Since IG is such a visual platform, it requires good quality images and video clips to sustain a qualitative presence. In addition, descriptive, value added extralegal captions do help drive engagement and keep users on your IG page, this helping with your organic ranking with respect to the IG algorithm.

The first step is to optimize your IG profile. A clear, engaging avatar photo should be the centerpiece. The bio area provides you a chance to tell a little bit about your business and yourself from a personal standpoint. Lastly, you’ll have the opportunity to add a website link, which you can use for your broker site, your own website or even your Facebook or YouTube page.

The next main area to pay attention to is the news feed where your images and videos will be posted and curated. This is the backbone of IG content and needs to have some degree of thought behind it.

About 80% of your IG posts should feature you — meaning your face, your personage should be in the shot. All manner of testing has shown that people are much more likely to engage with and come to know/like/trust someone who appears in their posts and shows their face.

The other 20% can be anything relevant either to your business or even your personal life, provided it’s within reason and not controversial.

Some ideas for what kinds of images and videos you should post are listed below:

• Closings clearly depicting the SOLD message

• House showings

• Open houses

• Inspections

• Behind the scenes of your daily activities

• Posts related to your market and local area

The other side of IG that you want to pay close attention to and ensure you’re creating steady, consistent content is IG Stories. Stories are less formal than your feed posts (they disappear after 24 hours), but they serve a crucial purpose in bringing your audience closer to you as you post less filtered or planned content. Stories are where you can show off a bit more of your personality and even focus more heavily on your non-business interests and pursuits. Frankly, the best way to create good Stories content is to whip out your smartphone, hit record, and upload — no more thinking or planning than that.

Lastly, and focusing on video content specifically, when you produce videos you’ll also want to upload them IGTV. This is IG answer to YouTube and there’s no point in NOT taking advantage of the platform if you’ve already got the content created.

Now, if you’re thinking geez, there’s so many platforms to keep up with, I can’t handle another one like this, then I’ve got good news for you. You don’t have to be 100% from scratch when you come up with IG content. You can repurpose Facebook and YouTube content like so:

• Repost Facebook photos to IG news feed and copy the text caption if you have one

• Repost short Facebook videos to IG Stories

• Repost long-form Facebook and YouTube videos into IGTV (which also puts a 60-second “trailer” into your news feed)

So there you have it. Leveraging IG is virtually a necessity these days for any real estate agent or broker’s business. That said, it’s not nearly as daunting to get it set up and off the ground, as well as optimized for the best results.

Drop us a line here if you have questions or desire assistance on setting up your IG presence.