Online advertising, for most Jackson landlords, means posting your home for rent on all the popular websites that tenants are using to find their next home. You’ll want to be on Zillow and Trulia and Rent.com and HotPads…the list goes on.
This is an important way to gain exposure for your property, and you’re likely to find a lot of people seeing what you have and deciding whether to schedule a showing or move on.
Don’t stop there.
Once you have a listing and you’re ready to market your property aggressively in order to get it rented quickly, to well-qualified tenants, and for a comfortable rental price, make sure you’re leveraging all the power that online advertising provides. The rental sites are a great start. Social media is where you want to be.
Social media expands your audience. It gives you a place to reach more people, and even better – you can engage with your audience in a way that you cannot on sites like Zillow. You might begin building a relationship with a future tenant right there in the Facebook comments.
To be effective on social media, you’ll need to be strategic with what you post, you’ll need to be consistent, and you’ll need to be willing to invest the time and resources that are required to engage with the people who visit your post or your page.
As professional property managers in Jackson, Mississippi, we have been using social media to share information with our current tenants and post homes for rent in the hope that we’ll attract new tenants to our space.
Here’s how we’ve managed to leverage social media for property marketing and management. If you’re renting out a home or trying to reach a pool of people who are looking to rent, this is the way to do it.
Put Together a Profile People Will Want to Visit
A good social media strategy starts with a good profile. Be intentional about how you present yourself to the potential renters who will view your page and what you have to offer. If you’re posting homes for rent on your personal social media page, you can easily include all of the people you already know in your network. However, you also want to make sure your personal page is professional and open to everyone who might be interested in renting from you or knows someone who might be interested in renting from you.
You can also establish a separate profile for the work you plan to do sharing your rentals. This is a good way to narrow your social media postings to the rental property or related topics. Visitors won’t get confused, and they won’t have to scroll past photos of your pets and vacations in order to find the homes you offer for rent.
Before you start posting about your available rental properties, you’ll want to make sure you have all of the pertinent information on your profile. There has to be updated contact information, for example. Include an email address and a phone number. Decide how you want people to get in touch with you. Is texting best? Would you prefer a direct message on the platform itself? Make this information available in your profile.
You’ll also want a credible profile photo. Maybe it’s a snapshot of the property you’re trying to rent. It could be a picture of the neighborhood or even a photo of the state or region you’re in. A picture of yourself is also fine, as long as it’s professional.
Understand Your Audience When Using Social Media
It’s all about audience when we’re talking about social media marketing.
According to the Pew Research Center, more than 72 percent of Americans use social media on a daily basis. That’s a large audience. If you’re wondering about the most popular platforms, here they are:
- - YouTube
There are also sites like Twitter (we call it X now), Snapchat, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
Here’s some more information from that Pew study:
It turns out social media usage is also somewhat dependent on economics. Only 68 percent of Americans earning less than $30,000 per year identified as regular social media participants. However, 83 percent of people earning between $50,000 ad $75,000 per year reported being regular social media users. And, 78 percent of people earning more than $75,000 reported using social media regularly.
So, you’re reaching a generally well-qualified pool of tenants if we’re focusing on income.
Create a Social Media-Friendly Listing
Photos are going to be your most important feature when we talk about posting your rental listing on social media sites. Videos, too. This is the type of content that gets attention.
Although text plays an essential role in social media, and you’ll use it to share details such as rental amount, move-in target dates, and rental qualifications, images are especially crucial. You’ll want to upload clear and crisp photos so that they render well on mobile devices.
Most of your viewers will prefer to interact with your listing via video rather than photos or text.
If you want to be more impactful with how you market Jackson homes for rent on social media, using videos is an essential inclusion. You can focus on the property’s layout, show real-time room sizes, give viewers a close-up of amenities, and an idea of the property’s location.
When you have special features to show off, such as walk-in pantries, garden tubs, smart home technology like video doorbells, and fenced backyards, video is a great way to show those things off while giving viewers an idea of what it’s like to actually be there.
Plenty of social media platforms are built for video; you can use Instagram reels, Facebook and Instagram live videos, Snapchat story updates, and of course YouTube.
Hashtags can help.
Hashtags are essential when you’re posting, because these are the things that will allow your content to get the attention of your target audience. Using hashtags on your posts makes them more accessible because when people search for a particular hashtag, your post will be there, ready for them to view. Use specific hashtags that identify your location or the type of property or the neighborhood name.
Promote Your Jackson Rental Listing
Simply posting the listing and asking for shares, likes, and comments is a good way to market.
You can go a step further, however, and pay for social media advertising. It’s not that expensive, and it can result in a wider audience and faster results.
Social media advertising works by letting you pay to get your message in front of people who aren’t already in your network. If they don’t follow you or your page, they’ll still see your listing pop up as they’re scrolling through their own feeds.
You won’t have to invest a lot of money, and with social media advertising, you’ll get the chance to create custom advertisements specifically for your property. You can set a budget for what you’re willing to pay, and determine the specific audience you want your ads to reach. You can also try targeting multiple ads within the same group of targeted users. For example, create one ad that targets members of the military who are looking for off-base housing, and then create another ad for prospective tenants looking at rentals in a good school district.
Where and What to Post
Different platforms will require different kinds of content. You don’t want to simply post your listing on every site and then forget about it. Increase engagements and potential renters by utilizing the following social sites in the following ways:
- Facebook. This should be your first stop; you can post updates, talk to potential renters, collect reviews, and leverage the Marketplace feature to quickly list any properties you have for rent. Share news stories relevant to your location, create open houses for your property and invite your followers – there are many great ways to use Facebook.
- Twitter or X. There’s less community here and more marketing. You can reach a lot of potential tenants, however, as long as you can keep your posts short and utilize the necessary hashtags.
- Pinterest. A visual platform that’s going to make your photos look great. A lot of people come to this site for home décor ideas. You may encounter a pool of renters looking for ideas, so don’t be afraid to share them with your listing.
- Instagram. Another visual site, this is the place to post your best photos and videos. Be smart with captions and don’t be afraid to ask for likes and shares.
- TikTok. Videos belong on TikTok, and it doesn’t take much to go viral.
The most important recommendation we can make when talking about social media marketing is to always engage with your audience. If someone leaves a favorable comment about your listing, don’t leave it hanging. Say something back, and invite them to schedule a showing.
We can help you market your property through social media and other online platforms. When you’re ready to rent out your home, contact us at Lucroy Residential. You can find us effectively leasing, managing, and maintaining rental homes in Jackson, Mississippi.
