Everyone definitely gets excited when Spring finally comes along— so excited in fact that you’ve probably already seen countless content pushing you to participate in the annual tradition of ‘spring cleaning’. As real estate agents, we advise our clients to spend this season accomplishing home improvement projects to improve their property’s value. But did you know that your social pages are another thing that you can give a deep clean of?
Over time, your feed can get messy. You’ll accumulate posts that are outdated, hence they won’t be serving you or your clients anymore. If you want to look professional, a profile picture taken years ago just won’t cut it. Sometimes, when you do a rebrand, you’ll have old posts that are no longer visually aligned with the new direction you’re headed to. Also, when was the last time you clicked the link on your bio? Are you sure the URL is still working?
When you decide to spring clean your social media presence, you’ll be able to tackle these issues head-on, breathing new life into your pages. Get to know the essential steps to complete this virtual clean-up project when you read on!
1. Declutter your feed
Now more than ever, it’s so much easier to hide content with the introduction of the ‘Archive’ feature on Instagram. This comes in handy for step one – getting rid of posts that are no longer in line with your goals, or old posts that are visually disconnected from your more recent ones.
Japanese tidying expert Marie Kondo popularized the KonMari method or the act of decluttering items that no longer serve a purpose in one’s life while keeping those that ‘spark joy’. For the task at hand, you can apply the same approach – go through your feed and ask yourself if the posts you see still deserve a spot there. If not, go archive (on Instagram) or hide from timeline (on Facebook).
2. Rethink your visual identity
We’re all too familiar with the adage: “First impressions last.” In the age of social, your potential clients will be greeted first by your profile picture. Do you seriously want them to see a pixelated photo of yours taken in 2005?
Now’s the time to update your profile picture with a high-quality, correctly-sized headshot, or a logo that perfectly represents your personal brand as a real estate agent. It’s also important to have just one profile photo across all channels so that people can easily identify you when they hop from one platform to another.
Pro tip: Don’t neglect your cover photo! One thing you can do is upload an appealing image that matches your profile picture for a cohesive look. But if you want a harder-working cover photo, you can use a graphic that captures your core services.
3. Freshen up your bio
As your career in real estate grows, you gain new experiences, pick up lessons, expand your network, and sometimes, even receive accolades here and there. The way you described yourself 5 years ago in your About section wouldn’t suffice for the evolved person you’ve become over time.
With that said, it’s worth giving your social media bios a look. Hook your potential clients with the most impressive – yet, accurate – details about you. Check if your contact details, website, and services panel are up-to-date.
4. Take note of what worked and what didn’t
After sweeping through your social pages, by now you should have some idea on which posts worked and which ones didn’t exactly deliver. Rough metrics you could look at are the reactions and comments per post.
Identify your best-performing posts over the past year and take note of the following: type of content and posting time & date. From there, you can draw up a couple of insights based on your page’s performance. Maybe for your audience, memes work better than overly-curated content? Maybe they’re more inclined to view animated posts over static ones? If you cater to a clientele of “Instagram Moms”, perhaps you could better engage with them on a 3 PM posting schedule – their relaxation time as kids are busy with classes – and not 7 PM?
As is with life, a little bit of reflection on your social media efforts will steer you in the right direction.
5. Write down new social media goals
End your social media spring clean on a high note by setting new goals for your pages. The ultimate objective of a real estate agent tapping social media is to gain clients there. But how will you do that when nobody has heard of you online?
Whether your social media goal is to attract thousands of new followers, churn out interesting house tour TikTok videos, or have the most attractive Instagram feed among your real estate peers, any of these could help lead you to your next client. Content that you worked hard for will eventually work hard for you.
Bonus: Update your passwords
In fact, you should do this regularly. If you haven’t yet, this could be your last step.
As social media continues to permeate our day-to-day life, us, real estate agents, should be proactive in taking care of our online persona. And if you think spring cleaning will help enhance your personal brand in the digital realm, then this is a task worth undertaking.
Happy social media spring cleaning!
