Should I Be Using Instagram Threads for Real Estate Marketing?

Leave it to Instagram to drop something new out of the blue and send all social media marketers scrambling. 

At the start of the month, that something new was Threads — “a new app, built by the Instagram team, for sharing text updates and joining public conversations,” says the company announcement.

Posts on Threads can be up to 500 characters long. They can include links, photos and videos (up to five minutes in length). The idea is that Threads can be used to share on-the-fly updates and facilitate public conversations. 

If you’re thinking that sounds a lot like an existing app, you’re not wrong: Threads immediately drew comparisons to Twitter. It also created a frenzy of interest (100 million users in mere days, to be exact), which has very quickly quieted down (third-party data says that Thread’s daily active users have already declined by 70%).

All of this has marketers — including real estate agents — wondering whether they should be adding Threads to the list of platforms they use to promote their business. 

The answer depends on your marketing goals, personality and bandwidth.

Is it important to your real estate agent brand to be seen as cutting-edge? Do you enjoy experimenting with new platforms and tactics?

Then being an early adopter of Threads could be a great move for you.

For the bulk of agents, however, a wait-and-see approach is perfectly fine. 

Whether Threads becomes a leading social media platform remains to be seen. Give it time to iron out its kinks, watch whether it develops a meaningful active user base and in the meantime, focus on your chosen social media platforms for real estate marketing.

There’s So Much Market Uncertainty Right Now. What Kind of Tone Should I Be Striking in My Marketing Content?

Rising interest rates, supply shortage, dips and spikes in selling prices… real estate markets across North America are on a bit of a rollercoaster ride this year.

Real estate agents need to be mindful of the climate when creating marketing content. Not acknowledging the uncertainty or pretending it doesn’t exist isn’t the right move.

Buyers and sellers want an agent who is both savvy and transparent. Strike too optimistic a tone in your blog posts, newsletters and social media posts, and you risk looking ignorant at best, and misleading at worst. Of course, too negative a tone is bad for your business. 

Your goal is to strike a balance. Acknowledge the hard facts in your content, but balance them out with sensible optimism in the form of upsides and opportunities.

How Do I Use Templates for Instagram Reels?

Instagram Reels are a must-do for anyone marketing their business on Instagram. Creating them, however, can be a bit daunting.

Good news: Instagram has made Reel creation easier with the introduction of upgraded templates.

Templates make it easy for real estate agents to emulate Reels from other users that they love. You’ll be able to select your images and video clips and pair them with the “audio, number of clips, duration of the clips, and AR effects” from the template of your choosing.

Using templates can save you a ton of time, as well as increase the quality and professionalism of your Reels.

Check out Instagram’s announcement of the upgrades for details on how to access templates.

I’m Going on Vacation. Can I Pause My Marketing Efforts?

Is it possible to take a real, stress-free vacation as a real estate agent? 

Yes!

Does it mean halting all marketing efforts until you’re back in the office?

No!

With the ability to schedule publication of blog posts and social media posts, and deployment of newsletters and emails, there is no reason for your lead generation efforts to take a break when you do.

It takes planning and extra work to prepare and schedule marketing campaigns and posts, but it’s worth it. It means you can be relaxing in the sun while still generating awareness of your business and developing leads.

Unless you have someone to cover for you or plan to check in once in a while, you should communicate your vacation plans to clients, followers and visitors so that they know not to expect an immediate response. 

You can do this via an email autoresponder, a vacation message on the contact form on your real estate website (letting leads know when they can expect a reply), a temporary edit to your  real estate Instagram bio, a new voicemail greeting and a note in your newsletter.