How to Attract Real Estate Leads on Instagram

How to Grow Your Account and Get Followers

After doing the basics and setting the stage for growing your account--converting to a business profile, adding an awesome bio and profile photo, and creating an aesthetic--we have a few more tips for how to gain followers organically on Instagram.

Like posts: No, really, just go out into the wilds of your Instagram search bar and find posts relevant to real estate and like them. Search local hashtags and like those posts. Basically, like everything and keep it up. Check back into your account every day (or as often as you can manage) and find more relevant content to like.

Comment on posts: When people see you commenting on other posts with insightful information or a great question, they might just head over to your profile and check it out.

Follow people who are in the same or similar field as you: Instagram is great at connecting the dots and showing people other profiles they might want to check out, so toss your hat in the ring and get noticed.

Use the data insights from your business account to monitor which posts do the best and repeat: Maybe you see that posts with shorter captions are the winners, or posts with super colorful photos—whatever you find, capitalize on it.

Post at the right time: Since you're targeting locals, post at a time that makes sense for them to see your posts. Maybe in the morning, lunch time, or the afternoon, but never at 2:00 am.

Follow this advice and you'll be growing your follower count in your sleep (after some time spent commenting, liking, and following others, of course).

How to Attract Real Estate Leads on Instagram

Instagram provides you with all sorts of leads—from homeowners looking to sell or buy to other agents looking for insights—you can find all types on this platform.

Working on growing the connection between you, your followers, those you follow, and your local community on Instagram is the #1 way to generate and attract leads. Through posting thoughtful, quality content and responding to comments (and going out of your way to comment on others' posts), you will find plenty of people looking to buy, sell, or learn more.

To ensure they get and stay in contact with you, leave your contact information on posts (where applicable) and always include it and a link to your website in your profile bio. Generating leads on Instagram is very similar generating leads through email or your website: it takes persistence and frequent contact. But the best part about Instagram is that people who find your posts are usually seeking out exactly what you're sharing for the reason you hope they are—to find an agent to help them with their property search.

How to Create an Ad on Instagram

Ads can help you boost your content to specific, targeted audiences that you hope will follow you and someday become your customers.

To get started, link your Instagram account to Facebook.

• Go to your Facebook Page
• Click Settings in the top-right of your Page
• Click Instagram Ads
• To add an existing Instagram account to your Page, click Add an Account
• Enter your Instagram account's Username and Password, and click Confirm

Then, go to ad creation.

Next, chose an objective that works for you. The options for Instagram are:

• Brand awareness
• Reach
• Traffic (for clicks to your website or to the app store for your app)
• App installs
• Engagement (for post engagement only)
• Video views
• Conversions (for conversions on your website or in your app)
• Lead generation

There are three types of Instagram ads that you can run: single image, carousel (multi-image), and video. While still images can work well as ads, home listings and home tip ads can do very well with multi-image carousel sliders that viewers can swipe through, as well as videos that they can watch.

Now, create your target audience. If you have experience with Facebook ads, this will be a smooth process. Think about your target demographic—are they young, old, somewhere in between? Do they want to buy a bigger home or sell their large four-bedroom? Utilize Instagram Ad's targeting tools to make sure the right audience sees your ad.

Go big on your images and videos. Instagram is all about stunning visuals, and ads are no exception. Because you're paying to feature your content, make sure you use the best images and video you have available.

Like always, include a strong CTA. The point of an ad is to have viewers go somewhere and do something: make that the prominent feature of your ad caption to meet your objective.

Add your most popular and relevant hashtags. Instagram ads can be shown to non-targeted audiences who search for the hashtags in your post as well, meaning you can get more views and clicks by adding a few well-placed and engaging hashtags.

Looking for more information?

Read our other blogs about Instagram: "Why Your Brokerage Should Be on Instagram" and "How to Plan Your Next Real Estate Post on Instagram."

To view the original article, visit the WolfNet blog.