Pinterest A Better Social Media For Real Estate

Pinterest A Better Social Media For Real Estate Pinterest Your Listings What is the third largest social media site today? What is the fastest growing website today? What is growing quicker at the same stage of development than did Twitter or, even, Facebook? What drives more traffic to sites and blogs than YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn put together? To all these questions, just one answer: Pinterest. Pinterest is a social media site that’s images-centered. It’s something like a bulletin board, only it’s virtual and it’s all about pictures. Lots of them. It allows users to connect to one another via photos and images that interest them. The user uploads and organizes images, photos, even videos into a themed collection called a pinboard (the images and videos are called pins). And because a pinboard is themed, it’s easy for people with the same interest to find the pinboard and interact, usually by saving pins they like to their own pinboards. Interestingly, the current demographics of Pinterest users show that most (83 percent) are college-educated females with ages between 35 and 44 years, who use the image-sharing site to gather and share ideas on architecture, interior design, home improvement, and dream homes, among others. Given that, its skyrocketing popularity, and its delicious emphasis on beautiful images, it’s no surprise that Pinterest has grabbed the attention of real estate professionals seeking new ways to grow their business. Chaibia Sarhrou of CS Social Media, in an article for www.thenichereport.com, has put together some pointers for realtors and real estate agents on how to make Pinterest work for you and your business. Splurge on high-quality pictures. High-quality, high-resolution photos are a dime a dozen in this age of digital cameras, so share them via Pinterest (this is what Pinterest is all about, after all). They don’t need to be about your listings; initially, the idea is to build a Pinterest following. Make your pinboards grab attention. Recognize the interest areas of your target audience (for instance, beautiful kitchens) and pin only attractive, engaging, high-quality photos about them so they will be worth commenting about and repinning. Put a damper on self-promotion (for now). While you’re still building a Pinterest following, tone down promoting yourself and your business. Instead, concentrate on providing your followers with the visual resources related to their and your “common” interests. Get them to develop the habit of checking out your pins (because they’re interesting) and repining them. Call to action. Even if your pins are the most gorgeous in all Pinterest, you still need to get your followers to engage so they’ll comment and repin. So be handy with dandy captions such as “Now, how would you like to have a garden like this one?” or “Ask me quick where I found this tabletop piece!” And then, call them to action: “If you love this pin, hit ‘Repin’!” Make your listings shine. Now, you’re ready. If you have a real estate blog or website, make your listings shine by pinning high quality photos of the homes you’re selling. Target your photos with the right keywords so Pinterest will index them properly. Remember to include links to your blog/website so traffic from your pinboard will be driven to it. Shout out that you’re on Pinterest. Plant Pinterest “Pin it” and “follow” buttons in your blog/website (it’s simple to embed the buttons, but do ask for your webmaster’s help if you’re not up to the techie stuff). Having a Pin it or follow button will encourage your blog readers to pin your photos and follow you on Pinterest.