2025’s Best Social Media Strategies for Realtors

These are the top strategies to win on social in 2025. Last week, Tom Ferry hosted an exclusive webinar on building your 2025 business plan and invited me to deliver the segment on winning social media strategies in 2025, where I broke down what I believe are the three critical aims of your social media marketing strategy in 2025, including Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, all of it. What's going to be the focus of your strategy to step into the full potential of what is the media of the day, and that is social media. So welcome to the channel. Welcome to This Week in Marketing. My name is Jason Bantana. I'm your host and instructor, and I'm really glad you're tuned in today. If this video is useful to you, it would mean a ton if you would like it, maybe share it with a friend. And if you are new to the channel, maybe consider subscribing too, if you're into the kind of content we share, which is all about helping you get more buyers, more sellers, and to grow your pipeline and your business. So without further ado, let's dive into my webinar, 2025 Winning Social Media Strategies. Tom, thank you so much for having me on today. We're going to talk about 2025's winning social media marketing strategies. We're talking about Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, you name it, all the big ones. How can you crush it in your marketing mix in 2025? In particular today, we're going to talk about the following subjects. We're going to break down the social media algorithms. Again, all the big platforms, what are their algorithms? How do you beat their algorithms? Because they are the gatekeepers that decide who sees your content, all that hard work content to build an audience. Then from there, once you have an audience, we're going to talk about how do you actually convert that audience into action? How do you go from friend zone to end zone, if you catch my meaning, and convert the audience into customers, buyers, sellers, into folks and leads in your pipeline. And then last, we're going to use the technology of the day, AI, to amplify your impact. That is to take and scale all your social media marketing efforts to go bigger, faster, smarter, wider, et cetera, in 2025, beginning first with the need for you as it relates to your content across social media to niche down. You got to niche down. You got to make the content people in your audience that you're seeking to build are looking for. So who are you making content for? Because you get what your content attracts. And there's a lot of misnomers and misbeliefs about how these algorithms work. If you look at all the major platforms, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, all of them, they all pretty much deploy three major variables in their algorithms. And again, an algorithm decides who sees what content in their feeds when they scroll and makes the decisions for that. And these algorithms are governed by three major principles or variables. One is connection, two is interest, three is relevance. Connection just says the algorithm shows your content to people who interact with you often, DMs, comments, et cetera. So think about it like this. If you want to get more of your past clients and sphere of influence contacts to see what you post, then you should engage with what they post. You should DM them because that signals a historical interaction, which then prioritizes that when you post the algorithms, like they're probably going to engage with your content. So it's going to make that share for you just by connecting. Two is interest, which suggests your content. The algorithm suggests your content to users who are interested in the topics that you post about. But how clear are you on the topics that you post about? Interesting. We know that right now in the main feeds, about half of what we see as users in the main feeds is AI suggested content. So are you aligning with the interest of your ideal audience? Third is this term called relevance or relevancy. The algorithms, it increases authority from the algorithms vantage point when you consistently post on the same topics. So think about it like this. The algorithm is going to show you content as a user that it thinks you're interested in, but it's going to prioritize showing you content from the accounts that have the most topic authority on those topics you're interested in. So if you want to attract your audience, you got to think about what are they interested in and how do I build massive authority so that when they are interested in the algorithm decides to show them content, it picks me. It prioritizes my content to be seen to them. And the way you do that is by getting super clear. You got to niche down. We're not going to be posting about this and this and this and this. There's a lot of old school social media advice that says like, Hey, post about your hobbies, post about your passions, post about this and that, which actually dilutes the algorithms understanding of who you're making content for. What you want to do in 2025 is get very clear about your topic authority. What is the topic you want to claim authority on? And then you're going to just like ride that wave, keep posting content that builds your authority and thus attracts an audience over time. It's what Ken Pozek's doing. He's one of our rockstar coaching clients in Orlando, Florida, and the dude dominates on Instagram, on TikTok, on Facebook, on of course, YouTube is big platform is YouTube. But if you look here, this heading, it says local social. So if you go back to the algorithm, we said that interest people are going to see content recommended to them algorithmically because of their interests. And so Ken's thinking was working with this coach, what if we make content and only post a content that was so hyper local, the only people who would be remotely interested would indeed have to be locals. Because if you choose a topic that is not geographically specific per se, then the algorithm will suggest your content to people who potentially live in very far away places, which is fine, but that may not naturally lead to a pipeline of business for you. Because the people who are buying and selling are either locals in your marketplace, or they're interested in your marketplace. Either way you win by being the local social expert, the hyper local authority in your marketplace. So Ken talks about what people moving to or living in Orlando would care about. News related to moving to or living in Orlando, residential real estate advice and development. He just talks about the stuff, the material, the topics that would be related to anybody interested in moving to or living in Orlando. And think about it like this, the algorithm works for you. The algorithm picks up whatever you put down. So what are you putting down? And if you're putting down this wide spectrum of varied content, the algorithm's like, I'm not sure who you're for. You're not building authority on the subjects that are the most relevant to your ideal audience. You got to build the audience. You get what your content attracts and the algorithm, it picks up what you put down. Part two though is content funnel. So once you start attracting an audience, the next step is how do you lead that audience into the fulfillment of working with you, choosing you as their listing agent, as their buyer's agent, how do you actually create action and convert the audience into taking strong customer intent actions? I'm going to teach you three mechanisms today. Simulation, activation, and mirroring are the three terms beginning first with simulation, which simply means you should be simulating as if you're already their agent. So whether it's a buyer you're trying to attract or a seller you're trying to attract, I'm going to give you an example that's on the buyer side coming up, but you're going to behave through your content as if you're already their agent. It's a simulation so that the natural progression or next step is naturally I'm going to hire this person because they're already acting like they're my agent. They're already doing the job for me. And so it's a natural evolution to actually fulfill in hiring them to do the thing they're already doing for you. Okay. I think I said that like eight different ways. So let me give you the example. We call these videos listing low downs. This is Sam RP. He's one of our rockstar clients in Boston, Massachusetts. What Sam does is he reaches out to listing agents who have new listings, gets the proper consent, and he tours their property. He is effectively doing a property preview for buyers. Think about a buyer who's maybe not in town and they ask you to go preview a home for them. That's basically what he does. He is simulating what it's like having him as your agent already. So the natural next step is he becomes your agent. And in fact, since he started this strategy earlier in the year, he'll already do in the first year of the strategy, about 10 million in volume, all because of these videos, this simulation of what it's like having him as your agent. Let me, we're going to watch part of the video together. Here we go. Just wait until you see this house in Jamaica Plain. Welcome to 21 Alveston street, a stunning four bed, five and a half bathroom, new construction home asking $3,850,000. Now this builder spared no cost when constructing this property. And you can tell from the moment that you walk into the house, the entire first floor is all open concept with an abundance of space to host and entertain friends, or just relax off the back. You have a back deck along with a patio and yard next to your two car garage. One of my favorite features of the property is this flow. All right, now I've got to pause and I'd love to hear from you in the comments. What do you think about that video? How could you make that video? What would you do differently about that video? But it's attracting business. The broader question for your social media marketing strategy in 2025 is how are you driving demand for your services? How are you creating demand? It's all about supplying demand. Only you want to supply what there is demand for in the videos you create. You want to supply the demand. What are the interests of your ideal audience? Supply the demand. What are the needs of your prospective customers? Supply the demand in the content you create. Now, mechanism number two for getting these conversions in your actual audience is activation. Once you have the audience's attention, you need to activate them into action. One of the best ways to do that is through your stories on Facebook and Instagram. And this is still Sam RP in Boston, Massachusetts. And what he's doing is about once a week, he's leveraging stories to basically ask a calibrated question that's designed to lead generate. These are hand-raiser types of questions. So think of it like this. The purpose of your feed and your content in your feed is to attract an audience. Stories are where you sell whatever your services are. And then DMs are where you close. So we're halfway through 2024. Who still has the goal of buying a home before the year is up? This is a screenshot from earlier in the year. But what I love about these is he's using Instagram stories. Specifically, he's using the sticker for polls and he's giving all the options. Somebody can select A, B, or C. But what I love about the options is they're all different versions of yes. None of these say no thanks or stop. Every single option is a different variation of yes. And then once they submit their answer, it then notifies Sam and he can then go into the DMs and send them private messages. And year to date, he's generated over 400 hand raisers. And this is where he's getting his sales from. They're finding the videos. They simulate the experience of what he's like as a buyer's agent, creating that natural evolution that they will do business with him. And then he asks them this calibrated question and gives them different versions of the word yes and responds to their answers and then has a conversation in the DMs, closes them, gets clients. It's $10 million in volume for him. I want to know what you think about this Instagram strategy for you. You got to niche down. You got to convert with a content funnel. The third way to do that is through a technique called mirroring. The full term is social mirroring, which I'll read the definition. It's a phenomenon where people feel more confident in making decisions when they see others successfully doing the same thing. We know this to be true. Look at this video. We call it a how we did it video by Shannon Mangin. She's a rockstar agent, one of our coaching members in Austin, Texas. She absolutely crushes it on Instagram and converts with videos like these because they show other happy customers winning and succeeding. And it makes folks on the sidelines thinking maybe we should get in the game and work with Shannon. Let me know in the comments what you think about this perfect video. This video is so good by the way. It's the kind of video that you put money behind and you run it as an ad after it's been posted so that you're targeting people in your local marketplace to create massive consideration beyond just the organic reach of this video. Let me know what you think about it in the comments. Here we go. Hey, how's it going? It's going. Good. So I have good news for you guys. Okay. So last week we met with this sweet couple who's moving from California to Dripping Springs to be closer to their daughter and grandchild. They actually found us on our YouTube channel after searching for new construction homes in Dripping Springs and decided to reach out for help. After a zoom consultation and a few phone calls, we narrowed down their needs and found the best three communities that match them. Then they flew into town for a full day of house hunting. At the end, they fell in love with a new construction home that backs to a green ranch. And even though this home was at a great discount already, we decided to negotiate and offer a little bit less. And this is what happened. So, um, the builder called back. They did not go as low down as the 480, but they came back with 485, 990. Oh, okay. Like I said, it was already a really awesome deal. Cause I mean, they already knocked it down 25,000. Then they're paying your closing costs. We've gotten another 18,000 and to get the All right. I love the video. I paused it before it wraps up. I love the story of the video. My only wish is I wish the client was a little bit more excited. Uh, she just negotiated $25,000 off $18,000 in closing costs, got appliances thrown in, like she negotiated fiercely. And other than that, that video is absolutely perfect. How we did it. It creates conversions. It creates people going from sort of, I don't know what to do with this person too. Oh, I could use them like that. I could hire them to sell my house. I could hire them as a buyer's agent. And it leads into layer three of your social media marketing mix for 2025, which is AI amplification. How do you use AI the technology of the day to multiply your marketing and not just any kind of marketing in particular, I'm talking about your video marketing. Are you posting enough videos? And the answer is, well, videos are hard. It's I got to come up with ideas. It's I got to film it. There's multiple takes I got to edit it. It's just, it's cumbersome, tedious, and hard to make videos. But that's where AI could be a very good buddy of yours in terms of scaling and multiplying and streamlining your video marketing for social media. There's an amazing app called Captions AI. It's best known because it's the app that does those color changing dynamic subtitles that you often see with Instagram reels. And it automatically transcribes and does all of that animation for you automatically, but it has some other amazing AI features built into it. Hence the name it's called Captions AI. One of the features is it has eye contact correction. So built into the app is a teleprompter whereby you can read a script. So imagine you have chat GPT or something like that, write you the script, you put it in the teleprompter and you read the script. Only the problem is when you're reading a script on your phone screen or any teleprompter, you're not looking at the camera and I can tell your eyes are moving left to right. So what the AI does is frame by frame, it will spot the pixels in every frame of the video that are your eyes, and it'll just move them as if they were looking at the camera perfectly the whole time. It pays attention to whether your eyes are big or when they're narrow or whatever you're doing with your face, whether you're smiling, it will compensate for all those adjustments and make your eyes look seamless. Watch this video. It's a before and after using the Captions AI. Our rockstar coaching client, Lane Stone is reading a script written by chat GPT through the Captions AI app is being corrected with the eye contact. Give it a watch and let me know what you think about this. Guess who's gearing up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup? Yep, Orange County's making some moves. Three iconic fields might host teams for their prep and training. You've got Jack Hammett and Costa Mesa, Great Park and Irvine and World Cup soccer. Now watch. It's fixed. It's fixed. Yep, Orange County's making some moves. Three iconic fields might host teams for their prep and training. You've got Jack Hammett. Just like that, a video done seamlessly. Think about how many videos you could do if you can fix your eye contact, have scripts written by AI. It's an amazing multiplier of your content to reach your audience. You got to niche down. You got to have a content funnel. You got to have AI amplification for a better marketing mix on social in 2025. One of my favorite marketing thinkers, authors of all time is Seth Godin. And I was listening to a podcast in the last couple of months. He made this comment about AI that just really like punched me upside the face. He said that AI is the biggest change since electricity, even bigger than the internet, he said. He went on to say that if you aren't using it for at least 30 minutes a day, you are falling behind, which is exactly why working with Tom, we created AI Marketing Academy. It's an eight-session, four-week virtual intensive that I lead, walking you through how to multiply your marketing with AI so that you can scale what you're doing and create a broader audience and get more business. Now we just opened up a class. It starts on December 6th. If you're interested, scan that QR code. We do have limited seating or limited classroom sizes for this program. So it's first come first serve. Go to tomferry.com slash AI-marketing-academy, AI-marketing-academy, or just scan that QR code and enroll yourself or learn more about AI Marketing Academy. My goal for you is that 2025 is the year of years that you absolutely dominate on social, leveraging these winning strategies. Folks, thank you so much for having me today. Tom, I want to say thank you for letting me have time to talk to this amazing group of rock stars. I wish you the very best in 2025. Thanks, everybody. Thank you so much for watching until the end. I would love to hear from you. What are you going to take away from today's video? What are you going to do to step it up on social in 2025? Let me know in the comments. Until next week, this is This Week In Real Life.