Pinterest for Real Estate: more than sharing house pictures

By now, we all know about the powers of Pinterest. We are addicted to pinning (or at least know someone who is) and we know the stats.

Despite its young age, Pinterest has grown to be the third-largest Social Media Site on the planet and the fastest-growing site on the web today. It is growing faster than Twitter or Facebook did in their infancy. According to Mashable, Pinterest drives more traffic to blogs and websites than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined. That statistic alone tells us this site is worth investing some of your time.

So, what is Pinterest and why is it getting all this attention from marketers? Why, as a Real Estate Professional, should you jump on board and become an expert at it? Most importantly, how can you utilize it to grow your real estate business?

Let’s start at the beginning. Pinterest is all about pinning images of interest to you that other users can like, comment and repin.

Essentially, your goal is to be pinning images that are interesting enough and worth getting repinned by other users.  The more people that repin your pins or images, the more back links you get to your site or blog.  Also, the more likes, comments and repins you receive, the more visibility your pins will get. Let’s break it down with a list of helpful and relevant tips for Pinterest users of the real estate variety.

Tips to get your Pinterest followers’ attention and engage them with your pins:

1)    Share high-quality pictures:  Seems obvious, right? Pinterest is nothing if not a visual feast for the eyes. Being an agent, you have gazillions of images (hopefully professionally photographed!) of properties and homes. Boards can be organized and photos can be pinned by community, by space (living room, bedroom, bathroom, etc.), or by property or listing.

2)    Promote more than just your listings:  Focus on educating your followers and sharing what they would like to see, such as images interior designs and home decor websites. This will make people more interested in following your pins, as well as show that you care about their interests and that you’re not only pinning to promote your listings.

3)    Ask your clients for pictures of themselves in their new home: You can then pin these pictures into a “Happy Clients” or “Sold Homes” Board. This is great for a business’ image and it might drive some interested prospects to your website.

4)    Encourage followers’ engagement:  We talked about how likes, comments, and repins will help your pins get more authority and visibility. Sometimes even if your pins are super interesting, people still need a little push to engage, and that’s fine. Try to include questions in your descriptions like “Would you like to have a kitchen like this one?” or “What colors do you like in your bathroom?”  You want to present something that encourages them to comment. You can also include a call to action like, “If you like this pin, share it!”

5)    Optimize your descriptions:  When creating a description, make sure that you incorporate keywords that people might be looking for when searching for real estate content on Pinterest. Something like, “Chicago high rise condos” or “Chicago luxury homes.”

Try to tag your images with the appropriate keywords that would drive users to your page. Descriptions of pins can be up to 500 characters and you can you hashtags (#) on Pinterest the same way you use them on Twitter. This will allow Pinterest to index your pins properly on its site and increase searchability. Also, don’t forget to always put links back to your blog/website to really drive traffic to your brand.

6)    Be consistent:  This one’s tough, I know. Consistency is the key to any online marketing strategy; you want to keep pinning regularly and you must plan it in your schedule just like you do with any other social medium.

7)  Let people know you are on Pinterest:  If you haven’t already, add the Pinterest “Pin it” and “follow” buttons to your blog, email signature, and/or website. This will encourage your readers to pin your images and follow you on Pinterest.