We’re totally abused these days emotionally. Protests, the lockdown, curfews, economic downturn – the future is uncertain. We’ve established that; you don’t need another post about it. Yet you’re probably wondering how to make the most of this time at home. An excellent way to feel less powerless is to take action and get control over your life and career. What can you do until the real estate market – when/if it ever does – goes back to normal?

This is 2016 and we are well beyond debating the importance of videos for a real estate agent to promote his/her business online. The internet is the arena of multimedia content and no amounts of walls of text will get you the leads you seek. Unless you give your prospective customers what they want to see, rest assured that someone else will see to it and reap the benefits. Video is no longer an option, you absolutely positively need it for your online marketing campaign. The more pertinent question is, how do you leverage it better to gain the interest of prospective home buyers out there?

If you’re not familiar yet with In-Market Targeting for real estate broker, here’s how it works in a nutshell.

In-market Targeting is a way to connect with property owners in market and buyers who are actively researching or comparing properties. This way, you can target only active buyers and active sellers and not waste your ad spend. You can increase the overall effectiveness of your advertising and ROI.

It is apparent that the Internet has been proven to be a game-changer for businesses, especially real estate. Online searches and listings have made it simpler for prospective home buyers looking for their dream homes.

For any business, your online presence can be essential to your success (or failure) in generating new leads and clients. Here, we will share some specific strategies that you can use to promote yourself and your real estate business. That’s already assuming you have the basics in place – namely, a website, blog and social media presence.

Software giant Microsoft made history when they acquired professional networking platform LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, one of the largest acquisitions for the company. The acquisition was perplexing for many, but Microsoft and LinkedIn seem a pretty good fit together, as the bulk of LinkedIn’s members form Microsoft’s primary customers. This tie-up gives MS access to an enormous amount of data and direct connections to the people they wish to transform into a long-term business.

With a wide range of uses, it is not surprising that real estate agents apply CRM to their line of work. While most agents see it only as a means to assist in client management, some include it as an essential part of their overall marketing, lead generation and conversion strategy.

An effective social media marketing strategy is one that’s organized, well-planned and which incorporates lots of informative content. Once you’ve polished your real estate website and hosted a significant amount of content, it’s time to schedule your social media posts around such resources and establish a plan of action for regular activity appropriate to each major social network.

Face it, your social media stinks. No, that’s not an insult. It’s just that the facts can’t be ignored. Despite the highest frequency of posting, the real estate industry seems to have the lowest engagement rates. This data might be surprising, what with all the social media gurus talk about is how important it is to post regularly. 

Real estate promotions on Facebook can be a great way to pull in new business, but it isn’t as easy as many would have you believe. It might take months of effort and dedication before your strategy on Facebook pays off. Patience is the name of the game when it comes to cultivating leads on this social network.

The question on the minds of many real estate players is “How to nurture your social media profile and increase your reach?” If you start behaving on your social media accounts like you’re the only one who matters, it will soon turn into a mid-day soap opera — you’ll lose viewers.

Social media marketing may be one of the cheapest and easiest ways to market services and products. More so for real estate agents, especially realtors working for small and midsize agencies. The latter may actually have an advantage in this area.

Real estate marketing used to be limited to bus stop benches, classifieds and newspaper pull-outs. But those days are long gone, real estate has taken to online, and is going social at a hectic pace.

Till a few years ago, real estate agents could easily get away without a strong social media presence. Consequently, the industry was relatively slow to embrace technology. But now, with consumers expecting any and all the businesses they deal with to be online, it is no longer optional for real estate professionals.

Residential real estate as an industry has traditionally been built upon relationships. Those planning to raise a family and looking for the perfect home is prone to work closely with their real estate agent to discover the most desirable property. So it is mandatory for agents to possess engaging personalities as well as actively build personal networks to gain new business.

Social media is tailor-made for real estate agents to market and grow their business. They can instantly connect with clients both existing and prospective as well as other real estate peers. While most real estate agents make use of some social media platform or other to promote their business, this marketing is only effective as long as you do it correctly.

If you’re considering buying or selling a home this year, it's good to learn everything you can about the market trends in order to make the best decision. While predicting the real estate market behavior is problematic at best, this year is especially difficult to predict.