Here's Kyle:
Here's How to Use Pinterest for Real Estate - A Realtors® Guide to PinterestIf you’re in the real estate industry you’ve probably heard the buzz surrounding social media. Real Estate agents are killing it on many platforms. With the abundance of real estate marketing techniques to choose from, it’s important that real estate professionals put their eggs in the right baskets. Here's how agents can use Pinterest to increase their online presence.
Create Catchy Graphics:
In order to get your Real Estate brand reckognized on Pinterest, you'll need catchy graphics. Pinterest is all visual. Graphics that are poorly designed or easily forgettable will result in poor results and a quick exit from Pinterest.
It’s vital to your Real Estate success on Pinterest that you create at least 2-3 memorable graphics relating to the topic you’re writing about. There are several user friendly websites and programs that are available that make it easy to create great, eye-catching graphics. One website I use to create graphics for my content is Canva.
Canva is a free website that allows users to create graphics of all sizes and also purchase photos for their graphics for as little as a $1.00. As a rule of thumb, the longer the graphic, the better it will perform on Pinterest.
All of my articles are accompanied by at least 3 graphics that are 800px x 1200px. Here's an example of an article I wrote discussing why Realtors® ask for a pre-approval letter and matching graphics. These three graphics have been pinned almost 1,000 times, which is almost half of the 2,100+ shares.
It’s important to use only photos you have the rights too (either royalty free photos, or those you paid for). There are a handful of websites that allow you to get royalty free graphics and others that offer graphics as cheap as a couple dollars, such as Canva.
Think Local:
Pinterest provides real estate agents the opportunity to showcase their local communities. Agents can easily gain a strong online reputation amongst community members by focusing on topics relevant to them.
As one of the top real estate agents in Rochester NY, Pinterest has allowed me to show off not only the City of Rochester but also the surrounding communities that I do business in. Pinning attractive photos of local establishments, landmarks, and other points of interest is social proof that you’re in tune with your local community and furthermore proves you’re the local expert.
Create Local Boards:
Your local boards shouldn’t only be filled with your greatest and latest listing. These local boards should provide people who are interested in learning about your communities with some helpful information. On my Greater Rochester NY Pinterest board, I’ve pinned graphics regarding the local dog parks in Rochester, local real estate market reports, information for people who are moving to Rochester, Rochester NY landmarks, and other helpful Rochester related Pins. In most cities, there are many surrounding towns, villages, and neighborhoods which you can also create seperate boards for.
Join Group Boards:
One of the best ways to effectively use Pinterest in real estate is to join powerful group boards. There are dozens of excellent real estate group boards on Pinterest.
Group boards are essential to Pinterest success, because the group boards expand the audience of pins. For example, if a group board has 10,000 followers, any Pin you share with the group board will now have the ability to reach these 10,000 followers.
Follow Other Agents:
Regardless of your reason for using Pinterest, all agents should follow other Real Estate professionals. This will not only help build your Real Estate brand, but also provide you with great ideas.
There are several resources and articles that discuss who the best real estate professionals on Pinterest are. As you discover these real estate professionals on Pinterest, evaluate how they are using Pinterest. In most cases, these professionals are more than happy to answer questions you may have about Pinterest.
“If you can’t beat em’, join em'” is a great saying to keep in mind as you’re building your Pinterest presence.
Don't Be a Super Sharer:
One of the most common reasons why real estate professionals don’t succeed at Pinterest is because they are a super sharer. You’re asking yourself, what is a super sharer? A super sharer is someone who Pins content to on of their boards, shares it everywhere, then never shares it again.
A super sharer on Pinterest will Pin their graphics on their own boards and all of the group boards they belong to at once. This is a huge missed opportunity to reach the a large portion of the potential followers of these boards. Unless these group board followers happen to log into their Pinterest account in the near future, your pin will likely go unseen by them in notifications.
A great tip for Pinterest in real estate is to sprinkle your pins over a long period of time. For example, once I publish an article, I’ll share one of my graphics on a couple group boards immediately. For the next several days, I’ll share the same pin to a couple different group boards, keeping in mind to space the Pins apart a few hours. This greatly improves the chances that more people will see my graphics, which will hopefully result in them Pinning my graphics to their own boards.
Some Final Advice:
Successfully leveraging Pinterest can be a game changer for your Real Estate brand. Building a strong Pinterest Presence isn’t exactly rocket science, but it does take time and effort. Good luck Pinning!
For more the original post and more from Kyle, visit his blog at RochesterRealEstateBlog.com.
