Pinterest isn’t just for arts, crafts, and dinner recipes. On the contrary, since its creation over a decade ago, people have been using the website for all sorts of unconventional uses, like reporting the news and operating online retail stores.
Though the purpose may not come immediately to mind, it’s also a great platform for real estate agencies to market their business.
As of 2021, Pinterest has 454 million monthly active users worldwide and is the second most popular social media Canadians visit. With a traffic flow that high, Pinterest is a prime location for marketing any form of business.
So how can those of us in real estate utilize this platform?
Create Immortal Posts
Life as a luxury real estate agent moves fast, but the internet moves faster. If you jump in on a hot topic on Twitter, you can see dozens, if not hundreds, of tweets form in seconds. It’s no surprise, then, that the “lifespan” of posts on social media has a short engagement period before they “die” and have virtually unseen engagement without the help of sponsorship.
The average lifespan of a post is only about 2 ½ hours on Facebook and Twitter, a mere 18 minutes!
Pinterest, however, is an anomaly in the algorithms of the social media world. The goal of a Pinterest post isn’t to spark up to the minute conversations; instead, they’re about quality pieces that can stand the test of time and be a slow burn. Some posts don’t even see proper engagement until weeks, months, or years after their initial postings.
This may not be ideal for posting homes that need urgent selling or open houses specific to a particular date. However, it is a great space to advertise timeless pieces such as branding or blog content such as staging tips, neighbourhood insights, and general real estate advice.
Unlike other social media platforms, these posts will still be found months and years to come, so you can feel more confident in knowing they’re less likely to be lost in the trenches of webspace.
Repurpose Existing Content
Online marketing can seem endless with all the platforms available, but social media for real estate agents can often be simplified. Tools like post-scheduling apps are available to manage your content in one place. Additionally, a great thing about Pinterest is you can use it to repurpose existing content from other platforms.
Instagram stories, for example, are usually only up for 24 hours then vanish. If you find you have a particular story that performs well in the viewing metrics, you can save this video and publish it to Pinterest for an eye-catching post that can reach the engagement of people looking in the relevant areas.
Since Instagram is already a visual platform (See our blog post on Instagram tips for realtors), your post should already be geared and suitable for Pinterest.
Create a Brand and Keep It Consistent
Pinterest can be sensory overload sometimes when it comes to scrolling through tags. Dozens, if not hundreds of posts, will appear when searching for a term of interest. If everybody uses the same format of photos and posts, how can you hope to stand out amongst the crowd?
Create and use a strict style guide to keep your content standing out from the rest, and let onlookers quickly see by the thumbnail which posts belong to you. If your content is good, this will also drive up the chance of earning followers, as users will more easily realize it’s your same account posting multiple posts they enjoyed.
This isn’t to say you need a degree in photoshop to turn every post into a stylized masterpiece. Simple branding like a small company logo, watermark, or banner can easily be placed discreetly in the edges or corners of a post.
You don’t want to be too flashy or create anything too spam or click-bait looking, but you want something to keep your brand in mind when viewing your content. Even a simple “@” with your handle will help keep your content branded.
Engage in Group Boards
A common mistake people make on Pinterest is building their own boards and calling it a day. It’s called social media for a reason, and reaching out and networking with new audiences is key.
You can seek out group boards for various reasons. For example, similar to one of our LinkedIn tips, you can join groups of other real estate agents. You can network with other industry professionals and get inspiration and ideas by the type of content they produce. Groups exist for broad realtor categories, or you could search for more specific ones, like groups dedicated to Toronto real estate jobs or other groups explicitly based within your city to help determine your competition.
Group boards don’t need to be with other realtors either; you can join groups dedicated to your city and region, home staging, renovations and interior décor, landscaping, property investing, and anything else that intersect your brand. Think of it this way, if pinning and sharing their content makes sense with your board audience, your brand makes sense with theirs to do the same.
The Almighty Hashtag
Remember when it was just called the “pound sign?” Who would’ve ever thought that the hashtag would become the most vital tool for just about every major platform out there?
Like the other platforms, hashtags help the flow of conversation and engagement on Pinterest.
Using hashtags will help increase the range of audience that views your content. You want to stay broad enough to attract new audiences, but not too broad that your post sticks out for the wrong reasons.
Think back to the above group board section and get creative. If your post might talk about where to get a bite to eat in the neighbourhood, you can equip it with hashtags you would have never thought relevant to your brands, like #FoodiesofPinterest or #restaurant.
A post about the reasons behind pet-free homes or pet deposits and fees associated with pets can easily fit into the ever-popular #puppies hashtags. The possibilities for reaching new audiences are endless if you’re able to spin your piece with relevant information.