How to Become a Thought Leader in Real Estate Using Social Media

We all know that social media can be a great way to build your personal brand or business. But for real estate professionals, it can do so much more. It’s a powerful tool for becoming a thought leader in your industry.

Becoming a recognized real estate expert is by no means easy – but it’s worth it. Developing thought leadership will lead to increased opportunity, sales, leads, and great visibility.

If we’ve caught your interest and you are curious to find out how to become a thought leader in real estate, this is the article for you. Here are 10 tips for leveraging social media thought leadership to your advantage.

1. Define Your Audience

Define your audience. This is the first step to becoming a thought leader in real estate. You must first establish who you’re trying to reach and know exactly what they want from you as a thought leader. If you’re going to be an authority on how to help young families find their dream homes, then that’s your audience—not other real estate agents who want tips on how to sell houses faster.

Be sure that your audience is defined not just by age or location but also by interests and hobbies—and make sure it aligns with what makes sense for your business model.

For example, if you run an investment firm specializing in foreclosed properties, don’t focus on finding individual buyers looking for their first home (even if those buyers happen not to have any experience buying property).

Instead, try directing content toward investors who are looking specifically into this type of investment opportunity so they can learn more about it through educational videos or articles relevant only to this niche area.

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2. Research the Competition

If we approach competition with the right mindset, we might just get inspired. Find other real estate experts who are doing social media thought leadership.

What are they writing about? Where do they post? How do they engage their audience? What keywords are they using? This research can bring insight into what works and what doesn’t.

More so, it can bring to surface content gaps – and that’s your pot of gold.

3. Use Quora for Content Inspiration

Quora is a great resource for content inspiration. A quick search on Quora will show what your audience is looking for. Use it as an inspiration for your real estate social media posts.

Let’s take an example. I typed in “property listings”, and bam – Quoare returned a bunch of questions that people asked. Some aren’t of interest, but this definitely sparked some inspiration as to what people are looking for.

And I found even more questions.

Another way to use your real estate expertise is by answering questions on Quora. Consistency is key in this regard, as it will signal your position as a thought leader in real estate.

Take a look at the previous query. This post got over 2000 views – that’s great exposure! Be sure to add a quick bio to your Quora profile – it will encourage people to trust you.

4. Create a Strong Real Estate Brand

Without a strong real estate brand – you can’t really show the world that you’re a real estate expert and establish yourself as a thought leader.

Whether we’re talking about a company or a personal brand, your real estate brand will create awareness and trust in people’s minds and souls. Moreover, your brand is everything that makes you unique and different from other real estate agents. It’s your personality, your work style, and how you communicate with others.

Defining it will help guide the creation of all content you produce as a thought leader. Because consistency in messaging, visuals, and voice is key when you want to be remembered. Real estate branding might be effortful, but it’s worth it – whether you’re a thought leader or an agent.

5. Study, study, study

Developing thought leadership requires knowledge. That’s why not everyone is a real estate expert. It takes years and years of practice and study.

However, trends are ever-changing, and knowledge expands. You must keep studying to become a thought leader in your real estate niche. Attend seminars and conferences, and always be perceptive to the lessons you can learn through your practice as a real estate agent.

6. Be Consistent in Your Messaging

Consistency is a critical aspect of real estate social media marketing. Firstly, be consistent in your posting schedule. Posting once every 6 months will not set you out as a thought leader.

Secondly, be consistent in your visuals. All the visual content you publish across social media channels should follow a consistent theme in line with your brand’s identity. Whether you publish a listing presentation or a how-to post – the visual elements should reflect your brand.

Last but not least, find your tone of voice and stick to it.

You might think that this forces boring content. Well, consistency isn’t about using the same language or visuals over and over again. It’s about putting the brand’s soul out there through each material you publish.

This creates brand awareness and builds trust with your audience. In time, this social media thought leadership strategy will pay off.

7. Use Multiple Social Media Channels

Developing thought leadership in your niche takes a lot of work. You have to produce content regularly.

And putting your eggs in one basket is not wise. Therefore, instead of publishing real estate content on one platform only – diversify. This might seem like a hassle, but with the right tools, you can repurpose content easily.

For instance, Xara Cloud allows you to repurpose real estate content with ease – automatic resizing ensures that your visuals are ready to be published in no time! More so, after repurposing content, you can share it on social media – straight from the platform.

8. Utilize Keywords and Hashtags

Social media thought leadership is impossible without SEO techniques. Your goal is to inform and help your real estate audience, right? Then don’t let them chase you. Without SEO, they won’t find you. What’s the point of sharing insight if there’s no one to catch it?

So no matter what platform you’re using – don’t neglect real estate keyword research.

Hashtags (#) allow your posts to be indexed by social media platforms and be searchable by social media users looking for that particular subject, which means they are likely to be the exact audience you want to attract. You can check out our piece on the most used Real Estate Hashtags.

9. Engage With Your Audience

Social media thought leadership isn’t just about publishing long articles on various topics. It’s also about engaging with your audience.

You can engage directly with people who ask questions. Responding back quickly helps build rapport with potential clients while showing them that their concerns are being heard by someone who understands what they’re going through at that very moment.

Another way to create engagement is to be curious about your audience and create polls or spark discussions. Webinars are also a great opportunity to get to know your audience.

But you should also attend networking events and hop on forums – this will get you in touch with professionals.

10. Write Guest Posts

Guest posts are a great way of developing thought leadership. There are a variety of real estate guest posts accepting magazines and blogs. Not only is this a great way of becoming a thought leader in your real estate niche, but it’s also an opportunity to acquire backlinks to your website.

Another way of getting featured in different publications is through HARO. HARO connects journalists in need of opinion pieces and facts with experts.

Become a Thought Leader By Scaling Content

If you set out to become a thought leader in real estate, that will take a lot of time and effort on your part. It can be quite exhausting. After all, you’re still a 24/7 real estate agent.

Using templates to create and repurpose real estate content can be a time-saver. With Xara Cloud, you can create social media thought leadership pieces in no time. Set up your brand, choose a real estate template, add your copy and customize the look. Then, repurpose it in seconds.

More time to inspire, less time spend on designing content.

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