Social media marketing strategies for commercial real estate

There are over 4 billion active social media profiles. The average person spends almost 2 ½ hours on social media each day on multiple platforms. Real estate professionals have taken note, and many use social media to generate leads. Here’s the breakdown of popular platforms, according to the National Association of Realtors:

Facebook: 87%
Instagram: 62%
YouTube: 25%
TikTok: 15%

The value of social media for CRE

Social media offers significant advantages and benefits. These platforms offer greater reach, precise ad targeting, direct client engagement, and visually rich communication, while building trust, establishing expertise, generating professional connections, and more.

By expanding their reach beyond local connections, CRE professionals can increase their visibility to buyers and sellers, thereby enhancing their chances of connecting with serious leads. Advanced targeting features enable CRE professionals to customize advertising efforts to specific demographics, interests, and online behaviors, ensuring their message resonates with likely prospects and optimizes advertising spend.

Social media facilitates real-time interaction, empowering brokers and other professionals to promptly answer questions, resolve issues, and offer valuable insights, fostering stronger client relationships. Features like comments and shares help cultivate community and encourage client-generated content.

Given the visual nature of property — and the work sometimes necessary to update a space to align with a new client’s needs — social media platforms are ideal for showcasing listings, projects-in-progress, and more through photos and videos. Visual storytelling grabs attention and evokes emotion, sparking interest from potential clients.

How might this look in practice?

An architect, contractor, and interior designer collaborating on a fit-out might share before-and-after pictures of their healthcare client’s space on Instagram. An environmental consultant might use a TikTok video to showcase an HVAC update. A custom sign designer could use YouTube to highlight different types of lettering and sign designs to help businesses determine whether to choose a lightbox sign or frontlit/backlit sign.

Consistent, relevant sharing of market analysis, updates, informative content, and ideas that spark other approaches enables CRE professionals to demonstrate their knowledge, establish themselves as authorities in the field, and cultivate their audience. Engaging with other professionals on social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, expands your network, opens doors to referral opportunities, and can lead to new business ventures.

How to use social media for CRE marketing

While the digital landscape offers many social media platforms, strategic selection is key for CRE professionals. It’s a common misconception that you should have a presence on every major platform. Instead, a more focused approach, concentrating on the most suitable platforms, can yield greater benefits.

The first step? Understanding your business, clients, messaging, and communication style — and how to reach each platform’s audience. The following platforms offer marketing advantages for those involved in the commercial real estate industry.

Facebook, Meta’s flagship social network, remains a powerful avenue for business promotion. The platform excels at brand presentation through diverse content, including employee features, event announcements, client success stories, property visuals, and more.
X (formerly Twitter) still provides solid branding opportunities. Its 280-character limit encourages users to create clear, easily digestible marketing snippets. Hashtags, comments, and follower-based networking facilitate brand growth and promotion.
LinkedIn, the premier social media platform for professional networking, connects you with industry news, experts, clients, and other valuable contacts within a framework of trust and professionalism.
Instagram complements LinkedIn’s strengths by highlighting the visual elements of CRE. Images, stories, and short videos allow you to feature specific properties or property elements, providing prospective clients with an important visual connection.

Actionable strategies to elevate your social media marketing

The number one absolute for a social media marketing strategy? Quality content. Your content might include:

Blog posts offering industry expertise
Company news and event updates
Answers to frequently asked questions
Features on team members
Testimonials from satisfied clients
Instructional guides and videos
Highlights of local areas or properties

Enhance brand recognition

Prospective clients often initiate their search for a CRE company — whether a broker, financial firm, architecture firm, interior designer, security company, or other service provider — by exploring a company’s social media profiles. These potential clients seek brands that will meet their requirements. You can establish your credibility by using social media strategically to promote and develop your brand identity. Content that builds brand awareness might include:

Personalized video messages
Client success stories and testimonials
Award and recognition announcements

Leverage paid advertising

Social media marketing extends beyond posting content organically. Targeted advertisements can enhance your presence on various platforms when you take the time to identify specific demographics and present them with customized posts tailored to their needs. Paid ads can target audiences within specific geographies and display relevant listings and other services associated with the CRE industry.

Use hashtags

Hashtags are essential for making your CRE content easily searchable on social media. Using the right tags connects your listings with more potential buyers and investors and your services with more potential clients who need them.

Incorporate popular industry hashtags to reach a broader, interested audience.
Develop a unique tag for your brand to build a community and encourage user sharing.
Use hashtags specifying areas to help local buyers find properties/clients find services quickly.
Monitor and use popular, relevant hashtags, and if trends change, update your hashtags accordingly.

Effective hashtag use enhances your company’s visibility and establishes a strong presence in the CRE world.

Understand how algorithms work

If you want to connect with your target audience and improve your marketing results, you must understand how each social media platform’s algorithms work. Since each platform employs a unique approach for determining content visibility, establish a consistent cadence for sharing relevant and updated content. To keep pace with evolving algorithms:

Follow the latest updates and expert advice to remain competitive.
Use relevant keywords, hashtags, and visuals tailored to each site.
Respond to comments, likes, and shares to signal content value to the algorithm.

Analyze and leverage performance metrics

To understand how your social media content performs, you must analyze the data. Monitoring key metrics gives you insight into what’s working — and what isn’t. Use these insights to inform decision-making to optimize your content. Metrics to watch include:

Engagement: The volume of likes, comments, and shares is a direct measure of audience interest and involvement with your content.
Reach and frequency: Understanding the number of unique viewers and the frequency with which their posts are seen helps assess the content’s exposure.
Conversion: Tracking click-through rates and lead generation from calls to action (CTAs) indicates the links’ and prompts’ effectiveness in driving desired outcomes.
Audience growth and insights: Monitoring follower trends and gaining demographic information about your audience helps you tailor your content appropriately.

There are plenty of tools available to help you analyze your social media’s performance. These platforms offer a suite of features, including scheduling, engagement tools, and robust analytics, providing in-depth insights into your audience, content performance, and overall strategy. Here are just a few:

Don’t underestimate the potential influence of social media on your marketing strategy. When implemented effectively, it can become a cornerstone of your marketing efforts.

Are you a commercial real estate investor or seeking a specific property to meet your company’s needs? We invite you to talk to the professionals at CREA United, an organization of CRE professionals from over 90 firms representing all disciplines within the CRE industry, from brokers to subcontractors, financial services to security systems, interior designers to architects, movers to IT, and more.