TikTok for real estate: How to harness this next-gen social media app
Real estate agents are using TikTok to take their business to the next level. Here’s how creating content on this popular video-sharing app can help you build your brand and generate leads
Image by Harry CunninghamBY BERNICE ROSSMarch 04, 2020
Would you be willing to spend a few minutes a day to obtain over 100,000 page views for your new listing video? Better yet, what if it cost you nothing? This is what TikTok can do for your business provided you’re willing to jump in and play.
Agents are finally realizing that if they want to remain competitive in 2020, video is a must. The challenge is that producing video requires time, separate uploading to the various social media sites, plus identifying a way to attract page views.
Next-gen social networking: ‘social entertainment’
Emarketer explains that TikTok is a part of a new type of “social entertainment” where users can watch and create short videos. They can also create profiles and interact publicly with a network of contacts, as they do on other social media sites.
It’s this social entertainment element that differentiates TikTok from other social media channels and has led to the app being installed nearly 1.6 billion times.
An article from Inside Hook explains why this is happening:
“The platform is currently the best way to reach young people, as they’re the age group using the app more than any other (60 percent of its users are ages 16 to 24). If you’re looking to get a message across to the largest (about 1.5 billion) and, arguably, most influential group of consumers, a short 15-second TikTok video is, at the moment, the fastest way to do that.”
7 reasons TikTok matters for your business
When you first visit TikTok, you’ll probably wonder how a site that features Gen-Z users dancing to trendy music — like the viral “Renegade” dance challenge — could be relevant for real estate. Here are seven reasons TikTok should matter to your real estate business.
1. It hits the sweet spot for millennial buyers and sellers
In terms of TikTok’s users, 26 percent are between the ages of 25 and 44, the sweet spot for today’s millennial buyers and sellers. The average user spends 52 minutes a day on the platform and opens the app eight times throughout the day.
2. It generates insane amounts of free organic traffic
Gary Vaynerchuk argues that TikTok and LinkedIn are the two places that give you amazing organic reach that don’t happen on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. He likens it to buying real estate in Manhattan in 1898, long before it became incredibly valuable. Vaynerchuk recommends posting a minimum of four videos per day.
To illustrate this point, Alisa Glutz, a Scottsdale mortgage broker and author of Color My Credit, decided to “go play in the sandbox” over at TikTok because her two daughters and their friends were all avid users. Her experience illustrates how powerful this app can be for real estate.
In less than 60 days, she generated over 4 million page views, 455,000 likes and 77,000 followers. Today, at the 90-day market mark, she has generated over 8.4 million page views.
TikTok has also generated leads for her mortgage business, in addition to becoming a referral source for her clients who need the services of a real estate agent. What’s more, she sold 800 copies of her book in only one week. Before TikTok, it had taken her three years to sell that many books
3. It’s about the moms
Glutz was surprised by how many adults are embracing TikTok. What’s fascinating is that the teens who have seen Glutz’s “Color My Credit” videos are going to their moms and saying, “Mom, I don’t understand what she’s saying, but I think you should watch this.”
In other words, what teenagers see on TikTok has the potential to influence their parents’ approach to the listing or buying process.
4. It provides genuinely helpful information
Glutz uses text boxes to provide her message. “How to Create a Great Credit Score” has garnered 845,600 views:
@colormycredit Learn the rules. Master the game. ##verymuchadequate ##foryoupage ##2020colormycredit ##creditcards ##creditempowerment
♬ original sound – smokinhottballz
“Don’t Make Your Credit Wobble” provides great advice to buyers who have a property under contract. It’s garnered close-to 69,500 views.
@colormycredit If you are under contract to buy a house, don’t mess it up by doing one of these things. ##foryoupage ##mortgage
♬ Wobble – Radio Version – V.I.C.
A different approach is to explain a topic without the music. “How to Handle Late Payment to Get It Removed” has received about 674,100 page views. (Note that Glutz has two additional videos in this series. The total length of the three videos is only 45 seconds):
@colormycredit So you want to clean up uour credit and need to know what to say to try and fix bad accounts? ##foryoupage ##fyp ##credit ##debt
♬ original sound – colormycredit
5. It’s a syndication hub for other social media platforms
According to Raj Qsar, the CEO and founder of The Boutique Real Estate Group, TikTok allows you to syndicate your TikTok videos to other social media sites with a single click. You can also cut and paste your link to IGTV (Instagram TV) and YouTube.
6. It’s a great tool for brand building
When Qsar first began using TikTok, he was receiving about 200-800 views per post.
Once Qsar figured out that TikTok did not have to be so formal and that you could use trending dances and popular music, his view count climbed into the thousands. Here’s an example of how TikTok provides exposure for his brand.
@raj_qsar Office meeting vibes 💃🏼 ##CozyLittleChristmas ##everwonder ##fyp ##foryou ##foryoupage ##tbreg
♬ Lip Gloss – Lil Mama
7. It can be used as a lead generator
Jeff Pfitzer heads up a USA Mortgage team in St. Louis and has been training the real estate agents he serves to use TikTok. Pfitzer explains that your goal is to reach the local micro-community that would be interested in buying or selling where you do business.
Both Pfitzer and Qsar agree that your TikTok videos work as tease for your listings. Once viewers see your TikTok video, they can then “swipe up” to your Instagram, Facebook and YouTube pages, where you can share longer videos. Since your buyers and sellers are on these sites, this is where the lead conversion actually occurs.
Because of its global reach, TikTok can also be a powerful resource for generating international real estate leads as well.
Real estate’s most successful TikTok user
Aaron Grushow, a 23-year-old Compass agent, has probably garnered more page views than any other real estate professional on TikTok. His posts typically receive at least 50,000-100,000 views. His goal is to establish his brand and generate leads.
Grushow shoots 15-second videos highlighting lavish multimillion dollar estates in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and Malibu. The following video has garnered 1.7 million views:
@aarongrushowhomes Stunning Malibu beach house! ##malibu ##beach ##ocean ##view ##luxury ##goals ##amazing ##golden ##fyp
♬ Devil Eyes – Hippie Sabotage
4 critical takeaways based on Grushow’s success on TikTok
- Make your videos stand out by focusing on what is unusual, funny or in this case, ultra-luxurious.
- Tagging is critical. Your hashtags determine where your videos appear on TikTok. For the video above, his tags were: #malibu #beach #ocean #view #luxury #goals #amazing #golden #fyp (for your page).
- Like Glutz, Grushow has also had great success creating videos where he personally delivered a commentary. This video has received 5.5 million views and 1.7 million likes.
@aarongrushowhomes MOST EXPENSIVE HOME EVER! ##mansion ##house ##home ##design ##modern ##expensive ##money ##rich ##luxury ##realestate ##goals ##losangeles ##pool ##city ##fyp ##dream
♬ original sound – aarongrushowhomes
- Grushow’s videos illustrate how amazingly powerful coupling unusual content and the right music can be. The following video is set to the theme for Jaws — something that Gen X-ers and Boomers would recognize, but many younger people wouldn’t know. It generated 4.2 million views.
@aarongrushowhomes Some high quality ##fishcontent ! More like ##sharkcontent 🦈! ##mansion ##house ##design ##modern ##shark ##fishtank ##fish ##water ##fyp
♬ Jaws Theme – Jaws
Is this the most viewed real estate video ever?
When Grushow created a second video on the same subject and paired it with a trending TikTok song, the page views jumped to a whopping 48.5 million with 6.5 million likes!
@aarongrushowhomes Ever see a shark aquarium in a house?! ##shark ##fish ##fishtank ##aquarium ##house ##mansion ##luxury ##amazing ##beautiful ##fyp
♬ Can We Kiss Forever? – Kina
Will TikTok become the next big social media site for real estate?
“Social entertainment” is probably here to stay. The question is: Will TikTok emerge as the dominant player over today’s social media sites or will it go the way of Snapchat?
No matter what, jumping on TikTok now can give you a significant edge over your competitors. If you need help figuring out how to use it, find a teenager to help you — renegade anyone?
Original Post by:
Bernice Ross, President and CEO of BrokerageUP and RealEstateCoach.com, is a national speaker, author and trainer with over 1,000 published articles. Learn about her broker/manager training programs designed for women, by women, at BrokerageUp.com and her new agent sales training at RealEstateCoach.com/newagent.
