Hopefully by now you have unearthed the potential there is on Instagram and using Instagram stories.
Instagram stories are a great way to show off listings, open houses, behind the scenes or recently sold properties.
Not only do you have a better chance of a follower seeing your instagram story, versus a regular post, but it also sends the right signal to Instagram itself. The more you prove you are a real person, using the platform and getting interaction from your followers, the better you will become at beating the algorithm, thus more people seeing your posts.
Use these these top tips to keep your followers tapping through your stories instead of just swiping away.
Caption each story that has a "talking head"
If you have story after story of just you talking, your follower can get easily bored. Try to caption each of your 15 second clips with exactly what you area talking about so in a few short seconds, your follower knows why they should stay on and continue through and consume each clip.
Talking head Instagram style stories are a great way to talk about anything you'd like to quickly share with your followers. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Market updates for the month
- Why your latest house sold over asking price
- Why some houses sell quicker than others
- Easy ways to boost your curb appeal
- Air BnB rules in your city/town
- Events happening that weekend
- Inviting people to an event you are hosting
- A new listing, not yet on the market
- Creative ways to negotiate a sale that don't involve lowering your price
The point of these examples is to show that you can just pick up your phone, shoot a super quick 2 minute video (anything longer than this, and you should be doing this on Facebook or Instagram live) and caption each 15 second clip (the maximum size for an Instagram story) with what that clip pertains to.
Use the location feature whenever possible.
Wherever you are, a particular part of town, outdoor park or a new market, use the location feature on your instagram story. This helps have your post seen by more potential followers!
Often times, you can search the location by the actual name, so instead of just using the city name, try to get more granular.
For example, you're at a farmers market, try searching the name of the farmers market, instead of just using the city name.
Use the @ mention feature and tag the business
This is a really great tip to use as part of your Instagram story strategy. Every single time you visit a local business, take the opportunity to snap a photo and tag the business.
Whenever an account gets tagged in an Instagram story, the account gets notified. What will usually happen next is that the business will then re-share your Instagram story on their own Instagram profile.
Any business is going to love user style content and will be excited to share your Instagram story.
This means more eyeballs on your story and hopefully more followers.
Throw a gif on it!
Need to spruce up a post? Throw a GIF on it! Remember, Instagram is a fun and social place. It's not a formal, MLS style of listing. It's simply an arm, an extension of your marketing, and it needs to be done in a very specific way if it's to get real engagement.
Using GIF's catches peoples eye and can draw attention to a piece of the story that you really want the viewer to focus on.
Search the GIF's with some of these keywords:
- Just sold
- Real Estate
- Real Estate Agent
- House
- Home
- Keys
- Open house
- For Sale
Create a poll
This isn't a new feature, but it's certainly underutilized!
Go back through your DM's and reach back out to anyone that answered your poll.
Spark a conversation! You have never know who is really following you and a simple conversation could seal the deal as to why someone chooses you to list their home with.
Take photos of your listings, luxury homes, decor, the options on here are pretty endless.
It's also another one of those signals to Instagram that you are active on the platform and even better if you can get people to engage.
Get started!
My go to mantra is "done is better than perfect." All to often I hear from clients that its to hard, difficult or time consuming. Don't underestimate the value of this platform. We bring in a ton of leads for our realtors using Instagram and some of the key points we talk about above. I hope it does the same for you!