One of the most important ways to use Instagram, Lance says, is to tell your story, usually with 80 percent geared towards personal and 20 percent towards the real industry side of things.
“Integrate personal and professional photos and create your personal brand,” she says. “I try to take one to two photos a day about things I’m passionate about and comfortable sharing (kids, travel, wine) to tell my story about who I am.”
Other “do’s” of Instagram are to get creative and have fun, seize opportunities, use hashtags and match your Twitter and Instagram names.
Don’t go hashtag crazy, Lance warns, and never use stock photos, post someone else’s photo without permission, ask for followers or have it all be about your business.
“The purpose of posting beautiful photos is because you want to connect with people and sharing photos is one of the best ways,” Lance says. “That’s the magic of Instagram.”
Lance also offered a few tips that can help your photos on Instagram stand out (and this applies to Pinterest as well).
1) Use text over photos: There are a number of apps that can help, such as Picmonkey.com, which allows you to edit photos, enhance them and add text.
2) Create photo collages: The app Diptic is perfect for creating a collage of 2-12 photos. Picmonkey allows you to do this as well.
3) Use Infographics: Infogr.am helps you create infographics, which Lance says is the hottest thing right now. While many market reports show great data, they are not visually appealing. This app takes the content and turns it into much more engaging infographics.
For more advice on leveraging Pinterest and Instagram, watch the webinar here and visit Homes.com’s informative blog dedicated to real estate pros on a variety of industry topics, including visual storytelling on Facebook and Instagram, crowdsourcing with Pinterest, and other social media sites.
Register here for free to attend Homes.com’s next Secrets of Top Selling Agents webinar, How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social Media World, which will be hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk, co-founder of VaynerMedia, at 1 p.m. ET, on Wednesday, February 19.
Patty McNease is the Director of Marketing for Homes.com.
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