Effective Use of Hashtags for Real Estate with Examples and Best Practices
How Can REALTORS® Use Hashtags to Convert More Leads?
You may have noticed Millennials love hashtags. Prevalent across all social networking platforms hashtags are more than a trend. They are indispensable, as they automatically categorize the huge content load produced daily. This categorizing means even people who don’t follow you can find your content if it fits their search parameters. The growing popularity of social media together with an ever-increasing content load worldwide makes it essential that you use hashtags for real estate posts.
Like every other field, realtors use hashtags to get their posts viewed on social media. They can share property listings, market reports, and any other related content with buyers and sellers, which is smart, right?
According to research, 69% of sellers prefer realtors who use social media to promote listings. As a result, many realtors are turning to social media and so should you. This is pretty straightforward forward but you want to make sure you are using platforms effectively.
There are no fixed rules or books to tell you what exact hashtags you should use but there are some general principles and guidelines that can help you create and choose hashtags for your next social media post.
What is a Hashtag?
As you are likely aware a hashtag is the # symbol placed in front of a word or phrase. It’s possible you are not clear about what it does. However, in social media, the # symbol makes a keyword searchable; so that people can find your post.
Let’s say you have a post about property listings. By using the hashtags (for instance #realestate #realty #broker #forsale #newhome) you can make your post discoverable by people who do not follow you. Just make sure you don’t use spaces or punctuation.
Hashtags classify or label your posts in a sense. However, your post may have more than one class or name. If you do not use hashtags your post will not be found by using the search feature of the social media platform. You don’t want this to happen.
Some hashtags have been around for a while, whereas others might be quite new. The number of posts labeled with these hashtags will differ. People can use any word and create their own hashtags; however, some categories are more popular than others like:
- Locations
- Food
- News topics
- Emotions
- New Trends
Why Do Realtors Need to Use Hashtags?
People are passionate about the neighborhood they live in or the one they are planning to move to. Features like local businesses, services, events, and recreational facilities are exciting and interesting because they represent people’s interests and make them feel connected to their community. Combine this with the fact that social media is now a common leisure activity and can capture their attention and direct them to your content by using hashtags like #explorenewyork or #exploretoronto. Hashtags like #sanfrancisco #losangeles #quebec #california contain millions of posts and are very popular. This is a great start to connecting with your potential clients.
Keep in mind that the more popular a hashtag is, the more competition your post will have for attention and the harder it will be for it to stand out among others using the same tag. You will want to try to use neighborhood (as well as city) hashtags to increase your posts’ chances of being seen.
Where Should You Use Hashtags?
When it comes to hashtags, social media platforms are almost the same. You just need to find the list of hashtags that work best for you and then use them in your posts on different platforms. However, each platform has its own unique features or quirks.
Instagram allows you to follow hashtags. You cannot do this on Twitter. This means you can reach your target audience even if they don’t follow you, provided that they follow the hashtags you use for your posts. For instance, if you follow #torontorealestate Joe Rea’s post will show up.
You may even use hashtags in your bio to link hashtags directly to your profile. As mentioned earlier, use both local and popular hashtags in your field. It is recommended that you try to use your own unique hashtag as well. This hashtag most probably will not be used by others and will exclusively lead to your profile and posts, provided people are convinced enough to search for or follow it. Here you can see Firas Swaida uses #justlisted to increase her property’s reach on Instagram.
See how Roy Lhanie makes great use of hashtags.
Read more: Using Instagram for Real Estate 2020 – The Ultimate Guide for REALTORS®
Although the hashtag was first brought to social media in its present form by Twitter on August 23, 2007, the platform limits users compared to other platforms like Instagram. Important to keep in mind when using hashtags on Twitter is that they will count toward the character limit per tweet. So you want to consider them carefully and use them sparingly unless you are posting a photo. Here, Sandi Elwood is considering Twitter’s character limit and using hashtags effectively.
Check out my #listing in #Detroit #OR #realestate #realtor https://t.co/oOcaKi6ih1 pic.twitter.com/qGVMGNdvhE
— Sandi Elwood (@sandisueelwood) June 4, 2020
Unlike platforms like Instagram and Twitter, Pinterest does not focus on interaction and engagement. Pinterest is a place where you search for images. Given the 500-character limit, it is recommended that you use 4-5 hashtags per post. Four of the hashtags will be visible directly under the image so make sure you use the best first and do not spam. Your best choices are hashtags that are relevant to what you do, hashtags with high search volume, and local hashtags related to the properties and listings.
LinkedIn often doesn’t get the attention it deserves from realtors. It has a smaller audience as people don’t check their newsfeed multiple times a day as they would do on Instagram. But those who use LinkedIn to find content about real estate are there for real business and chances are you will get a higher conversion rate out of them. To use hashtags on LinkedIn, make sure you use short hashtags. Follow the basic rules of using hashtags and do not include punctuation or spaces and try not to overuse them. Maria Halatsis uses popular hashtags:
Read more: LinkedIn for Real Estate Agents: The Ultimate Guide for REALTORS® in 2020
Top Real Estate Hashtags
In the world of social media, the number of potential hashtags is almost infinite. However, you can do a little research and find the hashtags your leads and clients are using, and narrow your options down to the best possible choices. Here is a condensed list of the most popular hashtags for realtors:
- #realestate
- #realty
- #broker
- #forsale
- #newhome
- #househunting
- #property
- #properties
- #investment
- #home
- #housing
- #mortgage
- #foreclosure
- #selling
- #listing
- #listingagent
- #newlisting
- #homeinspection
Hubspot and Zillow
The business software developer HubSpot found the best hashtags agents can use on social media. These hashtags are as follows:
- #realestate
- #realestateexperts
- #realestateadvice
- #homeforsale
- #homeforsale[state or major city]
- #luxuryrealestate
- #condoliving
- #housegoals
- #househunting
- #housesofinstagram
On the other hand, Zillow lists the following as the best hashtags for Real Estate:
- #realestate
- #realty
- #broker
- #forsale
- #newhome
- #househunting
- #property
- #properties
- #investment
- #home
- #housing
- #mortgage
- #foreclosure
- #selling
- #listing
roomvu Data
The words used in a post go a long way in increasing its engagement. After analyzing over 1 million posts shared by our subscriber agents, we found these words to be the most successful. The following heat map shows the most important and most effective social media keywords Real Estate agents have used on their social media accounts using roomvu dashboard to share local Real Estate content. Making sure to use these keywords in form of hashtags or keywords in social media captions, status, etc. seems like a good idea and a great place to start. After all, agents will get to know the market after a while and will come up with their own list of hashtags and keywords.
Hashtags for Real Estate Best Practices
It is easy to get careless with hashtag use. Here are some general tips:
- Do not use too many hashtags. We’ve mentioned this before but it should be stressed. You risk your post being flagged as spam and not showing up when the tags are searched. Also, what do you think people will think about your post if it comes with a long list of hashtags? Most probably people will find it a desperate bid for attention. Instagram will allow you to use 30 tags per post but according to Track Maven, the golden number is one.
- Do not go with irrelevant hashtags. Not only will you look unprofessional but also even if you get some followers, they will not be interested in doing business with you.
- You need your audience to be local otherwise you won’t get any business. However, while choosing local tags don’t get too local. This might seem like contradictory messaging but consider the specific street name application in rural areas with common street names (#mainstreet). Clearly, your tweet would be lost. Furthermore, make an effort not to use too many places as hashtags as most likely they will be flagged as spam.
- Remember, you can still have some fun and be professional. If you’re congratulating a colleague there is nothing wrong with saying #congrats or #cheers.
- It is a good idea to use the features of the listings as tags. For instance, tags like #duplex, #loft, or #industrialchic.
- Make an effort to find what other realtors are using as hashtags. On Instagram, you can search for these tags and the platform will suggest some more related tags which you can use. “The Trends” section on Twitter is also a great place to find out about currently popular hashtags.
- Make a list of your frequently used hashtags and add your new tags to the list as you find them.
- Before using new hashtags search them and make sure they don’t link to inappropriate content.
- Put yourself in your potential client’s shoes. What might they be searching for in terms of uncommon tags? #hatemyhouse maybe?
- Every once in a while try to change things around with your hashtags and try some new ones. Make it a habit for yourself to find new hashtags in your field. It’s easy to settle with a set of fixed hashtags once you have a decent list.
Effectively using hashtags for real estate will increase your views and more importantly filter your audience, providing more potential leads and increasing opportunities for engagement. Work to keep it local, keep it light, and keep on learning.
Read more: Social Media for Real Estate Agents – The Ultimate Guide for REALTORS® 2020
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