Instagram for Estate Agents

January 7, 2019

Social media has well and truly made its mark with estate agents across the country and is now a key marketing avenue for many. Popular is Facebook alongside Twitter with a growing number of agents setting up accounts, updating frequently and using paid for promotions. Both platforms are great for building target following and increasing brand awareness and attention on latest listings especially for agencies that correctly use professional photography and videography.

Just slightly behind Facebook and Twitter in popularity is Instagram (though it continues to grow), the social media platform that is globally popular amongst photography loving folk with the added benefit of being also able to have videos uploaded. Instagram is estimated to have around 1 billion active users globally.

With the main attraction of Instagram being the sharing and liking of photos it lends itself tremendously well for estate agencies to market their property on there. We all know that Rightmove and Zoopla here in the UK attract the most target property interested browsers and many folk will not only view property in their price range, but also indulge themselves searching amongst the more expensive listings with the wow factor photography.

Many estate agents will pride themselves on the marketing they offer their clients and a lot of that pride is steered towards their photography so what better way to display them than on Instagram? More estate agents are turning to Instagram to sell property.

Pros and Cons of Instagram for Estate Agents

The good points:

  • It’s free to use and only requires some of your time.
  • Millions of people use the platform already!
  • The platform is dedicated to showing images / videos and even has options to enhance image quality before you make them go live.
  • You can use hashtags to target key words such as locations, architecture etc.
  • Just like Snapchat, you can also add ‘stories’.
  • The Instagram app is downloadable to most modern day mobiles with Android and IOS options.
  • You are able to see how well your images perform as people can like them and comment.

The not so good points:

  • There is a lot of competition so you need to be good to stand out!
  • You can not add links to descriptions of the images you share.
  • Not so adapted for desktop usage.
  • Not usable for Blackberry / Linux users.

So what should you be doing on Instagram?

Estate agents have a wonderful opportunity to succeed by using social media as a majority of their marketing pull relates to photography – Here are some useful tips to get your agency successfully using Instagram:

  • Create a professional profile with a profile that clearly identifies who you are and consistent with your brand. Make sure you include a live link back to your estate agency website (or Rightmove/Zoopla listings) so that when people find you or admire one of your photos they have a chance to visit more of the same and potentially enquire about the property they have just seen on your timeline.
  • Upload your own photography (if photography from an external photo company then request permission to share their copyright first).
  • Post regular updates so others will not think you have disappeared. If you post frequently you are also more likely to entice enquiries and comments.
  • Ideas of photos to share include: Your property listings, your company progress / staff, local events / people / scenery / architecture etc.
  • Use #hashtags and plenty of key words to attract more viewers.
  • Show that you are an estate agency to admire. Not only post property photos, also think about showcasing a little about you and your success – Think about sold signs, people completing sales, key exchanges and more.
  • Network. Not only concentrate on your content, look to engage with other users by liking and commenting on their photos on Instagram also.
  • Make sure you check the activity on your updates such as who has liked them and especially monitor if you receive comments that need replying to.

 

Christopher Walkey

Founder of Estate Agent Networking. Internationally invited speaker on how to build online target audiences using Social Media. Writes about UK property prices, housing, politics and affordable homes.

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