without declaring "my house is for sale!" every five seconds. For example, you might start a Pinterest group focused on interior design. For every photo collection of granite countertops or blog post about "The 10 Best Tiles for Your Bathroom," you'll be encouraging discussion in a way that you can lead back to your available property. For example:
- Commenter: I love those bamboo blinds!
- You: Thanks! I have some in my living room. I haven't decided whether to sell them with the rest of the house or keep them for myself.
3. Make New Friends in Real Estate
As with many things, networking can make all the difference when you're trying to sell your home. You never know when a buyer might message you through friends-of-friends or when another seller might be able to put you in touch with a land developer. Start joining, advertising and participating in real estate groups and events, even if it's just attending a webinar or tweeting questions to a member of Success Path. Knowing the right people at the right time can be what finally sells your home.
4. Create Ads
If you're on a deadline to move your property, you might have to spend money to make money. The good news is that social media networks make it easy to create and display ads. Facebook is the behemoth here, offering an average of 95 percent ROI for user ads, but you can also find ad space on everything from Snapchat to SlideShare. The key is to think about your demographic and what social media sites they use. If you're selling, say, an upscale condo, you'll probably have better luck pulling a buyer on LinkedIn than Tumblr.
5. Utilize the Site's Special Tools
Last but certainly not least, don't try to fit a square peg into a round hole. Treat each social media site as a unique platform where you can accomplish different things. On Twitter, joining a hashtag party might be the key to attracting more clicks; on Instagram, you'll want to try and get featured on their special "recommended" page. On Google Plus, it's all about manipulating their algorithms to improve your SEO. Only by embracing each site's unique capabilities will you truly take advantage of all the marketing tactics they have to offer.
These are just a few tips for using social media to sell your home. Whether you're a first-time, single-home seller or an experienced realtor looking to improve your sales, these guidelines can help you find buyers with the infinite power of the web.
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