Is Anyone Seeing This? Picking the Right Social Media Platforms for Your Real Estate Marketing

Different platforms cater to different audiences and can offer unique benefits to your business. 

We’ve established why defining your audience is important (hint: it stops you from throwing your money away on ads for the wrong people). But once you know who your target audience is, how do you find them? After all, knowing who they are is only half of the battle...the other part is getting your message in front of them. 

Social media presents a unique opportunity for brands because it allows you to interact with potential clients directly. But just having a profile on every platform isn’t the answer. Different platforms cater to different audiences and can offer unique benefits to your business. So how do you know where to go? Check out our overview of each platform’s demographics below and see how they compare to your target audience.

Quick Stats

The top two platforms with the most users, reach, and widest age range: Facebook and YouTube 

The best platforms for millennials and younger demographics: Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest 

The platforms with the most highly-education and high-income users: LinkedIn and Pinterest

Now let’s dive in! (You can also click the links below to jump to any section you'd like.)

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Pinterest
• Snapchat

Facebook: Basically everyone (even your grandma)

Ah, Facebook. If you’re not already using it...well, you’re in the minority. Facebook is now the third most-visited website, behind only Google and YouTube. 

Here are some key stats to keep in mind: 

• 2.23 billion people log in to the platform every month! 
• 68% of Americans use Facebook, and more than half of all Americans in every age group say they are on the platform. 
• 30% of its ad audience is aged 25-34, and users aged 65 and up have doubled to 41%. 
• Americans spend approximately 58 minutes per day on Facebook, and 88% of users access it via mobile device. 
• More women use Facebook than men in the US, and approximately three-in-four American users say they live in urban areas (followed by suburban and rural).

What this means for you:

Facebook still has the biggest social reach (by a wide margin) and spans all age brackets. However, it’s also worth noting that Facebook’s organic reach has crashed...hard. Meaning you need to pay up to have any meaningful impact on the platform. It’s also been swept up in a lot of scandals of late; so much so that 42% of Americans took a break from Facebook in 2018.

Bottom Line: You ought to be on Facebook. Just don’t put all of your eggs in their basket.

Sources: Hootsuite’s Facebook Demographics and Facebook Statistics

Instagram: Growing fast (and #1 for people under 35)

Instagram is the second most popular platform amongst advertisers, and for good reason! The platform is growing fast, has industry-leading interaction rates, and comes with less baggage than Facebook these days (despite being owned by the ‘book). 

Here are a few key stats you should know:

• 1 billion people use Instagram every month. 
• 71% of Instagram users worldwide are under the age of 35 and the breakdown between women and men is pretty even. 
• 35% of online adults use Instagram, with 28 percent of them located in the U.S. 
• 34% of Instagram users are millennials. 
• Instagram is the second most popular platform amongst marketers, with 61.2% using it. 
• 2.2% of Instagram users will interact with ads (for comparison, Facebook is the next best and comes in at just 0.22%).

What this means for you:

Because Instagram is owned by Facebook, it’s an easy platform to advertise on, since both platforms rely on Facebook’s Ad Manager. They’re also easy to connect, so adding the ‘gram to your organic strategy isn’t much of a stretch if you’re already on Facebook. Just keep in mind that the platform is still much younger overall.

Bottom Line: If you’re looking to branch out from Facebook, Instagram is an easy leap, and it’s a great place to connect with millennials (who make up more than one-third of the platform’s base).

Sources: Hootsuite’s Instagram Demographics and Instagram Statistics; G2 Crowd’s State of Social Media

Twitter: Very niche (and low commitment)

Though it’s been around for over a decade now, Twitter remains the social odd-man out. Between limited user growth and fewer marketing options, Twitter is far less popular than Facebook or Instagram. It is, however, a great place to interact with people - so much so that many brands use it for customer service. Twitter also doesn’t require nearly as much time, since tweets are short and text-only content is more accepted than on any other platform. 

Here are a few stats to keep in mind: 

• 326 million people use Twitter every month (...which is actually a big drop from 2 years ago). 
• 24% of US adults use Twitter, and adult Twitter users skew urban, educated, and higher-income. 
• User growth is slow, and most new users are adults over the age of 25. 
• 80% of Twitter users are affluent millennials, and 45 percent of American 18- to 25-year-olds say they use Twitter. 
• People are 31% more likely to recall what they saw on Twitter compared to what they recall while browsing online in general.

What this means for you: 

If you’re looking to branch out without making a major time commitment, Twitter is a solid option. 

Bottom Line: Twitter is more memorable than any other online platform (for better or worse) so you can really make an impact. Just keep in mind that it’s a much smaller base that skews young and urban overall.

Sources: Hootsuite’s Twitter Demographics and Twitter Statistics

LinkedIn: Highly educated/affluent (with steady growth)

We already know that LinkedIn is a great place to connect with other professionals and businesses in your industry. But it can also be useful for sales and lead gen (if you do it right), simply because it has a very different user-base than any other platform. 

Seriously, check out these stats:

• 154 million American workers have LinkedIn profiles (yes, that’s much smaller, but…) 
• 50 percent of Americans with a college degree use LinkedIn. 
• More than three quarters of LinkedIn users have incomes over $50,000. 
• Almost a quarter of LinkedIn users are aged 18 to 29. 
• 61% of LinkedIn users are between 30 and 64 years old, and 21% are over the age of 65. 
• 45 percent of LinkedIn users are in upper management.

What this means for you:

LinkedIn’s base is definitely smaller, but it has a much more even distribution between users ages 18-64. Plus, LinkedIn’s users are extremely educated and have money to spend (on things like houses!) Just keep in mind that it’s primarily a professional networking site, so users aren’t really on there looking for real estate, but rather to connect with professionals, job hunt, etc.

Bottom Line: You should have a LinkedIn profile no matter what for your own professional networking. If you want to use it in your selling/lead gen strategy, the user-base is unmatched in education and means, just proceed with caution since it’s less of a sales platform than some others.

Sources: Hootsuite’s LinkedIn Demographics and LinkedIn Statistics

YouTube: Literally everyone (especially your grandma)

Seriously...everyone is on YouTube. From young children to people over 75. Which makes it no surprise that YouTube is now the second most-visited website, behind only its parent company (Google). Yes, videos are much more time-consuming to produce. 

BUT you can’t ignore YouTube’s massive reach:

• 1.9 billion logged-in users visit YouTube every month (that’s half the internet). 
• It’s the second most-visited site, behind only Google and ahead of Facebook. 
• 96% of 18- to 24-year-old American internet users use YouTube. 
• Half of American internet users aged 75 and over use YouTube (seriously!) 
• YouTube reaches more American 18- to 34-year-olds than any TV network.

What this means for you:

YouTube reaches everyone, everywhere, regardless of age, location, etc. Yes, videos take much longer, but at this point Facebook and Instagram, users are more interested in video than other forms of content anyways, so you need to adjust your strategy accordingly. 

Bottom Line: You can’t ignore YouTube. Plus, you really need to have video as a part of your marketing strategy for all social platforms these days, so you might as well build YouTube (and it’s massive reach) in as well.

Sources: Hootsuite’s YouTube Statistics

Pinterest: Surprisingly wide reach (and lots of Millennials)

Pinterest - home to crafting, DIYs, and TONS of life-planning. Life planning like buying a house. While the platform is definitely smaller than the others in this list, its users are the most likely to feel their time spent using it was positive. It’s also a social media/search engine hybrid, which means users actually want to interact with brands. 

If you’re looking to reach millennials, families, and affluent individuals/couples, Pinterest might be a good fit:

• 77.4 million Americans used Pinterest last year (which is over 5 million more than the year before). 
• Pinterest added more American users than Facebook and Twitter combined between 2017-2018. 
• Pinterest reaches 83% of US women aged 25-54 (41% are users, the other 43% come from Google image searches). 
• 50% of new sign-ups in 2018 were men, and 38% of American dads are Pinterest users. 
• 39% of people on Pinterest are in households worth $75,000 or more. 
• 85% of women users use Pinterest to plan “life moments.”
  

What this means for you:

Pinterest operates differently from other platforms, so there’s definitely a bit of a learning curve. However, their user-base is actively looking for brands, help with life events, and other inspiration, which sets it apart from anything else in this list.

Bottom Line: If you have the time to dedicate, Pinterest can be a powerful platform with way less competition for users’ attention. 

Sources: Hootsuite’s Pinterest Demographics and Pinterest Statistics

Snapchat: Very young (but virtually untapped)

We’ve mentioned Snapchat before, mostly because it’s a platform that many people still don’t quite understand. Snap’s audience is smaller and overall much younger, which means it’s not a great fit for most real estate pros. However, it’s growing in popularity with millennial users, and very few companies have adopted it in their marketing efforts, so it could be a unique niche for the right business. 

Here are a few key stats to remember:

• 34% of Americans between 18-24 use Snapchat.
• 26% of Americans between 25-34 use Snapchat. 
• Only 12% of Americans between 35-54 use Snapchat. 
• About 70% of Snapchat’s user base are women.

What this means for you:

Honestly, no one is using Snapchat for real estate. Which could put you on the cutting edge, particularly if your target audience is millennials. However, if you’re on Instagram and/or Pinterest, you’ve probably covered that group already.

Bottom Line: If you have the time and want to be totally different from anyone else, give it a whirl. Just don’t expect to reach nearly as many people as you would on other platforms.

Sources: G2 Crowd’s Snapchat Statistics

Bonus: emerging/fringe platforms

We often get asked “What’s the next big social platform?” Sadly, our crystal ball is broken so we’re not too great at predicting new trends these days. In all seriousness, platforms like Reddit, Tumblr, and TikTok are certainly interesting...but not really worth your time. 

• TikTok is an extremely young platform (with most users under the age of 25). 
• Reddit and Tumblr have small but devoted communities and they don’t take kindly to business infiltrators who aren’t ready to invest the time into learning their cultures.

If you’re looking to try something totally new, feel free to try any of these out. Just keep in mind that you will need to spend a fair amount of time and energy with limited return.

Bottom Line

Now that you’ve defined your target audience, use this as a starting point to see where your “right people” are. Get set up on the platforms your audience uses, and start building a community around your brand. Happy posting!