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Social media is easy to use and doesn’t require much in the way of setup. If you have existing accounts, you may find it easier to get started. You can buy a social media channel complete with followers, but we wouldn’t recommend that for an average landlord and the pros and cons of this approach are beyond the scope of this post.
Building a new account may be easy but it takes time to build a relevant following, you certainly wouldn’t expect results overnight. On social media the more relevant your followers are, the more useful the social account will be over time.
While it doesn’t take much time in terms of setup, you’d be wise to view social media as an ongoing project. It just isn’t the case that you can make one post a month and watch your channel grow. You’ll need to post content to your social media channel and engage with your followers on a regular basis to make it work.
Once your social account is up and running it may be the case that tenants use it to contact you, so you’ll need to keep an eye on it for tenant messages too.
Making your Social Channels Look Good for your Property Business
Social media is very image driven. While it is possible to post without images, posts with images or videos consistently outperform text-only posts. On most social channels there is a profile section for you to advertise your business, so you’ll want to make the most of these sections too.
With all this talk of social media posts and profile images, you’d be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed, especially if you aren’t a photoshop expert. Fear not, there are a lot of good (and free) tools that will help you make sure your social channels look good.
Canva is an excellent free programme that will allow you to create graphics for all social channels. It has a drag and drop interface so it’s easy to get to grips with. This is the programme we use at Landlord Vision to create our social and blog post graphics:
Canva have a wide range of pre-made templates which can help you to design a professional looking graphic even with no design experience. The programme offers a variety of different image sizes that make it easy to create content in the right size for the right channels. Using Canva you should be able to create a social graphic in just a few minutes.
There is a free version of the programme and this should be enough for most people. There are no limits on the number of designs you can create and download on the free version. (We don’t get a commission for promoting Canva, we’ve chosen to do this simply because we know from experience that it is an excellent tool!)
Make sure any graphics you do create for your social media accounts are consistent in design. When people see your posts, you want them to be able to identify that they belong to you. People will become used to your branding or design and this will raise awareness of your content, get people looking out for it, and provided you create good content, will increase their trust in you.
When You Shouldn’t Use Social Media to Advertise a Rental Property
Social media is an excellent channel if you’re going to be advertising a lot of properties or if you’ll be advertising properties frequently. But if you only have one or two properties and they’ve already got good (and settled) tenants in them, you have to ask yourself if it’s going to be worth the effort.
Once you start using social media and you gain followers and your tenants can see that you use it, they will start using it as a communication channel. In some respects, this is good as it makes you more available and gives tenants another way to get hold of you, but tenants can also leave reviews and comments of their own on your posts. Before committing to social media consider the kind of tenants you have and the settings of your social channel etc. to make sure that you can deal with this if it arises.
Posting frequency for your Property Business Social Media Pages
Once you’ve sussed your social graphics and you’ve got your channel looking good, think about what kind of content you are going to post and when you’re going to post it. While a lot of online articles will tell you that there are best times and frequencies to post on different channels these often over-exaggerate and make things out to be more difficult than they are.
Different times and frequencies will work for different types of business. What works for one may not work for the other. Testing is the only sure-fire way to know what works best for you. There are some general guidelines that apply to specific channels, we’ve covered these in the channel specific sections below.
Now you’ve got some general rules to follow for social media let’s take a look at the details of each social channel in more depth:
Using Facebook to Find Tenants for Your Rental Property
According to Omnicore Facebook has over 2 billion monthly active users and a wide range of people use it. Many marketers prefer Facebook to get in touch with older users as 62% of all online over 65’s use the channel. Around 88% of online 18 to 29 year olds use Facebook, 84% of online 30-49 year olds, and 72% of online 50 to 64 year olds. So, this is a great channel to use to reach a variety of people.
You can have a personal Facebook page or a business page and both are free. The type of account you use will depend on what you’re trying to get out of the channel. A personal page is a fine way to keep in touch with tenants in an ad hoc manner, you also have greater control over the privacy settings meaning you can prevent people from posting on your personal page or tagging you in photos etc.
A business page will allow you to collect reviews, give you a section to write about your business and will include a button you can use to get people to visit your website or take other actions. With a business page you can schedule posts for a later time (which is quite useful) and you can also see statistics about your posts and their performance which is imperative if you want to grow your Facebook presence.
How Often Should Your Property Business Post on Facebook?
Facebook moves quite slowly, if you make a post in the morning and then another in the afternoon, you’ll find the morning post slows down in terms of reach (the number of people it’s shown to) when you make the afternoon post. In short, Facebook will throttle earlier posts whenever you make a new post. The only exception to this is if your previous post does really well, then it may continue to get some modest reach even if you post something else.
The general rule of thumb for Facebook is to add no more than one post per day and some businesses will just make three posts a week especially if they are just starting out.
Using Facebook Advertising to Promote Your Property Business
While Facebook is free to use, they make their money from advertising, so if you have a business page, you’ll find that Facebook frequently reach out to you to encourage you to ‘boost posts’ or start advertising.
Some think that posting organically – i.e. just making a post and not paying to boost it, is not an effective way to advertise a business as Facebook will throttle the reach of any posts that seem promotional. We’re not here to discuss whether these kinds of practices happen, but we have noticed ourselves that posts that seem overly promotional don’t get much reach. Having said that, it is still possible to grow and advertise a business on Facebook without paying, it just takes a bit of time and patience.
Facebook advertising is highly praised in marketing circles because it allows you to target very specific groups of people. If you don’t know what you’re doing though it can get very expensive very quickly. If you do decide to give paid ads on Facebook a go, make sure you read up on how to set these up and how to maximise your advertising budget.
Growing Your Property Business Page on Facebook
Growing a personal Facebook page is easier than growing a business page. It’s a bit of a slow burn getting people to like your page and it’s generally only going to happen if you’re sharing good content and people want to follow you for that reason, or if you’re telling people to like your Facebook page in your other channels. For instance, if you have a blog or a website you should have a Facebook icon in these places that links back to your profile or page so your potential customers know they can find you there.
If you frequently email your tenants, you should have a link to your Facebook page or profile at the bottom of your email. You can also just tell prospective tenants that you have a Facebook page or profile and encourage them to find you there.
How to Use Facebook Groups to Attract Tenants to Your Rental Property
There are many groups on Facebook and these deal with all kinds of topics. Think of them as communities. They are a great place to advertise your properties and get talking to other landlords and to prospective tenants as well.
As there are so many relevant groups, you’ll need to search for them and join the ones you think will benefit you most. Groups all have different rules, some are public in which case anyone can join, and some are private and require you to answer questions to get invited to join.
It isn’t the case that you can join a group and just start spamming the group with all the properties you are renting out. In most cases people joining these groups are looking for value, so you may need to spend time getting to know your group and adding value to them before you can get anywhere advertising your properties. Remember each group is different, so take the time to read their rules and get a feel for the posts they share before getting involved.
Using Facebook Marketplace to Find Tenants for Your Rental Property
Facebook has a marketplace where you can advertise your properties to let. There is a fair amount of competition in this space, but as many amateur landlords display properties here, it’s easier to stand out from the crowd if you use the tips in the rest of this guide. Advertising properties here is free and is well worth adding to your arsenal of channels.
Using Twitter to Find Tenants for Your Rental Property
According to Omnicore there are around 330 million active Twitter users and according to Statistia 13.7 million of these are UK based.
Twitter is best for reaching a younger demographic or for interacting with small and medium businesses. Around 80% of Twitter users are affluent millennials (18-29 year olds) and around 85% of small and medium businesses report using Twitter to provide customer service, so if you’re looking for a business partner this is a great place to start. Around 25% of online 30-49 year olds also use Twitter, but it’s not common to find large numbers of older people using the platform.
On Twitter you can set up a personal page or a business page. There isn’t that much difference between the two, but with a business account you’ll get statistics on how your posts have performed and you’ll be able to use Twitter advertising, neither of these are open to you if you have a personal account.
How Often Should Your Property Business Post on Twitter?
Twitter moves a lot faster than Facebook. As content is shared so regularly each post is only displayed for a short amount of time, so you need to post more frequently to get noticed.
There’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to posing frequency, marketers disagree on the exact frequency, some larger brands can post up to 100 times a day, some suggest that 20 is optimum. On the Landlord Vision Twitter account, we post 3 times a day and that really is the low end of the spectrum, we would post a lot more frequently if we had the time.
Unlike Facebook, Twitter won’t think twice if you share the same piece of content multiple times. Generally, you should be looking to share around 10 posts a day. The more you post the more your channel will grow. If like us, you just don’t have the time, try with a lower frequency and just increase it slowly over time. We’ve found that our account has grown with three tweets a day, so it’s not all bad if you can’t turn yourself into a posting machine.
Promotional Tweets on Twitter seem to do just as well as regular tweets, so you can promote your business without worrying too much about losing ‘reach’ (the number of people your posts are shown to). Be aware though that your followers will get fed up with you and won’t interact with your tweets if they are always overly promotional.
If you want to move forward with Twitter but the idea of posting more than 10 times a day fills you with dread, you can use Twitter’s free companion tool Tweet Deck to schedule as many posts as you like.
There are a lot of social media scheduling tools on the market that will allow you to schedule posts across all of your social media accounts. Most of these aren’t free though, so it’s only worth looking into these if you’re going to get really serious about social media, using multiple channels and creating a lot of content.
Using Twitter Advertising to Promote Your Property Business
Twitter also offers advertising for businesses. The targeting options are quite detailed, and they tend to be a little cheaper than Facebook. Remember Twitter has a much younger audience than Facebook, so regardless of your targeting options you’ll still be reaching a younger demographic.
As with all paid advertising on social media make sure you read up on how to execute a good campaign. This way you’ll maximise your budget and avoid overspending which is very easy to do on social media.
Growing Your Property Business Page on Twitter
Twitter is easier to grow than a lot of the other social media channels. Following others is easy to do and is encouraged, the danger with Twitter stems from growing an irrelevant audience.
On Twitter it’s better if you follow less people than follow you, this is regarded as the sign of a good and trustworthy Twitter account. While you will get a number of followers on Twitter, you should only follow people back if they are relevant to you and your company or goals. This is how you curate a relevant Twitter following. If you don’t curate a relevant following you aren’t going to get that far when it comes to advertising your properties.
Unlike a lot of the other social media channels Twitter is a very reciprocal platform. You will need to interact with other people’s posts including commenting, liking and re-tweeting. If you aren’t doing this, your account will still grow, but a lot more slowly. Twitter works on a like for like basis, so if you like the posts of a few different companies you’ll find they throw a few likes your way as well. Regular engagement with other Twitter accounts is a necessity for a fast growing account.
Using Instagram to Find Tenants for Your Rental Property
Instagram is a popular channel with a younger demographic. In fact 90% of Instagram users are younger than 35 and 75% of those are aged between 18 and 24. If you’re after younger house share tenants or students this is a great channel to be advertising on.
Instagram is a very visual channel, so you’ll need some top-class images to make it work for you. Sharing photographs of your properties especially if they are nice looking with good furnishings is the way forward if you’re planning to use Instagram.
You can set up a personal or a business account, but with a business account you can add a little more information about your company, and you can also use the advertising features and get statistics on how your posts have performed.
How Often Should Your Property Business Post on Instagram?
Instagram is similar to Facebook, you’ll want to post once or twice a day maximum. However, you can make the most of these posts by adding multiple images in one post.
Using Instagram Advertising to Promote Your Property Business
There are a lot of options open to you when it comes to advertising on Instagram. Just like posts on the platform, adverts need to be very visual. Instagram has very comprehensive targeting options like Facebook and Twitter. Just like with Twitter, you need to be aware that while the targeting options are good, you’ll still be reaching a younger audience as it is mostly younger people using the platform.
As with all paid advertising make sure you read up on how to create a campaign on this channel and how to maximise your budget.
Growing Your Property Business Page on Instagram
If you’re creating great visual content for your Instagram account, you’ll find that you attract more followers. Like Twitter, interacting with other Instagram accounts and liking, saving and sharing their content will help you to attract more followers and likes. Try to interact with the content of those you want to follow your account to ensure that you grow a relevant following.
Using LinkedIn to Find Tenants for Your Rental Property
This is the social network for finding professional tenants and a great place to start if you’re looking for business partners or investors. 106 million users log on to LinkedIn monthly. 61% of LinkedIn users are 30-64 years old, so here you’ll find your older professionals. About a quarter of users are aged 18-29 so you can also find students and young professionals here as well.
Much like the other social networks you can create a personal account or a business page. These are both quite different and serve different purposes. If you’re planning to advertise your properties on this channel, you’d be better off setting up a business account rather than a personal one.
How Often Should Your Property Business Post on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is another slow-moving channel, so you can get away with one or two posts a week, it’s ill advised to post more than once a day. Content works well on LinkedIn, so if you have a blog or you’re happy to write journal entries directly onto the platform you’ll find they get a fair amount of attention.
Using LinkedIn Advertising to Promote Your Property Business
As with all the other social networks it’s possible to pay to advertise on LinkedIn. There are targeting options that make it more likely to get your advert in front of the right people.
Adverts on LinkedIn work much the same way as they do for other channels, and just as with other channels you should read up on effective techniques to use to maximise your budget and avoid wasting money.
Growing Your Property Business Page on LinkedIn
The secret of LinkedIn lies in the groups rather than in posting socially. While it’s possible to post once a day and grow very slowly, getting involved with groups and interacting with other users is the best way to get your account noticed.
If you’re willing to put in the time and effort it takes to join relevant groups, communicate with them on a regular basis and engage with the wider community then your LinkedIn presence will grow well.
Other Social Media Channels for Landlords
There are so many social media channels now that covering them all would mean having to write the equivalent of a 300 page paperback! Here we’ve covered the main channels, but you can find out more on any channels we haven’t covered by using your favourite search engine.
If you’re considering using different channels to those mentioned, you’ll want to find out the most common ages of their users so you know your target tenants are there.
