As a realtor, you know that creating content to promote your business can be time-consuming and challenging.
Between managing your listings, showing properties, and communicating with clients, finding the time and energy to create original content for your website, social media, or email marketing campaigns can be overwhelming.
But sharing valuable content is essential to building your online presence, establishing your expertise, and attracting new clients.
Sharing content created by your firm, while valuable, doesn’t speak directly to your geographic, or specific topics your clients need specific focus on.
Creating original content of your own, like neighborhood walk-through or virtual tours are fantastic but hard to do consistently, and difficult to find the best ways to reuse in order to get the most from this content after the initial share.
So as a realtor, what’s the missing piece to build your credibility as a thought leader without spending all your time creating the high-value content your audience needs?
Curated content!
Curated content is relevant third-party content that you find, select, and share from other sources on the internet, such as articles, blog posts, infographics, or videos.
Curated content can be an excellent tool for realtors who want to deepen the trust their audience has with them without clogging up people’s digital worlds with less than useful fluff pieces.
In this article, we’ll explain why realtors should use curated content, what types of content they should curate, and how to curate content effectively.
Benefits of Using Curated Content as a Realtor
Using curated content as a realtor helps you demonstrate that you are the expert by demonstrating your knowledge of the industry, improving engagement with your audience, and saving your clients the time and effort it would have taken for them to find and synthesize these insights on their own
1. Establishes expertise and credibility
As a realtor, you want to establish yourself as an expert in local real estate and build credibility with your clients and referral partners.
One way to achieve this is by sharing curated content that showcases your knowledge and insights into your industry.
Adding your thoughts, opinions, or advice to a curated article demonstrates you are aware of the ever-fluctuating market and trends affecting your customers - and gives your audience the comfort that you are “on top of it” so they don’t have to be
2. Improves engagement with clients and followers
Curated content can also help you improve your engagement with clients and followers.
The more valuable and interesting content you share, you’ll naturally attract new followers, increase your social media reach, and generate more leads for your business.
Yes, your audience wants to learn more about you, but they only want to know what you are selling when they are ready to buy.
How can you keep them engaged and your name “top-of-mind”?
By making them feel knowledgeable of the current market, what they should consider in their decisions, and whether they’d enjoy having your representation.
Curated content receives 33% more engagement than created content on social media as it draws in your audience and stimulates them to act, and created content has a 54% higher click-to-conversion rate when it is mixed with curated content. by activating this now-engaged audience.
Curated content can also help you connect with your clients and followers by providing them with information and resources that they find valuable and stay top of mind as they scroll online.
This can help you build stronger relationships with your clients and followers and increase their loyalty to your brand.
3. Saves time and effort
Creating original content requires time, effort, and resources.
You need to research your topic, write or create your content, edit and proofread it, and optimize it for SEO and social media. Depending on your skill and comfort level, this process can take several hours or even days.
How do you reduce the volume of original content needed, get more out of what you do create, but maintain the consistency needed to remain part of the digital discussion?
Curated content brings context and credibility to what you’ve created.
You should be investing time to create content in areas you have unique knowledge and perspective.
But if a topic is outside of that area, it’s a great subject to curate content around and quickly add your thoughts.
Instead of spending hours creating content from scratch that you would have to teach yourself and regurgitate the research you’re learning from, you can better allocate your time reviewing curated content to share and adding your “hot take.”
And with content curation software like UpContent, that effort can be as automated or manual as you want without sacrificing the time and energy needed actually to do your job.
Types of Curated Content for Realtors
Now that you know the benefits of using curated content, you may wonder what topics you should curate as a realtor.
Here are just a few examples, but the possibilities are endless!
What’s important is that what you are sharing relates to what you’d like your clients to have read and reflects your interests to a prospective client can assess how you and they would work together.
1. Industry news and trends
One of the best ways to establish your expertise and credibility as a realtor is by sharing industry news and trends with your clients and followers.
By keeping up with the latest developments in your market, you can demonstrate that you’re knowledgeable, engaged, and invested in your work.
Some examples of industry news and trends that you can curate include:
- Market reports and analysis
- New real estate laws and regulations
- Emerging technologies and tools for realtors
- Tips and best practices for buying, selling, or renting properties
2. Local news and events
Another way to improve engagement with your clients and followers is by sharing local news and events that are relevant to your area.
While it’s not directly related to real estate, showing you’re invested in and knowledgeable of your community shows you care more about helping your clients find a home rather than making a sale.
It also gives those currently residing outside your area an authentic window into what it looks like to be a member of the community.
Some examples of local news and events that you can curate include:
- New business openings or closings
- Community events and festivals
- Real estate market updates for your area
- Changes in zoning or development plans
How to Curate Content as a Realtor
So how do you find all of this great third-party content to share?
We’re glad you asked.
1. Use Content Curation Software
While you could use your favorite search engine to find credible articles, that search time is precious.
It can get overwhelming when constantly trying to come up with the best search terms, vetting sources, and reviewing the content.
You will find yourself completing the same steps each time you hunt (and possibly forgetting what settings you used to find that great piece last time) - leading to a process that becomes disjointed and overwhelming.
Content curation software, like UpContent, automates the parts of content curation that SHOULD be automated, like sourcing and sharing - without sacrificing your authentic credibility.
UpContent scans the internet to source all of the latest and best content matching the queries you build, organizing them in one place where you can easily review, schedule, and share using the tools you already love for social media and email
(Or connecting to some fantastic free tools to make managing your digital presence easier!)
Instead of getting stuck in the Google hole, save your brain energy by selecting the best content already curated for you and leaning on UpContent’s AI to learn what works best for your personal brand!
2. Find and select high-quality content
Find and select high-quality content that matches your niche and interests.
Look for content that provides value to your clients and followers, is well-researched and informative, and comes from reputable sources.
This can be done manually, or by setting specific saved filters to the best content for you is always waiting at the top of the heap.
3. Provide context and commentary
If you’re sharing work that’s not yours, provide context and commentary explaining why the content is relevant and valuable to the reader.
You can add your insights, opinions, or personal experiences to the content to make it more engaging and informative.
This doesn’t have to take a lot of time or effort. Sometimes just taking 30 seconds and providing a “hot take” is the best way to get conversations happening about a certain topic or idea.
4. Credit the source
When sharing curated content, it’s essential to credit the source and give attribution to the original creator.
This shows that you respect the intellectual property of others and helps you build relationships with other content creators.
You don’t want people to credit a great article to you only to find out at the end that you didn’t create it. That will leave a bad impression.
UpContent helps you avoid any legal issues by always sharing content from the original publisher’s site while also offering a custom call-to-action banner that overlays on articles you share to reinforce your expertise and provide readers a clear next step in building their relationship with you.
5. Be consistent
To get the most out of curated content, it’s essential to be consistent and share content regularly.
Set a schedule for sharing content and stick to it to stay active on social media and email, provide value to your clients, and build your online presence.
We have found that a mixture of 60% curated and 40% created content is a great place to start and helps you maintain a consistent pattern of content marketing.
Next Steps To Improve Your Content Marketing As A Realtor
With these tips in mind, you can start curating content that adds value to your real estate business and helps you build your online presence.
Remember, curated content is not a replacement for creating original content but rather a complementary strategy that can help you save time and effort while still providing value to your clients and followers.
Combining curated and original content can build a robust and engaging online presence that showcases your expertise, attracts new leads, and strengthens your relationships with your clients.
So, what are you waiting for? Start curating content today and see the benefits for yourself!
You can sign up for a free 14-day trial with UpContent, or schedule a call with one of our Content Curation Experts to see if UpContent is the right fit for you!
If you want to learn more about how curated content can help you as a realtor, check out some of these related articles!
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