Project Purpose
The goal of my project was to assist my moms Real Estate business by getting a presence on social media, specially Instagram. In her 17 years of Real Estate, she has grown her business primarily by word of mouth and referrals. This has always worked great as we have lived in the same area my whole life. However my parents relocated to Arizona and my mom needs to get connected with members of her new community. Many of her past and potential clients are on Instagram and I wanted to creat an account for her to share homes for sale, behind the senses of a listing, trends in the market, tips for selling, local business, and upcoming community events. Social Media is a great way to market yourself and the goal of her Real Estate Instagram accounts was help her grow her business in the Queen Creek Arizona area.
The Project
These are a few examples of some graphics, carousels, and a collaboration post that I made on Instagram as well as a new simplistic business card.
Challenges Encountered
One challenge that I encountered was not getting more behind the scenes of the upcoming homes for sales. My mom has been in Arizona recently and still has homes on the market in Washington. When she would fly back I would ask for different shots and videos of the homes for sale and at times she would forget and remember once she was back in Arizona. It would’ve made it easier if I was there in person to help with behind the scenes. Another challenge I encountered while working on the project is along the same lines previously mentioned. I wanted to showcase different local restaurants, parks, upcoming business, and activities to do in the area however since relocating, my mom doesn’t know the new area very well. On her next trip. to Washington we made a list of different places she will visit to get content for the criteria just shared to post on her Instagram. Along with that, it was a challenge to figure out how.to create her own brand while still incorporating the colors and fonts of her brokerage/ company that she sells for. We decided to make a few changes to her post to include her logo so that when people come across her feed, they will be able to easily recognize what company she represents without having to look at her profile.
Project Process
I first had to meet with my mom to talk about a style guide. We discussed her target audience and how we feel we could best represent her work. I shared with her her companies logos and colors and figured out what she wants her Instagram account to look like. We talked about the different kind of post we could make. The main post would be carousel post featuring her homes for sale. She thought it was important to share a short description of the home as well as the number of beds, baths, and the square feet. Along with that, we brainstormed different tips she could share to help her followers such as staging tips, how to enhance your curb appeal, paint combos for the exterior, things to do to make your buying proses easier, steps to take to make and you home sell quicker. After creating her account, she sent me a list of people both friends, family, and clients that she wanted me to follow.
Making a new business card was something else she wanted to that I assisted her with. Besides meeting with her and talking about the market and what her next few months were planning to look like, I spent a lot of time listening to different Real Estate social media podcast. There is a lot of helpful information that successful agents are willing to share. Each week my mom and I would have a meeting and discuss the tips and social media strategies I learned that she could implement into her business.
One big opportunity we felt she had was the chance to collaborate with other businesses such as painters, carpenters, interior designers, lawn care services, and even other agents at times. My mom has a lot of connections in Washington since working there for many years and she got the opportunity to team up with another agent in her brokerage and a local interior designer to stage a house they had for sale. Working with other brands allowed her to reach more people and to gain more followers. We also felt that collaboration would be a great way to get her name out in Arizona as she is new there and doesn’t have many connections.
Overview of My Experience
My experience of working to create an Instagram account for her Real Estate business went well! It was a new experience working to create a personal brand as well as incorporating a companies brand appearance. It was easy to talk and communicate with my mom and neat to work together to come up with different content ideas to post and insights that my mom has to share with others. I was able to learn a great deal about growing your Real Estate business through social media through different articles, blogs, videos, and podcast.
Insights and Takeaways Gained
One insight I learned from this project was that there are a number of resources available online to help guide you as you start social media marketing. Through podcasts, I learned the importance of staying true to your values and being authentic online. Along with that I learned the importance of serving your audience and creating helpful content for those who are not currently selling or buying. By posting content that they can connect with, they will continue to engage and use you as their go to home expert and when the time comes to move, they will most likely choose you as their Realtor! Maintaining relationships with past clients is important and can lead to more business in the future. Joining different facebook groups and being active on local Instagram pages will allow you to meet others in your community and to build relationships with them before meeting in person. Stories are a great tool to utilize to help your followers get to know you. There are many different stories you could post such as what a day of staging looks like, open house information, review of a local restaurant, home decor finds and sales at stores, day in the life of a Realtor, neighborhood information, Q&A’s, and fun facts about yourself. A tip i learned with stories is to always include captions becasue many people watch stories with ought sound adn this way they will still be able to understand your message. Most importantly, I learned the importance of being authentic and genuine on your Instagram. People follow you for you! Staying true to who you are, posting consistently, responding to comments and messages will allow you to build trust with your followers and help you to grow your business.