“The leads are sh*t.”

A phrase we hear all the time in the real estate industry.

Sure, almost every industry says the same thing but it’s especially popular in real estate. People invest a lot of time and money into leads and many are not seeing a return.

Paying to generate leads online can be like buying a boat. The famous adage, “The happiest days in a boatowner’s life are the day they buy the boat and the day they sell it.” For many, that’s how their experience is with real estate.

Yes, you can find success with online leads

Yet, there are a lot of people having great success with online leads. Taylor Hack is one of them. His team does 140+ transactions a year in Edmonton with an average production per agent of 31 deals and a remarkable amount of five-star reviews.

Hack has a strong background in sales and it shows with a team that logs thousands of dials each quarter. With a significant amount of their business coming from online leads, Hack has worked with industry leaders in conversion to build a healthy and sustainable business.

We looked at why people think online leads are sh*t and how to solve that problem 

We started getting to know each other at industry events and then online and became fast friends. He looks at things more from a sales-first angle and I, the marketing-first angle. We’ve had a lot of passionate conversations over the years — often about the intersection of sales and marketing in real estate.

We’ve looked at why people think online leads are sh*t and how to solve that problem. We started talking this year on Zoom about it more and more and inviting people on to listen to our conversations.

These conversations started getting great feedback from those who came to listen. So, we started promoting it a little bit here and there. The more people who attended live, the better the feedback we got.

We’ve brought a few other great people from the industry on and have had great conversations with them, too.

Now we’re taking it up a notch with a hybrid podcast, live talk show & radio call-in show

This show will be called “The Leads are Sh*t with Taylor Hack and Andrew Fogliato.”

Every week we’ll talk about different aspects of the business. Sometimes we’ll bring guests on with subject matter expertise. We’ll even give Hack things to put in place in his real estate business and he’ll report back on the results.

This isn’t a traditional podcast. It’s a hybrid podcast, live talk show and radio call-in show. If you join us live you can interact over the chat and ask questions, or you can even come on camera and ask a question live.

Have a problem in your business you’re stuck on? Ask.

Have an idea you want to brainstorm? Ask.

Have a topic you want us to discuss? Tell us.

Our goal is to have this be a place you can join every week to help your business. We also want it to be an open book. If we’re talking about an idea and it gets tested, we’ll tell you the results. If it’s an untested idea, we’ll tell you that too.

If we invite a guest on, it’s someone we know has something of value to contribute and does real business. We’d rather find the people running a great business — it’s not about who’s famous and “in”. Instead, we want to find great operators and learn from them.

So come join us, every Thursday at 2:00 pm EST. Attend live to see what we’re working on and what’s getting results. Ask questions, engage and have fun.

We’ve set it up as a recurring webinar so you just need to register once to get the link sent to you every week to join. We’ll be posting the replays on the Real Estate Magazine YouTube channel.

Click here to grab a spot and start joining us live. Looking forward to seeing you there!

In today’s digital world, where the majority of consumers research and begin their home search online, a strong social media presence is essential for building a lasting impression in competitive real estate markets across the country.

To stand out in a sea of agents, real estate professionals need an effective social media content strategy to drive business growth. Your content strategy serves as a roadmap for creating valuable, relevant and engaging content that resonates with your target audience and leads to meaningful outcomes.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through three steps to developing an Instagram strategy that converts. By getting the hang of these essentials, you can level up your online presence, nurture client relationships, and generate valuable leads.

1. Set clear content goals

When crafting your content strategy, kick off by setting goals. For best results, start by identifying your yearly, big-picture aspirations. Next, break it down to quarterly goals, and then each month, zoom in on what really matters to move the needle.

Whether your goal is to increase property inquiries, drive traffic to your website, grow your email list or secure more listings, ensure that each piece of content serves a purpose in achieving your desired outcome.

Goalsetting is an important part of your strategy because it provides a clear direction and purpose for your content creation. Not only that, but it helps you measure the success of your content strategy, providing insights into whether your efforts are yielding the desired results. 

In turn, you can adapt and optimize your strategy based on data and analytics. If you’re not meeting your set goals, you can analyze what’s not working and make the necessary adjustments to improve results. On the flip side, if you’re seeing success you can make note of what is working to optimize your strategy further. 

2. Define your content pillars

After establishing your goals, we encourage clients to focus on three core pillars for their social media marketing efforts. Keep in mind, your content pillars will differ from your brand pillars. 

While your brand pillars are unique to you, think of your content pillars as the structure and guideline for your content creation efforts. Your content pillars allow you to focus on actions that are aligned with your goals. They also prevent you from getting overwhelmed with too many ideas and ensure that you’re investing your time and energy where it matters most.

Here’s an example for the real estate industry:

• Grow (expand your reach). Showcase property listings, local market updates and neighbourhood insights. 
• Nurture (build trust and connect with potential clients). Share glimpses into your daily life, offer free educational resources and showcase testimonials. 
• Sell (drive conversions). Highlight successful transactions, offer exclusive deals and provide expertise on the buying or selling process. 

Each piece of content you post should prioritize one of these pillars. As a real estate agent, it may feel like you’re often doing all three simultaneously (growing, nurturing and selling); however, by working with content pillars, you can focus on the most important action for your business at any given time. 

Remember, it’s not only about the content you’re creating and sharing — it’s also about the way you’re engaging with your audience. Aim to build personal relationships with your audience by sparking conversations in the DMs. You can foster engagement by inviting questions, sharing polls or hosting Q&A sessions on Instagram Live, positioning yourself as a trusted resource for ideal clients.

3. Create your monthly content calendar

The key to a consistent Instagram presence? Planning. Instead of brainstorming new ideas from scratch for every piece of content, you can leverage your established pillars and current goals to generate relevant topics and angles. This saves you from staring at a blank page with the dreaded question, “What the heck do I post today?” 

Start by mapping out key topics and themes for the month ahead, plugging in special occasions, open houses, local events or anything else that automatically translates into a marketing opportunity. From there, fill in the blanks with valuable content that aligns with your key goals.

For real estate professionals looking to thrive in today’s digital landscape, a strategic social media marketing strategy is no longer optional but fundamental to your success. A winning Instagram strategy blends clear, strategic goalsetting, consistency and the right mix of content. By following these steps, you can create a memorable online presence that remains top of mind with your target audience.

In 2023, HubSpot reported that the main reason 63 per cent of realtors were using social media was to promote their property listings. Given today’s digital landscape, this hardly comes as a surprise. 

But does social media really lead to leads for realtors?

An end to door-knocking and cold-calling

While the days of door-knocking and cold-calling aren’t quite over yet, social media might be calling for the end of an era.

“I was actually making 50 to 75 cold calls a day when I first started and wasn’t enjoying it,” says Conor Kelly, an agent with Stonehaus Realty. “So, I started doing two TikToks and one Instagram story a day. I was anticipating it to take three to five years to get a decent lead flow. But, a month and a half later, the phones started ringing.”

If you’re a realtor who’s interested in social media platforms but you’re unsure where to start, follow these tips from other agents who live and breathe social media.

Tip 1: Listen to your audience

When it comes to social media, it can be easy to overlook the “social” component. Social media is more than about creating high-quality content — it’s also about engaging and listening to your audience.

When Alex Dunbar, an agent with the Real Brokerage, first started creating content in 2018, he was making videos he thought would be of interest to his audience, primarily on educational topics like explaining property transfer tax or closing costs. But then he started analyzing data on what his audience was actually most interested in.

“Now, I go back at the end of the year and actually look at where all my deals come from,” says Dunbar. “I can tell you I had this many come in through TikTok, YouTube or Instagram.”

Listening to his audience has helped Dunbar create content now that is more aligned with what his audience is truly interested in seeing — whether that’s city and neighbourhood guides, moving and relocation tips or market updates on Greater Vancouver, for example.

Tip 2: It’s not all about you 

Imagine you’re having dinner with someone and they only talk about themselves the entire time. No fun, right?

Same goes for your social media content. It shouldn’t be all about you.

Take Tyler Burrows, an agent with Oakwyn Realty. He’s recently gained social media attention with his hashtag #TouringWithTyler. Burrows regularly posts walkthrough video tours of properties for sale, especially unique ones like lofts, on his social media accounts. The catch? They’re not his own listings.

Now, Burrows estimates that about half of his leads come from social media. Not only has he been able to build relationships with the listing realtors of the properties he’s viewing, but people have begun reaching out to him when they’re in search of properties similar to the ones in his video tours, like lofts.

Tip 3: Don’t let the trolls get to you

While your social media engagement will likely be mostly positive, it might also attract the occasional troll or two in your comment section.

“Some of them are so bad that I can’t even say them here,” says Kelly.

It may be easier said than done, but the simplest advice would be to simply ignore the trolls. 

“I just don’t let other people’s words have power over me,” Dunbar mentions.

Tip 4: Give it time

Becoming a social media sensation isn’t an overnight process. Having a strategy and being consistent is key to a realtor’s success.

“You have to consistently put things out on a daily, weekly, monthly, annual basis to actually start to see results,” says Dunbar. “If people see you one time, they’re not immediately going to like you or build trust with you. But when they see you’ve been doing it over a long period of time, that’s when they’re going to reach out.”

“Views don’t necessarily equal deals,” explains Kelly. “I didn’t get a legitimate lead until I went to a presale in Mission and ended up closing four deals off of that one video.”

But, it took time and a consistent social media presence for Kelly to gain that level of influence from a single video. Gaining credibility and trust might be more important metrics than views, impressions and engagement rates — even if they can’t quite be quantified.

There’s no one formula for social media success. What might work for one realtor might not work for another. It’s about finding your voice and what works best for you.

“The important thing is you do it your way,” says Burrows. “And you stick to it.”

You need to post on social media every day to stay relevant!

You’ve heard it time and time again from agents, trainers, influencers, etc. … It’s well-intentioned advice, and much of its original meaning was right at the time. However, I believe that, over time, the original intention has been lost. As social and online marketing has evolved, so should the advice.

Do you need leads from an organic social media pipeline?

The phrase “You need to post on social media every day to stay relevant” in its full form would be, “If you want to build a pipeline of business from organic social media, you need to post on social media every day to stay relevant.”

But, you may not actually need that pipeline. Any pipeline of leads that helps drive your business should be able to get you at least 25 deals a year. Organic social media is one of them. Even within organic social media, you could build strategies to drive clients that don’t require daily posts. 

On top of that, as social media has evolved, our feeds are flooded with content every day that people post for the sake of posting. It’s a common joke in real estate conferences, one I’ve said on stage before, that people don’t need that email with the latest pumpkin pie recipe or a reminder to change their clocks. Well, guess what? They also don’t need to know that it’s National Talk Like a Pirate Day on social media.

Let’s look at a few of the reasons NOT to post daily anymore.

Quality over quantity

When people post daily, they regularly struggle with what to post so they look for anything they can post. That means a lot of what goes out is just bad content. They’re jumping on the “I have to post something today” bandwagon.

Take the Daniel Day-Lewis approach. He doesn’t take every role he can just for the sake of being in another movie. He takes one when he feels it’s right. Roles that ignite his passion and he feels connected to. He puts everything he can into them.

You can go for the take-every-role approach and make a career, or you can choose the Daniel Day-Lewis approach, opt for the highest quality content you can and put everything into it.

Engagement over frequency

Let’s compare two scenarios.

Agent 1: Super organized, spends a day creating a ton of content and then schedules it out a month ahead of time. Now, they can move on to other important tasks and not look at social.

Agent 2: Posts maybe once a week, every other week, and some months only posts once. Throughout the week they spend time on social. Mostly engaging and talking to people.

I would be willing to bet that Agent 2 is the one who actually pulls clients from social media. They’re out there engaging with people. Building relationships. Agent 1 just checked the social media box and then threw the content into the void.

The brochure presence

Regular posting is a great strategy for many. It works for a reason. But, it’s not the best use of time and money for many others.

Some agents only need what I call a brochure presence. 

This means when people look them up on social, it acts like a brochure that shows the agent is good at their job. It shows their professionalism, what they offer and some social proof. A living brochure instead of a static printed one. 

This doesn’t need daily posting to achieve it. You can do this with a weekly or even bi-weekly post, plus your listings. This way, if someone looks you up, it won’t make them not want to hire you. If you still want to get business from your social media with a brochure presence, you’ll need to spend time engaging with people.

Opportunity cost

When you’re spending all this time thinking about what to post, worrying you’re not posting enough, then creating the post, figuring out how to post, then posting … then checking constantly to see what kind of engagement it got … that’s time you could be spending on other activities.

What other opportunities are you overlooking because you’re spending a lot of time doing these things? All of that time could have been spent taking a referral source out to lunch or being helpful in a local Facebook group. Those activities could potentially drive more business.

I hear from agents all the time about getting so stressed with social and how they’re dropping the ball. Except, they don’t even know where social fits into their marketing strategy. Take a step back first and map out your strategy. Then, figure out where social fits in for you.

Just because so many of us are saying you should be posting daily on social media doesn’t mean it’s true for you. Step back. Evaluate your marketing strategy, look at what time and resources you have and think about where they’re best spent. 

Your answer may be that you’re going to post daily on social because that’s the best fit for your business — but, it doesn’t have to be.