Charlie Allred

By Charlie Allred

Last month, I wrote “How to Capitalize on Pinterest,” where I said the main benefit of Pinterest for agents and brokers is driving visitors to your real estate website. Well, last week I read a statistic that stated 70 percent of home sellers and 74 percent of buyers found their real estate agent online.  These numbers prove that we as real estate practitioners should be focusing our marketing efforts online as more consumers start their home buying or selling process online.

This blog post is my “Guide to Pinterest” kickoff, where I will explain how to get started on Pinterest in order to connect with potential clients and drive traffic to your website.

First, you want to set up a Pinterest account. When creating your profile, keep in mind that you want your potential client to be able to get to know you, your interests, and what you do (sell real estate) all in one glance. So anything that is tangential to this one-glance approach should be skipped.

What is important in your Pinterest profile?

• Your photo: This gives your potential client a chance to know you better, so choose a photo that represents who you are.
• Your profile description: Include your interests and the city in which you sell the most real estate. This is a short description so be concise.
• Your real estate website: Very important! This gives your potential client the chance to learn more about you and your company.
• Connect your social media accounts: In the settings area of your Pinterest account you can connect many of your social media accounts, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
• Your top 12 boards on Pinterest: The first/top 12 boards in your profile are your “prime real estate” in Pinterest. When a potential client visits your profile, they will see your bio info and about a dozen boards. You’ll want to create boards and arrange them so that potential clients immediately see: personal interests, real estate-related topics (i.e. “buy a house in Phoenix”), and home ideas, such as renovations or decorating. Follow those boards up with a community-related board, such as “Best Phoenix restaurants” or “Best Phoenix parks for kids.”

Lastly, a few pinning tips:

• Pin a few images to each board daily.
• Don’t pin all your pins at one time; spread out your pins throughout the day.  You can even pin from your smartphone through the Pinterest app.
• Write your own description for each pin (image), because you want potential clients to get a feel for your real voice.
• Lastly, be engaging. The goal of social media is to be social, so don’t forget to comment on and like other people’s pins.

Next month, I will go into more detail about what to include in your top 12 boards.

Charlie Allred a Phoenix based real estate broker with Secure Real Estate, and is the author of the upcoming book “Pinnable Real Estate: Pinterest for Real Estate Agents.” Learn more at her blog: www.PinnableRealEstate.com.