The Powerful Tool of Social Media
If you’ve looked around sometime within the last 20 years, you’ve noticed that social media has boomed in popularity and influence within our culture. There are platforms for just about every niche under the sun and some, like Facebook, are home to over three billion users. You may have wondered if your real estate business could benefit from social media somehow. Spoiler: It definitely can!
Why It’s Important — And How to Use It
Whether you’re using social media marketing for vacation rentals, student housing, or an apartment complex in a city, you can find a way to reach people who would be the right fit for your units. Social media is where people meet, talk, learn, and explore, so it’s a valuable tool that’s free and easy to use. Let’s look into how to use it for your rental business.
Market to Your Target Audience
When fitting the niche of real estate social media marketing, it’s vital to reach your audience. This means knowing who they are and what they value. For example, if you’re reaching out to college students, platforms like TikTok and Instagram will keep you better connected than Facebook will; however, if you’re trying to reach an older audience, Facebook is the perfect place since it appeals to their reading and media consumption habits better than short-form content apps like TikTok do.
The most important task is to make sure you find potential renters in your area. Running targeted campaigns toward certain demographics or joining online groups that align with the kind of people you want to rent to will get you ahead in real estate marketing.
Provide Value
So, you have your target demographic waiting eagerly for you to post. But what should a rental business be posting to do social media real estate marketing?
The simple answer is to post whatever your tenants will find interesting. Maybe your tenants find value in some of the special amenities in your apartments or in a popular restaurant nearby. Show them off! You know your properties best, so share what makes them amazing places to live in. By posting content about your business that’s intriguing to both current and potential renters, you’ll keep them engaged with what you have to say and generate interest in your units.
Overall, you want to create a consistent brand or online persona that shows off your properties while also using a relatable, authentic voice. This will pull in potential tenants and allow them to connect with you before you’re even their landlord. This drives interest in your units, which eventually turns into money in your bank account.
Post Visually Appealing Content
At the end of the day, tenants don’t want to follow accounts that post content without visual appeal. It’s important that your representation of your units online is accurate so tenants aren’t upset later in the application process, but you should still do some minor editing here and there. You can play with tools like brightness or saturation to make your properties seem inviting, but don’t go overboard! Focus on your content being accessible first and visually appealing second.
Make sure your social media content is enticing for potential tenants. Do something different or exciting! Videos perform well on many social media platforms, so don’t underestimate the power of a short virtual tour of one of your units or an introduction video to your business.
And don’t forget, less is more. People don’t use social media to read novels, so keep captions, profile information, or story posts clear and concise. This will make your business more approachable and more relatable for audiences of all kinds.
Conclusion
Social media is an ever-changing being, so to effectively market with it, you have to adapt to changing trends and platforms. The most important thing is to not be afraid to try new things. Both failed and successful campaigns teach you about what your target audience of tenants will respond to, so don’t give up if the metrics aren’t what you hoped they’d be right away.
You have to meet your audience where they are, and in our tech-savvy age, they’re online. Social media is a powerful tool in real estate, so take the first step today in cultivating an online presence that will attract your dream tenants.
