- Post beautiful images that will engage your audience in an organic way.
- The quickest way to disengage your audience is to sell them.
- Instagram is a great choice for a free social media platform that engages your market through visual storytelling.
Andres Perea-Garzon shares his Instagram secrets. Photo: Donna Dotan Photography
Social media does not come naturally to me. It never occurred to me to have a social media account before I started in real estate, and my platform of choice is Instagram due to its visual and design-oriented focus. After asking my nieces to set me up on Instagram, I started following top brokers to learn how they used this tool.
One of my favorite accounts is indepth_nyc, which belongs to Andres Perea-Garzon of Compass New York City. I asked him for his best tips on using Instagram successfully.
Here’s what he had to say.
Andres Perea-Garzon on Instagram basics
- Be yourself. Your audience will quickly pick up if you are trying too hard and will disengage.
- Do not hard-sell to your audience. This is a huge turn off to anyone — typical users go to these social media platforms to disengage from daily stressors, so the last thing they want to see is someone telling them what to do.
- Organic and genuine relationships on social media are the best ones. You want to ultimately “click” with someone that shares your common interests. If they are not looking to buy, rent or sell immediately, that doesn’t give you reason to not engage with them. Ultimately, we are in the business of building and nurturing relationships.
A pretty picture and The Pierre
Perea-Garzon also shared his major success story:
Photo credit: indepth_nyc
“Back in 2014 as I was wrapping up a long day of showings, I walked past The Pierre [a luxury New York City hotel overlooking Central Park] and felt inspired by its architectural beauty,” Perea-Garzon said.
“I decided to take a picture, which I later posted while tagging the business on Instagram. That day, The Pierre reached out to me, and we connected in person the following week.
“Ultimately, this resulted in earning The Pierre as a client, and I broke NYC records when I represented the hotel in renting the city’s most expensive rental on record for $500,000 per month. The Pierre is still my client, and I currently represent a portfolio of 14 residences for it, ranging from $18,000 to $500,000 per month.”
Bonus story from Perea-Garzon: “In 2015, I generated an $11-million offer from a broker who did not know my property was on the market based on a Facebook post. The property ultimately sold to another party for $12.5 million.”
Follow me on Instagram at RebeccaCavallaroNYC for live blogging from Global Connect 2016 in New York City. I hope to see you there!
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Rebecca Cavallaro is an associate broker at Sotheby’s International Realty. Follow her on Instagram or on Twitter.
