Instagram Changes and Trends: What Realtors Should Know

What we love most about Instagram:

That it’s always adding new features and tools that realtors can use to grow their business.

What we love least about Instagram:

That it’s hard to keep with all those new features and tools.

Feel the same way? This post is for you.

Instagram is unrolling lots of exciting updates this year. Staying on top of what those updates mean — and how to apply them to your real estate business — is key for real estate agents using Instagram as part of their real estate marketing strategy.

We’re here to help. In this post, we’ve rounded up the Instagram changes and trends (to date) that we think real estate agents need to know. 

Let’s dive in.

 

Link Stickers

Years ago, Instagram gave accounts with 10,000 or more followers “Swipe Up” — an Instagram Stories feature that could be used to send viewers to an external URL.

It was an amazingly useful feature, but its exclusivity was frustrating for small business owners like real estate agents with smaller followings, who definitely would have benefited from the ability to drive viewers directly to a listing or webpage.

Good news! Late last year, Instagram did away with Swipe Up and introduced something called “Link Stickers,” which it made available to all accounts.

Link Stickers, like Swipe Up, offer the ability to send Instagram Story viewers to an external URL with a tap (rather than a finger swipe upwards).

This is a major update for real estate agents. There are dozens of ways that agents could make use of Link Stickers, but number one is undoubtedly linking to real estate listings. 

You could use a series of Stories to showcase one listing, or to preview several listings, using the Link Sticker and a call-to-action to invite your audience to check out the full listing on your website.

 

Photo Dumps

If you’re a regular Instagram user, you’ve likely noticed the prevalence of photo dumps in your feed.

What’s a photo dump? It’s a trendy way to share a roundup of less polished content to one’s Instagram grid. 

These carousel posts may include a mix of photo and video content, usually pretty ordinary in nature and sometimes seemingly unrelated. 

For instance, photo dumps are often used to share a collection of photos from a trip (e.g., “Spain photo dump”) or random images that evoke a mood (e.g., “Spring mood board photo dump”).

Real estate agents can make use of photo dumps to share behind-the-scenes, day-in-the-life content. Think shots of rearranging furniture, nailing a for-sale sign into a front lawn, hanging out with the office dog, or toasting to a client’s recent sale.

Or you can use them to offer a glimpse into your personal life, to help your followers understand who you are as a person (important to building connections!). You can share a photo dump of weekend photos and vacation snapshots, for instance.

One word about photo dumps: use them sparingly. We recommend no more than once a month.

 

New Ways to View the Feed

For many years, the Instagram home feed presented content chronologically. Meaning, users would see content from the accounts they follow in the order of most recently published.

Then, about six or so years ago, Instagram decided to do away with the chronological feed. Instead, the Instagram Algorithm instead dictated what content users would see in their feed, and in what order, based on how likely they were to engage with the content.

Users have long vocalized their wish for the return of the chronological feed. And this year, Instagram made it come true — plus they added a couple other feed changes.

As of late March, Instagram has made it possible to switch between three different feed views:

• Home. This is the same algorithm-driven feed that’s been around for years now.
  
• Favourites. This new option gives users the ability to curate a list of up to 50 different Instagram accounts whose content they want to see first.
  
• Following. This is the chronological view of early Instagram — just posts from accounts that a user follows, starting with most recently posted.

Why does this change matter for real estate agents? It could impact who is seeing your content and when. 

Real estate agents can respond to this change by a) assuming that their content is being viewed in each of the three different views and b) making sure they’re considering each different feed view and audience when they’re deciding what content to create and share.

For instance, content that appears in a follower’s main (Home) feed needs to build awareness of your business and invite followers in. 

Content that appears in a follower’s chronological (Following) needs to be engaging or interesting enough that it makes them want to add your account to their Favourites. 

And content that appears in a follower’s Favourites list has to deepen connections with your followers and make them feel heard, celebrated, inspired or tailored to so that they’ll continue to keep a close eye on your posts.

 

Additional Messaging Features

Instagram Direct Messages are for more than just sending memes to friends. In fact, Instagram DMs can be used to grow your real estate business.

This year, Instagram is unrolling a slew of updates to the Instagram DMs feature. Here’s the rundown, direct from the company:

• Reply while you browse: Receive a new message while you’re browsing your feed? You can now reply without going to your inbox and losing your place. This new feature makes it that much easier and more convenient to chat while on the app.
• Quickly send to friends: We want to help people reshare interesting content without interrupting their Instagram experience. By tapping and holding the share button, you can effortlessly reshare posts to your closest friends.
• See who’s online: At the top of your inbox, you can see who’s free to chat at that moment, helping you find serendipitous opportunities to connect with friends.
• Play, pause, and re-play: Enabled by integrations with Apple Music, Amazon Music and Spotify coming soon, you can now share a 30-second preview of that song you just can’t get out of your head, and your friends can listen directly from the chat window.
• Send messages quietly: Send messages without notifying friends late at night or when they’re busy by adding “@silent” in your message. Now you can reach out without worrying about sending unwanted notifications.
• Keep it on the lo-fi: Feeling chill? Try the new lo-fi chat theme to make your conversations feel more personal.
• Create a poll with your squad: Deciding where to go to dinner or what time to meet up? We’re bringing one of Messenger’s most beloved group chat features to Instagram so you can create a poll directly in your group chat.

Many of these updates, like the lo-fi chat theme and the song previews, are just fun extras. 

Others, like the poll and online status features, offer promise for real estate agents who want to use Instagram Direct Messages to help build connections with followers and potential leads.

The online status feature, for instance, gives agents the ability to send a message to a lead when they know the lead is mostly likely to respond. 

The poll feature can be used to gauge a lead’s interest in certain neighbourhoods or home types, or to schedule a phone call.  

What Instagram feature helps you most in marketing your real estate business?

 

Last Updated on May 30, 2024 by myRealPage