Realtors Take Real Estate to Reels
As a young entrepreneur interested in sales and marketing, I figured there would be no better place than LA to give it a shot. After moving to LA, I understood the opportunity behind social media marketing and how millions of businesses are investing in harnessing the value of new-age social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. The era of covid solidified what apps are here to stay. Initially, TikTok was compared to Musically and Dubsmash, where everyone assumed it was a fad that would end, but Covid changed that because people started to spend hours and hours viewing content. This made way to build better algorithms to enhance the user experience. This has made Tiktok one of the most addicting apps in the app store today. With kids between the ages of 10–16 having more time than ever during covid, Tiktok was used to learn about everything around the world. TikTok has become the primary search engine for the next generation of home renters and buyers.
This is why we are seeing more realtors use short-form content that can be readily created and viewed on mobile devices to sell their listings as well as themselves. As the popularity of short-form video has expanded, property tours have become frequent on TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and Instagram. Realtors claim that when the pandemic made it more challenging to personally display apartments and homes, they enjoyed an added boost. Madison Sutton, a real estate agent with more than 100,000 followers on her TikTok account @TheNYCAgent, uses social media to stand out to consumers who already have access to a deluge of real estate listings and information through aggregator sites like Zillow. She uses her account to offer listings, recommendations, real estate tips, and a variety of other content. She handles both sales and rentals. Starting in the summer of 2020, her first 18 months on TikTok resulted in 12,000 queries which were all organic!
Therefore, if you’re seeking to grow your firm, you have to be using social media. Videos on these platforms are also mobile-friendly, which is effective because it mimics how many consumers already consume content and interact. Many agents claim that when they first joined the real estate industry, new agents were urged to get out their phones and call everyone they knew to announce their entry into the real estate industry. As voicemails are now a thing of the past, social media has made it easier to stay connected with thousands of potential clients. Another use case of social media being used by realtors is to quickly adjust the strategy; Mr. Jevin, the “The Snapping Realtor,” typically uses Instagram’s Reels function to share videos with his more than 25,000 followers about new listings, neighborhoods in Los Angeles, and other real estate-related topics. Similar strategies have helped agents earn more by leveraging social media. Real estate agents can share videos with prospective buyers using the real estate app Ten Sixty Inc., where purchasers can also speak with agents. In the corner of the screen, the app can display a property’s number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and parking spaces, among other real estate-specific features.
One of the main benefits of social media video marketing for some agents is how inexpensive it is. Although they can pay to advertise their postings on social media, many agents choose to upload free or “organic” films in the hopes that they will attract enough interested viewers. Although many agents purchase Facebook and Instagram advertisements, agents normally do not pay to advertise on TikTok, Reels, or Shorts. The Snapping Realtor claims he spent $3,000 per month on Zillow ads to produce leads for a while. He no longer uses Zillow for advertising and doesn’t spend any money on Instagram or any other network. The industry average suggests that 10% of an agent’s profits should go back into the company for marketing, but this could be a thing of the past with social media.
Despite social media’s allure for agents looking to save money, they still need to commit a lot of time for it to be effective. The time constraint is the major barrier to entry for realtors making content while having a full-time job. Furthermore, the disconnect between the average realtor and their social media audience means most realtors struggle with creating engaging content to capture the audience’s attention. With influencers using content creation as a full-time job, most realtors only have the privilege of using social media as a part-time marketing resource. If you’re a realtor who struggles with this, feel free to reach out to me!