In this article, I’ll review the most significant real estate social media trends and provide some recommendations about how to level up your business this year. I’ve also included a handy summary infographic. If you have any questions please schedule a free real estate marketing consultation.
Social Media Reigns Supreme
Social media is the #1 channel that agents say they plan to use when growing their business this year; 80% of agents said they planned on doing so. Email marketing was a close second, and emerging in the top 3 was video marketing (which, to be fair, is often a component of social media thanks to Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube.)
The #1 reason agents want to maintain a presence on social media is to stay top of mind amongst their sphere of influence. Generating leads and referrals were the 2nd and 3rd most popular reasons for engaging in social media marketing efforts in 2022.
While I initially scratched my head as to why social media ranked above email (despite email having a 30-40x ROI), it makes sense when viewed as wanting to stay top of mind. Real Estate Agents sometimes email leads for superfluous reasons. However, on social media, these topics can actually be fair game.
In terms of what social networks are important to agents’ marketing, Facebook is at the top of the list. And yes, there has been a lot of sentiment that sounds like this: “Facebook is dead!”. However, Hootsuite recently released The Global State of Digital 2022 report, and they too hit home that “Facebook is still the most popular social network—by a long shot.”
Hootsuite also reported that 2.91 billion people on Planet Earth are on Facebook. With 4.66 billion people having access to the internet, well over 60% of internet users worldwide are on Facebook. So, yeah, Facebook is most certainly not dead. And Instagram, now owned by Facebook, is the second most popular social network for agents.
Suffice it to say that agents seem pretty sold that they need social media marketing to grow their businesses. Two-thirds of agents say that posting great content on social media is more important than having a blog. Organic posting on social media was the second most popular way agents got clients in 2021.
There are two main roadblocks noted by agents who struggle to maintain a solid social media presence. First, many agents get distracted with other core business duties and, therefore, post inconsistently and without a solid strategy. Also, according to our survey data, only about 47% of agents feel confident with their social media skills.
If you want to do more social media marketing but know that you won’t have the capacity or skill set to do so consistently, then consider having us manage your social media for you.
Are Agents Backing Up their Marketing Confidence with Results?
More than half of agents (53%) say they feel confident with their marketing skills. However, less than half (45%) say they get leads from their marketing. Odd, sincne of the main marketing goals many agents have is getting high-quality real estate leads.
Similarly, while almost three quarters of agents (74%) feel confident that they can turn leads into clients, only 53% feel confident with their ability to get motivated real estate leads.
Many agents are relatable, experienced, and legitimate subject-matter experts in their community. So, OF COURSE, they feel like they could convert leads… if only they could get real estate leads.
So, while agents might think the problem is getting motivated leads, perhaps the issue is that agents aren’t nurturing the leads that they’re getting properly. Just because a lead isn’t ready right now doesn’t mean they won’t be prepared to buy or sell in a few months (or even years).
If you’re interested in converting more leads, step 1 is making the work you put into your CRM’s data and nurturing programs a labor of love. And if you don’t have a CRM, we highly recommend iMaxCRM. It’s easy to use, and you can even try it for free.
As we already discussed, social media is an important channel for agents. So much so that almost half (48%) of agents say that social media ads are their most effective form of advertising.
And as a graph I included earlier in this article pointed out, Facebook Ads were a more popular channel for agents in 2021 than “old school” approaches like cold calling, door knocking, and print ads.
I anticipate Facebook Ads will only increase in popularity among agents as a lead gen channel in the year ahead, and we expect that number to increase when we send out our annual agent survey in early 2023.
If you’re looking for help with running ads on Facebook, we can help you with that! We know all the rules and best practices for Facebook, which is good for you because they change just as fast as the real estate industry does. Click here to schedule a free real estate marketing consultation.
The Support & Help Agents Get and Need
Most agents set goals and an action plan for 2022 and get adequate support from their brokerage.
However, despite understanding the importance of video marketing, it’s an area where agents feel significantly less confident. Only 32% feel confident with using video marketing in their business.
Yet, marketing videos ranked as the third most popular way agents plan to get clients in 2022. Plus, 37% of agents said YouTube was important for their marketing, and another 18% pointed to TikTok as being important to their efforts.
Video is essential for real estate agents. It’s really important as a real estate agent that you break down any comfort barriers and at minimum make these videos all real estate agents should make.
Key Takeaways + Full Infographic
Overall, it’s clear that social media continues to gain momentum as an essential marketing channel. However, while agents feel confident with their marketing skills overall, they need to make sure they have clear, measurable goals they can tie to these efforts—whether those are lead generation goals, growing their SOI or online presence, or simply gaining referrals.
Based on this data, it’s clear that Facebook isn’t going anywhere for Realtors. I anticipate the data will show that Facebook Ads will grow in importance as a marketing channel. Here’s why: Agents already got more clients from Facebook Ads in 2021 than they did from more traditional types of prospecting and outreach (i.e., door knocking, cold calling). As agents become more sophisticated with Facebook Ads, their ROI will only improve.
Email marketing was ranked the second most popular way agents will grow their business in 2022. With the ROI on email marketing being as high as it is (around 30-40x that of social meidia), agents have a lot to gain by putting their energy into their CRM.
Lastly, agents are great at setting goals and seem to feel supported by their brokerages for the most part. However, video is still a sore spot for agents. Agents might have to get out of their comfort zone and get in front of the camera to chase their marketing goals in 2022.
