As a real estate agent, you have to explore every tool that expands your reach. Instagram, with over 1 billion monthly active users, presents a valuable marketing opportunity for exposure for your team’s business and to further define your brand, especially as we conduct business virtually during the COVID-19 outbreak.
That said, building a presence on Instagram takes time and requires strategy. The Agency’s Instagram account is one of the most-followed residential real estate accounts in the world, and I have worked hard to build my own personal account to 402,000 followers over the past few years.
Below I’ve outlined three strategies we have employed that will help you build your Instagram audience, and as a result, expand your brand and business network.
Be social
Instagram is a social network. It requires you to interact with others by liking posts, following like-minded accounts, and leaving and replying to comments. If you want to discover new followers, you have to engage with accounts in your geographic area and those with similar interests to your business.
For example, at The Agency, in addition to beautiful real estate, many of our clients are passionate about travel, golf and luxury automobiles. By “socializing” with Instagram accounts with our similar interests, they will be inclined to follow us since we’re engaging in content they enjoy.
This strategy helps you engage with users that might be interested in your brand and help earn a few new active followers in the process. It is important to pick your niche, but be sure it relates to what is on your profile. Interacting with followers is time consuming, but if you put in the time and effort, your account will have organic growth.
Having each member of your team involved in the social strategy helps divide and conquer the time and effort that goes into building an Instagram audience. When discussing your team’s upcoming tasks and goals, set aside time for interacting on social media. The more time put into it, the more growth you will see.
Be consistent
Being consistent with your messaging is a key to success in marketing, and that holds true when growing an audience on Instagram. To gain more followers on Instagram, you should post with consistent frequency. Make sure your content is relevant and you are implementing the three key tags: profile, location/business and hashtags. Be sure to use these three in each post — and especially in stories.
Implementing all three in your posts gives those tagged the option to reshare and puts your content and account into other feeds for increased exposure.
While posting consistently is a must, also make sure the content on your profile is high-quality and on-brand. When you’ve gained eyes on your account, your main profile is the first thing others will look at and can determine whether they will follow you or not. Have a digital strategy and content calendar to ensure your account has an overall cohesive look.
Dividing up the work of gathering content, interacting with followers, and collaborating with influencers among your team allows for better account management, especially when consistency is key for growth.
Have your team take a look at the week’s schedule, and map out ways to capture the latest projects you’re working on. Taking the time to do this with your team can lead to some great brainstorming and creative posts for your Instagram followers to follow along.
Collaborate and be creative
Planning and implementing a collaboration with other influential Instagram accounts is a great way to bring followers, engagement and exposure to your brand on Instagram. On The Agency’s Instagram account, we host ongoing activations such as contests, takeovers and creative virtual events with other Instagram influencers tied to our industry to allow us to further engage with like-minded accounts.
While some influencers charge a premium for collaborating, you don’t always have to look so far from home. For example, some of our agents at The Agency are the most followed Realtors on Instagram.
Our team has gotten creative during COVID-19 by hosting takeovers, property tours and events with fellow industry accounts to create interesting and exciting content related to our business.
By collaborating with those in your industry, you are able to reach their audience, naturally grow your social network and create original content. Expanding your social network can help grow your brand presence and lead to business.
Mauricio Umansky is the founder and CEO of The Agency in Los Angeles. Connect with him on Instagram.
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