Going Beyond Real Estate Listings with Pinterest

Pinterest can be a great tool for real estate agents, but like with most social media marketing, there is a learning curve. Many Realtors make the mistake of thinking they can create an account, pin their listings and rake in the business. But making Pinterest work for you and your real estate business requires far more than pinning house listings – in fact, the best results from Pinterest come when listings are your last priority. Don't worry, getting business is obviously a major concern. But the hard sell will get you nowhere on Pinterest.

Social media is about recognition, about building your brand and relationships with others. Far too many real estate agents see social media as a place to dump their listings and nothing more. The best social media marketers found out long ago that you don't sell on social media. You build relationships with people. You show off your expertise in your field. This is what builds your business, NOT dumping your listings!

6 Tips for Using Pinterest for Real Estate:

Think about it...if you believe that people go to Pinterest to find a home, you're crazy.

Pinterest may be focused on pictures, but it is still a platform that allows you to encourage recognition of you as a real estate expert and a person. The more people recognize you as a knowledgeable, friendly, helpful individual with a knack for real estate, the more likely they will be to warm up to you as a business person selling your services and offering homes for sale. Start small and work up to becoming a Pinterest real estate pro.

This may come as a huge surprise, but Pinterest is the #1 social media traffic source to Maximum Real Estate Exposure, my website/blog. Over the last 30 days, Pinterest brought just under 6000 visitors, more than double the next closest site. This was out of a total of just over 50,000 visitors to the site. Would you like to see far more traffic to your blog? Keep reading for the best Pinterest tips for Realtors!

How Do You Become More Recognized On Pinterest?

1. Think tall rectangles, not squares.

Right off the bat, you can make your images stand out by going for something that gets noticed. Tall pins tend to get a lot more shares than little square pins. Look to make all of your pins of the taller variety. There more people who pin your content, the faster your visibility will grow.

My recommendation would be to start an account at Adobe photos and then create awesome pins using Canva. Canva is a fantastic tool that, with some practice, can make you look like a graphics artist. I am not kidding! Take a look at the graphic below that was created using Canva. The picture was bought at Adobe, and with about 15 minutes of time invested, this graphic was created. What do you think? Not too shabby right? This is one of the reasons I have over 16,000 followers, most of whom enjoy reading about real estate. Want some examples? Check out the graphics at the top social media groups for Realtors. All of these were created with Canva as well.

2. Apply for "rich pins"

Rich pins add HTML data to your pins that make them stand out on the site. Just like with taller pins, you are looking for ways to differentiate your stuff from the masses of pins found on Pinterest. Rich pins take a little more work to figure out, but once you get it down, you will enjoy more visibility for your contributions. See how to create rich pins for your website or blog.

3. Join the best real estate group boards on Pinterest.

Pinterest is a social media site, which means that the best experience comes from being part of groups. There are a lot of Realtors on Pinterest, some of whom are reaping the full benefits of participation. You want to become part of the best groups so you can associate with other real estate agents who are getting the results you want to get. By being part of these groups, you can see how other successful Pinterest Realtors are using the platform and add your own unique contributions. Pinterest real estate group boards will explode your visibility!

Join some of the best real estate group boards below:

• Pinterest Real Estate Group Board – This is one of the largest group boards and built for those who are in the real estate industry. Just visit the board and use the email address found under the board rules in order to be invited.
• Pinterest Real Estate Home Improvement and Social Media – Another excellent real estate board offering advice on buying and selling a home, as well as social media expertise.

Be sure that when joining any Pinterest group boards, you follow the rules. It is fairly common to see real estate agents not following the rules, including posting listings when it clearly says not to. This often times leads to getting banned from posting.

4. Diversify your boards.

Only having boards that are real estate related is a recipe for failure on Pinterest. Anyone selling a house can open an account and start posting listings. These same individuals, barring some miracle, get almost nothing out of the process. It is simply too broad a net to capture any sales. But if you are a smart Pinterest user and diversify your boards, you have a chance of bringing in people that will actually be interested in following you. Don't be a real estate robot, but a real person people want to connect with.

You can create boards on all sorts of interesting topics, including home improvement, social media, SEO tips, local information, hobbies, etc. You can create a general board like a "good to know" that can hold pins on diverse subjects. And don't be afraid to show off your own interests – other like minded people may follow these. Here are some real estate board suggestions as a good starting point.

According to estimates, Pinterest has something like 50 million active users in the Unites States. If you consider how many people are on the site, posting pictures and looking for groups, you can see how there is a possibility of developing relationships based on even your most obscure interests. In fact, the more personality you inject into your boards, the easier it often is to attract people. Having a diversified mix of boards that show you as a Realtor and as a person is the best way to stand out among the ocean of Realtors on the site.

5. Get a plugin for your blog that allows you to pin images right from your blog.

If you are trying to take full advantage of modern real estate marketing methods, having a blog should be a priority. You can talk about the things you know about, which makes you a useful resource for anyone looking for real estate – particularly real estate in your area of expertise and location. If you're using a WordPress blog, you can get a plugin to pin images directly from your blog to Pinterest. These images provide a handy link back to your blog, which is a great roundabout way of pulling in readers. You aren't saying "Look at my blog!" but you are pinning an interesting picture that may just happen to encourage a viewer to go to the source. See more Pinterest real estate tips like this one at RESAAS.

6. Be social – build relationships!

Facebook makes the need to socialize obvious because it is so personalized and revolves around a lot of text-based interactions. With Pinterest, you could conceivably never chat with anyone. But failing to talk to others is a mistake if you want to be noticed and appreciated on the site. When someone pins your image, you can send a thank you and start a conversation. Not many people do this, which will mean that you will stand out and be remembered. You will pick up followers this way, which is always a good thing.

Participation is key on Pinterest. The more you interact with the community and offer both a personal touch and the benefits of your expertise, the more friends you will make. Joining major real estate groups is a start, but ultimately you want to be a part of groups devoted to anything that you are passionate about or that are focused on subjects you can contribute to. Having your own board about a subject is a start. Eventually you want to be involved in groups about these subjects, where you can contribute ideas, images and discussion about the things that interest the group. By being social, you build a firm foundation on Pinterest that can have long-reaching benefits to you and your real estate business.

More Helpful Pinterest Real Estate Resources

• Beginners guide to Pinterest for Realtors via The Social Media Hat.
• Using Pinterest for Real Estate Exposure via Massachusetts Real Estate News.
• Pinterest for Real Estate marketing via Placester.
• Who to follow on Pinterest for real estate via Rochester Real Estate Blog.

Use these additional resources to become a Pinterest real estate pro in no time. Whether you are just starting out or are an advanced user, you will get something out of these articles. Take a look and share if you find them helpful.

To view the original article, visit the Contactually blog.