Instagram for Real Estate

Editor's Notes

1. You can use Instagram as an individual or a business. Either way, you'll have what we call a profile. As a business, you'll have access to additional features which we'll review in just a moment.
2. To get started with Instagram it's three simple steps: 1) Download the app to your mobile phone. Instagram is really intended to be used primarily on your mobile phone. 2) Set-up a free business account. 3) Share content and follow people. Let's walk through each of these steps.
3. You can use Instagram as an individual or a business. Either way, you'll have what we call a profile. As a business, you'll have access to additional features which we'll review in just a moment. As a Real Estate Agent, you want a Business Profile. Let me explain why...
4. With a Business Profile, you get realtime metrics on how your stories and promoted posts perform throughout the day. Get insights into your followers and how they interact with your posts and stories. Add information about your company like business hours, location and phone number.
5. To switch your profile to a business account: Navigate to your profile in Instagram (for mobile), and under Account Settings you'll see an option called “Switch to Business Profile.” You will then be asked to log into Facebook within the app. After that, you'll be asked to select which Facebook page you want to connect. We suggest connecting your real estate Facebook Business page. At this time, only one Facebook Page can be connected to your business account. Make sure you set your profile to Public. Private accounts can't switch to Business Accounts. Add details about your business and tap Done.
6. Next up is choosing what category of business are you in. As a real estate agent; Product or Service is the best category option for you.
7. Getting access to Instagram Insights — the app’s built-in analytics tool — is one of the biggest perks of switching to a business profile. Instagram Insights provides a breakdown of your Instagram performance, including new followers, profile views, impressions, number of posts, reach, website clicks, and email clicks. Plus, you can see detailed demographic data about your followers, such as gender, age, location, and activity peaks.
8. Instagram also uses the same advertising tools as Facebook, so with an Instagram business profile, you can run, ads the same way you would with Facebook, or if you want a simpler option, you can choose to just promote posts just as you would with Facebook. We won't get into running Instagram ads in this class. If you're interested in that, let us know and we'll invite you to our next class covering Facebook and Instagram ads.
9. Let's talk about your Instagram Profile. Ever noticed that there are some accounts on Instagram you just HAVE to follow? This is not an accident, my friends. There are things you can do to make your profile more attractive. You know what they say about first impressions, right? This is true in life AND online. It all starts with a profile that pops. Here are some Instagram profile tips to make sure yours is among them!
10. Your profile image is the photo others in Instagram will see when you share an image, make a comment, appear in notifications, or when someone checks out your profile. Should you use your photo or a logo? It all comes down to which one is most recognizable as your brand! Keep in mind your brand is personal - it's YOU! While some people prefer to use a headshot that appears more personal, others find that using their branded logo works well as long as it is consistent with their other marketing collateral. It’s up to you. Make sure the photo is bright enough to be seen on mobile, and never use a poor-quality or fuzzy photo. First impressions, remember?
11. Your username is that one-word lowercase “handle” that serves as your Instagram URL. When you do any engagement, you comment, you post, you like, you do anything, you're known by your username. So you want this to be something recognizable, that's brand specific, that is how you want to be known. It’s also what people will use when they mention you in a comment. So try to make it memorable – it’s your Instagram identifier.
12. So choosing your username and your Instagram name are important. Why? They are the only two searchable criteria on Instagram. Choose a Searchable, Meaningful Instagram Name. Your Instagram name is your display name on your profile. You have a bit more flexibility here (30 characters/spaces to be precise) to work in your keywords. The name on your Instagram account does not have to match your username exactly. In fact, for most people, expanding on the username to use keywords or explain what you do makes a lot of sense.
13. Write an Instagram bio that sizzles. You get 150 characters here, so make them count! Tell people what you do, who you are, and what they can expect to see from your Instagram updates. Most importantly, tell people WHY they should follow you. Have a short description of your specialty (luxury real estate, single-family homes, high-rise downtown condos, etc.) and the area or neighborhood you service. Keep it short, punchy, and relatable, and don’t forget a link to your website, blog, or listings page. This bio is ok but is it lacking in sizzle? You can use emojis to add a little fun, and format your bio to make it easier to read.
14. Infuse your bio with personality, but still, keep it relevant to the business. Love the sass from Jenn’s Trends. She how she uses emoji's to stand out? Then we have NYC Realtor Sarah Johnston being herself as the "slightly sarcastic" Realtor. See those circles with images at the bottom? Those are Instagram Story "highlights." They are a great way to showcase your content. We'll show you how to create highlights from your Instagram Stories in a few moments. For now, let's finish setting up our profile.
15. You can edit your contact options by editing your profile. Make it easy for people to contact you directly by adding contact options to your Instagram profile. You can have three contact options on your profile. Options can include your phone number, email, address, message. NOTE: Contact options on Instagram are not visible OR editable from a desktop. You have to make these edits from your mobile phone. Pro Tip: If you don’t want to add your actual address, consider adding at least your city and state. When you do, your location will be shown in your bio.
16. Now that your account is set up, you should start following your favorite accounts that correspond to your business, your past clients, Sphere of Influence or others you want to follow. Give your professional Instagram account a boost by announcing your new page to everyone in your network. Invite friends and family to follow you. Make an announcement on your other social networks, and link to some of the images and videos you’ll be showcasing on Instagram to get your audience involved across platforms.
17. In order to follow an account, you simply go to the search symbol at the bottom of the app. You will hit the search page, click at the top in the search bar. It will automatically put you in the “Top” section. You can also start searching for people by typing in their name, accounts, or relevant tags like #realestate or #yourcityrealestate.
18. Let’s discuss some do's and don't of posting to Instagram. You want to post content that will engage your potential clients, impress the ones you have and create a persona of competence and likeability for people who find you on Instagram. What makes great real estate content on Instagram is a combination of personality and product. Do you have attractive homes you are listing? Fantastic! Post them, post who you sell them to and post virtual tours of upcoming listings. Do you have a dog that you love that tends to get in trouble around the house? Post it too. People come to your page to see not only your listings but who you are and whether or not you are someone they’d want to work with. Are you a likable person?
19. You have three ways to share and engage on Instagram. 1) Feed 2) Stories 3) Direct Message Let's look at each. 2) Stories Stories let you capture and post pictures and video and share them in a slideshow format. People can see your story while it's live. Stories disappear from view after 24 hours. It's a way to send quick pictures or videos to your followers for a more "on-the-go" feel. It's the best way to connect to your followers in real time. Share life's moments and give a visual representation of your day-to-day. 3) Direct Message You can use direct messages to connect with people one on one or create chat groups to message multiple people at once. It's a more personal experience compared to the other sharing options on Instagram.
20. 1) Feed The Instagram feed is where you can share images and follow the people and things you care about. The photos and videos Instagram thinks you care about most will appear towards the top of your feed. This is the Instagram Algorithm at work. The feed is where you can create specific posts, and include more text and hashtags. If you’re posting a video to the Instagram feed (aka your main Instagram profile), videos are limited to 1 minute. You can upload a video that’s longer than 1 minute, but you’ll need to select a 1-minute section of the video.
21. Tap on the small plus sign at the bottom of the app. Once chosen, you will have to allow Instagram to use your photo library. From there, you pick the photo or video you would like to post, and tap on it. You proceed to the next step by pressing next.
22. Once you've got your image or video to post, tap on next to proceed. This is where you choose what your caption will say. You may also choose to add the location in which the photo was taken (the geo-location can give your content more visibility). This is also where you can add hashtags in order to also gain more visibility. We'll cover hashtags in a moment. Once you're done, tap on Share and your content is posted to your feed!
23. Ok, let's take a moment and talk about what Hashtags are and how do they benefit you? A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a hash mark (#), used within a post to identify a keyword or topic of interest. People can search for that keyword or topic using the # and keyword. For example #chicagorealestate or #buyingahome. Whenever a user adds a hashtag to their post, it's able to be indexed by the social network and becomes searchable by other users. So essentially, hashtags help your content get found by others. As mentioned, you can add hashtags in the caption or comments of your post. Instagram allows you to have a total of 30 hashtags in one post. Don’t go overboard with Hashtags. Use them if they are relevant to your specific post. Using Hashtags in your posts helps you rank higher in an Instagram search when people are searching for things with the hashtag.
24. How many hashtags should Realtors use on Instagram? Analysis by marketing insights company Track Maven found that posts with 9 hashtags got the most engagement on social media. That said, you don’t need to include exactly 9 hashtags to get eyeballs on your posts. Instead, you should shoot for around 10 hashtags per post. If you’re trying to promote a listing or an open house you might want to use 15 or 20.
25. Here's some Hashtag ideas to help you brainstorm. (Read some examples) Don't just cut and paste the exact same hashtags on every post. The Instagram algorithm might see your content as spam and suppress the visibility of your posts. Pro tip: Save your consistently-used hashtags somewhere so you don’t have to type them out every time you post. This makes it easy to switch up your hashtags for each post. Make sense? Like these ideas? .
26. All Hashtag is a free tool that can also help you find out if certain keywords that you want to use for your #hashtags are popular enough. Try it out to see if it helps you get started with #hashtags. www.all-hashtag.com
27. Another benefit to having an Instagram Business Account, you can now monitor how effective your hashtags are by checking the Insights section of your account. From there, look for the Impression section and check the performance of your hashtags. You can now easily monitor which of your hashtags are performing well and which ones are not. NOTE: Hashtags only work when you use them on YOUR posts. Don’t copy and paste your hashtags when you comment on someone else’s Instagram posts. Make sense?
28. A recent feature from Instagram is you can now follow Instagram #hashtags (not just people). It’s a pretty big deal. It means that: You can discover more new people and more people can discover you. If you are using #hashtags and posting good content, Instagram will reward you: you will appear in the home feeds of people who don’t even follow you (yet). That’s amazing! To follow a #hashtag, click on the little magnifying glass at the bottom. This is the EXPLORE feature. Then enter a hashtag.
29. When you find a hashtag you’d like to follow you simply open the hashtag page and tap on the follow button. After you follow a hashtag you will see posts of people appearing in your home feed (people you don’t even follow). It allows you to discover and interact with new people, from all around the world, directly from your home page. This is an amazing opportunity to engage organically with other accounts. And if you are thoughtful with your comments, they might even reciprocate and follow you.
30. Next up is Instagram Stories! With over 400 million people watching Instagram Stories every day; this is the hottest thing happening on Instagram right now. Stories are a way to send quick pictures or videos to your followers for a more "on-the-go" feel. It's the best way to connect to your followers, sharing your life's moments and give a visual representation of your day-to-day. (Next Slide)
31. Stories let you capture and post pictures and video and share them in a slideshow format with fun stickers and interactive elements. Unlike posts to your Feed, Stories disappear from view after 24 hours (unless saved to your Highlights - which we'll cover in a moment) and content shared to stories won’t appear on your profile grid. NOTE: Facebook has also rolled out Facebook Stories to its mobile users across the world. You can share your Instagram Stories to your Facebook Business page as well.
32. Instagram Stories from people you follow appear in a bar at the top of your feed. To view someone’s story, you simply need to tap on their profile photo, and their story will appear full-screen, showing you all of the content they’ve posted in the last 24hrs, the content will play in chronological order from oldest to newest. Unlike regular posts, there are no likes or public comments. You can, however, send a message
33. Once you’re viewing a story, you can tap to go back and forward or swipe to jump to another person’s story. Unlike regular posts, there are no likes or public comments. You can, however, send a message directly to the person, commenting on their story.
34. To make your own Instagram Story, tap the camera icon at top left. This opens up the camera on your phone so you can take a photo or record a video, just as you would normally on Instagram. After you’ve recorded your video or taken a photo, you can use a range of filters and also add text, stickers and drawings to your content.
35. To add stickers to your story, tap the Stickers button (a smiley face in the top right of the screen) to find customizable stickers for weather, the current time, location and more. To customize your sticker, tap on it. You can change the color scheme and like any other stickers, you can move and resize it by pinching or expanding it with two fingers. This is your chance to experiment. You can do polls, ask questions, featured listings, open houses and more. Time to have some FUN with Instagram! Are you liking this content so far? Glad you came? :-)
36. QUIZ TIME: How long before Instagram Stories disappear? (24 Hrs) Unless you choose an Instagram story to save as a Highlight on your profile page. Instagram Stories Highlights can live permanently on your profile. You can think of them as a movie trailer for your Instagram feed. They’re a creative way to express yourself, show off your products, drive traffic, or market your business! And because of their prime location directly under your bio and above your Instagram feed, it’s the perfect place to direct followers to your most valuable and interesting content. {READ THE EXAMPLES OF HIGHLIGHTS YOU CAN SAVE: FEATURE CLIENTS, LISTINGS, DAY IN LIFE}
37. As long as you keep the auto-archiving feature turned on, you can save and re-share your very best Instagram Stories even after the 24-hour period has passed. To do this, head to your Instagram profile, open your Settings, tap on Privacy and Security, and then Story Controls.
38. Here you can toggle the Save to Archive option to on. Once you do this, your Instagram Stories should automatically save to your archive. Next Slide
39. To create an Instagram Stories Highlight, go to your Instagram profile and tap the “+” Highlight button Next, select the Instagram Stories that you want to add to your highlight. Pick a title and Cover Photo for Your Instagram Stories Highlight. And that’s it! You’re all set to start using Instagram Stores Highlights to market your business and share more awesome content with your followers!
40. Launched as Instagram’s first standalone video platform, (Instagram TV) IGTV has given businesses an entirely new channel to grow your following, and show-off your creativity. We're not doing a deep dive on IGTV in this class. There's lots of info on Google and on Instagram's home page to go deeper. Our goal is to share ideas on how to leverage Instagram and IGTV to grow your business. Sound good?
41. Before you can upload a video to IGTV, you need to create an IGTV channel. The good news is that Instagram has made IGTV super simple and easy to use! The first step is to download and sign into the IGTV app. Once your channel is live, you can upload your first video to IGTV.
42. Once your video is uploaded, write your title and add a description. Just like on YouTube, you’ll want to add in any relevant keywords to your description to make it easier for people to find your videos on IGTV. You can also add in links! That’s right, people will actually be able to click on links in your description and be taken outside of the Instagram or IGTV app to your website, blog or wherever is relevant to send them. Next, add a cover photo! You can upload your own custom cover, or choose a thumbnail from your video. The cover photo is what will show up on your channel page and in the IGTV categories, so make it catchy!
43. Now before you go ahead and click “post,” you’ll have to decide whether you want to share your IGTV to your Instagram feed as well! Instagram recently introduced the option to share a 1-minute preview of your IGTV video to your Instagram feed, which people can then continue watching over on IGTV. Note: Videos must be longer than 1 minute to enable IGTV Preview. When you share IGTV previews, you'll see a little IGTV icon in the right-hand corner: (See it in the photo?) To enable preview, move the slider button to green to opt-in to IGTV Preview. You can also share your IGTV video to your Instagram Stories by tapping the airplane icon at the bottom of your video and then selecting “Add video to your story.”
44. Let's go over some best practices, common mistakes and examples of agents doing Instagram right.
45. This is tacky and people and if people have seen this photo somewhere before they’ll become suspicious of you or your company. Stock photos also just have a certain vibe. They can make your account look fake or lack authenticity. You want your real estate Instagram to be unique and it won’t be if it’s littered with stock photos.
46. Your real estate Instagram should be diverse and not full of sales posts. While it’s important to show your listings and try to sell them, not all of your followers are looking to purchase. They may want to follow you for design inspiration, real estate tips or local advice.
47. Do not buy followers. You want real people who will actually engage with your brand and most of the time paid followers end up being bots. If you have a huge following but not many likes or comments on your photos this can look suspicious to your organic followers. High-quality content is all you need to organically grow your follower base.
48. Do show your local neighborhood or the neighborhood where your listings are. Post photos of restaurants, cute streets or parks. Your listing may be the most beautiful home ever but people want to know if it’s in a good area. This helps buyers know what it’s like to live in the area and allows them to picture their lives if they were to purchase this home.
49. Have a property that’s under construction or a "coming soon" listing? Post "behind the scenes" or teaser photos even though it’s not ready for sale! Share Just Solds, For Sales and Price Reduced but remember, mix it up with local feature content.
50. For some Instagram inspiration, here are three accounts you can follow: 1) Ryan Serhant from Million Dollar Listing 2) Peter Lorimer - Agent in Beverly Hills (top right) 3) Brenda Camacho is a realtor who has worked hard to get her real estate Instagram to reflect her personal brand.
51. Canva is a simplified graphic-design tool. It uses a drag-and-drop format and provides access to over a million photographs, vectors, graphics, and fonts. Canva has ready-to-go image and story templates for Instagram and other social platforms. They have a free and paid version and worth checking out.
52. Have you ever seen those videos that show someone running or walking and the video goes really fast? Or a video of a sun rising at fast speed? Hyperlapse is an app from Instagram. You can create amazing time-lapse videos. Shoot handheld time-lapse videos in motion— while you're walking, running, jumping or falling. And speed them up to create a cool visual effect.
53. InShot is an image and video editor with cool features, including trim & cut video/movie, blur the background, add music, stickers, and video effects! Great for your Instagram Stories and IGTV videos.
54. Boomerang works by taking a super short, super-fast burst of photos and stitching them together into a back and forth mini loop video. Basically, it plays the video forward and backward and forward and backward really fast. Have fun with it! To quote Instagram, "It's not a photo. It's not a gif. It's a Boomerang." Have you guys seen these videos?
55. CutStory is a great app that provides a way to get around the 15-second max length for Instagram Stories. CutStory takes individual videos, cuts them into 15-second clips and stitches them together. What you get is a single Instagram Story up to 1 minute in length. You can add fun stickers, music and do all kinds of things.
56. Planoly is a visual planner, scheduler and more for Instagram. You can do everything you need to do on Instagram with Planoly.
57. Later is an alternative to Planoly. It too allows you to schedule, plan, manage and track your Instagram Posts. A cool new feature with Later is the ability to schedule Instagram Stories in advance. That's right, create your stories and schedule them vs having to remember to post them. Check them out as well.
58. In summary, we covered a lot of information today. (read few bullets if you like) Did you find today's class valuable? Would you like to come back if we took one or two of these topics and did a deeper dive? Great!
59. We'd love to get your feedback on today's class and let us know other topics you're interested in learning. If you'd help us out, take two minutes and complete our feedback form. Turn them in before you leave and we have a free gift for you just for attending. (Next slide)
60. As a thank you for attending today, we have a Getting Started With Instagram Free Guide! Who's excited?! :-) We'll email it to you as part of our follow-up from today.
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