How to Use Instagram Stories for Real Estate and Get More Leads

Instagram itself is relatively new in the world of social media power players. A while ago, it was known as a photo-sharing app with cool effects and a not-so-popular photo-sharing feature. The app caught on, and the platform grew to be used for sharing images and videos later on. While it took time for Instagram’s stories feature to really catch on (it was viewed as a less popular copy of Snapchat’s), scrolling up the news feed for images and videos is giving way to stories. The physical distancing resulting from COVID-19 Stories has helped businesses nurture connections with their customers. Realtors can use Instagram Stories for real estate and tell their audience a story worth listening to.

Features of Instagram Stories

Stories, as the name suggests, tell others a story; a short one. In 15 seconds, you are highlighting your brand and building a connection. You can have an unlimited number of these stories. Stories are different from posts not just regarding duration but also in the features they allow the user to use, such as: 

• Links (provided that your account has over 10,000 followers or is verified)
• Polls
• Quizzes
• Gifs
• Stickers
• Countdowns
• Questions

Many of the features listed here are interactive, which is useful in creating a community conversation.

Another feature that Stories has that makes them unique is that they vanish after 24 hours.

Note: Instagram archives your stories automatically once you share them unless you disable this feature in settings. You can access your past stories all the time. Stories were added to Instagram in August 2016 and archiving them was launched in December 2017. 

Why The Stories Feature is Good For Business

Instagram has more than one billion monthly active users and is one of the most popular social platforms in the world. In January 2019, Instagram had 500 million daily active Story users worldwide, up from 400 million in June 2018. 

These stats could have many meanings for different purposes, but what matters for realtors is that a huge part of online users (especially millennials) are already using Instagram stories. They are your audience. If potential leads are present on a platform, you should try to be seen there.

According to webstrategiesinc, Instagram is the king of social media engagement for brands, with 2-7% percent of users interacting with each post. Facebook is the runner-up with a 0.1 to 1.5% engagement rate. Engagement is a crucial metric for business success on social media. This alone is enough to convince any realtor they should use Instagram stories for real estate. 

How Do Real Estate Instagram Stories Work?

Instagram Stories are images or videos making 15-second appearances on your followers’ feeds for 24 hours. There is a generous limit to the number of stories you can post daily. You would need to exceed 100 stories before your previous stories are deleted. This means you can share videos longer than 15 seconds in several chained stories. 

Creating stories is pretty simple. All you need to do is tap the camera button on the top left corner of the main screen of Instagram.

This will open the camera where you can shoot a photo or record a video. There are different ways to record video and fun effects and graphics. We recommend you stay away from these features as a realtor. 

Alternatively, you can use images and videos from your gallery. If the images or videos from your gallery were taken on a different day in the past, Instagram will automatically insert the date to the story (don’t worry, you can remove it).

You can use many other features like stickers, quizzes, etc. Choose the one you like, or skip features altogether. Location and Hashtags are your best bets in stickers available, although you can use options like Polls and Quizzes to increase audience engagement. Countdown can also be used for coming soon listings or virtual open houses. 

You can put the location tag of where you are or ask your audience to ask a question. You can show their questions and your answers in separate stories later.

To finish, click Your Story and share to Stories. 

Create Story Highlights

As mentioned earlier, stories will be available for your audience for 24 hours, and after that, they will vanish. But you can extend the usefulness of Instagram stories for real estate. You can create a series of collections for your stories with an assigned name of your choice to make them permanently available on your profile above your posts. They are called Highlights and are very practical. They provide users with a way to categorize stories. 

To add stories to your highlights, open the story you want, and on the bottom right section of the screen, tap on the Highlight. If you have not created a collection before, you must make one now. Assign a name to the collection based on the story’s topic, and you are all set. For the following highlights, you will have the option to use existing collections or create a new one.

To Highlight From Stories If you have not created a collection before, you must make one now. Assign a name to the collection based on the story’s topic, and you are all set. For the next highlights, you will have the option to use existing collections or create a new one.

How To Use Icons In Instagram Highlights

You might have come across accounts on Instagram that have cool graphics and icons as covers for story highlights. At first glance, they might seem like a feature on Instagram, but they are not. There is no straightforward way to assign graphics as covers.

Instagram will automatically assign the first highlight as the cover. This feature can display a custom graphic design as the cover.

Use icons for Instagram highlights:

1. Download the Canva app on your cellphone. Search for the app on Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store
2. Open the app and click on the Instagram Story.

3. On the next page, select Blank

4. Next, tap on the background to choose and then click on the colors on the bottom left to choose the background color. Click done when finished

5. Now click the + on the bottom right and select Illustrations.

6. Here, you can search for the icons you have in mind. Most are paid, but you can use the free ones to Fstart. Click on the icon you like. It will be inserted into your project. You may also be able to choose a color theme for the icon. Go with the one you like. If you are done, go to step 8. If you would like to create more icons, click on the number 1 circle in the bottom left corner.

7. Repeat step number 6 to add more icons.

8. Once you are done creating icons click on the SHARE button on the top right corner and select Save as Image.

9. Congratulations. Your icons are ready and saved in your phone’s gallery (the app might ask for access to your gallery. Click OK if so)

10. Now open the Instagram app. You need to upload these covers as stories. Once they are uploaded, click the Highlight button in the bottom right corner.

11. Now, you need to add it to a collection. Click Add and give it a name. Do this for all your icons, and you are all set.

Note: If you have existing highlight categories you would like to use instead of creating a new one, hold down the highlight category, select Edit Highlight, and then Edit Cover. Now, choose the icons you have created from your phone’s gallery.

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Real Estate Instagram Stories Ideas

The story section of Instagram provides users with many features that can be used to create exciting content to tell a story. Real estate agents have many stories to tell and will find this feature handy. It all comes down to your creativity, but to give you some ideas, we have collected some excellent examples from which you can find inspiration to develop your ideas.

1. Virtual Live Open House

Live videos on Instagram are where users can have a live video broadcast for their audience. This feature offers commenting where users can ask questions or talk to you. It’s an excellent feature for those comfortable using it as they speak directly to their audience. 

Realtors can use live videos to present virtual open houses. Audiences can visit houses through their phones and ask questions directly to a realtor. This can be pretty cool as you can show a property to many people at once and interact with them. After the live broadcast, you can save the video to your phone’s gallery or upload it on IGTV so your followers can watch it later.

A live video can be a little tricky. So make sure you have thought it through and planned the broadcast by taking notes of essential features you need to spotlight. Be engaging and friendly. Offer phone calls or private meetings for those interested, and ensure you share your contact info or where to find it.

2. Personal Branding

Building trust with your audience is a must. They need to know you on a personal level to be able to trust you. Realtors need to show their audience what they do, what they like and what their values and interests are. If you check out some top-notch realtors here, you will realize that almost all of them share their lives with their audience to create a personal bond. 

Create collections of stories in highlights featuring what is happening in your life, your vacations, diversions, and times with friends and family. 

3. New Listings

Due to the grouping features in highlights, Instagram stories make a perfect place to showcase listings. Once you have a new listing, shoot some high-quality images and post them as stories, then add them to highlights. They will be available as long as they are active. Once sold, you can remove them.

Ensure the images you use cover all the property and are high quality. Poor photos will leave a negative impression.

4. Tips And Tricks

Another excellent idea in the stories is a series of tips and tricks presented in multiple slides as stories and later saved as highlights. Your audience will find them very useful, and this will increase views. Your job on social media as a realtor is to create value and help your audience. Don’t forget that. 

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Use Story Templates

Instagram offers many graphic options to design images and videos you use on your stories. There are a variety of features to use, including:

1. Different fonts and styles for words
2. Changing the place, angle, and size of the words
3. Font colors
4. Image resize and angle settings
5. Stickers and emojis
6. Gifs
7. Music

The problem is your stories can look a bit generic. But there is a solution to that. There are many free and paid services out there that offer Instagram story templates. 

Templates are professionally designed layouts that users can use and insert their images and text to create visually beautiful images to be used in stories. Creating stories is super easy with templates, and the results are impressive. Here are some services offering templates:

1. template.net

There are many templates to choose from, including those for listings, coming soon, team introductions, etc. All you need to do is choose a template, insert your images, and enter your text and logo. The result will be a branded image that fits Instagram stories perfectly and looks professional. 

2. motionarray.com

Using professionally designed images for real estate Instagram stories is a nice touch, but do you want to look super cool? Try Instagram story video templates. Of course, they require a little more labor and experience with software like Adobe After Effects (a motion and graphic design software), but don’t panic. You won’t be doing much.

motionarray.com offers a series of templates that can be imported into Adobe AE. From there, all you need to do is customize the template with your own branding, logo, and media. Then, you render the video.  The result is a clean, professional, and eye-catching video.  

roomvu Instagram Automation

We get it. Social media takes time and energy. To establish a strong presence on Instagram, you need valuable content that is accurate and produced professionally. A decent video takes +10 hours to create, a luxury many agents cannot afford.

We took notice and thought of a solution. roomvu Content Factory and social media automation platform address the exact issues. It not only takes care of regular publication of the content across social media platforms, but it also uses IA to create valuable and insightful content. Join today and start your presence on Instagram.

The Takeaway

Instagram is one of the most popular social networking platforms worldwide with a great engagement rate, making it a perfect choice for business. 

Instagram stories have become very popular due to their ease of use and features. Use Instagram Stories for Real Estate and let your audience get to know you as a person. You can share the story of your career and life. Create collections and highlight your most exciting stories.

To make an even more profound impact on your audience, you can always ask for professional help to create aesthetically eye-catching images and videos to be used in stories. We in Roomvu offer real estate photography and videography for an affordable price. 

You can follow the samples mentioned here and play around with Instagram’s stories to figure out how to make it work best for you. Don’t worry if the results are not perfect. There is always the option of deleting.

Have fun. Experiment with options and find what works for you. We look forward to watching the story of your brand’s growth.

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