Instagram for Real Estate Agents: Should You Have a Personal AND a Business Instagram Account?
One of the most frequently asked questions we receive is, “should I have one Instagram that combines my personal life and my real estate business, or should I have two separate accounts: one for personal, and one for real estate?”
Let’s dig in to the pros and cons of both scenarios:
Reasons for Having One Account
Builds authenticity and trust The balance of business and personal makes your online presence feel more authentic and grounded. Your audience is curious about your personal life in addition to information about real estate.
Reach a Larger AudienceYou have an existing audience made up of friends, family, and people you know. As you begin to post about real estate, you’ll start to let your audience in on the secret – you work in real estate!
Saves Time & EnergyYou have a busy life! If you wish to simplify your social media game, or find it tedious to keep up with, having one account could be easier to maintain. The added benefit is that all of your energy, engagement, comments, and shares are concentrated in one account, instead of diluted across two. This will give you more free reach (and a few free leads) in the process!
You Don’t Love Spending Time on Social MediaBut, you know it’s important to build your biz. If this is the case, running two social accounts could unnecessarily sap your energy.
Helpful Tips with One Account
Set your account up as a Business Account in Instagram settings and link it to your Facebook Business Page. This way you can boost posts, schedule posts, see your insights and add a contact button.
Reasons for Having Two Accounts
Love to Post About Everything?Babies, puppies, workouts, ice cream and everything in between? Of course it’s important to show your personality and aspects of your personal life in your professional profile, but consider two accounts if you enjoy being super active with personal posts. Give yourself an outlet through your personal account, and curate your business feed separately.
Protects your PrivacyIs it important to you to keep your work and personal lives separate? Two accounts could help you maintain the line between business and professional life
Considerations with Two Accounts
Ramp Up Time to Grow AudienceWhen starting a separate business account, consider the time it will take to grow your audience. It won’t happen overnight and that’s okay.
Get PersonalAlthough separate from your personal account, it’s important that your content still includes personal posts. No one wants to see real estate ad after real estate ad! A balanced mix of personal and business posts is the secret sauce to remind your followers that you’re in real estate AND that there’s a unique, relatable human-being behind your account.
Time InvestmentPosting and upkeep will require more time and effort when you’re balancing two accounts. Generally speaking, it will be easier to focus on growing one account; concentrating your followers and engagements in one place.
Our Recommendation
Social media is all about building connections and relationships. Because real estate is such a relationship-based business we recommend sticking to one account to concentrate all the lead-generation, referral-magnet, and local-influencer energy into one place – ultimately boosting your growth, engagement and reach on social.
