Build a Social Media Calendar for Your Real Estate Business

Social media is an essential part of any real estate pro's lead generation efforts.

Like other forms of content marketing, social media builds trust with your followers. That's especially vital for the many people you meet who aren't ready to buy or sell a home but will be soon.

Without a clear strategy, though, social media often disappoints.

Many sales associates have high hopes when they start social media. After a few weeks, however, results don't materialize – and they often give up.

This comes from a common misconception about social media:

• Social media isn't for selling to someone as soon as you meet them.
• Social media is for nurturing a healthy long-term lead relationship.

To turn social media into a growth engine, consistency comes before all. Consistently sharing listings, real estate photos, blog posts, and videos lets your social media efforts attract leads for you.

A Social Media Calendar Develops Good Social Selling Habits

A social media calendar keeps you moving forward in two important ways. First, it ensures you're posting enough to get noticed. Second, it helps you stick with social. With a calendar, you have a concrete reminder and a commitment.

Here's how to do it right:

1. Decide on the Best Social Media Platforms

For reaching fresh leads, real estate pros have plenty of success with Twitter and Instagram. Twitter shows all the posts you make to every follower, maximizing your visibility. Instagram is ideal for showcasing your best property photos.

Facebook is an excellent way to stay in touch with clients or build a brand community. Last, but not least is LinkedIn: This career-focused network is valuable for sales associates in luxury real estate. Diving deep into a few platforms is better than trying to use them all!

2. Set Goals for Your Activity Level

For Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, 3-5 posts a week is a good goal. To maintain visibility on Twitter, aim for 3-5 posts a day. You'll have different followers on each platform, so you can share the same content to multiple networks. With this approach, you'll need about 21 posts a week for Twitter and five posts a week across other sites.

Whatever you decide, use your favorite calendar app to mark off due dates showing how much content to share each day of the week.

3. Define Topics to Focus On

Social media is a form of content marketing. Content is all the helpful, useful, and informative material you share online to help your audience with buying decisions. As you help them set success criteria, they learn to recognize you as a trusted voice.

As a rule, any time you post to your blog, launch a listing, or create a video, you should share it on social media. This brings people to your site, where they can convert into leads.

It's always okay to re-share your most popular posts. It's also okay to share others' posts that will interest your audience – by including your own commentary, you add value.

Common post topics include:

• Best ways to prepare to buy a home or to navigate the transaction.
• Tips for new homeowners, including home maintenance and cost management.
• Interesting things to see and do in communities in your real estate market.
• Comparisons of different neighborhoods within your area's larger cities.

Remember that social media posts do not need to be very long. You can make a worthwhile post in just a few minutes by sharing a single tip or thought. Whenever possible, however, even your short posts should include an image. Posts with images get much more attention! Brainstorm basic ideas behind your posts for the coming week, then update your calendar to include them.

4. Plan to Post During Peak Times

Usage patterns for the top social platforms suggest these peak posting times (in EST):

• Facebook: 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
• Twitter: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
• LinkedIn: 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

These averages reflect the best times to get your posts noticed across industries. When you start using social media analytics to track your posts' results, you may come up with different times that are specific to your market.

5. Automate Your Posting to Match Your Peak Times

Delta Media Group's powerful Facebook Connector™ suite automates posting client reviews, blog articles, listing events, and unique real estate content from our My Customer for Life email marketing campaigns. Social media has never been easier.

For personalized advice and help creating your Facebook marketing strategy, contact Delta's marketing team today.

To view the original article, visit the Delta Media Group blog.