A picture is certainly worth 1000 words, especially when it comes to marketing a property.
Photography has always been an essential part of promoting properties for sale but have social media platforms like Instagram been used to their full potential?
Instagram is a global phenomenon with over 1 billion users reported in June 2018, which means that it is one of the popular social networks in the world, especially with the younger generations.
More recently, agencies have preferred to concentrate their efforts on other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to promote themselves and their stock but using Instagram may be able to reach more people from the 35 and below demographic, who are the house buyers or renters of the future.
As of Jan 2022 there are an estimated 30.6 million Instagram users in the UK and 46% of the UK population have an Instagram account. Over 5.5 million photos have been shared with the hashtag #property in 2021. You can certainly see that the growth of the use of Instagram with the property industry is there.
Enticing potential viewers is always the name of the game, Instagram is certainly no different. The use of beautiful images has always been to lure people to get further information or to view a property. Standard, brochure photos are going to be the thing of the past with the advance in camera technology, it is easier now to take beautiful photos and post them online, almost immediately on the photo-sharing app, for them to potentially go viral.
Earlier this year, Apt Living promoted that they managed to trace back a sale to a lead generated from their Instagram account. This is believed to be one of the first in the UK, so there is potential to gather leads from the app.
Instagram is a photo sharing social media platform, if the quality of the images isn’t up to scratch, then you won’t get the reaction you will be hoping for.
Use techniques such as the rule of thirds which is a powerful technique for making photos more interesting and dynamic. It often creates a sense of balance without making the image appear too static, without making the image look too busy.
Just as you would use relevant hashtags on other platforms, you will want to create your own hashtag that fits well with your agency. You would also be looking to use 5-10 other relevant hashtags.
Here are a few examples of property related hashtags:
#property – 5.5 million+ images
#propertyinvestment – 310,000+ images
#estateagents – 132,000+ images
#lettingagents – 8,200+ images
Since 2016, Instagram has increased the amount of video time you can post from 15 seconds to 60 seconds as well as the creation of IGTV.
It is very important to create video content that captures the attention of the viewer in the first few seconds.
Conducting a video tour of a property would be a great way to engage with your audience.
Once you have created content that is performing well within your audience, you will want to expand your reach by promoting your content, just as you would if you were boosting a post on Facebook.
Spend money to make money! Whether it is an amazing photo of a property for sale or a video tour, you want as many eyeballs on your content as possible.
Having a social media presence is essential for estate and letting agents and other businesses in the property sector and Instagram should be a part of your campaign to attract more people to your properties and your brand.
Agents who decide to get ahead of the game and use Instagram, may reap the rewards sooner rather than later.
Tags: Digital Marketing, Estate and Letting Agents, Social Media Marketing"*" indicates required fields
