Why you should be using Pinterest as a real estate agent and tips for getting maximum exposure on Pinterest
Long gone are the days when your real estate business could survive without an online presence.
In the past, real estate agents used newspaper classifieds, leaflets, and billboards as part of their marketing mix.
In the digital age, these marketing tools have mainly been replaced by social media.
An agent’s website is its digital business card.
And while Facebook and Instagram have proven to be handy tools for branding and online lead generation, Pinterest has been largely overlooked.
Our Marketing team loves Pinterest.
And we think it doesn’t deserve to be ignored by real estate agents.
So, we’ve browsed through some of the most interesting real estate Pinterest accounts, made notes about what we liked and found useful, and compiled all of this into a short guide.
The main purpose of this Guide is to give you ideas and steer you in the right direction when it comes to managing your presence on Pinterest.
So, let’s hop in.
Who are Pinterest Users?
We know that Facebook and Instagram are on top of real estate agents’ social media priority lists.
But, Pinterest has a particular set of users.
If these are part of your target audience, then you’re for sure missing out on an opportunity to put your name in front of them.
Newest data shows that Pinterest has 444 million active monthly users.
The latest statistics show that more than 70% of Pinterest users are female.
And around 66% of Pinterest users are between 18 and 49 years old.
So, if this is the kind of market you are usually working with, you should definitely include Pinterest in your social media strategy.
It’s far easier to get noticed, as it’s not as crowded as Instagram and Facebook (where, btw, you won’t be able to reach a significant audience without investing in ads).
But, it’s not only the demographics that make Pinterest a good choice for some real estate agents.
Why Should I Be Using Pinterest as a Real Estate Agent
Here’s the one thing that makes Pinterest so amazing for real estate agents.
93% of Pinterest users use the platform to plan for their purchases actively, and 87% of those users purchased something because they saw it on Pinterest!
Besides, the #1 reason why its users turn to Pinterest is home décor/design inspiration.
Home design and home decoration inspiration can indicate someone just giving their home a nice makeover.
But a huge chunk of Pinterest users interested in home decoration and design also plan to purchase a new home. Or they are investing in renovations of their current home to increase its value.
With creative content ideas, you can directly speak to a very interested and ready-to-buy audience.
However, there is another reason why Pinterest should be the next social media that you invest in.
Not many people know this.
Yes, if you get a lot of people to share your content on Pinterest and pin it on their boards, the more traffic you’ll get and the better your search results will be.
But that’s not the end of it.
The Pinterest domain (pinterest.com) is a high-quality domain.
This means that if someone is, for example, doing an image search on Google for “waterfront properties on Lake Ontario," Pinterest results will be among the top results.
Pinterest 101
So, before we give you real estate relevant tips for using Pinterest, we’ll just quickly give you an overview of how Pinterest works.
Pinterest is a picture sharing application. Posts on Pinterest are called “pins”.
You organize your Pinterest account around boards. For example, if you are a regular user, you can have a recipes board, a decoration board, a fitness board.
Whenever you upload a picture on Pinterest, you also have to add it to one of your boards.
Besides, you can pin other users' content within your board. Let’s say you find a fantastic recipe you’d like to try out. You can add it to your recipe board.
There are also Group Boards. You can post your own or share someone else’s content on these boards.
It’s possible to share pictures, infographics, GIFs and videos. Each of your posts can have a description (and hashtags).
So-called “rich pins” also have links and other metadata automatically included in them. Make sure to apply for rich pins usage, as this will be super important to drive traffic to your website.
So, if we have motivated you to go and open up a Pinterest account, here are some tips so you can follow for maximum exposure.
4 Tips to Make Your Real Estate Pinterest Account Stand Out
#1 Carefully choose the name and description of your boards
Your Pinterest board is like a photo album on Facebook. With the added benefit that search engines pick up the name and description of your board.
So, when naming your boards and coming up with descriptions, think about what a person would be entering into the search bar on Google (and Pinterest) and optimize accordingly.
#2 Your listings shouldn’t be your only boards
Yes, it’s nice to have a board with your new and sold listings, but to play by the Pinterest rules, we recommend adding boards that showcase your favourite places in neighbourhoods and communities within the areas you specialize in.
You can also have boards that focus on interior design and landscaping ideas if you’re into it.
Or you can create a board with real estate tips or share some market insights.
#3 Join popular real estate Group Boards
Share your posts on these boards to get more exposure and carefully follow what other agents post.
#4 Don’t forget to include links to your branded website
Use the rich pins option to include a link in every of your Pinterest posts.
So, if you’re posting a new listing on your Listings board, you can include a link leading to a page on your website that talks more about the neighbourhood in which the listing is located.
This comes in really handy for AgentLocator clients using the Landing Page Creator tool in our CRM.
With the Landing Page Creator, you can build landing pages around specific neighbourhoods, PreCon projects, single exclusive listings, etc., within minutes.
Then create rich pins around it on Pinterest and link them all to your landing page.
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We hope that we’ve inspired you to consider using Pinterest to gain more exposure and improve your search rankings.
Just remember that Pinterest is like every other social medium. It takes time, persistence and patience to build a following and become recognizable.
