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 is immense opportunity in sites like Pinterest and Houzz 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 to gain more clients, it’s a precious resource you need to be using.

For Client Acquisition

The biggest mistake most real estate agents make using Pinterest is treating the site 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 is in its sociability. Interacting with clients by pinning items of interest to them (i.e. articles on eco-friendly home updates, ways to make your home look bigger, etc.).

Pinning content that 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 are spending too much time scouring the site for the best content to share, but the returns you will see make it well worth it to dedicate even just an hour per week to connecting with leads on Pinterest.

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

For 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 when you’ve already established a relationship with a client.

There are millions of users on Pinterest and your clients are likely one of them. When you are going over the particulars (i.e. the style of home they are looking for, location, 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 own 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 scheme, 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 in calling, following up with clients directly, and other marketing tools, but can be an easy addition to your regular routine. It takes a minimal amount of time to build up your presence on sites like Pinterest, but brings in 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!