If you’ve ever scoured a loved one’s Pinterest boards for gift ideas, you know the site can be a treasure trove of insight into people’s interests, including what they’re looking for in their dream home. As a real estate agent, there’s immense opportunity in sites like Pinterest to better understand your clients—their likes and dislikes, needs and wants, and design tastes—and to acquire more valuable leads.

As a complement to a strong Facebook or Instagram presence, Pinterest can bring a steady uptick in traffic to your website and stir up real interest in your business. Whether you’re using these sites to get to know your clients or gain more, it’s a precious resource you need to be using.

Real estate on Pinterest is great for client acquisition

The biggest mistake a real estate agent can make using Pinterest is to treat it like a second website to host their listings. Yes, Pinterest can be a way to showcase the gorgeous 4-bedroom, 3-bath you just obtained. But like other social sites, its power lies in its sociability, so interact with clients by pinning items of interest to them (e.g., articles on eco-friendly home updates, ways to make your home look bigger, etc.).

Pinning content your clients and potential clients want to read is key, as they will then associate that level of expertise and information with your name and business. It might seem like you’re spending too much time scouring the site for the best content to share, but the returns you’ll see make it well worth it to dedicate even just an hour per week to connecting with leads on Pinterest. (Prove it to yourself by tracking your results.)

It is also beneficial to peruse the site for real-estate-specific boards to join. You’ll find many boards started by agents for agents aimed directly at sharing content that homebuyers and sellers are interested in. These boards encourage agents to post relevant articles to help expand their reach and generate even more leads than if they were simply posting the pins to their own boards, alone. Try them out.

Real estate on Pinterest can support the buying/selling process

The benefits of Pinterest don’t just end with generating leads, though. You can continue to use the site throughout the buying or selling process once you’ve established a relationship with a client.

There are millions of users on Pinterest, and your clients are likely one of them. When you’re going over the particulars (e.g., the style of home they’re looking for, location, or type of flooring they want) it might help to direct them to the virtual treasure trove that is Pinterest—you can even walk them through your boards for pins you think are relevant to their experience and concerns.

Ask them to give you a run-through of anything they’ve been pinning too, so you can get a sense of their style and tastes, and find listings that are better suited for them. This is not to say that everything a client pins is going to make sense for the homebuying process—that five-story, ocean-view they’ve been eyeing might be slightly out of reach—but browsing their boards for color schemes, DIY projects, and more, can provide a better look at what they want but are unable to express to you directly.

Pinterest and other social sites are not a replacement for the groundwork you have to do calling, following up, and other activities, but they can be an easy addition to your routine. It takes little time to build a presence on sites like Pinterest, but it can bring big rewards for your business in the long term.

Be sure to check out our Pinterest account which features a wide variety of shareable industry-related content!