Since its inception in 2003, LinkedIn has become the most popular professional networking site in recent years. LinkedIn has over 740 million users worldwide, with over 196 million in the U.S. alone. The platform was created by Reid Hoffman and launched for professionals to network with other like-minded individuals looking for careers or a job opportunity and a platform to share accomplishments and work histories.
LinkedIn has evolved significantly over the years and is now one of the most popular messaging platforms allowing specialized two-way communication between members about career opportunities and personal interests outside of business such as hobbies, sports teams…and yes, even real estate!
Real Estate agent’s often don’t consider using LinkedIn to grow their real estate business, believing it’s strictly a B2B platform. Though that has been LinkedIn’s primary purpose, it has also become a powerful B2C platform. Real Estate agents who learn to leverage the features and audience targeting capabilities of LinkedIn will have a major leg up over competitors.
In addition to LinkedIn’s unique features, the platform has adopted some of the most popular social media features popular on Facebook and Instagram. Including a user’s News Feed, sharing posts, and liking, commenting, and sharing posts. You can create or join LinkedIn Groups on any topic. You can create or associate yourself with a business page. You can share videos and even share LinkedIn Live Video streaming.
LinkedIn has one of the most powerful ad platforms that allow marketers to some of the most sophisticated audience targeting and ad placements of any ad platform online.
In short, if you’re a real estate agent and you’re not leveraging LinkedIn, you’re missing a significant opportunity to grow your business.
In this guide, we’ll cover the basics and more advanced strategies and tactics, showing you how to leverage unique tools and features to grow your personal brand and generate buyer and seller leads on LinkedIn.
How to Set Up Your LinkedIn Personal Profile for Real Estate
Your personal profile is the gateway into your LinkedIn experience. It can make or break how you are seen on this social network. There’s no need to be intimidated by all of its features, though! Setting up a profile doesn’t take long, but it’s worth taking care to attract more clients for your real estate business. You’ll use your profile to build brand awareness and promote yourself as a real estate agent to customers and potential clients.
If you don’t already have a LinkedIn account, go to linkedin.com, click on the “Join now” tab towards the top right of the screen, and enter your email address and password. Then click “Agree & Join”. Follow the subsequent prompts to create your account.
Your LinkedIn profile is a tool for you to manage your personal brand. Think of your LinkedIn profile as a landing page that displays the value you provide for potential customers. A LinkedIn Profile is the perfect way for people to learn about who you are and what interests they have in common with you. You can share your professional experience, your successes, and value through posts and stories, and by engaging with posts from other users.
Keeping your Linkedin Profile up to date, and consistently posting, sharing, and engaging with others on LinkedIn is essential to be seen as the “go-to” real estate agent in your area. And active profile is a living profile that others on LinkedIn know they can communicate.
Tips to keep your profile fresh and active:
- Maintain a current and professional headshot profile image
- Add or update your profile background image. Remember to treat your profile like a landing page and brand your background image
- Make sure your profile headline speaks to the value you offer and who you help. (e.g., “I help home sellers get the highest possible market value for their home, and help home buyers land the home of their dreams.”
- Make sure any links you share on your profile work and that the information you share is current
- Associate your profile with your company page, making sure you select the right page and that the company logo is showing up on your profile.
- Make sure your contact information is current and that your privacy settings are set to the level you feel comfortable. We recommend only sharing your number and email with First-degree connections on LinkedIn.
- Post a short video introducing yourself and share how you help your clients. Tell a success story or two.
- Connect with your peers and other relevant professionals.
- Ask for endorsements and recommendations, and give them as well
- Include your work history, your education, certifications, and awards
How to Set Up a LinkedIn Company Page for Real Estate
If you work for a broker or realtor with an established company page, you won’t need to create your own company page. You’ll just need to associate your personal profile with the existing company page. If you need to create a company page, you can easily do so by following the steps outlined by clicking here.
How to Advertise On LinkedIn for Real Estate
To advertise on Linkedin, you must have a company page that your LinkedIn ads are associated with. LinkedIn’s ad platform is a powerful way to reach your target customers through various ad placements.
Some of the unique ways you’re able to target potential customers on LinkedIn include:
- LinkedIn Audience Targeting – Using Linkedin’s audience targeting filters, you can target people on LinkedIn based on criteria such as geographic location, industry, job title, company size, groups, and more. Make sure the targeting you choose is compliant with housing anti-discrimination laws.
- Website Retargeting – Visitors to your website that did not convert into leads are a great custom audience to target LinkedIn. By adding LinkedIn’s tracking pixel to your website, you can create custom ad targeting based on visitors to your website
- Account Targeting – Trying to reach people that work for specific companies? LinkedIn’s got you covered. You can create custom audience targeting of company names for the audience you’d like to reach
- Contact Targeting – Want to get your ads in front of leads from your website or your email list? You can create a custom audience by uploading your list to LinkedIn. Accounts with a matching email address will be able to see your ads
By running A/B split tests, you can optimize your LinkedIn ads and create a more successful campaign. Split testing different ad components such as the ad headline, image, or calls-to-action can help drive higher conversion rates. The changes may seem small, but they can have a significant impact on the outcome.
As a real estate agent, you’ll need to run ads in compliance with housing anti-discrimination laws. Two of the above targeting ad types are your best option here, Website Retargeting and Contact Targeting. These are visitors to your website and those who have submitted a contact or lead form on your website.
Knowing that a first impression is everything, it’s essential to get on your prospects’ good side as soon as possible. A great way of doing this is by using LinkedIn Lead Form Ads. With a lead form ad, your target audience doesn’t leave LinkedIn when they click on your ad. When members are ready for more info and click your ad’s call-to-action button, a pop-up automatically opens with a form preloaded with the user’s contact information from their LinkedIn profile. All they have to do is click submit.
LinkedIn Video ads are a great way to make a positive first impression. The types of videos that work well on LinkedIn are more or less the same as we recommend for Facebook and Instagram Video and Live Videos. Share expert tips on how to stage a home to sale quickly and share a video of giving the keys to new homeowners. Be authentic and provide value. And, always have a call-to-action that encourages engagement and generates leads.
How to Leverage Analytics On LinkedIn
You’ve followed all the guidelines to set up your profile, optimized it for engagement, and connected with peers and relevant industry experts on LinkedIn. Now you’re ready to analyze whether or not any of this marketing is working! We need a few key metrics that will allow you to benchmark against other companies.
- Analyze engagement data.
Review your posts and ads and identify which are getting the most Likes, Clicks, Comments, Shares, and of course, generating the most leads. Identify which have the lowest engagement and are driving the fewest leads. - Track the number of connections and followers.
As you engage with others on LinkedIn, utilize LinkedIn’s profile and company page analytics tool to track the number of followers over time. - LinkedIn Ads data.
Your LinkedIn Ads account will show you metrics similar to Facebook ads, including ad impressions, clicks, leads, conversion rate, cost per click, cost per lead, etc. This data will help you know what ads to pause, keep active, and further A/B test to optimize performance. - Website traffic from LinkedIn.
Google Analytics is a powerful free website analytics tool that can help you analyze traffic to your website from LinkedIn. You can even track your ad campaigns and the number of leads submitted on your website that came from LinkedIn.
How to Generate Real Estate Leads Through Your LinkedIn Profile
Following our five steps outlined below, you can optimize your LinkedIn profile to generate leads. Remember to think of your LinkedIn profile as a personal brand landing page when reviewing these optimization recommendations:
- Show value in your Profile Summary.
Clients want to know you understand the challenges with buying or selling a home and that you are good at navigating them through them. Write a summary with your target customers in mind, and build confidence by sharing short success stories of how you have helped clients buy or sell their home. Share how happy they were with the results and that you are committed to providing the same level of attention, professionalism, and expertise to help the reader buy or sell a home. - Share value through posts on LinkedIn
As Zig Ziggler was famous for saying, “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want.” Share helpful posts, tips, articles, videos, guides, download offers, etc., that help your target clients achieve their home buying or home selling goals. In so doing, you build trust, illustrate your expertise, and win new clients. - Participate in and share value in relevant LinkedIn Groups.
Similar to the last point, by sharing value in LinkedIn Groups, you build trust and set yourself up as the ‘go-to’ real estate agent. - Engage with other people’s posts and send Connect Requests.
LinkedIn, and social media in general, is not a one-way conversation. Follow others on LinkedIn, comment on others’ posts. Take the time to be thoughtful in what you say and contribute to the conversations others start. Send Connect requests to those you’ve engaged with to create a one-to-one conversation through LinkedIn messaging. - Move the conversation to a call or in-person meeting.
When the time is right, move conversations to a call or in-person meeting. Develop short and simple scripts that you can test through InMail and messaging to see what works best for you and your potential customers.
How to Use Video for Branding & Lead Generation on LinkedIn
Video is a great way to share value and build your personal brand on LinkedIn. Similar to Facebook and Instagram, you can share videos on LinkedIn easily using your smartphone. Share helpful tips, share parts of the day in the life of a realtor, showcase helping clients achieve their home buying or selling goals. Share your personality and help customers and potential customers get to know you and what you can do for them. Share what you love about being a real estate agent while reinforcing branding for those who visit your LinkedIn profile.
Here are three ways to leverage video for branding and lead generation on LinkedIn:
- Increase professional credibility with your profile.
People are more likely to work with you if they feel connected with your profile. Include a video in your profile summary section for that professional touch! Share your experience and how you help clients with their home buying and selling goals. - Video makes for a more engaging post.
Video is a great way to boost the engagement of your posts and make them stand out from other content on LinkedIn. Ask people to comment on your video to share their two cents. Invite them to take action that will lead to a one-to-one conversation. - Video stands out in LinkeIn’s News Feed
Video is a great way to stand out and are less likely to be passed over as people scroll through their News Feed. Video is growing in popularity, but there are still far fewer people posting videos than those that are not.
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed our Real Estate Agent’s Guide to LinkedIn Marketing. Whether you’re looking to build your personal brand, generate home buyer and seller leads, or learn how best to use the platform effectively, LinkedIn can be a powerful tool to grow your real estate business.
If you haven’t begun using LinkedIn as part of your marketing strategy, download our free Real Estate Agent’s Social Media Toolkit. Inside, we share the strategy and tools needed for real estate agents to succeed in social media marketing. Get access now by clicking here!