Get Leads

With

Hashtags

HOW TO

for Realtors

virtualprofessionalsolutions.com |  (817) 996-6187

BACKGROUND ~ ORGANIC LEADS DEFINED1

SUCCESS STORY63 AREAS OF FOCUS (POSTS, HASHTAGS, ENGAGEMENT)2

THE SECRET TO SUCCESS7

TABLEOF CONTENTS

of baby boomers

begin their home search

online (as opposed to in-

person referrals)

90%

No one knows your audience better than you do.

If you can't define your audience by creating an

ideal client avatar, then this is a great place to

start, take two steps back and start crafting

your avatar. What is an avatar, you may ask? In

marketing terms, it is a fictional character that

helps us understand who our ideal customers

are so we can more easily find them. The avatar

focuses on one person and outlines everything

about them (including what their favorite

cuisine is or whether they have a dog or cat). It

goes into much greater depth than a regular

marketing persona to provide more targeting

tools.

It all starts with your Bio. Is your Instagram Bio

optimized so that people and our friend, Google,

can find you? Make sure to use words in your

Instagram handle and your business name that

lead people to you (your name.xyz, your

business name if it is obvious what you do by

your name). Use other terminology in your bio

that can be searchable and by all means, include

a url to send people to.

of baby boomers

begin their home search

online (as opposed to in-

person referrals)

It is easy to get caught up in taking care of your

clients or the next task at hand while putting off

working on your sales funnel. The danger in this

is that you end up spending even more time and

money on paid ads when you can simply work

smarter for less $.

Background

WHERE DO YOU BEGIN?

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

1 | Virtual Professional Solutions

Understanding What Organic

Leads Are & How To Get Them

From Your Instagram Page

of millennials

and

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99%

90%

Brand

Types of Posts

Ideally, you will have a post each day and/or

multiple times per day.  Many businesses can

grow at a healthy rate with 3-5 + posts per

week.  You should test your posts and check

your insights (your instagram activity tracking

tool) to see when your audience is more likely to

be on Instagram.  The key is to mix it up between

different types of posts (stories, single image

posts with longer descriptions and questions,

carousel posts with a story or video).  It is

proven that video attracts more views than any

type of post, if the content is relevant to your

audience.

Content Plan

Frequency

single image post,

carousel post (multiple images to scroll),

video post on feed (up to one minute

IGTV video post

Reel video post

Story (a post that lasts for 24 hours and can

have images as well as video)

There are five formats of posts that you can

publish to Instagram: 

Do you have an established brand and is it

cohesive throughout all of your social media

platforms?  If not, there’s no better time to make

adjustments than right now.  If you have a real

estate team, then your logo will most likely play a

large part in your brand.  If you are an individual

realtor, you may be the face of your brand. 

Yes, you CAN have an Instagram account

without posting much. However, like anything

else in life, if you put in the work, it will pay off.

The key is to build your brand and engagement

on one or two platforms before branching out. 

Instagram has over 1 Billion followers and is a

very popular platform for real estate. People love

seeing images or video of beautiful homes,

especially if they are in the market to buy.

POSTS

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Your Instagram post topics should be planned in

advance so that you allow the necessary time to

compile your description and engagement

ingredients (hashtags, mentions, power partners,

market…)

Areas of Focus

Try using hashtags for specific

neighborhoods you may want to reach (e.g.,

#SoHo, #WestVillage, #UES).  If you are

interested in reaching communities that lie

outside of your home base, you can use

#locationhashtags from anywhere.  Looking

to target bakers in Sacramento?  Try

#bakersofsacramento.  Bottomline:  do your

research to make sure the hashtags you

want to use are active and have the

appropriate level of followers for your posts

to be seen.

Location

The number of times a hashtag is used is

the volume or level. Make sure you use a

mixture of hashtag levels.  A good

spread is 5 low, 10-12 medium and 3 high.

Create your very own hashtag address or

“hashtag hub”.  This is useful for branding

purposes. It provides a place for all of your

content to go and serves as a community

base for parallel content to visit.  If your aim

is to build brand awareness, persistence is

key.  Show this persistency through your

brand hashtag so that your followers will

begin to associate it with you and your

business.

Own It

The internet has become the epicenter for

connection.  An example of community

hashtagging can be as simple as adding

#givingback to a post that speaks to a

volunteer initiative that you are a part of.  It

is always best to get as specific as possible

while maintaining your levels.  Find a

community that you can relate to and

target that community directly.

Community

Instagram allows people to follow

hashtags.  Popular posts using that hashtag

will show up in their personal feeds.  For

instance, if one of the hashtags you use in a

post is the same one that someone follows,

they can then potentially see your content

on their feed without being one of your

current followers. You can use up to 10

hashtags in a story and up to 30 hashtags in

a post.

Hashtags are more than just #havingfun

#livelaughlove. There is a marketing strategy for

hashtags that works.

#HASHTAGS

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D id you know ?

Areas of Focus

#

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Start by asking your closest friends and family to follow you (send private messages on Facebook with

your Instagram handle and let them know that you would love for them to see your content).

Following and/or liking your peers (other real estate professionals and real estate related businesses). 

Before you follow someone, take a glance at their business page to determine if you're better off

sharing your love by liking and commenting on some of their posts in lieu of following.  If a page isn't

active or has very few followers, it can hurt the algorithm balance by following.  So, choose wisely.

QUALITY is much more important than QUANTITY. Building your Instagram account should not be a race

to get thousands of followers immediately.  Knowing your audience is a key component in the success of

your social media.  Here are some tips to help build a healthy following and growth rate:

Make sure you use a mixture of hashtag

levels. A good spread is 5 low, 10-12

medium and 3 high.

If it makes sense, comment on someone’s post with a few words to help support their visibility.  A

comment with a minimum of 4 words improves the algorithm. You will be amazed at how much return you

will get from simply commenting on other posts.  In addition, be sure to mention a business page in your

description so that your post will show up in their messages.  Many times, these shout outs result in a

share on their feed which gives you another audience segment that sees your post.

Do you communicate with your sphere consistently? Well, think of your social media followers as your

sphere. Are you reaching out to other businesses on Instagram with questions, comments or simple likes

to their posts?  Start now!  A good rule of thumb for how often to engage is to set aside time each day (even

if it's only 10 minutes) for nothing but engagement. The more time you block, the sooner you'll see results!

Tagging is a little different from a  @mention.  You can tag up to 20 other Instagram accounts in a post. A

geotag is important because it puts your post in a geographical category.  It could actually increase views

because it is focusing on a specific geographical area. Don't forget to geotag your location (tip:  you can

use any location in your geotag that you want your post to be seen more in).

Areas of Focus

ENGAGEMENT

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Follow & Like

@Mention & Comment

Tag Other Accounts

This community is my go-to for new builds in this area! Do you have

other developments in DFW?

Furniture: I'm so glad you opened a store in Southlake! Are you open

on Sundays?

Examples of Engagement

I'm loving the floating shelves in your kitchen designs

SEEK OUT BUILDERS/DEVELOPERS/OTHER REALTORS AND ENGAGE:

Make sure you use a mixture of hashtag

levels. A good spread is 5 low, 10-12

medium and 3 high.

That bathroom is a dream! Is that the standard tile?

Is there a community pool in this development?

SEEK OUT LOCAL BUSINESSES:

"Cindy Kocsis has been instrumental in taking my business to the next level. 

My best professional decision to date was engaging her.  Her marketing

knowledge is phenomenal and my online presence and engagement has

soared since I brought her on to manage everything marketing related.  I

wouldn't be where I am without her and would highly recommend her."

Torelli Properties Group

Cake Shop: Looks so yummy! Do you do shower cakes?

Pilates Studio: Way to go! Do you have evening classes?

Interior Designer: Love your style! Do you work with many realtors?

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Areas of Focus

A post was published for a client that

spoke about using a mortgage

calculator to determine how much

home you can afford.  The post talked

about property taxes and homeowners

insurance.  In addition to the consistent

hashtags used, several custom hashtags

were used that related to the post

(#homeownersinsurance,

#mortgagerates, #dfwrealestate…)  Two

weeks later a single image post was

published for this client  that shared a

beautiful property with acreage just

sold.  The post had a call to action (CTA)

“If you are looking for land in Texas, let

me know what you're interested in”.

As a result, an individual expressed

interest in the comments to the post

and immediately began a search with

the realtor/client. This lead was not a

follower at the time of the post which

means that they most likely followed a

hashtag used in the post or a previous

post or followed a page that was 

@mentioned. 

This example comes from an Instagram

account that is fairly new and had less

than 500 followers at the time.

#qualityvsquantity

A Real Estate

Success Story:

6 | Virtual Professional Solutions cindy@virtualprofessionalsolutions.com

Success Story

Did you know that this is a service that we can manage for you? 

Hiring a Virtual Expert to manage your content marketing is the next

best thing to having your own marketing department.

The more “time” you spend engaging with

other Instagram users, the more followers

you will gain organically, and the more leads

you will yield in the long run. Engaging in

hashtag communities is the secret sauce!

The key is gaining quality followers vs

quantity.  After all, your end goal is to

convert followers to clients, right?

To find out how a content

marketing service can help you

work smarter, schedule a free

20-minute discovery call today.

The Secret to

Success:

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SCHEDULE

The best realtors use social media as an

extension of themselves to reach more

clients and capitalize on their competitive

advantage. Social media provides a way to

further connect with your local clients and

support your real estate marketing efforts.

D id you know ?

Secret To Success